the only ding that really matters

When Shadowlands shifted from alpha to beta, I began to feel an increased sense of urgency to get Kaelyla leveled. By August 9th, as can be seen in that installment of the Sunday Mog Show, she’d blazed through Legion and obtained her Heart of Azeroth. This past week, with the pre-launch events arriving on the PTR, that sense of urgency got even stronger. So despite the imminent start of Fall Semester and being in crunch time to get my courses ready to go live on my college’s learning management system, I pushed through Kul Tiras* and establishing footholds in Zandalar and this happened on Sunday night:

She’s obtained her rank 1 Shroud of Resolve, and she’s got Nazjatar opened up for World Quests (including the Mardivas mini-games). Although she still has a lot of World Questing to do to upgrade her Heart of Azeroth and other gear, I’m more or less ready for Shadowlands.

* First I did the Heartsbane storyline in Drustvar through Arom’s Stand; then all of the Tidesage storyline in Stormsong Valley; and, getting to Tiragarde Sound last, turned in the quest to say hello to Cagney and then dinged in the Shrine of Storms dungeon before I got any further in Tiragarde Sound questing

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in which I struggle to get out of the summer mindset

Three weeks later, I continue to have an incredibly difficult time disciplining myself to focus on schoolwork rather than noodling around in WoW.

I spent about a week and a half doggedly queuing for Kul Tiras dungeons until I got the robe and belt of both the green (Normal) and blue (Heroic) versions of the Kul Tiras cloth dungeon set.

I took Kinevra back to the Broken Isles to finish her Order Hall Campaign and earn the Archmage title.

I took Kaelinda back to Nazjatar and completed the Nazjatar Campaign mostly for RP reasons.

I took Kaelinda back to the Broken Isles and completed the Legionfall Campaign so that she could then get the Mage Class Mount — the Archmage’s Prismatic Disc is the only one of the Class Mounts that I’ve been really and truly envious of when I’ve seen other people riding it around.

Inspired by Gnomecore, I toyed with the notion of pushing Kaelinda through the Balance of Power questline. She already has the necessary Azsuna and Suramar quest progression and Azsuna, Stormheim, and Suramar reputation. I’m mildly interested in the Balance of Power appearance for Aluneth, but I don’t much care for the Balance of Power apperances for Felo’melorn or Ebonchill. So maybe I’ll come back to that sometime in Shadowlands.

While hanging out in the Hall of the Guardian, I saw a couple of other Mages wearing the cosmetic reward set for beating Deaths of Chromie and thought, O, I should go give that a try — and then I thought, nah, I don’t have that kind of time right now. That’s another thing that maybe I’ll come back to sometime in Shadowlands.

I’ve more or less given up on the idea of gathering any more stuff out of BfA LFR; I can’t afford to spend naptime or my nighttime hours idling in a 1-2 hour DPS LFR queue.

What I would still like to accomplish before the Shadowlands pre-patch arrives is A) get Kaelyla leveled and geared and ready to go and B) do some more Horrific Visions with Kerisa and get the second upgraded appearance for the Shroud of Resolve.

But for the next two or three weeks, I’ve really got to be disciplined and do schoolwork.

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Ten Years of Kamalia et alia

On March 9, 2010, I made my first post as a WoW blogger.

Wrath of the Lich King was winding down and Cataclysm was on the horizon; that first post mentions plans I was making in anticipation of the coming changes of Cataclysm.

I had a few long-term WoW goals back then, and, over the past decade, I’ve accomplished them. I raided (in LFR) with a healer of every healing class during Mists. I got a Horde character of each of the existing classes to the level cap in Mists, Warlords, and Legion. I pushed an Alliance character to the level cap at the end of Cataclysm so that I could play the Alliance side of the pre-Mists events at Theramore; that character continues to be the only Alliance character that I actively play.

The introduction of LFR and Transmogrification in late Cataclysm revolutionized my WoW game. The upgrade of Transmogrification with the Appearances collections in late Warlords changed it further. The “Things my [Class] Wears” and “Sunday on the Promenade” series of posts have become this blog’s core content.

Once upon a time, I thought that when this big milestone occasion arrived, I’d put together something elaborate and special. Real Life has gotten in the way of that, however.

I landed my dream job; BTH and I bought a house and adopted two children. My blogiversary is now greatly overshadowed by its proximity to my older child’s birthday. The past couple of academic years have been rather rough and I’m running on the edge of burnout in my job — and that general exhaustion has propagated a feeling of being on the edge of burnout in keeping up with the “Sunday on the Promenade” series here on the blog, as well. So this small post of simple acknowledgement will have to do.

Here’s to TEN YEARS!

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A Sound Plan

Kinevra finally finished the Loremaster plotline of Tiragarde Sound. She’s left almost all of the side quests undone — the Roughriders, the Tortollans at Norwington Estate, the hunting lodge, the steam springs resort, the guard tower, the Explorer’s League camp, what else? My plan is to go through Drustvar and Stormsong Valley doing just the Loremaster questlines as well, ignoring anything that’s obviously a side quest. I’ll come back to the side quests if I haven’t reached 120 by the time I finish the Loremaster questlines.

With the War Campaign no longer being gated by 7th Legion rep, I think I’ll have Kinevra contract for the Proudmoore Admiralty first after she reaches 120 — the sooner to be able to recruit the Kul Tirans.

As much as I conceptually like playing a Mage, however, I die so much when I’m playing one of my Mages! My Balance Druids feel more robust…

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not so exhausting after all

Even with a rapidly approaching deadline and ideas burning holes in my brain for things I needed to do to finish getting my classes organized, the 50% extra reputation from WQs from WQ Bonus Week was too good to pass up. I did my Mechagon quests every day last week, and by Reset Day, I was at 9970/12000. The end was in sight!

Having gotten so close, I wanted to just get BfA Pathfinder Part 2 over and done with. So I did less work than perhaps I could or should have for another day or two, and went and did it.

But will I stick around in Mechagon to grind out Galvanic Oscillators from the daily WQ to buy the upgraded Adventurer Augments or the Targeted Purification Protocols Essence? Not likely, at least not anytime soon. Now that I have flying, Kamalia is going to rest until Patch 8.2.5 brings the next chapters of the War Campaign and the Chamber of Heart storyline, and other characters will level.

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exhaustion is a good word for it

I got to Honored with Mechagon today. I got the jetpack blueprint yesterday — no more wasting half an hour camping for Rustfeather! Finding three rares to kill for today’s Mechagon WQ was much easier with the jetpack to zip about!

Mechagon wants to be fun. It is trying so hard to be fun. Sometimes I even catch myself geniuinely having fun while I’m running around there.

But it suffers from what Kaylriene calls “the Curse of the x.2 Patch”

In Coffee Cakes & Crits’ guild, they’ve “swap[ped] exalted with exhausted” when referring to maxing out reputation with a faction — especially the 8.2 factions.

In a recent edition of The Queue, Blizzard Watch columnist Liz Harper writes, “I’m tired too, though at this point I think I’d be tired if we were dealing with daily quests or with world quests. Sure, world quests have more variety and rotate more often, but they’re very much the same idea as a rotating set of daily quests. They’re a chore that you must do every day, and they feel like a chore, too…. Whether it’s daily quests or world quests, whenever I log on now I feel like I have to do dozens of quests in order to progress in the game. And then the same again tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It’s not a game at this point: it’s a chore.”

There are days when I log in, look at what there is to be done in Mechagon, and just feel so immediately tired that I log right back off. That happened in Nazjatar, too.

It’s not all the game’s fault, though — it is now T minus two weeks to the start of Fall Semester, so although I have made rather good progress with my course prep so far this summer, I’m starting to get into I AM NOT PREPARED! anxiety mode. Getting ready for the first day & exam unit of my classes and making progress toward flying are competing for my mental bandwidth, and there are days when I really and truly just want to work.

So for now, I’m hoping that I’ll manage to reach Revered with Mechagon before Patch 8.2.5 drops.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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).

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