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.

Zombiepocalypse Is Back!

RAWRBBRRGGGGRRREEEEEE!!!!!

We defeated the Lich King, and fought off the Apocalypse of the Zombie invasion nearly six years ago.  But we didn’t get the job done!  They’re back!

Ok, obviously not.  There’s no such horror happening (unless you consider the instance servers down as horrific).  I was out and about this morning with Elcombe knocking off some trick or treating and this was the result of Darnassus (never trust an elf my friend Koronite would say).  As I watched him running, though, it did harken me back to that event.  Of course then I pined for more out of the current event, but I shall not lament now.  Instead, while in Ironforge, I’ll hit that inn up next for some more goodies…

THUNUBABIDGE…

More 6.0 Observations

A few days in and we’ve definitely got a feel for the new flavor of WoW.   Yesterday I talked about the many immediate changes that bombarded us in the first minutes we logged in, but now the details can be absorbed a bit better.

Class changes are interesting.  The only thing I had to do on Saintvache was choose two new talents.  His action bars went nearly untouched.  I could not say the same for Tumunzahar, Siori, and Liouxpold.  Perhaps it’s an Alliance thing.  Speaking of classes, many people found Burnt Glyphs in their possession now.  Rest assured that’s just for Glyphs that are no longer in the game.

I completed the Iron Horde invasion on the Horde side, and while I don’t know the details of what is to follow, I really hope it isn’t done now.  I came out of it with a title and a new pet, but incredibly underwhelmed.  That and agitated because Thrally-Sue (which I think I’ll call him far more often now) had to be the one running around on the front line.  Really?  There couldn’t be anyone else?  The guy had a whole expansion dedicated to him (Deathwing was merely supporting cast) and still we get him shoved down our throat.  Not to rant too much, because up until the later parts of Cataclysm I actually liked Thrall.  It’s just that Blizzard has overplayed him.  Getting back to the Iron Horde, it seemed pretty linear and to the point.  I’ll have to flip over and give the Alliance side a try before I really assess it but I can’t imagine it is all that different.

One no longer has to spend so much time in Pandaria.  I logged into a toon and found it sitting at 100% XP, but hadn’t dinged yet.  There’s no way in Dire Maul I would ever let that happen.  The OCD in me would have to ding before I logged.  Particularly because that’s less than exploratory XP.  That’s more along the lines of “you dinged because the wind changed direction.”  Now, to confirm this is the case, I played for a little while and had six bubbles in half an hour.  At 88.  Hrm, this place really might not be that bad anymore.

The final nugget of “huzzah” is stacking.  Imagine my surprise when I had the bank open and decided to top up my stack of Dreamfoil and sell the rest.  Suddenly I had a stack of 28!  I began playing around with this immediately, finding eventually that stacks cap at 200 now.  Between that and the Toy Box my bags are bordering on empty (and the bag sort feature is fantastic).  But what it really excites me for is my guild banks.  For Claws, it just means having a cleaner bank.  For the auctioneer in me, it means more room to store goodies.  I mean, just look at the difference in one tab.

It wasn’t 100% good news, though.  On top of shelling out gold for some face lifts (I think I spent about 200g or so in total.  Obviously someone with more 90’s than I spent even more), I found that some gear held onto its transmogrification, while others reset.  Needless to say, many of my toons look incredibly goofy so I will have to correct that when given the chance to.

I’m sure many people knew about these changes already, from playing the PTR or reading about it.  For me, I have been incredibly removed from these details of the game as I’ve been merely puttering in it for the past few months.  I vaguely kept tabs on what’s going on and really didn’t read the changes ahead of time (of course I knew about character models).  Thus, it’s all a surprise.  It feels like a good surprise, and I have a feeling I’m not the only returning player to think so.

Ideas of March

My efforts thus far to get where I want to be for Warlords has been met with limited results.  It’s entirely my own fault as I’ve been spending my time Hearthstoning when free, usually in an effort to complete a daily each day.  Yes, reader, that one has its teeth sunk in but good.  Fortunately with some free time last night I finally got in some actually WoW time and took to my Gnome Warrior.  The Mrs. and I did some puttering around but actually got into a dungeon pretty quickly(!) and I picked up a couple of levels in Blackfathom Deeps.  After that she was kind enough to run me through Stocks before calling it a night.  Another Gnomeregan run this morning and she’s now 27, on her way to 28.  Go figure, as soon as I lament queue times, I have two occasions where it was less than 20 minutes.  But, now that I’ve actually been productive to some degree, I figure I can increase said productivity and give myself a proverbial kick in the rear to do so…by jotting down some goals for the month.

• Get Semblance the Warrior (27) to 35.  My original plan was 25, but I accomplished that quite easily yesterday.
• Get Paramita the Priest (41) to 45.
• Get Elcombe the Mage (68) to 70.
• Finally have Elcombe learn Alchemy, and then actually power level it to some degree.
• Max out Saintvache’s Herbalism, currently 310.
• Get his Enchanting (487) up over 500 as well.  Who knows, might even Max it as well.
• Get Junkshot the Monk (7) to 20.
• Clean up Claws of Nature Guild Bank.
• Get Liouxpold (85) at least one level in Pandaria.
• Reach 2,500 Daily Quests

Not a vast list by any stretch, and many of the goals are pretty simple to obtain.  I average about an hour and a half of free time a day, so I can’t be shooting for the moon.  If I get all of these accomplished then it will feel like I’ve done something and will push me on towards the next ones in April.  Let’s face it, many little things can add up to one big thing and in this case that one thing can be momentum.  It wouldn’t hurt for me to have some of that the closer we get to Draenor.

Spelunking For Ooze

Last night after work I decided to hop online.  It was one of those instances where I had no real purpose.  I puttered around with Elcombe before deciding to get some experience for a few very low level pets (1-2).  After a few battles and a couple of pet dings, I remembered something I had read on Wowhead:

“I don’t know about anyone else but trying to farm this up during the day wasn’t going to happen. I was only able to get that to spawn at night. Keep this in mind when farming the pet up on your server.”

I had tried once before to get a Jade Oozeling, but had zero luck at all.  Granted it was during the daytime but that could be coincidence.  Still, Elcombe hopped on his flying carpet and off I went.

Upon landing in the Hinterlands I first knocked off the pet battle daily because who doesn’t like some quick and easy experience?  Then it was off to Skulk Rock to see if I could find a baby ooze.  The first thing I noticed was how many people were actually questing there at that hour.  I counted no less than six (and helped once any had tagged mobs), both Horde and Alliance.  I was a bit concerned that if I did get an ooze to spawn, I was going to lose it to one of them.

Undaunted I started killing all the maggots in the cave.  Then I killed them all again.  And once more.  I spent half an hour killing maggots before that magic little green paw appeared on my map.  I ran to the top of the cave in a flash, only to realize it was below me.  I quickly jumped down, and there it was.

Now I was smart enough prior to entering the cave in the first place, in that I made sure I had level appropriate pets to combat it.  Take a lesson from the Amateur, nothing is quite as detracting as finding a rare spawn or simply rare pet and killing it because you forgot to downgrade your pets, or worse you get cakewalked because all your pets were too low to do any good.  So in this instance, I was good to go and while the Oozeling was only a common, I did capture him a short time later.  I don’t know what it is, but thus far Elcombe is a significantly better trapper than Tum.

I haven’t decided whether or not to use a stone to upgrade it.  At a later time, I may even come back and try for a better quality one, though the stone seems far less dependent on a great deal of luck.  The important thing is that I’m now down to 10 pets to capture for the Eastern Kingdom Safari achievement.

Playing With Fire

I don’t normally do too much with World Events.  Here and there I’ll cherry pick things to do, usually for the benefit of alts, or profit.  Occasionally it’s for something I want.  In talking with Kamalia Sunday night she mentioned Honouring The Flame for easy experience, and I did one of those head tilts with an “oh?”  So yesterday morning I had the chance to hop on Elcombe for a bit and I headed off to dance with the flames.  The first thing I learned?  Dishonoring The Flame gives double the experience.  So try to put out the opposing faction’s nearby flame as you go along.  Also, in any city you’ll get a quest to take some ashes to a Scorchling.  Definitely worth it, just for the dialogue.

The animation that accompanies it is hilarious.  After I got that little chuckle, I continued making the rounds on Elcombe’s carpet and it was off to Stranglethorn Vale.  The map location shown on WoWhead is off by a fair bit.  So while I was trying to figure out the appropriate location, I came upon Kurmokk.

After I introduced him to a couple of frost spells, I continued on my travels.  A short time later I came upon the proper location to Honour The Flame, and sure enough the Horde one is about 100 yards away.  Easy experience.  I figured from Stranglethorn, the Blasted Lands was the next logical flame to visit.  Nevermind I could port to a city and take the portal to the Blasted Lands.  That would be too easy, and just occurred to me this morning.  Instead, I flew.  But, sometimes things are for the best.  I was flying along the Western Stranglethorn coast, up towards Zul’Gurub when I found myself distracted.

Short John Mithril yells: Arrr, Me Hearties! I be havin’ some extra Treasure that i be givin’ away at the Gurubashi Arena! All ye need to do is collect it is open the chest I leave on the arena floor!

After a moment of staring at the screen, I actually decided to make my way over to the arena.  I was disappointed when I got there.  The chest was nowhere to be seen.  But then I saw the Goblin walking out across the arena floor.  Sure enough, he put the chest down and there was nobody to be seen.  I set to work.

I honest to goodness was just waiting to get ganked at this point.  That chest opens soooooooo slowly.  Or, that’s probably how it seems when you expect someone to shiv you at the utmost convenience to them.  After what seems like an eternity, the chest opened.  There were a few items inside, but the one that mattered most was the Arena Master trinket which started a quest.  The moment I looted that was the moment I got about the last thing I expected to see on one of my characters…

Not too shabby, considering I don’t usually do much in the way of World Events.  It seems that while their details might not be too important to me, they can bring a bit of luck and excitement elsewhere!

She Made Elcombe Cool

Rhuanious was tagged by me for Mog Busting, and I set her to work on making my Mage Elcombe look more “frosty.”  In the end, she came up with three possible outfits for him.  The first one isn’t too shabby, though for whatever reason, the Glacier Robe isn’t my cup of tea…despite the fact it’s very much a great Frost Robe.

I really like the outfit based around the Fur Covered Robe.  Elcombe’s a handsome fella and likes to show off that charming face of his.  The usage of the brown tones isn’t something I would have thought of.  And, yes, Frostguard is a great idea.

Despite the fact she added it in last, I’m really digging the third outfit.  The Abjurer’s Hood actually impresses me, again despite the idea of Elcombe usually showing off his face.  The Vestments of the Aldor is a great piece and greatly complimented by the remainder of the outfit.  I do believe I’ve found a goal to shoot for.

Thanks again Rhuanious, who I did put on the spot a bit.  She turned out three wonderful outfits and my Mage will have something to go for now.  In the meantime, he’ll play the part of a suave Swashbuckler.

You can get the full transmog at Elcombe’s page, and for the full details of the three Frost outfits, visit Rhuanious’ page.