Burnished Warden Staff is available!

Didn't see this anywhere else yet, so this is just a quick report that Enchanter Isian, Heirloom Vendor in Dalaran, is selling Burnished Warden Staff for 3500 Justice Points on the live servers!

This is no longer relevant for myself as I'm doing the Recruit A Friend granting, but others should be happy. :)

25 days to go!

/bow

Monk Transmog Item: Cursed Vision of Sargeras

For years roleplayers have sought a very unique headpiece from Illidan Stormrage in Black Temple; the blindfold he wore after being blinded by Sargeras. Together with the warglaives, it's become the trademark of the demon hunter. When transmogrification launched, rogues and druids everywhere celebrated; finally they could use Cursed Vision of Sargeras with their gear! And a month from now, we'll have a new class and new races that can wear leather too.

Level 80: Continue Your Training: Master Hsu

At level 80, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Hsu.

Master Hsu (80)

Monk Transmog: Darkmantle Armor

One of the gear sets that made a return with Darkmoon Faire was the Darkmantle Armor set. The entire set is available for 520 Darkmoon Prize Tickets. The replica items are BOE, so the pieces can be gathered by several of your characters, or even purchased from the Auction House.

Level 70: Continue Your Training: Master Tsang

At level 70, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Tsang.

Master Tsang (70)

Choosing professions for my monk

As most other people that are planning on playing a monk, I have several characters at current max level and all professions covered already. Initially my idea was to go with Herbalism and Mining because of the extra experience gained during leveling. Mining is a fair profession for a tank, and Herbalism has the heal that used together with for example Guard could prove to be fair as well. But, already before starting the monk, I can feel that she will be an important character. So perhaps I should maximise her professions to get more joy out of it? Additionally I've done the "Recruit A Friend"-thing now, so the leveling of the monk will only be from 80 to 90.

Recruit A Lae

This is me!

So, I went and did it... I recruited myself to the game and paid for 2 months worth of game time so that I could get a mount. And... It wasn't the first time either. I did the same thing 2 years ago for the rocket. I guess I should feel bad about it, but the only thing I feel bad about is not getting the Zhevra while it was still available!

A realistic look at monk leveling speed

A post not concerned with the simple life of a monk, but how to get said monk to level 90 as soon as possible when there are time constraints!

Monk Transmog: Assassination Armor

The Assassination Armor set is a dungeon set from Burning Crusade. It's not too fancy, but it's a monk we're dressing up after all. The set is popular among the rogues, but for the monks and the draenei it's a totally new look! :)

Level 60: Continue Your Training: Master Cheng

At level 60, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Cheng.

Master Cheng (60)

Monk Transmog: Discovery Armor

There has never been any leatherwearers among the draenei before, so that's one more thing to be excited  for about the monk class! :) I've been eagerly browsing leather sets over at Wowhead, and although a lot of the leather gear is either too druidy or too roguey, I found some gems that will be fitting for monks!

Level 50: Continue Your Training: Master Yoon

At level 50, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Yoon.

Master Yoon (50)

Level 40: Continue Your Training: Master Kistane

At level 40, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Kistane.

Master Kistane (40)

Level 30: Continue Your Training: Master Woo

At level 30, Master Hight at the Peak of Serenity gives you the quest: Continue Your Training: Master Woo.

Roll down to the training grounds and find Master Woo, a female dwarf monk. Tell her that you wish to challenge her. She will then walk to the middle of the training grounds while she says "Sometimes a well timed precision strike is all you need to take down even the toughest of foes". As she stops and faces you, you can /bow to her. She will then /bow back, turn hostile, and run towards you. When defeated she says "Your Power is impressive. I admit defeat."

Master Woo (30)

Level 20: Begin Your Training: Master Cheng

Using the spell Zen Pilgrimage, which is learnable at level 20, sends your monk to Shrine of the Ox on Peak of Serenity in Kun-Lai Summit. The shrine is the monk equivalent of Moonglade and Ebon Hold. Once there, you can visit the Monk Trainer to reset your role specialisation if you wish. All spells are learned automatically in Mists of Pandaria, so there are no other reasons to visit the class trainers. In addition to monk trainers, there are profession trainers, so it might prove a handy place to visit regularly, as Zen Pilgrimage only has a 30 min cooldown. There's also repair vendors, and a vendor that sells monk gear and weapons that are rewarded for monk-specific quests. When you're done at Peak of Serenity, you can use Zen Pilgrimage: Return, which will place you where you were before you travelled there, or close.

Planning my monk

Name: Ninasol

Named after Nina Solheim, a female Tae Kwon Do athlete. Nina = ninja and sol = sun. I think it fits. :)

Siberian Tiger God NOT a Spirit Beast

I was hoping this beautiful cat that was datamined back in March would become one of the new Spirit Beasts.

I was testing at the training dummies on the beta tonight, and suddenly saw him fighting next to me. "Oh yay, it IS tameable!" I thought to myself, the split second it took before I realised it's tooltip said "SomeGuy's Guardian", and not "SomeGuy's Pet". That SomeGuy was a monk... And I have now tracked it back to a level 90 talent: "Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger". It's on a 3 min cooldown, and lasts for 45 sec.

/cry

Belt Graduation

It's almost a year since Blizzcon 2011, when we were presented to the first stories of Mists of Pandaria. It all looked great, and it was very fun to watch it all with my Virtual Pass. I'm a raider, and very dedicated to my class, so I was looking at all the quests and zones and squeeing of joy cause of all the new content! I was also very happy about my favourite game still getting new expansions. The monk was presented, and several websites featured it heavily. As an illustration they would show a bold shirtless human monk from Diablo, or a male (or eventually female) pandaren monk. I thought something in the lines of "cool that they're adding new stuff. I hope someone in my raid team will play one, cause they will probably be overpowered at start. But I don't really think this monk is for me".

Pet Utility Table (Mists of Pandaria)

52 days

Mists of Pandaria will release September 25. That is 52 days from now. If you're looking to change you main character, role, guild or server, this is a good time to do so. In those 52 days the following things will occur:

Mopping up the stable

In Mists of Pandaria hunters will have 44 different pet families to play with! All of them able to fill the role we need them to; cunning, ferocity or tenacity. But there are limitations... We can only keep 25 pets each; 20 in the stable and 5 with us. With cool new looks, buffs, families and abilities coming, it's time to clean up the stable.