Weird - Glitches. Frustration. Fist shaking.

      I've noticed a few mysterious things taking place since the updates. Not all of them are necessarily taking place because of the recent updates, but they're happening nonetheless. I make angry frown >:(

      Numero Uno: Has anyone noticed that the enemies in Marleybone walk in the middle of the street now, instead of the sides? That threw me for a real loop and it took me a few times of being pulled into battle to realize that hey... suddenly their walking pattern changed! The good? Now we can all walk on the side like we're used to. The bad? When they make a circle in their little conga line, they get really close to the edges of the roof where we walk to avoid them, which can pull an unsuspecting person into battle. Bottom line: this will take some getting used to. Fortunately I already finished MB with my life character. My fire character will struggle a bit though.

      Numero Deux: Mossback has disappeared from certain parts of Mooshu! Not sure if this is for me or everyone, and fortunately I already finished those quests. Kinda weird though. Oh well. (Note: sorry, but I can't be bothered to take screen caps right now, computer is being SLOWWWW.)

      Number Trei: I finished a quest in the Crystal Groves in DS, and received an item: Crystal cluster. And then when I went to my house to put it somewhere, it disappeared! Like it never even existed. Looked for it in both banks, all through my backpack, and I know I didn't sell it. It's just... gone. Really weird, and sort of disappointing :(

      Le four: Went to my house later and it would not let me even put down any furniture at all. Wouldn't even let me open the tab to do it. I have a feeling it's some sort of bug with the patch since any new thing you receive needs to load the data. Or maybe the Wizard graphics client was just being lame (I had been running the game for like two hours). Either way, very worrying. Hope it won't be a serious problem next time I run the game. They're doing some updates tonight. *crosses fingers*

      El fifth: They said they'd make crafting easier by lowering the required crafts in the quests and also making regents more available. Well, they made good on the first part, but the second part? Not so much. I had a heck of a time finding scrap iron. This was today, at around five o'clock, on a Perfect realm, in an empty area. I searched for over two hours in order to find the very small amount I needed. I'm not really having that issue with common stuff (like mist wood and cattails), but then I never really had a problem with those to begin with. It seems like scrap iron is still just as tough to find as ever. And I know there are exceptions, but I'm not willing to stay up till all hours of the morning just so I can have an empty realm to myself. I hate to be a Negative Nancy (oh who am I kidding, I love it), I just was hoping to see some more of the really rare stuff lying around. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. But anyway, I did manage to finish the Marleybone crafting quest... about time, too! Now to wait eight hours for my slots to open again  T_T

      Sixth: This is actually a glitch I experienced prior to the addition of the crown shop, but apparently it is very common among life wizards. On the quest to get the final spell for life school (Rebirth and a Satyr pet), we have to get items from three trees across the spiral. One of those trees, Oakheart, is in Mooshu, and in order to get to him you have to complete all the Mossback/Wavebringer quests -- in a certain order. I completed all the quests, in the order I received them, and yet when I went to see Oakheart in the Jade palace I couldn't get in. Apparently the order I did them in was not the correct order, and there was no way to go back and do them over again. So I was stuck, unable to get the last item to move on. I had to bother several people (specifically Grandmasters) until I finally found someone who could enter, and I ported to them.
Now, I know this seems like an easily solvable problem... just do the Mossback quests in the certain order. Even the administrators on the Wizard 101 website say that, so it has to be the solution, right? The thing is, there are so many people who do the side quests out of order because they're not crucial to the main plot, and they're not necessary in order to advance in the storyline. And trust me, if you've ever been to DS, you know that soon enough Rebirth becomes essential to a life wizard. Having to follow such a strict guideline in order to gain that spell kind of defeats the purpose of Wizard 101's "at your leisure" atmosphere. It makes questing such a chore. I really, really hope KI fixes this somehow so that level 48 theurgists can gain access to Oakheart without completing the Mossback quests "in order". If not, I have that spot marked in case I encounter any more struggling theurgists. :P

      Anyway, that's all I got for now. I'm hoping this down time is going to be used for fixing some (if not all) of these issues. Until then, I will be waiting eagerly, and wondering where in the world that mysterious crystal cluster ran off to...