Champion of Azeroth

I stand in the Chamber of the Guardian and look over the one Pillar of Creation I retrieved from Val'sharah. One of the first questions I asked after hitting 110 was "Where are the other pillars?". I completed each zone, read each quest, but I guess I didn't pay enough attention to the fact that they were located in dungeons. Up until a few days ago, they still remained there. It was no one's fault but my own. I hate queuing for randoms because you never know what kind of group you will get. I eventually got it done with my group of wonderful friends. I'm lucky to have a little guild that can run stuff with me, but if you don't, then dungeon/group finder is your other option.

This past week, the first wing of LFR for the Emerald Nightmare was released. While LFR may offer little in upgrades if you're doing world quests and such, it's a good opportunity for people who don't have a dedicated raid group or the time to raid to at least see the bosses. However, this will be the first time that certain quests aren't able to be completed using the LFR system.

Link to tweet

The quests In Nightmares and Essence of Power must be completed in normal+ modes of the raid. There has been much outcry that this isn't fair since many previous quests such as the ones that awarded legendaries back in MoP and WoD were able to be completed in all versions of the raid. To my knowledge, these two quests only award an artifact appearance when completed. I have no issue with Blizzard locking an artifact appearance behind higher raid difficulties since it wouldn't be the first time that's happened. However, I would have a problem with this if it were a key quest in advancing the Legion story line. I don't think that will ever happen, but if it does, I'll make noise!

So the only choice that someone who only runs LFR has is to look for pre-made groups, hope they finally get accepted, and that the group actually makes it to the bosses to complete the quests. I can see people forming groups for this raid in the future of the expansion just for this purpose. Hopefully by that time, the content is so obsolete that you're not being declined over and over. That being said, I do think that Blizzard should have communicated better about this restriction. People will always want the new and shiny things that are released, and this is no different especially when things have never worked that way before. Hopefully in the future these things are made clearer.

I also don't think we should be looking down on those who only run LFR or call the people who raid "no lifers". Two wrongs don't make a right, and you don't know the person behind the computer's circumstances. You basically adapt your game play to your lifestyle and sometimes that means you need to sit back and realize that not everything will be obtainable to you. I will probably never get that appearance unlocked anytime soon along with many other items that just don't fit my play style and never will. I won't let that get me down, since there are plenty of other things I can do. I am not the champion of Azeroth that the game wants me to be, and I'm completely alright with that.

Fish Fry!

One of my favorite pastimes - fishing. Not really! I absolutely hate fishing IRL. I remember my father taking me when I was younger, and I thought it was the most boring thing ever. I'd usually release all the bait fish in hopes that we'd get to go home sooner. I did enjoy the smell of the sea water and sometimes seeing the porpoise swimming around. It's good memories though. However, fishing in Warcraft, I could do that all day. Put a cold drink by my side, blast some of my favorite music, and I'm all set.

My good friend, Nat Pagle.

So when I found out that there would be a fishing artifact, I was really happy. I previously won the Northrend fishing competition once and the Booty Bay competition twice in my years of playing WoW, so this was going to be another one of those achievements for myself. With El's Extreme Anglin' gone, I had to search elsewhere for information. While I don't mind using WoWhead for guides, I do prefer sites that are mainly dedicated to a certain thing (such as WarcraftPets for mini pets and Petopia for hunters). I did manage to find a pretty well put together guide that I used. Here is the link for those that are curious.

I went into the expansion knowing about the artifact, so as I leveled through each zone, I'd fish in many of the pools that I'd come across. I know the guide says to use arcane lures from Conjurer Margoss, but the reality for me is that I haven't even visited him yet - oops! That's right, I did this all without. I don't necessarily think it took longer for me, and maybe having those lures would have helped. With my old fishing line, hat, and boots, I was fishing at around 855. Sometimes I'd also use Worm Supreme, so I'm not sure using an arcane lure would have made a difference or not. It's too late to sit here and wonder about it now.

I can't give many tips except to definitely pay attention to the fishing dailies in each zone. I was able to complete one in Highmountain that awarded me with an item for a rare bait. Another thing I learned from browsing many threads was that despite being able to catch the items for the axefish lure and ravenous fly in the ocean, you need to be in the Great Sea to effectively use them. So once you catch them, swim out and use your bait. I liked the open sea off of Sauramar. Lots of little rock islands to sit on and quietly fish from.

So what's next in my fishing plans? Well I will slowly work on leveling up my artifact when the time strikes me. I also plan on finally getting myself acquainted with Conjurer Margoss. There is a mount and mini pet I need from him. I'm also going to take some time and work on The Wish Remover since I have the original achievement. However, my biggest wish would be to see a new fishing competition or possible a revamp of the old one. I won't be holding my breath with this, but as with all things, you never know what the future will bring.

Legion: First Thoughts

So Legion has been out a week, and I've had enough time to experience each zone, really think about them, and form my own thoughts about it all. Though it's still too early in the expansion to say "Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever!", I will say that I'm having much more fun than I had at level in WoD. I have so much to do now that I'm max level that it's overwhelming, but also a breath of fresh air. I'm going to try not to post any zone spoilers, but if you didn't fully quest in an area, you may wan to skip out on reading the section below.

Stormheim: This was the first zone I decided to go to for only one reason - the Gilneas/Forsaken conflict. I was not disappointed, and I'm glad Sylvanas finally got the smirk knocked off of her face because she was doing some shady stuff there. I loved every quest, and the entire story of the zone. The landscape is beautiful and reminded me of the first time I ever stepped foot into Northrend (Howling Fjord). Since completing the zone and going back to explore, I've been finding hidden quests here and there, including one along the coast from a fine murloc gentleman.

Azuna: This was my next choice to quest in because I think that this is one of the prettiest areas in the Broken Isles even though most of it is crumbling into the water. I didn't really care for the intro quest where I was flown to the demon hunter camp, but I'm glad the zone got much better. The blue dragonflight quests and following the story of Prince Farondis made me fall in love all over again. As with Stormheim, the side quests were all really fun and even sometimes funny. I plan on spending a lot of time in this zone, especially after hearing that the mysterious Long Forgotten Hippogryph is around here. I love a good mystery!

Highmountain: This was one of my favorite comics, so I had "high" hopes, heh. I was disappointed. I didn't enjoy the repeat quests for each tribe to kill harpys, and I thought not only the main city, but the entire zone, was a bit of a pain to navigate. The only thing that I enjoyed were the side quests, and thankfully there are many good ones. I won't spoil anything, but there is also a snail race, and I think that is pretty cool. Aside from that, this is a zone that I am dreading bringing my alts through and will probably always save it for last.

Val'sharah: I saved what I thought was going to be the best for last, but it wasn't my favorite zone, and definitely not the worst. I enjoyed it. The zone was beautiful and the quests involving Xavius and the corruption was sweeping through the land was really interesting to experience. However, this area was definitely soured a bit by the ridiculous love story that is Tyrande and Malfurion. I get it, you love him. I don't need you to tell me every 5 minutes. *eyeroll* The final scene with Ysera was beautiful and brought a tear to my eye once again. Only Blizzard can invoke such emotions in me about a video game.

So after I completed the main quests for each zone and most of the side quests, I found myself about 2 bars into 109. What? This is the first time I was genuinely confused that I might have missed something, so I began sweeping back over each area. Sadly I guess because I didn't complete most zone objectives, this put me at a disadvantage. So going back and searching, picking up a lost quest here and there, I hit 110 on a tailoring quest. Pretty sad so I didn't even bother taking a screenshot. This was the first time I ever ran into this problem, and not one I was really happy about.

So now I've been venturing into Suramar a little more each day. I can't really comment on it other than it's beautiful and I really love First Arcanist Thalyssra. I make sure to check on my budding settlement daily and keep my elves well fed. No one will be mana hungry while I'm around! World quests are also great, and I've gotten a few upgrades. My final thing I need to get done are my dungeon quests for the other Pillars of Creation. As someone who goes into full panic mode to run stuff with random players, I will be trying to schedule a run with my wonderful friends so I don't have to worry. Anyway, I hope you are all having fun in Legion so far. Feel free to leave a comment below telling me what you liked or didn't like about your leveling experience!