Out With The Old

When Wrath of the Lich King came out, had I not taken a break I would have had a very good chance at world first level 80 Rogue. I don’t say that as a means of bragging, because well…what’s there to brag about? I didn’t get the achievement. So why bring it up? Well, to illustrate just what I thought of the rogue class at one point. Siori was my main. I loved Combat and then its evolution into Outlaw. So after Saintvache hit 50, I decided she was the next out of the chute.

With the druid and paladin, I fell right back into old habits and rotations and took care of business. Imagine my surprise when that was not the case with my rogue. I got Slice ‘N’ Dice going and made sure poison was equipped and the other usual things. But overall it felt flat. I was incredibly underwhelmed and while I can’t quite put my finger on why, I do think the current state of combo finishers plays a large part. There were more to choose from when I last played. And I found them more affective. Now hitting your rotation is just as easy, but there’s no DoT’s anymore (that I can really see). Dispatch is there for dealing damage and Cheap Shot of course for stunning the target (when Kick just doesn’t do the trick). But overall I just felt I wasn’t putting out as much damage as I used to. It made me really keep an eye on what felt like a depleted survivability.

I did end up getting her to 50 though. How much play she’ll see from here out is up in the air at best. I feel like my Feral Druid does rogue better than rogue does, if that makes sense. Her biggest asset at this point is probably making Enchanting scrolls and opening lock boxes. Not exactly where I expected to be with my rogue if you had asked me a few years back. And if you’re curious, I did look at the other specs. While they might be more optimal, I wasn’t really feeling them all that much more than Outlaw. So, I suppose it is what it is. Perhaps at some point I dust her off again and suddenly the class clicks for me again, I don’t know. But for the short term, the boss is going to be doing her work from behind the desk instead of out in the field.

Because I Got High (Mountain)

After dipping my toes in over the weekend, I decided to get my hooves wet. Saintvache was off to Legion Dalaran as I decided if I couldn’t have a Zandalari, I could at least get a Highmountain Tauren into the fold. Plus, it gave me a chance to do some leveling, which…wow. Such an improved experience. I’ll elaborate on a later date but I definitely approve. Saintvache is now 47, and that’s just from doing the main Highmountain story and a couple of bonus objectives that happened to be where I was questing anyway.

It didn’t take too long to complete that main story and set up the meeting between Baine and Mayla. I was in for a bit of a surprise as I never looked up how any of the alliances worked. I figured I would fly back to Orgrimmar and it would be a simple case of “hey, thanks for all your help. You proved the Horde is good. We’re in, ok?” Needless to say that is not what happened at all. I really enjoyed the story that lead to them officially joining the Horde. Though I can only imagine what it was like to have to do that chain without a flying mount. Dear Illidan it was like a classic WoW questline – all over the damn place.

In the end, though, it all worked out. The most difficult thing was getting back to Orgrimmar because everyone is logged in for Shadowlands.

See? Just a few people. I actually had to go to Pandaria and use the shrine portal to get back. Then I was able to scoot off and get my new mount and more importantly unlock some new friends. It didn’t take long for one to fall into the fold.

Not a fan of her default armor, but we’ll get that fixed eventually.

A Weekend Resumed

Looks different around here, I know. But so does Azeroth. No, not in the private sector where you’ve occasionally heard me from. The real deal. I resubbed on Friday…for a month. Who knows, I might wrangle enough gold to buy a free month as well. But in the short term, we’ll see how it goes. It doesn’t mean I’m back for Shadowlands. Much as I have to have the Collector’s Edition at some point for my collection, I’m in no rush. Instead I came back to see what everything else is like.

The first thing I did was putter about on a couple of toons. Elcombe still has a 6-tab Guild Bank full of pets. So, guess no one hacked me at any point. After checking that, I took him to the barber shop to see what the new options looked like. He ended up looking like Stephen Baldwin apparently.

After that, I did what I do most. Maybe best. Took a bag full of pets over to the auction house. It’ll take me a little while to get settled into the market. But if I can sell a lot of what I’ve got in stock, that free month might not be all that difficult to achieve. Heck, if I put all my toons in one place it would be mission accomplished. But, that’s not the case, though I do still know how to move money around to some degree if I so desire.

Then it was time for familiarity. Over to Zarahi and druid adventuring. She was sitting at the top of the toons at level 42. So I puttered in Warlords for 1-2 levels and then made my way to Azsuna. Apparently I had some quests there from the last time I logged in…a couple of years ago. So I went through a few of the storylines.

Then decided to take her to the Barber Shop. Holy crap, I can be a Druid of the Flame. Permanently. Didn’t see that one coming at all…and nope, didn’t even look at Bear Form.

At this point, I decided to go to Zandalar. Figured her last few levels would get me on track to unlocking Allied Races. Of course, I didn’t put much research into how to do so and was disappointed when I completed the Zandalari stuff and it turns out that’s just the beginning of what was needed. Oh well, still hit the level cap in no time at all.

When I realized I wasn’t unlocking the Trolls just yet I thought I’d visit a place I’d been dying to see: Siege of Orgrimmar. If I can’t have what I want, at least I can go kill Garrosh, right? Well, not so much. Despite researching the issue, I just could not solo the Scrolls of Pandaria. After dying about a half dozen time I gave up. Between the trolls, Garrosh, and this site causing me grief (hence the new look), I wasn’t in the best of moods by Sunday night. So, I needed to remedy that. Went to a favourite place. No, not Karazhan oddly. Instead it was off to Sunwell Plateau. Wasn’t long after I paid Kil’jaeden a visit and felt better. Even had the Chaos Pup and Wretched Servant drop.

So I experienced some of the new and some of the old. We’ll see what the next 30 days brings. I know Shadowlands hits this week and as I said off the top, I’m in no rush to get it. I haven’t played the game in a couple of years so there’s lots for me to do for my dollar (which, yes I was fairly certain I would never again give Blizzard…eh, times change I suppose). I’ve certainly built up a few thoughts on how things are in Azeroth now. We’ll see if I can get them out here with some semblance of frequency. No guarantees, but for now we’ll do our best and enjoy the ride.

Fireflint, Defender of Azeroth

It took me four days to finally get the achievement, wrapping it up with Azshara. However, unlike many folks who had the same problem, mine wasn’t because the Azshara Invasion wasn’t spawning. It was because I thought I had already completed it. For my Death Knight, it was the most difficult location to get to (compared to the others).  As such, I figured when I had done it once I wasn’t going to go back. I would simply use that time to gain levels for other alts (which, oh boy, has this event been fantastic for). The hard one for me to get at first was Dun Morogh. It just did not want to spawn. When it finally did I was puzzled when I hadn’t gotten the achievement. Nor could I find it in the UI to determine what I was missing.

Then, I remembered the only time I went to Azshara was because I was close to dinging and was about to head out the door. So I landed and completed part of the scenario for some xp, dinged and left. Of course, it took until this morning to come to such a revelation, but in the end we got there. Additional good news is he is now 91, so him getting to 100 will definitely happen and it could be this weekend yet.

That leaves Mage, Warlock, Shaman, Monk, and Warrior. Well, the Monk is not happening since he’s not even 20. Shaman is a probably at this point, sitting at 75 and will get the bulk of attention once Flint hits 100. After that, it’s hard to say. But, the Amateur Army is making the most of the scenario just like many others. It’s just unfortunate the Rapid Elixirs have shot up in price. Otherwise the progress would be even greater.

Worth More Than Money

There’s no recap on gold made this week. To be honest, I didn’t log on most of the week, until Sunday when I did some leveling. I know I made between 1500-2000 gold just from Garrison missions, but that’s ballparking it based on what I recall. I sold very little and didn’t even bother tracking while I was out questing. It happens, and as the title suggests I did better than any financial gain could offer.

In puttering around this morning, I happened to be on Zarahi when I got the notice of realm reset. After doing a few odds and ends, I decided I would park her in Felwood and hope that maybe I would luck out and beat someone to a Minfernal. Given how many years it’s been and I’ve had zero luck, I wasn’t holding my breath. But off I went all the same.

I circled in and landed in the Shattered Vale. Noticed a pet on my map, but the only thing near me was an Infernal. Or rather, a half-size infernal. When my brain clicked, so did my mouse. Despite 5-6 people nearby, I managed to tag him quite easily.

See kids? This is why no matter the battle, always have your turnip handy. Always need to make sure you can leave the target with 1 hp. Goodness knows I’ve killed my share of pets I wanted to trap. Fortunately nothing even remotely this rare!

After grabbing the Minfernal and the servers resuming, I realized I needed the Crested Owl in order to complete my Kalimdor Safari achievement. A quick port to Darnassus on my Mage and I headed out into Teldrassil where it didn’t take long.

I still have half a dozen Draenor pets to grab as well as the same number in Pandaria. But then it’s World Safari (yes I know I don’t need Draenor for the achievement but my OCD says I do).

Demidos!

Running some of the Horde Garrison quests in Shadowmoon Valley on the weekend and I came across a rare spawn.

Right away the name sounded familiar, but to be honest I was drawing a blank as to why.  I didn’t really care because a rare is a rare.  A Human Mage and Nelf Druid had come strolling up and I figured the three of us could probably take it down.  That didn’t happen.  I have no idea where they went, or they died.  I quickly realized I couldn’t take it down on my own and sent out a message. Repgrind was in immediately, and Arv was close behind.  Unfortunately, we learned Arvash didn’t have the flight path to Shadowmoon Valley yet, being a fresh 100.  It was also around this time where I remembered what made Demidos special: the Servant of Demidos.

Rep and I decided to tackle him anyway and we got him down to about 10% before we died.  We learned his health pool climbs based on the number of people in the fight.  As we were rezzing, a Gnome got into the fight.  We fought hard and got him down.

A nice little achievement there.  Now the key to the fight is easily your health.  Demidos has an ability that knocks your health down 25%.  Not total health, mind you.  Just current health.  So heavy top-up heals are not really a great idea in this fight.  If you can do some HoT’s then you’re in better shape.  I know my health sat below 35% for most of the fight.  But I just kept Rejuvenation active as much as I could.  Rep was busy on her end and we managed to take him down a second time on her server.  Unfortunately there was no loot the second time around.  I was disappointed because Repgrind had gotten a necklace that was of no use.  I wanted her to get the pet…same as I did!

Incredibly ecstatic to have the Servant drop.  In briefly perusing the new Draenor pets, this was probably the one I wanted the most.  I definitely couldn’t believe my luck when I saw it in the loot.  I tried to carry that luck over and nab some raid pets.  Once again Tempest Keep and Karazhan offered me nothing.  But still, getting this guy made my weekend.  And I couldn’t have gotten it without Repgrind’s help!

Ahead By A Century

After a few delays and time away from Azeroth, Zarahi became the first of the Amateur Army to hit the new cap of 100.  With much rejoicing I stopped to consider things thus far.  As such, here’s 100 random thoughts about the new expansion: