Thas’dorah; Titanstrike; Aldrachi Warblades

Since the last Battle Pet Bonus Week, my Hunter has been methodically leveling all the remaining level 1 pets in my favorites list. It feels kind of creepy to be camping out on Ashlei’s hill, because of how she’s just a kid and all, but her two-pet team makes her the easiest to reliably beat — and I’m too lazy to travel around and battle more than one trainer per day. Anyhow, pet-battling having gotten Ketura to level 102, it was time to go get the Artifacts for her other specs.

Knowing that the Marksmanship weapon is Alleria Windrunner’s bow, I hoped that I wouldn’t be taking it from her dead body after having failed to rescue her. Fortunately, that was not what happened. But if she is still alive, why would she have left the bow behind?

It didn’t seem quite right to claim Thas’dorah as a Tauren; that bow rightfully belongs to the children of the Sunwell. So I used the Orb of the Sin’dorei before I picked it up.

I guess my camera angle was bad right at the moment when I clicked on Thas’dorah, because this is the best screenshot I got of the triumphal moment. I didn’t feel persnickety enough about getting a really good screenshot to abandon the quest and do everything over again, though. I had really struggled to get through the scenario. I’d died several times. Partly that was because I didn’t have a very good ranged weapon equipped — it was the reward from the Broken Shore scenario, and I’d forgotten that I’d bought a better one from the Trueshot Lodge quartermaster after I picked up my first Artifact. I also hadn’t played as Marksmanship enough to have figured out the synergy of the abilities very well yet. Furthermore, I’d gotten DC’d halfway through and had to start over from the beginning once already.

I hope that my future actions do not cause Vereesa to decide that her trust in me, and her decision to allow her sister’s bow to be taken by a member of the Horde, were foolish.

~*~*~

I equipped my better ranged weapon from the Trueshot Lodge quartermaster and had a much easier time with the Beast Mastery questline. It took me to the same place as the Protection Paladin questline — just a different tomb in the same complex. I think I can guess which tomb in that complex the Warrior questline will visit…

I enjoyed the subsequent visit to Mimiron’s workshop in Ulduar — and getting to ride in Mimiron’s Head.

The master of beasts part seems a bit tacked-on, though — it makes sense in the same sort of sideways way that the Fist of Ra-den being the weapon for Elemental Shaman rather than Mistweaver Monks does.

I’d farmed the Rifle of the Platinum Guard to Mog over Titanstrike, but I like its appearance better than I thought I did from just seeing the previews on Wowhead during the beta. So I guess I won’t be Mogging over it right away. For the time being, I’ll also just leave Hati as Hati, rather than getting the item that lets you change Hati’s appearance to match your regular pet.

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My Demon Hunter was very very close to 102. She had some skinning & leatherworking quests, so I went out to Azsuna and farmed bears and hippogryphs. I thought that perhaps turning in those quests would tick her over; as it happened, just the farming did the trick.

Even though I don’t plan to try to tank for groups, or even to play solo as Vengeance very much, I’d decided to get the Artifact weapon for that spec to see the story and to honor the memory of a race that had so valiantly resisted the Legion.

After having gone to Niskara for the Marksmanship Hunter weapon, I wondered if perhaps the Vengeance Demon Hunter would go there, too — if maybe Niskara was a fragment of the Aldrachi world. But I was disappointed in this; the questline did not reveal anything more about who the Aldrachi were; the Vengeance Demon Hunter goes to the Broken Shore. Along the way to the final boss fight of the scenario, I saw some dead Argent Crusade types. Hmm, I guess that location must also be where the Retribution Paladin questline goes.

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Like Mardum, Dreadscar Rift, and Netherlight Temple — and the Remains of Xandros, where we battled Mongrethod at the end of the Talador storyline in Warlords — Niskara is a fragment of a world destroyed by the Burning Legion. These Legion zones are all so tiny — about the size of the Broken Shore. The more of these miniscule shreds of worlds I visit, the more chilling the power of the Legion becomes — and the more vital that Azeroth’s people save her.