My Top 10 favourite companion pets

It was started by Swenyola and then Zeirah and Luxy did it so I can't resist any kind of list relating to pets. However, how do I list my top 10 pets? There are so many ways to list them, and I have discussed some of my favourites for battling and for looks, but I think I will take the sentimental route this time!

1. Baradin Fox Kit

I have never gotten one and I feel bad for all those foxes I had killed.  This one was a treasured gift from Tome of the Ancient which was made all the more special because it was her very own one that she farmed for ages for, and she only had the one, and she gave it to me - how many people would do something so generous as that??  A truly amazing gift which has it's own post.

2. Darkmoon Rabbit

This pet has a lot of memories!  Making friends with other pet battlers has benefits and the person who gave me this gift, Luxy, actually WON a Darkmoon Rabbit when I asked her to come to fight one cross-server, which was very exciting, and I felt bad that she felt like she owed me a rabbit, which wasn't the case, but when she gave me my own one I was very very excited indeed.  Of all the pets she has given me this was the one I treasured the most.  She has been an extremely generous friend :)

3. Gregarious Grell

This gift was the start of a great friendship.  Arvash gave this to me when we first met, and it was one of my first battle pets to Level 25.  I didn't want to name it after him because he might have thought I meant he was a bit of an imp, but his generosity has always inspired me.  It's great to have friends like him.


4. Emerald Whelpling

This was farmed for me by Roshii, and though he said it didn't take long, I know it would have taken me FOREVER.  I felt really honoured that he gave me one - it was one of those things I was never successful at getting and I remember how warm and happy I felt at the time.

5. Bananas

The first TCG gift I ever received, was from Moopie, because he really loves monkeys and apes.  He gave me this little fella who was so cute!  He's too cute to ever battle with, so I use that despicable Darkmoon Monkey instead.  I couldn't face the thought of him getting beaten, the poor little guy!


6. Thundering Serpent

My souvenir of being in that awesome guild, Apotheosis, on my pissy little alt, getting to chat to the likes of Jasyla, Tikari, Serrinne, Kaleri - this was my souvenir of my time there!  Though I had many invitations to other guilds to grind for the pet, I decided to choose Apotheosis as the guild I would grind it with - after all, Jasyla, who is my hero, is there so how could I NOT do it..  Phew, though, I hate levelling.  I won't go into details because I wrote all about it here.

7. Soul of the Aspects

This was part of a matching set for my birthday from Lushnek.  It was like a gift pack - matching pet and mount.  I even tried to make a matching mog for it but I failed - gold isn't really a druid colour, especially in leather.

8. Terrible Turnip

Nabe is another very generous person and gave me his Turnip - you know I didn't ever get an Ominous Seed till a few weeks ago after all that time farming!  My turnip has been invaluable in capturing pets.  And besides, what a cool vegie he is, so cute!


9. Aqua Strider

A joint gift from Roshii and Souglyy who camped this rare to get me a pet - in those days the Pandaren rares were heavily camped and even to this day I have never seen that pet drop!



10. Teldrassil Sproutling

This was a gift during WOTLK from a rogue in our guild, Shadevar, who played a lot alliance side (sadly, he doesn't play anymore).  This was before the days of account wide pets, and he transferred it across from Alliance to Horde to give to me as a gift.  I was really touched - all that effort, all those dailies!  I didn't know how to pay him back for his generous gift.


All images without me in it are courtesy of WarcraftPets.

Where Navimie is not Legendary

I am clearly not Legendary material because my latest section of the legendary quest was anything but.  It was more... a comedy of errors.

WARNING: Spoiler alert!  Contains details of the Secrets of the First Empire part of the Legendary quest chain!

I had just finished collecing the 20 Secrets of the Empire and the 40 trillium bars and was heading to the Thunder Forge with Wrathion.

The first bit where you have to make the mould and defeat the Mogu went ok.  I went into the scenario in my guardian spec like I usually do because healer DPS is pretty rubbish (a classic example is the scenario after opening up one of the sections of the Isle of Thunder and you had to DPS a boss who had a bubble that would reduce damage and it would take FOREVER as a healer to dps him down, even out of the bubble).

Then we went into the forge and I was pretty hopeless at trying to keep everything off the Celestial Blacksmith.  He died twice and I thought ok, that's it, switching to heals.  I should have just clicked the Anvils.  I kinda forgot.

So I switched to heals and then it was easy, and I healed the Celestial Defender who was killing the stuff for me as well.  Coolies.  Then I came to the last part where there is a big bad Sha with a crapload of health and the Celestial defender was helping.

I tried healing it and I ran out of forges to click when he cast insanity and died at the end.  OK, I thought, I guess I will have to go back to guardian again.

So I rezzed... and you are in combat straight away so there is no changing specs so I had a bash at it again as resto.  I tried to DPS it but health got a bit low and then there was insanity and I was a bit far from the next available forge so I died.  Oops.

Then suddenly, I was disconnected.  I logged back in but when I logged back into Navimie, it would immediately disconnect me.  I tried that 3 more times but could not get in. So I logged onto an alt and that was ok, so I tried again to get into Navimie - nope, disconnected.  Sigh.  I had 30 more minutes before I had to go out so I put in a ticket and hoped for a response by the night time so I could raid.  It would be pretty crap if I couldn't raid.

So I was on my little alt (shock horror, I have an alt!) doing a few quests and I got a response from a GM!  That was quick.  S/he  was very polite and kindly moved my character away and asked if he could help me with anything else before he went back to Booty bay.  Being the naturally inquisitive being that I am, I asked him why was he going to Booty Bay?  Or was it secret GM business?

"I like the sound of the waves," s/he said and I grinned and left it at that.

I logged back into Navimie - great, she was dead in Durotar.  I ran back to the outside of Org to collect my nicely deposited corpse (thanks to that lovely helpful GM) and headed back to the Isle of Thunder, and I had to start all over again.  GRRRR.  So I started off as guardian and decided to stay as guardian, determined to DPS this thing down before I had to go.

So I DPSed as best as I could and tried to take some of the heat off the defender by taunting it (also because if the thing isn't hitting me I don't have any vengeance so I hit like a wet noodle) which was ok until the meteor phase and I am running around trying to dodge stuff and heal myself up, but not doing it well... I hate melee!  I hate DPSing!  Needless to say I died two more times and then I had to leave to go out.  I learned the hard way that standing in that pissy little green healing beam will not counter the meteor damage so that hurt a lot.  I also noticed that the Defender regenerates himself when he dies, but it takes some time for him to come back - it seemed a lot faster when I was healing!

So, an hour later, I finished what I had to do and I was back again, starting from the beginning.  I decided I would do the entire thing as resto.  The first part when you are outside was actually easy as resto - pick up those overcharged lightning things and all your heals also do damage to the mobs as well.  The Mogu boss runs at them as well and picks them up so don't dilly dally on your way to get them.

I complained to Luxy that I was the suck as I was working through up to the forge again.  She said, don't bother healing that defender guy!  Just DPS and heal a little bit.

So I did that.  I healed the defender a little and healed myself and DPS's when I could.  My pissy little resto DPS seemed hardly worth doing and I thought how am I going to get this down again?  But there I was, using my last forge and I thought, well this is shit.  Not enough DPS again... 

Suddenly Wrathion shouted at me that the lance was ready and to use it on the Sha!  Where, where is this lance, I wondered, opening my bags in a panic.  Oh it's a button!  I clicked it.  "You can't use that on this target" it said.  D'OH! I had the defender targeted for some reason.  I targetted the Sha who was doing insanity again.  Do or die time!  I clicked the lance and yay!  The objective was completed and it was over.  Time to go stab Nalak.  Oh wait - time to go pick up my daughter from school.

I logged in later in the evening and Roshii was forming a Nalak group.  Cool!  So I went along, got ready to throw my lance and waited till Nalak was about 20%.  I got ready to run but the add came and killed me.  Damn.  Fail!!  I ran back but there was a cooldown on the lance so I couldn't use it again before Nalak died.   Damnation again!

After raid there was a Nalak group forming so I wanted to go again.  I asked Lush to heal me and so I got ready to throw the lance again, did it, the add came and I started to run, trying to heal myself as I did.  Lush forgot to heal me and I died again.  Damn it!  I ran back and the cooldown for throwing the lance came up just as Nalak died.  *BLEEEEEEEP*

I logged off in a huff.  Stupid Legendary quest.  Way to make me feel not legendary, you noob, Navi!  I guess there's no hurry, since I don't have a helm I can stick this meta gem in anyway.  I can just keep trying until I get it. Though... I would like to get started on the next part of the chain.

Some Non WoW ramble - Tangential thoughts about what is free

I wrote this at work, whilst I was playing with drugs and knobs and monitors...

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As our government hands down a new budget, and I was sitting at work having being called in for a sick patient for an urgent operation, I was thinking about what we are willing to pay for.  As my thoughts tend to do, they turned to World of Warcraft, and I thought about what I was willing to spend my gold on.

There are certain things that I just don't buy.  One of those is herbs.  I don't have a herbie but I have access to one (yes yes, I know, it's a good reason to make an max level alt, so I can herb) but the thought that I could go out and farm what I needed rather than spend my precious gold (I don't have a lot but it sits at a steady amount) on something I can go and get myself made me feel better.  More thrifty.  Kind of like mowing my own grass instead of paying someone to do my lawn.  Except that there are no exciting yellow dots to home in on and pick when I'm mowing the lawn.

The same goes for fish.  I would not pay any amount of gold for fish.  I can go get that myself.

However, I don't mind forking out the gold for cut gems - at a reasonable price.  I guess because I don't have a miner, nor a jewelcrafter, so gems always seem so elusive to me.  JCs out there must be happy they and make money out of people like me.  I don't know why I just don't wait till my friends are online to cut stuff for me, but I just want to see those socket bonuses lit up and my stats boosted.  Impatient, I suppose.

The beeps of my monitors and the sounds of needle holders and forceps clicking and clinking brought me back to reality, and I thought about how lucky we are in Australia that we have (essentially) free health care. Or at least, the illusion of free health care.  The cost of it is hidden in our taxes, of course, but really, I think people should be glad that they live here and are able to get emergency health care for free.

However, one of the costs of free health care, is that you have the training specialists responsible for your care, who are overseen by specialists.  Some patients don't like that, and demand that they should have the specialist come and take care of them.  Perhaps this is churlish of me, but if someone is getting something for free, beggars can't be choosers.

The opportunity to teach and learn, is part of my duties.  Care of my patient is not compromised if I am teaching or allowing my trainees to do the anaesthetics in my stead.  Naturally I am responsible overall for anything that occurs under my watch, but it's not like I unleash an untrained, unskilled anaesthetist onto an unsuspecting patient.  Just like I wouldn't bring someone who had never healed before to replace me in raid, I wouldn't let someone do something who wasn't capable unless I was assured of their abilities.  If I wasn't, then I would stand around here and watch them to make sure they did it right.  And if it was something too hard for them, I would do it myself.

I wish people would understand that is what the free health care system means, and accept it.  Because really, nothing is for free, and you always have to give a little something back.  And it's a small enough thing to ask, to let others learn so you can have a free operation or hospital stay.

However, I will tell you what I find funny.  Maybe it's because of the way our health care system works, but patients won't pay to fix their health.  No sirree.  However, they are happy to fork over $75 for nails or $150 for their hair, but if you ask them to pay that extra for my services, some will kick up a fuss.  Which is why, I'm happy to let my trainees do the work, if they will benefit from the experience.

I have heard rumours that the government is thinking of removing tonsillectomy from the Medicare Benefits schedule. What does that mean, I hear you ask?

Well, one of the ways the government measures performance and efficiency is to see if hospitals are reducing their "waitlist".  The waiting list is the length of time that patients wait for their "free" operations.  Naturally everyone wants to have their operations as soon as possible. The government decided to make some sort of incentive - or rather disincentive - for hospitals to meet their waitlist targets.  If you meet your targets, you get to keep your funding.  If you don't, the you pay a fine back to the government, which will cripple your hospital even more when it comes to operating time and equipment.

When you work in a socially disadvantaged area, where there is a lot of people on the public waitlist, then the waiting times are high, and pressure to get through a waitlist of 1000 is high.  If you work in a well off area, and most people have private health insurance, and don't go onto the public waiting list, then your waitlist is low.  So you can see it's a double whammy there.  Hospitals in poor areas do even more poorly and those in the affluent areas look like they're performing more efficiently.

So, tonsillectomy is one of those operations that are high on the waiting list and some people suggest that it's not even an operation that needs to be done.  In my opinion, that's ridiculous.  We do tonsillectomy for obstructive sleep apnoea, recurrent tonsillitis (more than 4 episodes a year) and it's amazing how children can change after a tonsillectomy to eating better, learning better because they can actually sleep at night and pay attention during the day.

So why would the government think it's not a necessary operation?  If they decide that it is not neccessary, then they don't have to pay for it.  If they don't pay for it under the medicare (free health care) then suddenly, the waiting list for tonsillectomy is gone - making the numbers for waiting list look better.
  

Now going back to WoW.  I've been thinking - if I spend 90 hours a month playing WoW, and that's $15 a month, is that more value for money, than spending 30 hours a month playing WoW?  I mean, that's 17c an hour versus 50c an hour.  Or would you think that's time you could have spent somewhere else? I could be out and about, watching movies, going out for drinks, coffees and dinners.  But gosh, that would put a dent in my wallet.  WoW is such a nice easy cheap pasttime!

LOL, the gases are making me cuckoo!  It's time to wake my patient up - and stop deluding myself that this game I'm playing is saving me money, and thinking that the more hours I rack up in the month in WoW, the closer I am to the game being free.

Thursday raiding - Do you think Ji-Kun is a play on the word Chicken?

Everyone was in good spirits.  You could tell.

After our big 4 boss clear yesterday, we were all pumped for Magaera.  Even I was excited, I had gotten 2 upgrades since our last attempt so I was hoping my healing was up to the task.

Aza was curious about the mushrooms so he decided to go run into some.  Wow.  They hurt a lot more than on LFR.  Az said that he did it for the team, so that now we all know how much those damn things hurt.  Aza is full of knowledge.  After Wednesday, we now know that you can pull Malakk from 200 yards with a rain of fire that is nowhere near any of the bosses.  Only Az, lol.

There was a lot of talking for strats for Magaera, but I was only interested in one thing - where are the stack points, because I had mushrooms to put down.  We 2 shot Magaera.  Oh my god.  We did BGRBGRB and that was actually quite good.  I think that having Soultouched there made a big difference - pallies are OP especially when we're all bunched up together like that.  Had some bad dispels and I had some directional dyslexia where I ran INTO ice instead of away from it... but amazingly we still got it.  We were so thrilled by our kill we forgot to take a pic.  Moo got Spinescale Seal and the healing mail chest was sharded.

I never saw that spider up the top b4!

Then there was the trash before Ji-Kun.  I thought it was just killer snails.  No.  It's not just killer snails.  Shows you how much attention I pay in LFR.

Spiders drop from the ceiling.  And I'm not supposed to walk over those bones - big worms come out!  I never knew that... it was a comedy of errors as we walked up the ramp and a spider dropped on our heads and then webbed us all except for Az, so who do you think the big bad spider chased.... and then it aggroed onto Roshii...

Then Narishma and I proceeded to step on everything we weren't supposed to step on... we found that poison cloud REALLY hurts and deadly snails are still deadly.  Poor Lush was trapped in a web, and I forgot or did not realise that you are protected from damage inside the web and the snail was inching its way towards him and I helped break him out just in time to get run over by a snail.  Oops.  Eventually we made it through the trash to Ji-Kun.  Or Chi-Ken.

Some solid attempts at Ji-Kun though.  We got it down to 34% on our second go, which was really encouraging.  That was our best attempt for the night.  How exciting was that!  Once we can figure out this feather problem that the DPS are having, we will be good - Rosh says we need 2 teams for the feathers but I can't figure out how that's going to work when they put 3 dps and 1 healer in one team - we only have 5 dps! 

And Oh my god, I just realised I had been running around without an enchant on my new chest /facepalm.