I had hopes that my research had prepared me for Dire Maul - East, aka Warpwood Quarter. The group wasn't much for talking as we gathered all those initial quests. The second quest giver was far enough over that someone drew a mob and before I was really ready, we were off and running. I think that must have been how we missed the imp.
Just as we rounded the next corner, the healer stated he needed to go AFK for a few minutes, but I didn't notice and I don't know that anybody else did, until the next mob pack hit us and I died faster than I could hit 'lay on hands'. The healer was far enough behind that he survived the wipe. Since I had missed the message, I didn't want to complain too much. I hadn't finished recovering my mana before we were back to fighting mobs. This and the time since my last dungeon are my excuses for forgetting about Righteous Defense for the next couple mob groups. That was even more embarassing than the death.I was still trying to find the Imp, Pusillin, but it was clear nobody else had bothered to research the dungeon. They were all set to go on and already complaining about how long the dungeon was taking! We got to the dead end of the Hidden Reach without finding the Imp, as I tried to explain how we should have been following him. Nobody remembers talking to him. I led the group back to Hydrospawn and the other middle bosses, who all seemed to fall quickly enough to me, but not quickly enough for some puggers that dropped group.
Nobody else knew that we needed to chat with Old Ironbark to get him to break down the door. We backtracked to the courtyard, somehow missing the stairs that led there. We dropped down into the courtyard and I found the old Ancient and got him pointed in the right direction. It didn't take long after that before Alzzin fell. I had gotten Waveslicer from Hydrospawn, which will help with my PvE questing, but nothing dropped for a tank.
I was trying to run back to the quest givers, but the route wasn't obvious. Luckily the last party member hadn't dropped group before reminding me that I could just "Leave Dungeon" and return back at the beginning! Doh!
Hopefully, I'm learning from all these little mistakes. And finally, I didn't get an achievement for this run, merely one step in the King of Dire Maul achievement.
Eastern Plaguelands Questing
With the dust cleared off and the reminder of the importance of a tank to research a dungeon before I queued for something else, I decided to do a bit of questing. I ran through the first half of the Eastern Plaguelands storyline, getting to Light's Hope Chapel and level 46! It's much, much faster to level by questing now. I need to dungeon to ensure my tanking skills stay current, but my interest in running to 85 is by most any means right now.Partial Achievements:
Professions
Besides the levelling, Kallixta also did a bunch of crafting. Aldonza managed to pick up a bunch of very cheap mithril ore and with the level change, I knew I could improve some of my crafted armor. After smelting the mithril, and with Aldonza help, I also grabbed some cheap Thorium and Truesilver. This resulted in my Mining improving up to 288 / 300. As a reminder, Kallixta is currently on a vanilla WoW account and can't train Master Mining until I buy Burning Crusade.
With all this mithril and thorium, I also improved my Blacksmithing. I knocked off a bunch of inexpensive mithril plate items that I don't expect to get full return on the investment. Aldonza did pay 200 gold for the Mithril Shield Spike plans and I pumped out a few of those, albeit not for skill leveling. I wanted at least one spike for myself foremost and I think I can probably pay back the investment in the recipe. With the Truesilver bars, I produced a bunch of enchater's rods. I expect a profit there as I post one or two at a time. Finally, I've started making some of the Thorium items. I equipped the belt and chest piece already and have another piece crafted, but banked until I ding again. This all led me to level Blacksmithing up to 265 / 300. I shouldn't need to tinker with this much more until after I upgrade the account.
Equipment
I've already mentioned the Thorium Belt and Armor plus the Wyrmslayer Spaulders before. I recently picked up Omarion's Gift on one of those Eastern Plagueland quests, filling in my second trinket. She qualifies as 'all plate' now, something I hadn't paid close attention to until now. The new Armory tells me she averages equipment level 41 and only 3 items are unenchanted: head, shoulders and 1-hand weapon.
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| Kallixta with her new equipment, not that you can see the armor and belt |
Next Steps
I want to complete these and the other two wings of Dire Maul, but I need to remind myself, they are mandatory. Kallixta isn't the completionist! Meanwhile, I'll research the other two wings of Dire Maul, plus Scholomance and Stratholme. I'm looking forward to playing with Kallixta after all this time!
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