I’m burning out on 9.0 and I just wanna go do 9.2

I’m just not feeling the Renown grind this week. I look at the base zone WQs — what can I do for Anima? what can I do to complete Callings? — and I don’t feel like going out and doing them.

I want to go to Zereth Mortis. I want to explore and scout the place out for pretty locations for Mog photoshoots. I want to do the 9.2 Campaign. I want to get whatever the most easily-obtained coloration of the zone set is. I want to do whichever category of Cipher of the First Ones research it is that gives buffs for world activities, and whichever one opens up the Zereth Mortis puzzle minigames — I enjoyed the puzzle minigames in Legion and Battle for Azeroth — and ignore all the other categories.

But I haven’t yet gotten the breadcrumb quest to even start Zereth Mortis. I think it’s because I’m currently in Covenants for which I haven’t completed the 9.0 Campaigns and because I haven’t done the opening chapters of the 9.1 Campaign. I should go do the opening chapters of the 9.1 Campaign because I’m getting tired of being ground-bound; it would be nice to be able to fly again. And I just read on Wowhead that there’s been a hotfix that “Each of the four original Covenant campaign questlines now reward a total of 20 additional Renown.” So I should do the Kyrian Campaign with Kaelinda and the Necrolords Campaign with Kaelyla, because those are the Covenants that they aren’t maxxed out in Renown already with. Which is all scrambled up from my original plans, but at this point, eh, whatever….

The Zereth Mortis zone set reminds me of the Vulpera aesthetic, so I tried it out on Khariba, and sure enough, it looks super cute on her:

Choral set with Shadowmoon Cowl and Mok’Morokk’s Beat Stick

Why is it that the LFR coloration of raid sets always seems to be the green one?

They all have silly hats; the Warlock hat is thankfully not offensive anymore, but is rather the silliest of the lot. The Warlock shoulders, robe, and belt are the most interesting. The other two robes are handsome enough, I guess, but feel… plain, somehow. Still, if I can get Kaelinda and Kaelyla’s iLevels up enough, I might eventually go do Sepulcher of the First Ones LFR. Fortunately for me as a Mage, the Priest robe, Warlock shoulders, Warlock robe, and Warlock belt all have lookalike pieces– but the Mage robe does not have a lookalike piece.

~*~*~

Even though I don’t intend to do anything with her in the Shadowlands for a long time yet, I brought Karaelia out to Bastion for the sake of having a character of every armor class positioned to prep for 10.0 — and wherever Karaelia goes, her twin Kaohana goes, too. Both of them have activated Threads of Fate and pledged to the Kyrian.


Karaelia has been wearing her outfit since November of 2020, and Kaohana has been wearing her outfit since February of 2021! They are both rather anxious for some new clothes!

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in from the dunes

I played through the Vulpera recruitment questline last night and it was AWESOME. So much fun!

Khariba is named after my graduate school mentor — not the professor who was my advisor of record, but the senior staff member with whom I worked most closely on my thesis project — who is originally from Iran — though she usually says “Persia” because of the political tensions between the US and Iran for the past several decades.

Voldunai Explorer
Resilient Cap, Bright Armor, Juju Belt, Godfrey’s Britches, Treads of the Survivor, Silksand Cape, Tabard of the Vulpera, Umbranse’s Staff
I liked the bottom half of the Vulpera tabard enough that this had to be a trousers outfit.
I’m not particulary fond of hoods, in general, because they cover up or clip my characters’ hair. Vulpera, however, don’t have hair to cover up or clip, so I think I might just use hoods more often with Khariba’s kits.

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things I’m looking forward to in Patch 8.3

Well! It seems that Blizzard is anxious to clear the way for a 9.0 announcement at Blizzcon.

I pushed to Exalted with the Voldunai earlier in the expansion in hopes that the Vulpera would eventually become an Allied Race for the Horde — and now they are! I know what I’ll be doing the first time I have a good amount of time available to play after Patch 8.3 goes live! I like the Vulpera Heritage Armor, but given the slow progress of the Allied Races characters I already have, I doubt that my Vulpera Mage will get any farther from home than Orgrimmar.

My Goblin and Worgen Mages won’t be getting anywhere anytime soon, so I read the walkthroughs of their Heritage Armor questlines. The Worgen Heritage Armor design and questline almost make me want to boost my Worgen to 110 and start leveling her to 120.

I’m not reading through the information about storyline progression such as the Horde and Forsaken leadership decisions, Tyrande’s opinion on the conclusion of the War Campaign, and the dragonflights. I want to experience those stories fresh when I play them. Besides, there are a few lore things I need to do first — Kamalia’s gotten her Heart of Azeroth to 60 but still needs to do the red dragon questline (and then she needs to get it to 70 and do the blue dragon questline), and I still need to hop into LFR for the last wing of Eternal Palace so I can go do the 8.2.5 Wrathion questline.

I’m glad to see the Vale of Eternal Blossoms restored… even if it is only to come under another form of Old God darkness. I’ll probably play through the Titan Assault events in the Vale and in Uldum at least once, just to see what they’re all about. I doubt I’ll do any of the other N’zoth attack content due to lack of time and interest.

Battle for Azeroth continues to be mostly misses on the raid Transmogrification front for me. I like the Uldir sets. I want the crown from Opulence and the Int staff from Jadefire Masters from Dazar’alor — but the sets? Nope. The Eternal Palace sets have some nice colors and some interesting style ideas, but they aren’t “must have” for me. The Ny’alotha stuff is another great big pile of Nope.

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