Thanks Invaders

 

It’s almost time to say farewell to our visitors of Azeroth. In just a few short hours the Legion expansion will be upon us and that means the invasions will be no more. I have to say, it was a fantastic event. For the first time since Wrath of the Lich King, the event really was solid and offered a variety of tasks (the pamphlet collection might be the exception). Of course more importantly for everyone, the invasions were an incredible source of leveling. The experience awarded was vast, with even a vanilla toon (no xp buffs) able to gain a level or more in a single invasion. At higher levels, it might have taken two.

I used this as an opportunity to branch out the number of capped toons I had. It’s no secret I’d like one of each at 100 so that I can do the eventual legendary chains for each class. As you can see from the photo, I managed to get three in the time available. Shaman, Mage, and Death Knight can be stroked off. That leaves Demon Hunter, Warrior, Warlock, and Monk. Well, Demon Hunter obviously won’t be an issue and I am leaning towards using my 100 boost on a Monk. Unfortunately, time was not kind to me the past two weeks so I wasn’t able to get the other two to the end mark. The Warrior sits at 65 and the Warlock got to 40 earlier this evening. I could get a few more levels on either one but my energy is fading and I’m realistic the benefit just isn’t there at this point. Still, the Army is certainly ready to kick down the doors of the Broken Isles.

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.

The 90 Death Knight March

On the even of Warlords I finally used my insta-90.  I hadn’t done so earlier because despite my previous ideas I wasn’t all that certain what I wanted to do.  Unlike the title, I did not actually choose a Death Knight.  I knew all along I wanted a Druid, but found myself stuck between a Male Tauren and a Female Troll.  In the end, tusks beat out hooves.  Admittedly I surprise myself on occasion.

If you haven’t boosted a character yet, it’s a surprising and oddly confusing experience.  Truth be told, I wish there was option to skip what I can only consider to be a tutorial.  For new players, it might be handy.  Personally, I found much of it to be a pain in the rear as the developers took the Death Knight leveling process and seemingly made it more frustrating.  I will admit it could just be the process for a Feral Druid, but I can’t imagine it’s just one spec in the system that works that way.

At the start I had two abilities: I had Shred and I had a Windrider.  This should have been the first sign of what I was in for because despite having the Windrider…you can’t actually fly.  Why not just put the racial mount then?  On top of no abilities, you have no talents either.  Near the end of the tutorial you get your first talent, which in the Iron Horde invasion is seemingly lost because as we all know the opening talent is movement based.  Had I been able to use my class fully, heck even Mass Entanglement once, I would not have done this more than my previous toons combined:

This was taken after death three or four.  It’s one thing to learn a new class or make mistakes.  But there were things I wanted that my level 24 Druid can do that would have helped me.  Unfortunately you don’t get those things until after the second last quest…at which point I wanted to get out of Blasted Lands as fast as I absolutely could.  And I most certainly did.

The process is very much like the Death Knight start zone, but in fairness it is presented well for a new player.  Starting out with a base ability, then learning them in groups of three and in categories, does slowly present what your class and spec can do.  It gives someone new the opportunity to fart around and see what does what.  Most existing players know what does what and just want to get going.  Not having that option becomes more and more frustrating because the zone is not nearly as forgiving as the DK zone.  It was designed to be encountered by a massive number of players who are not only level capped, but also have flight.  Running around on foot with a small portion of your abilities is somewhat torturous at best.  For a new player, I guess it’s a taste of death.  Which, when you think about it, is rather amusing.  Normally, you have to do something silly or have dumb luck work against you in order to die below level 50.  Here it can happen in less than 15 minutes.

I think in the end, I like the “tutorial” as it were.  I would merely change the location (not necessarily sure where a better option would be), and allow players to “skip” it and simply show up in the location all decked out and ready to go.

 

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…

Boo!

WARNING: Innkeepers have paid the witches more money this year. Result? Stronger tricks.

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.

Where I Play #WoWScreenshotaday Catch-Up

Yes, I’ve not been a very good lemming.  It’s been a busy time around the Amateur house and when my time was idle…well, blame that darn Hearthstone.  It requires a simpler kind of focus some times.  That said, it isn’t that I haven’t been working on the screenshots, I just never had a chance to post and then decided to just bundle them all together.