Staying Regular

In my priorities, playing Warcraft has been low for a while. Just before the new expansion dropped, I discovered my life was calm enough that I could escape a few hours a week playing again. It's been over a week and I concluded I should post something about what I'm doing.

Everyone else understands why my first lengthy experience wasn't until late Friday night. I managed to get to Shadowmoon Valley, build my garrison and run a few missions. Oh, and earn Staying Regular. Perhaps it hints I'll be playing more?

I managed to play a considerable part of Saturday (and still managed to cook a pot of Chili for the family). The spouse teased me when the queue was in single digits "Hey can you run to the store and..."

The family laughed at my striken expression. Very funny.

Still I managed to finish at level 92 and most of Shadowmoon Valley, including making a little girl cry (Ashlei).

Tuesday I realized I just needed a bit of effort and finished the Shimmer Moor for Shoot for the Moon and Darktide Roost for Explore Shadowmoon Valley.

This weekend I managed a bunch of hours, running through Gorgrond and earning level 94. After I paused to review progress, I returned to work some Bonus Objectives and complete some story lines: On the Shadow's Trail, Putting the Gore in Gorgrond, upgrade my Lumber Mill and unlock the Fishing Shack. It allowed me to ding 95 and then some!

So I've paused again, now at level 95 and getting close to 96, with Talador mostly untouched yet plenty of Gorgrond Bonus Objectives to go. I love the XP boost of those little grinds, which push me closer to 100, but I feel I'll be missing some of the other zones if I ding too quickly.

I know I'll need Nagrand for equipment in future, but does visiting Spires late feel wrong to others?

And I haven't run a dungeon yet. I've Guildies willing, but the most willing are already 100. I think I can wait and run heroics with them without feeling like I missed something.

While plotting out my Garrison, I noticed the Transmog set for the Armory, the Stormwind Set. What struck me most was that I had already a similar set in my Void Zone. I checked and sure enough, brushed off my Imperial Plate. The new one is a slight improvement, but you can't tell when shrunk over a dwarven frame! It's kinda fun running around the Garrison, looking like I fit in!

Being a Dwarf, I'm shorter than those humans. I probably should look more like the dwarves with their mountaineer gear, but that's mail. Such a dilemma!

Ulduar Achievements

Back during Wrath, I played on a different account than I do now. Martuska did run some of Ulduar when it was current top-level content. It was the first time I did a raid like that.

Yesterday Kallixta ran with friends through Ulduar-25 Man. She managed 25 Achievements in total on the run. Next week we'll do it at 10 man.

Undeserved Rewards

The son that bought Warcraft and then went on to other things, received a Beta key to WoD.

Of course.

He might be playing Hearthstone, Starcraft and Heroes of the Storm, but he still can't play WoW for more than two consecutive days. He passed the key on to my younger boy, who has spent a few days playing level 90s in classes he didn't have before and is loving his new Shaman.

Saturday I needed consolation after my meatloaf failed. The ground turkey meatloaf needed another egg to hold it together. Meatloaf isn't supposed to crumble like that.

So I was feeling a bit bummed and rewarded myself with an hour of WoW.

Six hours later, it was well after midnight and I was kicked out of my son's room to go to bed. Ha. Turnabout, I say!

I spent a bunch of Sunday playing, too. My 90 on this account is Martuska, my old gnome mage. I haven't really adjusted to the class changes. I'm missing Living Bomb and haven't figured out what to do instead, so my DPS is down, but not unworkable. It's fine for questing, but too embarrassing for a dungeon yet.

I quickly got through the opening, established my initial garrison and worked a couple quest hubs that first night. I dinged level 91 all with bags mostly filled. So early Sunday was spent exploring the bank and its new "Reagents" tabs, which was sweet, and coping with bags that were reorganized on me automatically. I forgot to check out my toybox.

Sunday I worked though less than half the quests in Shadowmoon when I dinged 92 and realized I had the breadcrumb for Gorgrond. I've been reminded myself I'm a tester, not a completionist, so I headed north.

Now about the garrison. There are quests asking for a group of 3 and I haven't bothered yet. I got one follower quickly as part of the familiarity sequence, I presume. A second follower was a reward for a completed mission. I think that was a random reward. I earned another as a quest reward outside my garrison and yet another quest allowed me to select one follower from 3 choices.

Suddenly I noticed that missing safety net. How can I make a choice if I can't research my options on wowhead or something? There isn't a guide! I might make a ... suboptimal choice!

Another thing happened late Sunday, I received a rare mission. Until then I hadn't noticed that my missions had been uncommon. "Free Labor" wants three followers of level 91. Well, I can get that by sending one of my lvl90s on another mission first. I had also just noticed the whole "follower abilities" and "counters" thing. I could counter one of the specials of the rare mission, but none of my current followers could counter the other.

Now that I'm in Gorgrond, I'll need to see how I build an Outpost for my garrison there. Oh, and I discovered this thing called Bonus Objective I think I like the mechanic, although it does lead to players fighting over some mobs that don't respawn very quick.

I think I won't miss the pink boxes that say "Delete Me".

My little goblin pulled me back for another couple evenings. Of course, the competition was watching Johnny Depp in the Lone Ranger with my kids. I sorta did both and when we switched to Joss Wedon's Much Ado about Nothing, I went AFK

I managed to finish up my time on the tropical isle. I picked up the skinning profession and spent enough time clearing raptors to make inventory management an issue. It's nothing another bag or two and a bank mule can't fix! I marked it down as growing pains on settling in to a new server with a new alt.

 I spent a lot of time flying through the air on explosions. It belatedly occurred to me, THAT'S WHAT GOBLINS DO. If I don't like it, I may have made a mistake with my racial selection. Thinking about it more... I COULD REALLY LIKE THIS!

Aldonza reached Org and level 14. I finally figured out how to forward heirlooms across realms, discovering they weren't optimal, but will certainly help. They're Agility leather not the Intellect I was planning to use. I had selected Restoration, but maybe until I can dual-spec I'll switch to Enhancement.

And I'm also very much looking forward to my Ghost Wolf form, because the distances from Inn to Gate in the city are long and boring! I find the Orc Capital about the most boring of any city.

On a brighter note, I'm enjoying the Guild Chat and slowly getting to know these folks that let me in.

I have not gotten the hang of preparing a segue from Guild Chat to music that was selected because of my earlier Profession choice. I need to plan ahead better or something. Sigh.

Return of the Greed

This blog is not the place to go on about where I've been. Let's just say I found plenty of other stuff I was enjoying more than my time in Azeroth, mostly offline. With the change of seasons, I'm finding a chance to return to WoW and my friends here.

There's plenty of excitement over upcoming changes, but I'm not really ready to return to Kallixta or Aldonza or Martuska. I wanted something a little different. Maybe it's time to start a new character?

I have never run a goblin through it's unique starting zone. I have rarely run a horde character. So, this will just be an experiment and my feelings for the new alt might mean it's short, but I'll give it a chance.

I'm choosing Shaman as the only healer spec I've had much happiness with. I think it should be fun. If I decide to stick with her after reaching Kalimdor, I'll need to find my heirlooms and figure out how to mail them cross server.

I don't have a special Horde server yet. My enjoyment on Wyrmrest Accord dropped when my guild split in half. Who do I know on the Horde side? My hours are haphazard anyway, so I selected Saurfang almost on a whim. Those Frostwolves sure seem friendly.

While creating my character, it wasn't until writing this that I noticed I am once again having a very short character. I'm not spending any more time analyzing my brain over its need to select short, female characters when I am actually a tall, bearded male.

I couldn't name a goblin Kallixta because my mind associates the name with my goodie-goodie paladin. Aldonza was my bank alt that kept muttering that she wasn't greedy, not really, just very ... money conscious! Aldonza fit much, much better, as she's the dross behind Dulcinea, and was available.

I'm happy with the storyline and especially liked driving around with my hommies. In the short time I spent with her Sunday, I ran her up to 9th level and anticipate staying with her for a bit longer.

Travails of Autumn

It has been months and only recently has anything interesting occurred.

First a quick summary. Aldonza and Kallixta have spent enough time on the Timeless Isle to accumulate some nice purples. My characters have also been keeping up their profession daily cool downs, which often mean they have discovered some helpful recipes for even nicer gear. At least, I consider having everything over ilevel 450 nice.

Second, my guild shrank. The most active raiders moved, leaving mostly those with low activity. I lost a crutch!

Third, Hallow's End allowed me to easily test how well I could do in a low pressure queue. The practice made the final step much much easier.

Yesterday, I queued in the Throne of Thunder LFR!? OMG.OMG. OMG. Where's the notice about Average Wait Time? I was more than a little nervous. I'm afraid I bugged Matty, asking a few questions.I'd have asked more as the Average Wait Time would occasionally show up, saying 1 hour! then disappear and then surprising me with a pop!

I joined the raid after the first boss. We fought trash while more new members were brought in to fill those that had their fill after one boss? I knew what to do for Horridon and before long we had a dead dino.

Again there was a flush of folks leaving and arriving. It gave me time to remind myself about the next boss battle and in what seemed like no time at all, another boss battle was over!

1 Horridon kill
1 Council of Elders kill

That's 2/3rds of Last Stand of the Zandalari

And loot!

Necklace of the Terra-Cotta Mender

Well, that gets Kallixta up to ilevel 494.

The experience was far more pleasant than feared and soon I'll be joining LFR again.

Eep!