It’d too bad the Black Market Auction House wasn’t around back then. Nexus-Prince Haramad could have made a killing by just flipping a few veggies every now and then.

Those were good times. I miss them. My wallet misses them, too.

Now? All those leftover veggies I harvested early on and didn’t manage to sell just float back and forth in my mailboxes. I’d use them to make banquets, but who needs them, after all the ones you’re forced to make while leveling cooking?

Oh well. At least they don’t go bad.

(Psst…you wanna turnip?)

I wonder just how many Mogu we’ve taken out in our time here? All these Mogu-slaying dailies HAVE to be taking a toll on their population. Hell, I’ve slaughtered a few thousand alone.

Kill Mogu for Valor, kill Mogu for reputation, kill Mogu because they’re in the way while doing Archaeology…name a reason, and we’ve probably killed a Mogu for it.

Even Taran Zhu would probably have to admit that it’s all a little staggering, when you stop and think about it.

MAGES.

However, Vid’s lightning-fast DPS instincts served her well when it came to get Blizzcon tickets, netting her an unbelievably low 33rd in queue! Double digits on the first Blizzcon ticket queue is ABSURD. On her first year buying tickets, too!

Vid: 1, Blizzcon Ticket Queue: 0.

Then Elegon and his magic floor came and caused hilariously large quantities of surprise deaths, and I thought we had a new winner.

But then…came Durumu.

I can honestly say this was the first time I’ve ever seen the entire LFR group instantly perish in the blink of an eye. (Well, other than being tossed off Deathwing’s back, which is kinda different.) And then again. And again! And it wasn’t like people weren’t paying attention or were dying by ignoring the mechanics, as is so often the case in LFR. Quite the contrary! Raid chat was great, offering suggestions, trying to figure out how to survive longer than 0.01 seconds in Durumu’s death maze. Everyone was in good spirits, laughing about this awful new LFR wing, listening to advice, and doing their best.

And it didn’t do any good at all.

After an ungodly number of wipes (sadly, stacks of the Determination Buff doesn’t help you survive instantly fatal Eye Sores) we finally, MERCIFULLY, managed to make it past a death maze phase with something like 6 or 7 people still alive, and then desperately, barely eked out a victory moments before a maze, which would have undoubtedly resulted in further terrible death.

I don’t even know what Primordius or Dark Animus was like, I was just floating along in a state of bliss after that hellish experience.

Clearly Blizzard took note, judging from the drastic changes they’ve made to the fight since Durumu’s LFR wing went live. Unfortunately, despite surviving the maze on my first kill, my second attempt after the hotfixes met in utter failure. We eventually beat him, but I died to the maze every attempt, despite intense concentration and focus. Sometimes twice an attempt, thank to battle rezzes, which was even MORE embarrassing. Ah well. I’ll give it another shot this week and see if I can figure it out.

I wonder if Blizz has stats somewhere of how many people Durumu has instantly murdered. I bet the numbers would be astounding, and hilarious.

The answer was clear. I would make a cupcake Rades. Everyone else at the class was mystified. “What are you making? Is it a frog?”

“No, it’s an orc. From World of Warcraft.”

The owner of the bakery took a photo and said “Can I post it on Twitter?” I agreed, on the condition that she tweet at Rades while she was doing it. So out of the blue, Rades gets the following tweet:

@_vidyla is making @_rades in fondant and cupcakes! twitter.com/LeDolci/status…

— LeDolci (@LeDolci) March 23, 2013

I have it on good authority that he was pretty surprised. I then went on to sculpt a Vid-cake as well, with somewhat less success. Fondant is a bit floppy and Vid’s horns weren’t easy to do. Plus her skin tone is wrong. But it was still fun to make! Of course, making those two cupcakes took up the better part of the class and then I was scrambling at the end to just slap icing on the rest of my cupcakes, whereas my companions had made tons of beautiful treats in that time. I had a great time though, and I loved surprising Rades. Of course, I asked him if he thought we could use the cakes somehow in a comic. He urged me to get some good photos of them, but was incensed when I admitted that after I’d taken the photos I left the cupcakes in our hotel room in Toronto.

“Whaaaaat!”

“I couldn’t bring myself to EAT them!”

Seriously, there’s few things funnier than plopping down Blingtron in a hard-to-reach spot in a well-populated area and sitting back to watch people go MAD as they try to find that elusive free loot. My personal favorites include trees in Halfhill, the upper balconies in Pandalaran, or in the normally-inaccessible catwalk in Orgrimmar’s front auction house.

Thanks to Raijair, Kalbeari, Hachidori, Dhevon and Korrath for the use of your likenesses this week!

(And Millya…padding her appearance numbers, huh Vid? I SEE HOW IT IS.)

There’s been a lot of interesting raid boss mechanics – vehicles, flying, spirit realms – but few things are as satisfying or funny as just hauling off and punting a giant turtle at an even BIGGER turtle.

Bravo, Blizzard encounter design team. Bravo.

So far I’ve mostly stuck to the first room, with a few tentative forays into the second. Big chests in there! But also monsters. And aggro sensors. And a hard-to-reach door lever required to proceed further. I am intensely curious what the third and fourth rooms are like, though. There’s a big boss troll at the end, I hear? Guarding three large chests? And if you kill him you get to open them? I wonder if that’s more profitable!

I get why we’re limited to one run a week (or two, if you get really lucky and get multiple keys), but man. I sure wish I could just hang out in there and explore. Maybe this week when I finish running the first LFR wing, I’ll go back and prowl around those rooms thoroughly. Research time!

Poor clueless little Anduin. Hands up if you saw him step onto that platform covered in Sha magic and walk right up to Garrosh, and thought to yourself “welp, I have a bad feeling about how this is going to turn out.” AND SURE ENOUGH.

Should have listened to Dezco, kid. Even if he does wear babies as armor.