It’s true! Svirven is still alive and kicking. He is, however, hovering above Shattrath City most of the time. Why? At the moment I’m leveling a hunter alt, currently at level 42 and counting. I want to pick up the Inscription profession on Svirven, but I want to keep Leatherworking as well. In order to do that, I need a gatherer with Skinning and Herbalism. Nevrivs, my Hunter, will remain an alt when the expansion hits, but for now it’s a nice change of pace.

Did you notice that since patch 2.4, a lot of mobs seem to be carrying rare gems in their pockets? Since 2. 4 went live, I’ve received no less than 5 rare gems from picking pockets. Not too shabby. It seems that Blizzard is making an effort to keep pickpocketing relevant, especially after Blinding Powder is no longer required for Vanish. The chance (albeit extremely low) of finding a Spinesever in a junkbox suggests the same.

Two days ago we had our first Void Reaver kill in Tempest Keep. He couldn’t be bothered to drop a Warp-Spring Coil trinket for me, but two guildies got their tier 5 shoulders, so it was a joyous occasion regardless. Afterwards we visited Serpentshrine Cavern to get a feel for the place and the trash there. The Lurker Below could very well be the next 25-man raid boss we’re going after.

Although I said it would never happen, I’ve now gone combat swords. I picked up a Blinkstrike mainhand at the Auction House the other day and respecced to 19/42/0. Wednesday the guild went to Gruul’s Lair and Void Reaver in Tempest Keep, and I was happy to see a significant increase in DPS. Spamming Sinister Strike through an entire boss encounter is not too exciting, but I must acknowledge the fact that it works. What I need now is a fast offhand sword, and I have my eye on Akil’zon’s Talonblade. Guess I’ll have to go talk to some trolls about that one.

Why am I not sporting the fancy new Wowhead tooltips that you see on other sites when hovering your mouse over a Wowhead link? Glad you asked! Getting the Wowhead tooltips up and running is actually incredibly simple. All you need to do is include a bit of Javascript on your page (here are the details). However, WordPress does not allow Javascript for security reasons (WordPress FAQ entry). Too bad, really; those tooltips do look nice.

Lately it’s been raining epics. Not literally, of course; that would be ridiculous. However, since my last post I’ve gotten my hands on the following new gear:

• Primalstrike Vest (chest, crafted)
• Primalstrike Belt (waist, crafted)
• Swiftstrike Shoulders (shoulder, crafted)
• Boots of Utter Darkness (feet, crafted)
• Belt of Deep Shadow (waist, crafted)
• Emerald Ripper (main hand dagger, Karazhan drop)
• Master Assassin Wristwraps (wrist, Badge of Justice reward)

(Yes, some of those epics are replacing other epics in the same slot; Svirven is living large)

So, what happened in the last month? First and foremost, I joined up with a new guild and started doing Karazhan and heroics again on a regular basis. I’m very happy with that. Also, I’ve been in a few heroic PUGs that actually worked. They do happen from time to time, it seems. All in all I’m pleased with the gear improvements. More Badges of Justice and the Tier 4 gloves and helmet from Karazhan are next on my shopping list. You’ll be the first to know.

I don’t visit the official WoW forums that often; there’s just too much noise. However, I read this thread from cover to cover. Surma, a rogue on the Maelstrom US realm, has looted an epic thrown weapon that has never been seen before. It’s called Spinesever and its stats bring tears to my eyes.

Now, the item in itself is awesome, no doubt, and it can be yours for 4999g. However, the real kicker is this: Surma claims that he found the item in a junkbox that he pickpocketed from a mob in Shadowmoon Valley. Please, read the last sentence again and let it sink in.

Surma could be making the pickpocketing part up, of course, even though the item itself has been confirmed. So, is this a hoax, a bug or a patch 2.3 buff to pickpocketing? No one outside of Blizzard knows at this point, but the latter would be very interesting indeed. I haven’t bothered with pickpocketing for a very long time, and with Blinding Powder no longer needed, I can’t see why I’d ever do it again. A chance, however small, of epic world drops inside junkboxes could change that very quickly.

I started doing the daily cooking quests yesterday when patch 2.3 went live in Europe. The quests are given out by The Rokk in Shattrath’s Lower City. So far I’ve gotten the Revenge is Tasty quest twice. Take that, Monstrous Kaliri! The hunter has become the hunted *maniacal laughter*.

The quest reward is a selection of random cooking supplies, that might include a new recipe. Today I was lucky enough to receive the Spicy Hot Tolbuk recipe. I actually expected that I would need to do the cooking dailies for a long time to get it, but either it was just dumb luck or the drop rate is not that bad after all.

I just picked up the pattern for Boots of Utter Darkness from the Auction House. At 950g I probably paid too much. It’s a pretty rare pattern, however, and I really want the boots, so I plunked down the cash anyway. Now I just need the two Primal Nethers required and an enchanter who can put Surefooted on the boots, and I’ll be good to go.

The last couple of days I’ve been working on my cooking skill. Why? Glad you asked! Cooking is a profession that I haven’t been paying much attention to up until now. Some of the Burning Crusade buff foods like Ravager Dog (+ 40 Attack Power bonus) and Warp Burger (+ 20 Agility bonus) are definitely appealing, but other things were always higher up on my list of things to do.

That has changed, however, because of one particular recipe, which will become available with the soon to go live patch 2.3: Spicy Hot Talbuk (+20 Hit Rating bonus). This is the first recipe with a Hit Rating well fed bonus, which is a big deal for raiding melee classes who are lacking in the Hit Rating department. The recipe is a reward from the daily cooking quests that are coming in patch 2.3. More information is available at Kaliope’s.