Battle for Leveling

It's been a few weeks since the release of Battle for Azeroth, and I have finally completed leveling my Horde and Alliance character. As with most recent releases, I usually take my time and try to read each quest and understand the story to the best of my ability. This was a special expansion for me, because it was the first time I decided to level up my Alliance character first. This decision came around because my initial thought was that I would enjoy those zones much more than the Horde zones. I definitely wasn't wrong, though both sides had some really enjoyable things and the not so enjoyable things.

I'll talk about my Alliance experience first. I quested in the order of Drustvar, Stormsong Valley, and then Tiragarde Sound. Drustvar was amazing and made me even more excited to have a Kul Tiran druid. The entire zone is spooky from ghosts to witches to scary pig men! Everything about the area was perfect, and I don't think I can say enough good things about it. Stormsong was beautiful, and I loved the quest line that brought you through the Tidesages story. One of my favorite random quests is located on a little island off the coast in this zone. It follows the tales of the drunk pirates Hook, Line, and Sinker. I won't spoil anything for you in case you didn't do it, but you do get an achievement for completing it. The only area I really hated here was Briarback Kraul as I thought it was a pain to navigate through and figure out what level you had to be on to turn in a quest.

Tiragarde Sound was my least favorite Alliance zone. I loved the intro with Flynn Fairwind, but toward the end of the zone I found the quest really tedious as you're just helping all the different settlements around the area. The Norwington Estate is a really beautiful place to hang out though. It has a beautiful view of the zone, and some fun quests that allow you to ride horses to gain the appreciation of the people at the party.

Sadly I wish my Horde experience was a bit better. I decided to go in the order of Vol'dun, Nazmir, then end with Zuldazar. While I've never really been a fan of trolls, I found myself very disconnected from the Zandalari and just the Horde in general recently. My experience in Vol'dun was alright. I didn't really hate or really enjoy anything about it. Meerah along with Dolly and Dot made it a fun experience. I also enjoyed the sethrak definitely more than I thought I would. This place had another of my favorite random quests. It's located in the Whistlebloom Oasis and has you helping out Rhan'ka to open up the Goldtusk Inn.

Nazmir was a lot more fun and definitely my favorite Horde zone. I loved visiting each temple and seeing the different Loas and learning about them. They were each unique and interesting, and I'm curious to see exactly what Bwonsamdi may want in the future. I saved Zuldazar as my last area, because I watched my boyfriend quest through it a bit, and I already knew I wouldn't enjoy it. Surprise, I didn't, and it was my least favorite zone out of everything. The most interesting part was the quests that send you to  the Amani and Sandfury tribe areas in the city where you encounter some bosses from Zul'Farrak and Zul'Aman. Another redeeming part about the area was it introduced me to Jani, the Loa of trash. I want to talk about him and some of the other Loa later on, so I'll dedicate a post to doing just that.

Out of the two major cities, I find Boralus easier to navigate. With Dazar'alor having way too many stairs, I often just find myself using slow fall and jumping off incorrectly, or just porting back to Dalaran to get my stuff done. As far as the Heart of Azeroth necklace goes... ok I guess? Azerite gear is also not that interesting to me nor is gathering up azerite power. I also don't like the command table as I don't feel any of the rewards are really worth it anymore. I hope these are two things that aren't going to keep following us forward. Sorry to all those who enjoy those things. *waves* I'm hoping as the expansion goes by I become more comfortable with it and find my place. Despite my critiques, I still have high hopes and look forward to what the next parts of the story bring to the table.

Not My Warchief. Not my Story.

This is a post I've been thinking of since the very beginning when the story for Battle for Azeroth was announced. I was one of those people who decided to wait before jumping onto the bandwagon of disappointment, but the closer we get to the expansion release, the more annoyed I get with the direction the story has decided to take. This is going to be more of a rant post, so I understand if you want to skip it for something a bit more cheery. This post may also contain small story spoilers for Battle for Azeroth. If you don't want to be spoiled, please skip over this one.

I realize hearing this coming from someone who has mained an undead for pretty much ten years is going to sound really stupid, but please hear me out. I have never been a fan of Sylvanas, and I don't like how fans of her always try to make her questionable actions seem justified. She has never cared about anything more than herself and her people's survival - even if those people may not want to be raised to live their life as undead. I still cannot wrap my head around the choice to make her Warchief of the Horde, a move I'm sure Vol'jin would never pick. I personally think they still missed a great opportunity to use Legion manipulation and Varimathras to convey this, but we didn't get any of that. We received a dead Vol'jin just to make things fair on both factions (I feel Varian's death over-shone his therefore cheapening it), and a new leader that left many scratching their heads.

When I became interested in roleplaying a few years back, I took this into account when I wrote Velgana's backstory. While I don't roleplay her, she deserved it for being my main for so many years. A quick breakdown is that she's not happy where she is, but she tries to make the best of it and even acts as an informant when she can. While I understand Warcraft doesn't allow special exceptions for the player, I still don't understand all the choices the writers are making. I guess it doesn't matter because they will do whatever they please, but as a consumer I have the right to be annoyed by it. I don't have to play the game, but since it's one of my pleasures outside of real world things, I will. I play both factions, but this is the first time I'm embarrassed for the Horde. This is also the first time I'm considering leveling up my Alliance character first.

Despite everything that's happening, I don't agree with the burning of Teldrassil. We don't truly know who started the fire, but I'm hoping it isn't an already hated character such as Greymane. I don't think he'd ever hurt his people like that, but that's just my personal opinion. I also don't agree with the slaughter of civilians as they try to escape. How can you blame a retalliation attack on Undercity at that point? I don't agree with what I've read is happening in Stormsong Valley in Kul Tiras. I cannot see the Horde army standing behind Sylvanas doing exactly what Garrosh did to many of them (especially the Darkspear) a few expansions ago. Is Blizzard setting Sylvanas up for another Garrosh-esque story? I hope not. Are we going to jump in and blame the Old Gods for corrupting minds once again? Can we not have something better? The rehashing of old tales gets stale, and I think many of us are itching for more variety at this point. I don't know what else to say about this all except that I'm just disappointed with the direction this all seems to be taking.

I've thought about this over the last few months, and I'm not sure if I'm still jumping the gun or if I'm just growing out of WoW's story. I love World of Warcraft, but I'm not sure if this story is for me anymore. It will be interesting to see if my mind is changed after experiencing the questing first hand and how things progress during each patch release. Stay tuned because I will revisit this topic in the future as the expansion plays out.

Battle for Azeroth

It's been way too long since I've written a post. Something similar to this was supposed to go up around the announcement of Battle for Azeroth at Blizzcon. How about we have another watch of that amazing cinematic. I'll post it here so you don't have to go searching for it. Here you go.

Let me say that once again Blizzard's cinematic department has hit the ball out of the park. Previous to this one, my favorite cinematic was the from Wrath of the Lich King. It has now been replaced with this one. I play both Horde and Alliance, but I have never been a fan of Sylvanas. I do really liked seeing her screeching banshee form, and I wish that would get added in game for when the opposing faction tries to kill her (or maybe if she becomes a boss, heh heh.). However, Anduin wins this one for me. Tossed into a war and struggling to fit into his new role as King, he shows off his powers by mass healing most of the Alliance there, including Greymane. Though he's a priest, he's no pushover, but he definitely doesn't fits the role of warrior either. I love seeing a more emotional side to a masculine character, and I hope Blizzard doesn't turn him into a ruthless killing machine. I believe in the upcoming book leading into BfA, we will learn more about the decisions of both factions that lead them to the events in the cinematic. It's said that Horde may be the cause of the first strike, but all details are still too fuzzy for me to start pointing fingers.

I finally had a chance to look through most datamined things since Alpha started. New expansions always have me worried. I know what you're thinking, "Vel, it's still too soon!". You're right, but it's never too early to show some concern for my favorite game. I just never want to go through another Warlords type expansion. The biggest complaints I've seen have been some threads on Reddit about the quality of the Nightborne model. Some people think they look way too different from their NPC counterparts and that the true Nightborne look was lost in the process. Were these models tossed out too soon so that players could experience the new level scaling? Who knows. I haven't purchased the expansion yet, so I haven't had a chance to see them up close for myself. I will say that I am disappointed in the allied races. I only speak for myself, but they are something I never really wanted. I personally would have been much happier with more added customization options to our current races along with that long waited update to the goblin and worgen models.

Quiet contemplation

I am a little worried on the questing in the new zones. I usually play through the story first as Horde, then follow up on my Alliance character. This is the first expansion that I'm considering doing this opposite because the Kul Tiras zones seem much more interesting to me than the troll area of Zandalar. I'm also concerned that each questing experience is only three zones per faction. It doesn't seem like much, though I'm sure once everything is in place, it will feel much larger. I usually never have complains on the zones or questing. Those have always been a pleasure.

I don't have enough information about other things I'd like to talk about, but I'd love to know more about warfronts. The gear from them look amazing and what was teased at Blizzcon looked really interesting. In fact, I've been impressed with most of the gear so far. The questing sets from Kul Tiras are perfect island themed, and the gear from warfronts look like a direct throwback to the Warcraft RTS games. There's so much more I can sit here and speculate on, but I'd rather wait until closer to launch where we hopefully know more. So how do you feel about Battle for Azeroth? Are there things you are excited for or things that concern you? If you pre-ordered, how are you liking the allied races so far? If you got into alpha, do you have any comments about your experience? Leave me a comment below. I look forward to hearing from you!

Timeless Isle - First Thoughts

Free trip around the Isle! Wheeee!

So with 5.4 hitting yesterday, I thought I would give my first thoughts on the Timeless Isle. Let me start off by saying that I enjoyed it so much I ended up playing for almost 13 hours. I peeled myself away from my computer around 1:30 or so last night. I didn't get all the screenshots I would have liked, but I was in the moment and that's all that mattered.

When I arrived to the isle for the first time, it was littered with skeletons, but I quickly figured that out why later! I must have died more than a dozen times last night... and all I was doing was hunting rare spawns! The Alliance definitely outnumber Horde on my server. Everywhere you turned you saw yellow! I had to be very careful when looting stuff not to accidentally hit one of them to make me flag up. It's times like this I am so glad I do not play on a PvP server.

Me and my friend on Huolon watch!

The first things I did on the Isle where pick up my quests and explore. I opened so many chests and was actually able to get quite a lot of gear for my alts. In fact, I managed to get more pieces from rares last night that I need to send to them. I also want to try to get myself a trinket piece because I looted a burden blah blah from a chest in things cave. The Celestial's didn't give me a piece of gear... just gold.

I tried out the Celestial Tournament. I managed to beat the 3 tamers very easily, but the Celestials were really hard! I definitely need to work on getting some more pets up to level 25 before I attempt that again! I did manage to get a few new mini pets:
Ashwing Moth
Flamering Moth
Skywisp Moth
Skunky Alemental
and my friend got me an Azure Crane Chick

This rare spawn bug was bugged... Har, har, har!

While I will be playing around on the isle again today, I will definitely be taking it a lot slower, hehe. While fun right now, on a server like mine, I can see it being pretty dead really fast... which will make it a dangerous place to be in!

Blog Azeroth: Favorite Vanity Items

I had a different post planned out, but I can never turn down a Blog Azeroth topic - They are too wonderful!

"What is your favorite vanity item in World of Warcraft?"

I'm assuming this topic was thought of from the recent Wowhead guide about all these different wonderful vanity items, and where you can go to obtain them. As with most things I collect, I can never just pick that one special item. Here is my top 5 favorite vanity items that I own:

#5 - Orb of Deception

This item holds a special place in my heart. I got it way back in Burning Crusades. The mobs that had the highest chance (or maybe only chance) to drop them were these three rare spawns that would spawn every few hours in the Dire Maul arena: Skarr the Unbreakable, The Razza, and Mushgog. I always brought Pigle or Chrisoos with me because since it was an arena, I think you would get flagged for PvP; Plus, it was a very popular place that was camped. Here is the exact post from when I got the item! I believe it dropped off of Mushgog. It was a happy day for me!

#4 - Frenzyheart Brew

As someone who picked the side of the Oracles first, I was sad to see that the Frenzyheart offered a cute vanity item. I had no idea until late WotLK that you could switch sides... which I bugged out on my initial try.   After days of dailies and opening quite a few Disgusting Jars, I could finally be like those furry little wolves. Too bad there isn't an Oracle equivalent! (oraclez4lyfe)

#3 - Dragon's Call

I hit a bunch of stuff but couldn't get the whelp to spawn. :(

This was an item I always wanted but never actually sat down to farm. It's new to me; I've only had it for about a week or two, but I couldn't be happier. Me and the emerald whelp go way back (I always talk about my hours of farming in BC), and I wanted the sword to match because it also spawns a whelp. After running Sunken Temple for what felt like hours the other night, it dropped!

#2 - Stave of Fur and Claw

This was one of those items you heard about people getting in Vanilla. It was special, it showed dedication, it wasn't something to go after if you were weak! With grinding out reputations becoming "easy mode" in WotLK, I finally decided to get exalted with the Timbermaw Hold. At first it was just for the awesome named achievement (They Love Me In That Tunnel), but then you realize you can get this item and and a trinket that lets a Furblog fight with you (Defender of the Timbermaw). After that, the grind seems alright. :)

and finally...

#1 - Magic Bamboo Shoot

On my cute raft... fishing away.

This was introduced in MoP. I don't think this would be as cool if it weren't for all the crazy things you can do while being a little panda! Epic!

Look at the cute little wand and held in off hand!

Runners Up:

Ruther's Harness

Before ass kicking.

After he kicked my ass then ran away.

Noggenfogger Elixir

Eek! Scary bunny!

Crate of Kidnapped Puppies

I like the one dragging his butt and well, Fezes are cool!

And finally, oh my goodness! All of the things being data mined from the patch 5.4 PTR. I cannot wait to talk about all of that, but as I said before, that will have to wait until another time. ;)

Val'kyr Hunt

So, I hope 5.3 is treating everyone well. I have to say that the most epic part so far was the Horde quest line (I have no idea what you Ally are doing) that took us to Sen'jin village to side with Vol'jin, Thrall, and Chen to overthrow Garrosh and basically take back Orgrimmar. I've never wanted to fight so hard to get the Horde back to being a proud race - not a race hell bent on destruction!

I was also super excited about the mini pets coming in this patch. So far, Vel has only collected two of the raiding with leashes pets - Menagerie Custodian and Netherspace Abyssal. I'm not worried about buying the on the auction house... I'll get them when I get them. On the other hand, I was extremely worried about getting the Unborn Val'kyr. I had been keeping up with the thread on the Warcraft Pets forum about the PTR and was worried that no one could find the "trigger" to make them spawn. Now with the patch being out a day, I think it's pretty clear that they spawn whenever they feel like it, but I think in certain places. While many users seem to have found success in Sholazar Basin and Zul'drak, I ended up catching mine in Crystalsong Forest. Below are the tips I used to catching myself an Unborn Val'kry.

As any collector, NPC Scan is my friend. One of the first things I did after the servers went live was add the NPC ID to my addon. Now, some people said that they were experiencing it going off when they would open their pet tab in WoW, but I never had an issue with it. However, on my filtered options I only show "collected" pets so that could be why. Try that if you're having an issue.

Tuesday, I spent my time flying everywhere. I must have scanned the entire continent of Northrend and saw nothing. I began to get frustrated, but I read a bit more on the forums and decided to camp a certain spots. I put Vel in Zul'drak and an alt in Sholazar Basin. I would log on and off every so often to check, but I saw nothing. I don't think this method is really that great because of her rarity mixed with CRZ and all the people looking for her.

Wednesday, I decided I would stay in certain areas. I flew Vel around Howling Fjord most of the day, because it seemed to be quiet and I always love the music in that area. I had no luck there either. I moved her to Zul'drak and stayed there for about 45 minutes of seeing nothing but little bunnies hopping around. Vel was bored, so we decided to go run Kara, TK, and SSC on alts to pass the time. After we were done, I decided I would fly back to Zul'drak to do a quick flyover then head to Grizzly Hills to camp for a while. I never made it there because I found her in Crystalsong Forest!

Sorry for the extremely crappy screenshot, but I snapped it as fast as possible before engaging in a pet battle. Luckily I was there because seconds after I was in the battle, someone flew over me. Hopefully they don't have to wait long to get their Val'kyr if that's what they were looking for.

Here was my exact location on the map: (coords - 68,49)

Of course she was poor quality, but I used a battle-stone to upgrade her. She is now fully leveled up too! I'm glad to have her join my pet battle arsenal! So maybe you can't go looking for the Val'kyr... maybe she comes looking for you? Who knows! I hope 5.3 is being good to all of you. Happy hunting!!!

I choose you, champion!

Blog Azeroth: RP Intros

Here is another Blog Azeroth shared topic that I wasn't going to do, but after setting up MRP on my Moonguard mage, I decided that I should give it a try. Instead of an RP intro, I'm going to go with the story of Velgana up until she was changed into an Undead. I'm not going to go with digging up lore for a factual timeline; I'm just doing something fun to read. Enjoy!

"Be wary, child, of Plaguelands plain...

Be mindful, child, of the infected grain...

For if throat is parched and of infected water sip...

Forever your soul will be in cursed Scourge grip.

So heed this warning, child, and if far from mother stray...

Let light from home's hearth guide you back your way."

Velgana lived a simple life as a farm hand in the land of Lordaeron. She spent most of her days taking care of sheep, chicken, and horses. If she wasn't working, you could often find her in the woods around her home, feeding the deer.

Every few weeks, a caravan would come into town bringing goods, grains, exotic meats, fruits, and vegetables that weren't native to the region. Everyone looked forward to this, because if the caravan wouldn't drop by, the townspeople would have to make the journey to the town of Stratholme to purchase goods. Like always, the cart stopped by Velgana's home.

Bartleby complained, "This grain shipment has been nothing but trouble!" Vel smiled as she walked over to inspect the grain. It had a strange hue with a slight odd smell, but nothing to make her worry. She paid the man and left the crates for use later on in the week. However, it seemed that overnight, whatever was in the crates began to fester and boil, giving life to the plague that they carried within.

 

The next morning the small town was in uproar. There was talk that Arthas would be coming to Stratholme soon to hold a conference with Lady Jaina Proudmoor on the severity of the plague, and how it was being spread. It was too late, the people had already ate the food, drank the water, breathe the air... there was nothing they could do but wait. It only took a few days for most people, including Velgana, to feel the effects. Most of the townspeople left for Stratholme to beg and plead for the Prince to do something. The Inn in the town was kind enough to let most of the remaining townspeople stay there for comfort. Velgana, like most began running a high fever followed by vomiting. Everyone was so sick and so scared, all they could do was hope and pray for a cure.

 

One early morning screams were heard coming from outside the Inn. Someone had came from Stratholme to bring news... news that no one wanted to hear. Arthas decided that the area was to be quarantined and the sick to be killed - Stratholme was going to be burned to the ground. The people were in uproar. Some grabbed what they could and ran for their life... as far away as they could get from the Prince's destruction. Velgana did the same, but you cannot run from death.

Bits and pieces of places she saw flashed through her mind.

Velgana awoke, looked around, and for the first time in her life, she felt nothing. She was in a cold, dark, crypt. The air smelled foul and stale. Something didn't feel right. It seems she already knew, but didn't want to accept it. 

She climbed out the crypt; each step brought her closer to the sunlight. When she emerged, she was filled with immense sadness. The world did not look like she remembered it. Glancing upon the graves of those who were previously buried and dug up, she could do nothing but sob. Everything and everyone she ever knew were probably lost.

However, she wasn't alone. Everyone around her looked the same. Dried, cracking, rotted corpses, all looking for the same explanation. She didn't feel like a monster, but she was bitter. She saw the world through different eyes, and never wanted to go back to being a farmer. From that point on, Velgana decided her life would now be an unending journey.

"Go to Undercity! Pledge your allegiance to the Banshee Queen! Together the Forsaken can take back what is rightfully ours! Power to the Forsaken!", the town crier screamed. Velgana wasted little time going there. Read about her pledging her oath to The Banshee Queen, here!

Blog Azeroth: The One!

Here we go, another Blog Azeroth topic. This was was a hard one:

"What is your absolute favorite profession in WoW? Why do you love it above all others and what is one feature you would add to the profession if you could?"

I'll be completely honest, I hate leveling up professions. I only do it just because I like seeing everything nice and maxed out on my main. All my alts have everything half-assed or not even learned. When I first started playing, I didn't put any thought into my professions. I picked Enchanting and Tailoring because I thought both would benefit me greatly as a spell caster/cloth wearer. I was right about one, but the other, not so much. While I had both maxed out at level 70, after that I could never keep up with enchanting. I ended up dropping it in Wrath to switch to Herbalism. I have an Alchemist alt that I can send all my herbs to if I don't want to sell that day.

While I really enjoy Tailoring (I really like collecting patterns), my all time favorite profession is Archaeology! Ever since I started playing I have been obsessed with AQ and the opening of the AQ gates. Sadly I wasn't around for that era, so all of my hopes and dreams of ever being a "Scarab Lord" were gone along with the beautiful mount. The battle tanks that you can mount in the AQ raid was just a tease too. So when I saw you could get a mount that looked just like them from Archaeology, I was jumping for joy. Surprisingly I got that mount pretty fast. It's still one of my favorites to this day. Now the Tol'vir hand took me quite a bit longer... but we won't talk about that because it makes me upset!

If I could add one feature to it, I think I might add more cosmetic items. I'm not talking about more of the junk that just sits in your inventory, and you only pull it out to impress your friends while you're sitting in the city. Maybe we could get some transmog gear from it. I would love to see them add some kind of "scourged" artifacts. Maybe they could allow us to get some "replica" models of some of the beautiful robes that were taken out of Naxx 60 and never reintroduced (I'm aware the 2nd had a look alike, but it doesn't drop anymore). I'm sure there is also some beautiful plate, leather, and mail that others would like too. I won't hold my breath on it, but it would be something I would like to see. :)

See how nicely it fits in!

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And now for something completely unrelated to the BA topic - My gosh, patch 5.3 notes! Everything I'm seeing from it is blowing me away. Seriously, I'm loving the entire Isle of Thunder and everything, but I have never wanted to destroy Garrosh more in my entire life... EVER. So who do you think will be the next Warchief for the Horde? At first I was thinking Vol'jin, but once I saw how Lor'themar took control of the situation on the Isle of Thunder, I changed my mind. Now I'm not so sure once again. I guess we'll just have to see. So excited!

Oondasta down! Good job Skywall Horde!

When I saw that a group was forming, I went to the Isle just to see the massive wipe fest. No offense, but the previous night I went grind out a few bones, and was shocked to see a massive amount on Alliance bones everywhere. He was up, but I'm sure they killed him earlier that day and those bones were from a smaller of a group that maybe tried again...? I figured if the Alliance on our server struggled with him, the Horde would too.

I got the the island and watched them pull about twice before I decided to join in. It's pretty intimidating to see such a big dinosaur come down the mountain and immediately start one-shotting people.

Anyway, I ended up getting invited into a third group  I definitely know we had 2 full raids, and our third group had about 25 in it. We pulled about four times and wiped over, and over, and over... mainly due to our error. On our last attempt, things went smoothly until about 30% or so (maybe even less). We actually did it though. So proud of the Horde... I believe mostly everyone online was there, lol. Congrats to everyone who got epic loots and wonderful things. I just received gold, but took a fun screenshot.

Bones and bones and bones!