I’ve been having a battle within myself, and it finally came to a peak today and I made a decision.

No More Blacksmithing.

It sucks! I have rarely used it to do anything other than create enchanting mats for my Enchanter. It’s expensive, and I don’t intend to deck my Warrior out in the uber epic gear I’ll be able to make when I finally advance it to a respectable level (the BS or the Warrior)

And what what the thing that pushed me over the edge?

Having to move my 70 Hunter/Herbalist OUT of Shadowmoon Valley and back to some of the Azeroth zones to farm certain herbs that are part of potions that sell really well, but that my banker toon is running low of stock on.

I feel like, if I’m going to play my Hunter these days, I should be doing the plethora of Daily Quests in front of me for this Netherwing rep, and going far away from the zone just seems like a waste of time.

However, if I do it on another toon…

But… Mining AND Herbalism??

If I make this move on my Warrior, however, I’ll have both Mining and Herbalism on the same toon, which isn’t great in a “you can only track one at a time” way.

Sigh.

Maybe I should drop Skinning on my Mage, Blacksmithing on my Warrior, pick up Skinning on my Warrior and Herbalism on my Mage? Seems wise, since the Mage is the Alchemist…

But a few more hours of work than I was originally anticipating when I started this blog entry. Skinning on this AOE-capable toon is something I’d very sorely miss.

But I’m runnin’ out of herbs! But I don’t want to take my Hunter ALL THE WAY OUT and park her the way she needs to be parked for a few days of collection in an area or three, and stop grinding on the Netherwing quests to boot!

*ponders grouchily*

Tags: blacksmithing, blacksmithing sucks, changing professions, dropping blacksmithing, dropping professions, herbalism, making money, netherwing rep, picking up herbalism, shadowmoon valley

Three or four days worth of playing around with the Netherwing Daily quests available to me got me from Neutral to Friendly with the Netherwing.

The four quests I actually completed at least once over this three or four day span were:

• The Not-so-friendly Skies
• Netherdust Pollen
• A Slow Death
• The Great Netherwing Egg Hunt

There was another one I didn’t finish at all during that time span:

• Netherwing Crystals

Working My Favorite Every Day

My favorite Daily Quest by far was the Not-So-Friendly Skies, which is great for a hunter - stand out on a floating island in the Dragonmaw Skyway and shoot down Dragonmaw Transporters as they fly by overhead… then disembowel them once they land on the ground and start fighting hand-to-hand!

I got my pattern down right away - making good use of my nifty Snake Trap (ain’t that thing fun?), my pet’s growl, and my own use of Disengage usually left the Transporter dude beating on either the snakes or my pet, leaving me free to strafe across to the other side of the rock to begin my ranged attack.

Here’s where I’ve seen first-hand how completely terrible my equipment is compared to what is available out there - some level 70 Hunter from a raiding guild joined me on the rock and was able to down two and a half of the transporters by the time I got my one down. I giggled to myself but was glad I can still make my way through, since I haven’t had a lot of time to instance my way to better equipment.

The Easiest Quest

The easiest quest out of all of those was the Netherdust Pollen one - so easy, in fact, that the collection could easily be done today for tomorrow without having to engage in a single fight. This quest, to me (the herbalist and professional Feign Death artist), is simply like free 12 gold every day. Such little effort required, and I can farm pollen ahead of time, even after I’ve turned in my quest for the day!

The Most Annoying Quest

The most annoying one I did repeatedly was the Slow Death one. It was mainly annoying because I had to go back to mainland Shadowmoon Valley to kill land critters, but for the first couple of days it was also annoying because I thought the diemetradons didn’t count as critters that would drop the Fel Gland required to poison the Dragonmaw workers… and I was killing Felboars.

If you recall, boars of all types CHARGE. And they seem to do it regardless of threat levels (ie: I’ve had my pet on a boar, hadn’t started to attack yet, hadn’t healed my pet, and the damned boar charged me and stunned me). Besides the annoyance of the stun is the fact that as a Hunter I need to be at range in order to do my best damage. When the boar charges me, my pet dutifully runs up to try to catch him, shortening the distance between us and very often hits my Dead Zone.

I was very pleased when I realized the Greater Felfire Diemetradons were acceptable prey and would drop the Fel Glands.

All In All

So far, this reputation grind hasn’t been TOO bad. I’ve had a bit of competition on my “rock” for the Dragonmaw Transporters but as a Hunter with a long range shot, generally I get my share of Transporters because there’s only two of us on the rock.

And the Fel Glands… well, they don’t drop very fast, but I’ve also been picking up some level 66+ greens while farming them, which can be used for advancing my Enchanting, so all’s good.

As for the pollen - I go and farm it whenever I feel like it, and derive joy out of being able to do it when I don’t even have the quest!

But now, I’m at Friendly and there’s a whole mine-load of additional Daily Quests to consider and compete for. Wonder if they’re as much fun?

Tags: 70 hunter, a slow death, dragonmaw skyway, dragonmaw transporters, easiest netherwing quest, epic flying mount, getting a netherdrake, how to get a netherdrake, hunter, Netherdrake, netherdust pollen, netherwing bugs, netherwing crystals, netherwing neutral to friendly, Netherwing Quest Guide, netherwing rep, netherwing reputation guide, warcraft mounts, warcraft screenshots, where to use a snake trap, wow pics