swept along in the storytelling current

This week, I forsook trying to work on preparations for next semester during my kids’ midday naptime in favor of catching up with Azeroth.

I decided to see Talanji crowned first. That was a very well-done piece of story, though I do wonder how the word got out of Rastakhan’s bargain with Bwonsamdi. My inner thirteen year-old is totally shipping Talanji and Rokhan. My grown-up self scoffs at the idea of Talanji needing or wanting a consort or an heir anytime soon, and is pleased with how many women are in meaningful positions of power in Zandalar (and in Kul Tiras, from what I’ve seen of the Alliance story so far). It seems to me like Blizzard is trying to make up for the debacle following the initial announcement of Warlords of Draenor.

Intrigued by seeing the spirit of Vol’jin at the Golden Throne following Talanji’s ascension, I decided to do the Shadow Hunter questline next. I thought the revisiting of the events at the very beginning of Legion was nicely done. The visits with the Lich King and Eyir, and Bwonsamdi’s description of them as his rivals for the claiming of souls, and the hints that there are other rivals that we may not have yet met were great because they made the world of Azeroth feel more connected and coherent. Between those interactions and the unresolved ending of the storyline — we still don’t know what entity whispered to Vol’jin to make Sylvanas the next Warchief, or what entity sent his spirit back, or if those are the same entity or two different entities — I now understand better the speculations about 9.0 being the “death” expansion!

Then it was time to go help Baine save Derek Proudmoore from being brainwashed. I must admit, with my dislike of the Forsaken, it was very satisfying to beat up all those Forsaken mooks on Sylvanas’s big scary flagship! The cinematic was amazing, and I look foward to seeing it again from the Alliance side when I do that War Campaign with Kaylynda. But did we actually save Derek in time? I appreciated Boss Mida getting a cameo at Warsong Hold. I didn’t notice if I could talk to all the gathered leaders before the cutscene. I’ll have to try to remember to look for that when I do the War Campaign with Kaelinda/Kerisa. When I talked to them after the cutscene, only Gallywix and Geya’rah approved of Sylvanas’s actions.

Next, off to Nazjatar. Perhaps the most awesome aspect of Azshara’s power in using the Tidestone of Golganneth to open up Nazjatar is how it also instantly adapted all of those creatures to being air-breathing instead of water-breathing and to the sudden decompression of no longer being under the immense pressure of all that water… Chuckling at the Horde shipwreck being “The Hungry Riverbeast” — the name of the first ship constructed at the Warlords Garrison Shipyard. I’m glad to be working with Lor’themar again. I remember him being awesome in the Domination Offensive and Isle of Thunder storylines in Pandaria. Occuleth continues to be my favorite of the Nightfallen leadership trio. I like Neri Sharpfin, but I’d rather have Vulpera than Gilbins as an Allied Race to correspond to Goblins.

As soon as we get a portal back to Zandalar stabilized, look who should show up but Magni with some news about MOTHER and the Heart Chamber! How convenient! The Heart Chamber is looking much better now. Very crowded, though… I thought someone said they glimpsed Wrathion during this trip to Neltharion’s Lair? I must not have been looking around enough; I didn’t see the crafty young dragon. Anyhow, with the Heart of Azeroth upgraded, now we can return to Nazjatar.

I’m liking Nazjatar well enough so far, though I’m probably only going to keep pushing hard through it until I unlock the 8.2 War Campaign, which of course is followed up, for me, by the Tauren Heritage Armor questchain. After that, I’ll have to put WoW on the back burner again at least until I’ve finished getting OChem ready to go for Fall. At this point, I’m thinking that I’ll do the new zones & reputations in series, instead of trying to do them in parallel — stay in Nazjatar until I’ve reached Revered with The Unshackled before I go to Mechagon at all.

It feels good to be playing in the freshest current content again instead of lagging behind!

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

Tides of Vengeance

With Patch 8.2 landing this week, it was time to stop making excuses, stop procrastinating, get my lazy tail off the ground and push through the 8.1 War Campaign. I did it during my kids’ naptime and after their bedtime on Monday. I wasn’t particularly enthused about the first two stages — the assault on Norwington Estate and the caper with Gallywix’s mech — though I appreciated the conversation between Rexxar and Zelling at the end of the Norwington assault. The breaking out of Lady Ashvane from Tol Dagor was more entertaining, mostly because of Arcanist Valtrois. Although I didn’t like Valtrois much at first, I like her more every time she gets involved in the story. She’s an interesting combination of conceit, snobbery, and practicality. The final stage, the battle in Nazmir — was amazing.



Then, of course, I got the quest to defeat Jaina Proudmoore, so I switched into Resto, queued up for the last wing of the Battle of Dazar’Alor, and off I went.

I got the chestpiece from the raid set, which was nice because that’s just about the only piece from that set that I like — by which I mean that I think I could play mix-and-match with it.


After I’d attended Rastakhan’s funeral, it was getting rather late, so doing the 8.1.5 part of the War Campaign, the recruitment of the Zandalari Trolls, and the continuation of the Vol’jin storyline would have to wait for later.

I’ll have to do the 8.1.5 War Campaign before I can go to Nazjatar, unlock the 8.2 War Campaign, and unlock the Tauren Heritage Armor questline, of course. I’ll probably also do the Zandalari Troll recruitment scenario before I go to Nazjatar — I’ve heard that it involves Talanji’s coronation, and I want to be in my current Mog for those screenshots. I’ll probably not do the Vol’jin questline until after I’ve gotten my Tauren Heritage Armor, though.

Read Full Post »

Vol’jin, Saurfang, and Flynn Fairwind

This grueling academic year has come to an end at last; this week was Finals Week. My grading being well in hand, I allowed myself to leave my work laptop in my office and play in Azeroth in the evenings this week.

First I went to Dazar’alor; then, a few quests later, to the last wing of Uldir. Having queued up as Elemental, I volunteered to run orbs on the G’huun fight. I probably didn’t do a very good job of it, but eventually the misbegotten abomination went down and I could complete Vol’jin’s errand. The quest chain wasn’t as long or elaborate as I’d been expecting, but the cinematic at the end was a nice reward. I still have Vol’jin’s urn in my inventory, and I’m wondering when the next part of the Vol’jin story will pop up — will I have to finish the 8.1 (and maybe 8.1.5?) parts of the War Campaign first?

Then I went to Elwynn to track Saurfang. It was fun to run all over those low-level Alliance zones. When the decision point came, I sided with Saurfang, of course. Even my Forsaken, if she were of an appropriate level, would side with Saurfang.

Next, I did some leveling in Kul Tiras with Kaylynda. Am I just rubbish at playing Frost Mage, or is Freehold awful for everyone? Such mob density — so difficult to pull just one — at my current level, I can barely handle two, and if I get three, I’m toast. I must have died over half a dozen times in there — including on every wave of the final arena event. I was glad of that hallway leading from the arena to the spirit healer, which I could use to pull the mobs one at a time — after I’d died and rezzed… I hope that Freehold will be easier with Night Elf Druid who can stealth — and Dwarf Paladin in tank spec will probably be okay — but I’m not at all looking forward to going through there with Dwarf Shaman. However, I am quite amused by the new drunk walk animation 😛 There should be an emote that makes you drunk walk for five or ten meters or so…

I’ve noticed something about BfA questing while starting through the Zandalar zones for the second time with alts and while going through the Kul Tiras zones for the first time with Kaylynda — when you get sent to the next town, you can’t just go there, grab the flight point, pick up the quests, and then bunk down in the inn to do the quests next time. Instead, when you get to the next town, there’s always some kind of problem, and you have to do a handful of quests (or more) before you can even get access to the flight master and settle down for the night in the inn. It’s better to log off in the town you just finished and follow the breadcrumb to the next town as the first action of your next play session.

Read Full Post »

Zandalar completed!

This weekend, I finally managed to get Kamalia through the last side quests in Vol’dun. Despite the seemingly endless chaining of the side quests, Vol’dun ended up being my favorite Zandalar zone. I liked how the windsculpted white dunes and black rocks, with red at the base of the black rocks, are similar to Frostfire Ridge, only with sand instead of snow. I liked how it has the half-buried Troll ruins of Tanaris, only with the upgraded graphics of Uldum. I liked the cacti and other vegetation in different parts of the zone. I liked the variety of microclimates within the zone, from the salt basins to the Whistlebloom Oasis (another similarity to Frostfire Ridge) to the red and black rock formations around the landside edges to the more lush Tortaka Refuge and Temple of Kimbul area in the north to the marshes and other coastal biomes around the beach edges. I liked the Vulpera a lot (and would love to roll one if they ever become an Allied Race), and the (friendly) Sethrak more than I expected to.

I also did the Zandalar Forever scenario… and then I felt like there should have been some kind of follow-up about what that purple blast was all about. I vaguely remembered from Nazmir zone questing that the meaning of “The Final Seal” has something to do with G’huun and Uldir. It seemed like there should have been someone (Talanji, perhaps?) being very alarmed about the loss of the Final Seal and sending me to assemble 24 of my best friends to go get the situation at Uldir under control. Maybe that only pops up after finishing the 8.0 part of the War Campaign?

Finishing the War Campaign (both parts) is my next goal, followed by doing the Fate of Saurfang questline. At that point, Kamalia will probably take a rest from doing BfA content so that I can get my Mage, my Druid, and my Paladin started on Zandalar questing.

Then there’s the whole Alliance half of the story; I’d like to get at least my Human Mage and my Night Elf Druid out to Kul Tiras sometime soon-ish.

I discovered recently that because of Kamalia doing Zandalar questing, Kjerstin has the corresponding Kul Tiras quest reward appearances available in her Wardrobe. Thus, if my Horde Paladin does Zandalar questing, my Alliance Paladin will get the appearances of the Kul Tiras gear. If a Horde character wants to wear the Kul Tiras styles (or an Alliance character wants to wear the Zandalar styles), however, they’ll have to buy the greens with those appearances off the AH. Speaking of which, I have loved that, starting in Warlords, the random drop greens have just been the same appearances as the quest set gear rather than being different styles or a separate recolor of the quest set gear. This feature means that either one can ignore the random drop greens and vendor/AH/DE them, or one can use random drop greens to fill in items that one might not have from a set due to not having completed all of the quests that give that set (as might easily happen with an alt who is picking and choosing quests rather than doing everything).

Read Full Post »

Lovely Luck Is On My Side

Last year, I was feeling miffed that I’d have to re-collect all the holiday clothes to be able to Mog with them. I’m not particularly fond of the Lovely Dresses anyway, so I didn’t bother to try to get them. This year, however, doing the Crown Sampler daily is a good source of XP for my wee Void Elf Mage, so I set her (and a handful of other alts) to collecting Lovely Dress Boxes at the rate of one every four days. With multiple alts obtaining the boxes, I picked up the three brightly colored versions of the dress relatively quickly. And then I got a nice surprise —

So here’s a kit to go with it:

Little Black Dress

Forever-Lovely Rose, Lovely Black Dress, Stonecloth Britches, Silver-Thread Gloves, Sorcerer Slippers, Clear Crystal Rod*/Diamond Tipped Cane

And here’s a variation for a higher level character:

Forever-Lovely Rose, Lovely Black Dress, Cournith Waterstrider’s Silken Finery, Black Mageweave Gloves + Runespeaker’s Cuffs, Kurkenstoks

Now if only I could wear this to the Auction House Dance Party…

Read Full Post »

crossing things off the list

This has been a good week.

* Kamalia dinged 120 in Vol’dun. Having gotten distracted by what turned out to be not just a node but a full-blown hub of sidequests, she still has to do the last two major storyline chapters of the zone. I plan to try to complete Vol’dun before tackling the rest of the War Campaign and all the other stuff there is to do now that she’s reached the level cap…

* The three classes whose complete Order Hall sets I most wanted — Paladin, Druid, and Monk — have all managed to reach Exalted with Suramar. Those three characters are also Exalted with Highmountain, so they’re now ready to roll out to Dazar’alor.

* My Demon Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock are also done with Legion stuff. I don’t intend to level in Zandalar with them anytime soon, though, so I’m not sure whether I want to send them to Dazar’alor anyway, leave them in New Dalaran, or take them “home” to Silvermoon.

* My Monk had reached ~175 World Quests completed since obtaining the Hidden appearance for her Brewmaster Artifact, so I took an evening to clear the map of World Quests and get the 200 World Quests tint for the Hidden appearance.

* My Demon Hunter got the last Mission Table mission that she needed to reach Exalted with the Army of the Light. Now I can go do the Lightforged Draenei recruitment scenario and find out what all the fuss about T’Paartos was about back when Patch 7.3.5 was new (Having spent my tweens and teens reading Star Trek novels, however, I can’t help but think that T’Paartos sounds like a name for a Vulcan woman, rather than a name for a Draenei man…).

Read Full Post »

What’s NOT in the Bucket anymore?

The point of making a To-Do List is to feel a sense of progression, achievement, and accomplishment by crossing things off of it when they are completed, yes?

It’s the end of the year, so now it’s time to revisit the “Bucket List” that I posted at the beginning of the year, with all the stuff that I actually managed to accomplish crossed off.

* Complete the Good Suramaritan (27 January) and Suramar Insurrection (15 March) storylines with Kaelinda

* Level Hunter (April 20), Druid (May 4), Paladin (May 12), Warrior (May 28), Priest (June 3), Death Knight (June 11), Monk (June 14), Warlock (July 1), and Rogue (July 2) to 110

* Complete 7.0 Order Hall Campaigns for Druid, Warlock, Rogue, Hunter, Monk, Warrior, Priest, Paladin, Death Knight (last Order Hall Campaign completed on 28 July)

* Do enough of Broken Shore with each character to obtain their Legionfall Champion

* Do Argus campaign with Kiralaira

* LFR Emerald Nightmare with Kerisa

* Do the Blacksmithing questchain with Keija at least until she can craft the Demonsteel set

* Level Kaylynda to 110 (May 28)

* Recruit Nightborne, do Void Elves, and Highmountain Tauren

* Kerisa needs to be Exalted with Dreamweavers. Keija needs to be Exalted with Valarjar. Karaelia wants to be Exalted with Valarjar because Valarjar tabard is pretty and has colors suitable for “I wanna be SHINY!” Mogs. Kaohana needs to be be Exalted with Valarjar to be able to obtain the Hidden appearance for the Holy Artifact. All Tauren will want to be Exalted with Highmountain (still working on this…).

* Continue Paragoning Highmountain with Kamalia and Suramar with Kaelinda until moose and flying carpet mounts have been obtained (I abandoned Paragoning for Highmountain because the moose mount for recruiting the Highmountain Tauren Allied Race is cooler looking anyway, but I am still stubbornly plugging away at Suramar with Kaelinda)

These objectives were not achieved, and I may or may not get around to doing them because I’m getting itchy to just move on to Battle for Azeroth content already

* Do enough of Broken Shore with Kaylynda to see the Anduin-retrieves-Shalamayne cinematic

* Do the Xe’ra’s Revisionist History Of Illidan questline with Kiralaira

* Do the Deaths of Chromie scenario with Karaelia to earn the bronze version of the plate dragon head shoulders

I didn’t accomplish everything on my list, but I’m pretty happy with what I did accomplish!

Read Full Post »