What might *I* do with Timerunning: Pandamonium?

The idea of Timerunning as a rapid alt leveling mechanism is certainly intriguing — but if I could port my existing under-level-70 alts into Timerunning at their current levels, instead of creating new alts specifically for that game mode, it would be even better!

One idea I’ve been entertaining for making new alts is using Timerunning to create and level male Blood Elf and Void Elf characters to be the SOs of Kaelinda and Kaelyla. They’d probably both be Mages because I’ve already illustrated them that way — though I have facetiously contemplated making Kaelinda’s SO into a Warlock because he works in Silvermoon’s finance bureau and finance is Teh Evel, amirite?

Something important to consider, though, is which of the Timerunning cosmetic rewards that have been previewed so far I am most interested in acquiring.
The Halfhill Famer’s Backpack is amusing enough for me to want to pick it up even if I only use it in a Sunday Mog Show outfit once. That’ll require completing the Valley of the Four Winds Timerunning meta Achievement.
The Class Armor sets and Class Arsenal sets that unlock by completing the Landfall (Patch 5.1) and Isle of Thunder (Patch 5.2) Timerunning meta achievements, respectively, are recolors of the Trading Post sets that were available during the last third of 2023. I acquired the Mage Armor & Arsenal, the Hunter Armor, the Druid Arsenal, and the Monk Arsenal from the Trading Post. The new color scheme for the Mage Armor is called “Sin’dorei Magister’s” so of course I gotta have it. I find myself about as interested in the other Class Armor sets as I was before. Of the Arsenals, I am most interested in the new color scheme for the Druid weapons. The new color scheme for the Mage weapons is also quite nice — but I haven’t managed to use any of the Battle Magister’s weapons from the Trading Post in a Sunday Mog Show outfit yet. The new color scheme for the Monk weapons is lovely, too, but not quite to the level of “oooh must have!”

If I did Timerunning with a Vulpera Monk and a Kul Tiran Druid, in addition to the Eversong Elf fellas, I could pick up the other Class Armor & Arsenal sets I’m most interested in, and when those toons get ported back into the regular game after Timerunning ends, I ought to be able to get the Heritage Armor for those races.

Timerunning will be competing, however, with the War Within lead-in storyline and its associated cosmetics collection activities. So if I only have time & attention this summer for one Timerunning toon, it’ll most likely be Kaelinda’s SO.

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Seeing Red

Over the weekend, I took Kaelyla out to Argus and did the Seeing Red questline. Lore-wise, it touched on some intriguing ideas, but was surprisingly short and rather too shallow.

Now my Draenei Mage can have properly red ringlets!

Eredar Sorcerer


Vileweave Amice, Forward Observer’s Camouflage Cloak, Vileweave Robes, Cord of Cacophonous Cawing (LFR), Fractured Soulgem Staff
Warlocks as a playable Class for Draenei and the Man’ari Eredar customizations seem like two changes for the Draenei race that were made to go together. I’ve seen at least one red Draenei Warlock bouncing around Valdrakken.

Here are some other staffs I liked with this outfit:

Ancient Soulpriest’s Staff

Inferna Rod, Edict of Argus (M)

Ebonchill (hidden, tint 3), Darktide Summoner Staff, Scar-Shell’s Scintillating Staff

To be completely honest, the Ancient Soulpriest’s Staff was what I really wanted out of doing “Seeing Red” 😛

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Balance of Power: Magna Unleashed

After I finally got all that lingering Shadowlands stuff cleared out of Kaelinda’s quest log, I suppose it started looking a bit too empty. So, for the past several weeks, I have been working very casually on the Balance of Power questline from Legion.

Although I completed the questing and reputation pre-requisites for Balance of Power during Legion itself and Kalec came to the Hall of the Guardian to offer me the first quest, I didn’t bother with it during Legion because Mythic Dungeons. Now, three expansions later, those aren’t a problem. Besides, I didn’t like the Balance of Power appearance for my main spec Artifact, Felo’melorn, at all, and I wasn’t terribly fond of the Balance of Power appearance for Ebonchill, either. I did kind of like the Balance of Power appearance for Aluneth, though. It seems kind of Titan-ish, and with Dragonflight lore having such a strong Titan component, now seemed like a good time to pick it up.

Moonfall Pilgrimage





Lost Crown of the Arcane, Hateful Gladiator’s Silk Amice, Hateful Gladiator’s Silk Raiment, Abandoned Zandalari Firecord (LFR), Treads of the Survivor, Aluneth (Balance of Power, first tint)
The final stage of the Balance of Power questline takes place at the Lunar Crucible in the Moon Guard stronghold.
Syrana Starweaver of the Moon Guard is wearing the Pauldrons of Revered Mortality and the Flowing Vestments of Ascent, from the Alliance version of Trial of the Crusader, modified with the sleeves from the Alliance version of the Vindictive Combatant’s Silk Tunic. Taking a cue from the shoulders worn by the Moonfall Defenders, which are from the Priest version of the Wrath PvP Hateful Gladiator’s set, I did my best to imitate her within the limitation of being Horde.

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Dragonflight story progress

During the past several weeks, I managed to finish Friend of the Dragon Isles at last! In the past few days, I’ve also finished the Embers of Neltharion questline. I am up to date on the Keeper Tyr questline, too. I fully expect there to be more of the Keeper Tyr questline, though, because my quest log is showing me at 9/10 chapters for Dragonflight Campaign but there’s no “in progress” chapter visible…
I’m still “behind” on the 10.0 stories, though, because I haven’t yet done the zone leveling stories with Kaelinda to collect that coloration of that gear set and activate the Oathstones for her. I intend to leave the Patch 10.1 Blue Dragonflight continuation storyline at the Veiled Ossuary until I’ve done the Azure Span leveling zone questline, however. And of course I can’t even see the “Cause Without A Rebel” 10.1 Valdrakken continuation questline until I’ve done the Thaldrazsus leveling zone questline.

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out of the long shadow of the Shadowlands at last

As the story of Dragonflight advanced — and I had fallen behind because I hadn’t yet completed all the stories unlocked by the four launch faction Renown tracks — I increasingly wanted to just be done with Shadowlands — to not have my unfinished business in that expansion still nagging at me.

So, I’ve spent the past several weeks pushing hard to get through the things I hadn’t done in the Shadowlands yet. I did the 9.0 Kyrian Campaign a second time with Kaelyla to get the silver and blue version of the vesper staff. I finished the 9.0 Necrolords Campaign with Kaelinda — looking back on Shadowlands, I really should have just done all four 9.0 Campaigns with her to begin with. With that done, I was at last ready to finish the Korthia Campaign. I liked the Covenant chapters of the Korthia Campaign. It seemed like each Covenant got a meaningful advancement to their story, particularly the Kyrian.

Of course, while I was doing each of the Covenant-storyline-advancing chapters of the Korthia Campagin as a member of the relevant Covenant, having finished that Covenant’s 9.0 Campaign, so I could get the Covenant-specific extra bits of story, I also needed the appropriate Eversong Elf Mage persona, and an appropriate outfit for each chapter:

Bwonsamdi’s Watcher





Crown of the Seducer (LFR), Mantle of the Skyterror (LFR), Osteowings of the Necrolords, Divine Fury Raiment (LFR), Master Builder’s Shirt, Prime Conjurer’s Gloves, Prime Conjurer’s Cinch, Prime Conjurer’s Slippers, Staff of Earned Tranquility
I never thought I’d use the shoulders and robe from the Battle of Dazar’alor set — which I picked up while trying for the Crown of the Seducer — but whaddayaknow, they work really well with the Renown coloration of the Necrolords pieces.
The Crown of Autumnal Flora would coordinate nicely with the staff, but Mistcaller hadn’t coughed it up yet.

Although Bwonsamdi appears in the Ardenweald storyline, his aesthetics are rather more Maldraxxus. The use of Necrolords pieces in this ensemble made it fitting attire for Kateleina while finishing up the 9.0 Necrolords Campaign and doing the 9.1 Necrolords chapter as a Necrolord.
I liked how this chapter tied up some loose ends related to Kel’Thuzad and gave Thrall and Draka a chance to get to know each other.

Red is for Revendreth



Crown of Eternal Memorial, Soulbreaker’s Ebony Mantle, Burnished Crypt Keeper’s Mantle, Lovely Red Dress, Redeemed Inquisitor’s Handwraps, Vibrant Wildercloth Slacks, Sinful Inquisitor’s Slippers, Crypt Watcher’s Spire
After Kateleina finished the 9.1 Necrolords chapter, Kaelinda could do the 9.1 Venthyr chapter as Venthyr.
I liked how this chapter finally completed the crown of the medallions (a very obvious loose thread from the 9.0 Venthyr Campaign), gave Vashj and Kael’thas a chance to compare afterlives, and opened up a story thread for a future expansion (where have the Dreadlords taken Denathrius and will we see him as a boss again?).

Twilight Courtier



Night Courtier’s Regalia with Fae Revel Masque, Night Courtier’s Pack, Vestments of the Twilight Grove, and Meadow Guardian’s Staff
After Kaelinda finished the 9.1 Venthyr chapter, white-haired Khrysanthemina took up the baton to do the 9.1 Night Fae chapter as Night Fae.
I definitely appreciated how this chapter brought in some excursions to and interactions with the other Covenants, something which was lacking in their 9.0 story. I also liked how it gave a small measure of closure for Tyrande and the Kaldorei (a story which was further followed up in the Zereth Mortis and 10.0 Campaigns) and revealed new information about the relationship between the Winter Queen and Elune. Are the Winter Queen and Elune each others’ only sisters because they are from the diametrically-opposed forces of Death and Life, or do they also have sisters from each of the other cosmic forces? Is Eonar their sister from Order, Xal’atath their sister from the Void, and do they have sisters from the Light and from Fel/Chaos that we have yet to meet?

Selfless Seeker





Vestments of the Selfless with Crown of the Righteous, Selfless Sigil of the Archon, and Selfless Watcher’s Spire
After Khrysanthemina finished the 9.1 Night Fae chapter, Kaelyra took the opportunity to do the 9.1 Kyrian chapter as Kyrian.
I liked how this chapter finally brought the Kyrian who had been stranded in Maldraxxus home, gave souls assigned to Bastion the choice to keep or cleanse their memories, and clarified the nature of the Soulbinding relationship. I was intrigued that Apolon has a platonic, sibling Soulbind relationship with Artemede — and a romantic relationship with Kynthia.

When Kaelinda left the Shadowlands to move on to the Dragon Isles, she was halfway through Revered with Death’s Advance, with enough Stygia banked to get the Death’s Advance colorations for two out of the five Covenant 9.1 sets. I pushed that reputation to Exalted. I was dreading grinding the Stygia to get the Death’s Advance colorations for the rest of the Covenant 9.1 sets — until I discovered that, duh, farming Stygia from Maw star mobs was a piece of cake at level 70, with ilevel 402 gear.

With the goal of getting at least one piece of the Sepulcher of the First Ones Mage Tier set, I’d done the first four chapters of the Zereth Mortis Campaign so as to unlock the Creation Catalyst. After I finished the Korthia Campaign, I decided that I really ought to get the Shadowlands fixed up with a new Arbiter and Sylvanas sentenced to the Maw to retrieve all the souls who had improperly been sent there, so I finished up the Zereth Mortis Campaign (and all of its follow-up quests), too. I’m glad that I took the time to experience those stories for myself. I did the Zereth Mortis weekly & dailies until I had enough Sandworn Relics to get the purple Choral chestpiece from Rafiq and then upgrade it to the LFR version of the Sepulcher of the First Ones Mage Tier chestpiece using the Creation Catalyst. Along the way, I also managed to finish up Unlocking the Secrets. So when I was almost done with Zereth Mortis anyway, I finally got flying for the zone. Ah, well, that’ll make getting around there for Mog photoshoots easier to do 😀

I’d had Kaelyla hearthed at Root-Home trying to convince Mistcaller to just give me the Crown of Autumnal Flora already; yesterday, I got it!

I always hearthed or teleported out of the dungeon immediately after defeating Mistcaller — I didn’t continue on to Tred’ova — so I don’t have a count of how many tries it took me. At least a couple of months of doing it just once a day on Heroic (sometimes twice, with both Kaelyla and Kaelinda), I think.

Today, I finished the Stygia grind and got the last Death’s Advance Covenant 9.1 set. I also got the Anima-Siphoning Sword (its lavender color will be so perfect for Arcane Mage outfits!) after about two weeks of camping The Engulfer.

And now, at last, I am DONE with Shadowlands.

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Dragonflight future patch wishlist: more colors for Dragonriding drakes

Now that I’ve gotten enough Renown with the first four Dragonflight factions to have all five colors unlocked for my Dragonriding drakes —





— I’m wishing that future patches would add ways to get a few more colors. Specifically, I’d like white (like the Albino Drake that was the reward for the very first Mount Collecting Achievement), purple, and pink.

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in which Kaelinda Denys the Drought

Yep, well, despite otherwise completely ignoring the Command Table, I went ahead and upgraded Kaelinda’s Venthyr Command Table to Tier 2 to get the second extra Anima token from World Quests:

As she’s my primary Anima collector — and is starting to really rake the stuff in when I spend an evening in Korthia — I felt like it would be worth the investment for her. I do still have a laundry list of Cosmetics to get from the Kyrian one of these days…
I might do it for Kaelyla at Heart of the Forest. I probably won’t do it for Kaurinka; I’m just not playing enough with her for it to be worth the setback toward finishing her Queen’s Conservatory. And I definitely won’t do it for Kamalia; she hasn’t even upgraded her Anima Conductor to Tier 2 yet.

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in which Kasheena rides the Winds of Wisdom to her Heritage Armor

Somehow, my Highmountain Tauren Druid, Kasheena, had managed to make it from her initial Allied Race level of 20 to a post-level-squish level of 42. She’d done the first few chapters of Highmountain, a little bit of the Druid Order Hall Campaign, Mulgore, a few years of Brewfest and WoW’s Anniversary dailies, and a smattering of other stuff.
Although I’d ignored the Winds of Wisdom buff last week because it was World Quest Bonus Week and I was busy with my level 60 characters, this week I suddenly realized that this was my chance to push Kasheena through to level 50 and finally, finally get her Heritage Armor. Finishing up the Highmountain main storyline, plus the Highmountain bonus objectives, opening up Suramar after she dinged 45, and doing some Legion Professions quests (she is an Herbalist/Miner), got her there in two play sessions.


I was very surprised to discover that the totems on the back of the Highmountain Heritage Armor are part of the chestpiece item, not a backpiece item.
~*~*~
Then I went and pre-ordered the Epic edition of Dragonflight and used the Boost on Kasheena; now she’s in Ardenweald with Kamalia and Kaurinka.

Kasheena just needs to get to Honored with Marasmius and Court of Night to be able to use the butterflymoth backpacks; Kaurinka will continue doing All The Things to get the other Shadowlands leather stuff I still want.
I decided to pre-order Dragonflight now and use the Boost on Kasheena (instead of saving it for my Tauren Mage) because I have for a rather long time in the back of my mind been thinking that for the next expansion it would be neat to be able to bring both a Mulgore Tauren (Kamalia) and a Highmountain Tauren (Kasheena, replacing Kerisa/Kaurinka in my roster of Mains) as well as both a Blood Elf (Kaelinda), and a Void Elf (Kaelyla).
~*~*~
(… now I’m so tempted — at this moment, at least — to buy Boosts for all my other sweet Mulgore Tauren girls, though I know that would be a tremendously gross expenditure… and when Shadowlands gets folded into Chromie Time I’ll probably be able to Mog with Shadowlands stuff with them without needing them to be level 60… and it would be better to wait to do Boosts until after the pre-patch goes live and I can roll my Tauren Rogue and Mage, anyhow…)

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Dead Men Tell Some Tales

I finally finished the 9.0 Kyrian Campaign last night.

Bodhi Rana said he thought it was the best, and it was really good. I liked the check-in with Azeroth in which we find out that sure enough, the Scourge are running rampant now that the Helm of Domination is broken. I liked the reciprocal chapter with Maldraxxus. I liked the visits to Revendreth and Ardenweald. I was glad to be in ZM BOE catch-up gear for the trip to the Maw — that would have been so much harder in 9.0! I felt like it dealt with Uther in an okay way. Why Helya was involved, though — from her first appearances in the 9.0 Maw Intro scenario and the Bastion leveling story — seemed kind of shoehorned in (Helya’s gotta be in the Shadowlands somewhere, where are we gonna put her?). Although the Forsworn still have a point, and I still don’t want to be Kyrian, the Kyrian have grown on me over the course of the expansion. Mikanikos is still my favorite.

Overall, I rank my enjoyment of the 9.0 Campaigns as Venthyr = Kyrian > Netherlords > Night Fae. I wouldn’t have thought, at the beginning of the expansion, that Night Fae would come in last, but so it is. The Kyrian have reciprocal chapters with the Netherlords and visit Revendreth and Ardenweald. The Venthyr have recpirocal chapters with the Necrolords and visit Bastion. The Netherlords have reciprocal chapters with both the Kyrian and the Venthyr. The Venthyr and the Netherlords don’t go to Ardenweald. The Night Fae… do their own thing. They don’t make connections with the other realms. Looking back on it, the Night Warrior, Drust, and Bwonsamdi stories feel awkwardly braided together. The story has multiple downer moments, where we try to save an NPC and fail. And there are two trips to the Maw, one of which includes a trip to Torghast… I am not looking forward to replaying that with Kaurinka and Kamalia, though I will have to because I want the Campaign coloration of the Night Fae leather and mail sets.

I would say, On to Korthia and Zereth Mortis!, but now that I’ve reached the “stopping point” of having completed the 9.0 Campaigns, I’ve got to start spending my after-bedtime hours getting my Fall classes prepped. I felt like my Organic Chemistry lecture course needed a refresh, so I’ve switched textbooks, and my lab manual for my Organic Chemistry lab course is a few years overdue for an update.

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in which the Forsaken re-establish their claim to Lordaeron, and there are Darkfallen Elves

By the time I was able to log in yesterday night, I’d decided to save doing the new Blood Elf-exclusive questline until after I’ve finished the Kyrian Campaign, so that Kaelinda can be herself and so that my screenshots won’t be all cluttered up with other players. Instead, Kamalia went to see what was up with Calia Menethil and Lordaeron. It felt good to have Kamalia take the lead on a world-story-advancing questline again. The questline was consistent with current WoW storytelling, with a fairly shallow story and a rather silly big showpiece moment leading to “yay we won!”.

Lillian Voss is probably my favorite Forsaken character. I was pleased to see, when we went to find Lillian Voss in Brill, that she had Amalia Stone and Derek Proudmoore with her. I appreciated that continuity with the BfA story, even though those two characters didn’t do anything in the remainder of the questline. With Calia and Derek we see a Menethil-Proudmoore alliance… just not the one those families originally imagined. But what, then, of Calia’s secretly-wedded husband and infant daughter who were killed by the Scourge — a part of her backstory described in the Before the Storm novel, but never referenced in-game? **sigh**

The part in Maldraxxus seemed like it was made with the expectation that everyone doing it would already have flying (which I don’t). I managed not to die while kodo-charging through perilous terrain to get to the NPCs we needed to consult, but I was sure glad that as a Shaman, I’d be able to Reincarnate if I did. It also helped that I use the Comfortable Rider’s Barding as my standard mount equipment. Protection against daze-and-dismount while riding through hostile territory is much more valuable to me than water walking!

The surprise of the new “Dark Ranger” customization for Blood, Void, and Night Elves (Delaryn Summermoon is also present at Brill) is a fun little thing, good on the devs for sneaking that past the PTR. I was somewhat disappointed to find that the new skin tone and the red eyes are linked, rather than separate options — if you choose the skin tone, you also get the red eyes; if you choose the red eyes, you also get the skin tone; you can’t have purple skin and red eyes or the new skin tone and silver eyes.

As a Mage, I see the “Dark Ranger” customization as a way to finally make the perfect San’layn cosplay with the 25H ICC Mage Tier set:

(though upon checking, the Darkfallen NPCs in the Blood wing of ICC have blue DK/Domination-magic eyes, not blood red eyes)

Or, with the shortest ear length option, the perfect Venthyr cosplay:
All My Sins II


Sinful Inquisitor’s Vestments with Sinfall Venthyr Hood & Slippers, Soulbreaker’s Ebony Mantle, Silver-Thread Sash, Kael’s Dark Sinstone Chain, and Damnation
A variation on an outfit I originally made for my Warlock (#78).

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