Blanchy

Ever since I saw that Blanchy was an available mount in Shadowlands, I resolved to get her for my mage (Illume, who is Human and All Horse All the Time) and Floramel (who is also Human but generally speaking digs things that smack of demonic, which the Ghost of Blanchy does).  Finally knocked out a few days to get it done. Yes, days.

This particular task takes six days in total (it’s time gated) and it’s helpful to have an addon like SilverDragon to alert you, because when she appears, she does take off.

I won’t do a complete “howto” on this, but let me reiterate some stuff from the guide on WoWHead.

1. Blanchy is in Rivendreth, at 63.13 43.11.
2. Yes, she spawns right in the river, and then proceeds to run up the river away from the waterfall that she spawns next to.
3. She takes off like crazy, so be mounted and ready to roll.  I chose a flying mount and that served me well.
4. Once you catch her, she stops running and stays there for five minutes.  I consider it good form to let others in the area know she’s there.
5. I don’t have good records on this, but it appears that she spawned at 21:29 every night (server time) for me. Your mileage may vary.

About the six things:

• First up are 8 handfuls of Oats. You gather those around Westfall. Saldean’s farm is a good place to look.
• The next item is a Grooming Brush which you buy from Snickersnee in Darkhaven.  While you’re there, grab the Empty Water Bucket nearby as you will need it.
• Next item: Sturdy Horseshoes are found around the area on the roads.  For some reason I thought I needed nine. You only need four, logically. Durr. Best to have them on hand before you start this process.
• Bucket of Clean Water – use the empty bucket from earlier and go to either Ardenweald or Bastion and find some clean water – not muddy – to fill the bucket. Then you can give that to Blanchy.
• Comfortable Saddle Blankey – Ta’tru sells this for some variable currency. Most if not all of the currencies (i.e. Aethreal Meat) are available on the AH for a trivial amount of gold. Save yourself some trouble; go to the AH the day before, get the things you need to buy the blankey, and buy it then so you have it waiting next day.
• Dreadhollow Apples are available from Mims and there are no tricks to this one. Just buy the apples and have them ready, as that will seal the deal.

So I have a nice red horsey and am done with this particular camp fest.  And at last we have some closure to the tragic story of this poor beast. I’ll try to take better care of her than the previous owners.

Inscription is Facked.

I’ve been long delayed in my report on BfA inscription.  A large part of that delay has been Blizzard’s delay in implementation of a reasonable system for Scribes to create Glyphs.

Lemme essplain.  No. Is too much. Lemme summarize.

Starting in the expansion following (3.0) the introduction of Glyphs (2.0), Blizz offered a mechanism for Scribes to create glyphs that were introduced in every expansion. In short, the Ink Trader.  The Ink Trader allowed you to exchange whatever the current expansion’s primary ink for inks from previous expansions.  So, for example, if you were in the Cataclysm expansion, you could exchange Blackfallow Ink for any ink required to create glyphs in Vanilla, BC, or WotLK. In MoP, then you could exchange inks from that expansion for older inks. And so forth. I hope you’re keeping up.

Which brings us to the most notable absence from the current expansion.  Normally, at the introduction of the x.0 patch for an expansion, the Ink Traders in all faction hubs (Stormwind, Shattrath, etc as an example) would provide an exchange of whatever that expansion’s most common ink was for any other ink in the game. For example, in Legion, we could exchange Roseate Pigment for inks from previous expansions.

But now we’re in weird territory.

When BfA rolled, we expected an Ink Trader in the faction cities to accept one of the inks from the current expansion (we figured it would be Ultramarine Ink) for inks from previous expansions. But we found nothing. At that point, the previous expansion (Legion) still held sway. So the only way to create inks for all expansions was: farm Legion inks (Roseate Pigment) or go gather herbs on the continents from the previous expansions, and mill them. This was less than optimal. In a world where we expected to exchange Ultramarine Ink  for other inks, we were met with disappointment, at a massive scale. And now we are in 8.1.0, and there is still no sign of an ink Trader in Boralas, much less Stormwind.

So what we are doing, here in the first content patch of BfA, is farming Legion herbs.  BfA herbs are almost useless – there are three Druid glyphs in this expansion, and that is it – so we are currently either selling them off – a poor financial investment – or banking them against an expected future where they are actually useful.   At this point, I am becoming cynical.

So what is actually going on?  Those that are willing to attribute an  actual plan to all of this are welcome to comfort themselves in the actual market, but those of us that are embedded in the current market are doubtful. Currently, Dreamleaf (https://www.wowhead.com/item=124102/dreamleaf#comments) is the king of the Inscription market due to its secondary conception of Roseate and Sallow (especially Sallow) pigments. BfA Inscription is pretty much dead. And the WoW customer service accounts are pretty much silent on the topic after multiple pokes.

That is: currently. Aside from Cards of *, it is currently impossible to turn BfA herbs into a profit. And Blizzard doesn’t seem to care even so much as to stroke your ego. Sorry.

BtW: in case you were thinking of switching to Alchemy:

Herb-related crafting in BfA is, to be quite brutally honest, a cluster-fuck.  You’re best served in just selling the herbs (especially Legion herbs) than trying to make a profit at Inscription or Alchemy.

Be Prepared; that’s the Prepfoot Marching Song

Highmountain is full of flight points that are extremely convenient for some world quests, but which are not entirely clear on how to get to them. In many cases, there are no bread crumbs leading you there or anything like this.

And while there are no end of YouTube vids showing you how to get to them, I’m sick of YT/Twitch echo chamber celebs that aren’t really part of our tribe trying to cash in – it’s like clickbait, 2010’s style.

I digress. Sorry. Video/Twitch “celebrities” just bug the hell outta me.

Anyway, to the far east of Highmountain is a lonely enclave that is inhabited by an odd bunch of Taurens called the Prepfoot Tribe.  These guys are preparing for the return of Deathwing – regardless of repeatedly being told that he came, we kicked his ass, and they totally survived it.  By “prepare”, I mean they’re preparing by stockpiling stuff and wearing waterproof helms. They don’t offer any quests or rep, but they do have a flight point that is convenient to a number of world quests on the coast.  But, since there are no quests or any other involvement with the rest of the world, it’s up to you to discover the way to get there.

First of all, go to the Skyhorn flight point. This is your starting point.  From there, take the path to the south until you see a branch to the left –  this will take you to The Sepulcher of the Sky. Depending on where you are in your Highmountain questing, the Kolbolds there may or may not be hostile to you.

Directly across from where you enter the area, there’s a grassy drop off. Go over to that, that’s the start of the path to the Prepfoots … er, Prefeet?

Run down to the path and follow it off to the right …

Looks like you’re going to fall off, but you won’t. Eventually you come to a switchback.

Make a u-ey back the other way and follow the path. At one point the path looks like it’s blocked, but it isn’t.

From there on out, it’s a more or less straight shot.  Despite the rain.

And  for your cork board, here’s the full path marked out on the map.

Once you get the flight point, you can go due north from there and find a steep path down to the sea, where a Kirin Tor puzzle World Quest pops occasionally, and if you continue north you will find some Highmountain WQs as well.

Okay, fine. You want a youtube? I’ll give you a youtube.

https://youtu.be/gkrheaWuShU?t=8s