I’m… done (with Dragonflight)? And Plunderstorm is plugging the gap?

While walking to campus this morning, I had a surprising thought. Until Patch 10.2.7 comes out — which, from its name on the roadmap, sounds like it will be a bridge patch to War Within* — I am pretty much done with Dragonflight.

Last week, when I finally did the Patch 10.1 Blue Dragonflight storyline, I got all caught up on all of the major story content of Dragonflight thus far.

This week, after doing the Azerothian Archives Big Dig and world quests, I was able to purchase the last of the Mog items I wanted from that activity.

Major Mog collection goals? DONE.** Major story completion? DONE.

This is a kind of a strange feeling.

For the last several years — the years encompassed by Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands in WoW — I’ve had a long lag period in which I was working on content from each expansion well after the next expansion had come out. Being at the current expansion’s level cap definitely helped with getting through that lingering endgame content from the previous expansion. However, playing last expansion endgame catch-up also held me back from getting into the current expansion’s endgame content. Now, those years were also pretty crazy years outside of Azeroth between babies, drama at work, and COVID, so I was okay with being waaay behind the curve in Azeroth. With real life settling down, though, when Dragonflight launched, I made myself a soft goal of getting all the significant Dragonflight story content done before the next expansion came out. Until Patch 10.2.7, I’ve done it!

So, um, now what am I gonna do in Azeroth? I could level alts…? Play Classic Era Classic?

Or, you know, I could go do the brand new shiny thing that was just released, which will only be available for a limited time — conveniently, almost but not quite the amount of time until Patch 10.2.7*** if Blizzard sticks to the 8 weeks between updates schedule that they’ve said they want to continue for the rest of Dragonflight — and grind up all the Mog stuff I want from it.

Looked at that way, it seems very much like the Plunderstorm was deliberately designed and timed to address the longstanding end-of-expansion doldrums problem. And with the way the patch cadence and difficulty of getting things even for a relatively casual player like myself has been in this expansion, even I am finding myself with plenty of time and attention for the Plunderstorm+. Well played, Blizzard, well played.

~*~*~
* Kinda-sorta like the last patch of an FFXIV expansion?
** Kerisa is still trying to get the Crystalline Tender’s Chestpiece from the Emerald Dream weeklies, but that takes, like, an hour to do each reset day
*** Or maybe just Season 4, with Patch 10.2.7 another eight weeks after that?
+ Well, at least until Noblegarden, when I’ve got a handful of alts who will want to collect eggs for XP, and there will be a new holiday boss to farm for a pretty pastel recolor of the Leywoven Flying Carpet…

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Patch 10.2.6, The Plunderstorm! first thoughts — at work, before actually playing it

I don’t like PvP.
I do. not. like. it., Sam-I-am!
Three expansions later, I still haven’t got the 1000 Honorable Kills tint for the Hidden appearances of my Legion Artifact weapons. I did do a few matches of the WoW’s Birthday version of Alterac Valley last year and that got me up to about 250 Honorable Kills, so a few more years of that should get me there… 😛
BUT!
That pirate ensemble in the official Blizzard post about the Plunderstorm sure is sweeeeet. So even if I end up spending most of my time in Plunderstorm matches dead and spectating, I’ll endure enough of them to get far enough along the Renown track to get it.

Speaking of which, I like very much that getting rewards from the Plunderstorm won’t rely on being lucky enough and good at surviving enough to get to the right treasure chests to loot them, but is instead tied to progression along a Renown track. What was it they said in the Blizzcast interview? Four or five matches should get even a player who doesn’t survive very well a full Renown level? Getting Plunderstorm rewards is predictable and plannable… unlike farming for the 36-slot bag from the Hearthstone anniversary event… or for Experiment 12-B from Ultraxion….

I also really like a lot that Plunderstorm activity is independent of main account activity, other than rewards obtained in the Plunderstorm transferring over to the main account. And since your character for the Plunderstorm is only for the Plunderstorm, I think I won’t be either a Tauren or an Eversong Elf. Maybe I’ll be a Troll! or a Vulpera! or a Pandaren!

A few months back, BTH introduced our oldest to Starcraft II co-op mode and custom maps. Since then, he’s been spending quite a lot of his screen time playing SCII instead of WoW; his favorite characters are Kerrigan, Artanis, Zeratul, and Alarak. If I show my son how to get into the Plunderstorm, will he think it is fun enough that he will want to play it instead of SCII and do all the work, as it were, of climbing up that Renown track for me?

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Tarecgosa’s Rest

Having read on Wowhead that there was a special treat for wielders of Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest at the end of the Patch 10.1 Blue Dragonflight questline, I decided that it was time for Kaelinda to get Dragonwrath. I’d joked about getting it during Legion — because Aluneth talks to you, and Dragonwrath talks to you, I should get Dragonwrath so that Tarecgosa and Aluneth could talk to each other in Kaelinda’s stave rack — but I didn’t quite feel up to farming Firelands for it… Now, though, was definitely the time.

Reading through the Dragonwrath questline guide on Wowhead, it quickly became apparent that the “Delegation” quest would be the most difficult stage of the whole adventure. The hard part, at Dragonflight level 70, would be not killing the bosses before I could pick up all the little ground clickies and do the things at specific points in the encounters.
The solution was fairly obvious. After clearing the trash in my regular gear, I switched to this outfit to do the boss fights:

I’d hit the boss with my fists to get the fight going, then after I’d completed the quest requirements, a few raw stats level 70 Frost Lances would finish off the boss.


With the Branch of Nordrassil in hand, I could put back on my regular gear and one-shot my way through the Firelands for the second long grind stage of the questline. When I got to the third long grind stage, I went BNL again and hit each boss with the Runestaff of Nordrassil to start the fight, then Ice Lanced it down. The first time I tried it, I was worried that I’d still killed the boss too fast, because I didn’t see the Smouldering debuff appear on the boss — the debuff only showed up after the boss was dead.
It probably took me about three months to complete the whole questline; from the dates on my screenshots, it was two months from when I finished the first long grind stage to when I obtained Dragonwrath.

After that, I was finally ready to do the Patch 10.1 Blue Dragonflight questline. It took me two play sessions to get through the regular part of the questline, then a third play session to do the special Tarecgosa’s Rest epilogue. It was every bit as much “the best dragonflight story in Dragonflight!” as I’d been told that it was!

Farewell, dear Tarecgosa — and Sindragosa — and Senegos. May Arbiter Pelagos direct your souls to an afterlife that is different from, and better than, any of the realms of the Shadowlands that we visited during Shadowlands.

~*~*~
I got myself the new Dragonflight Codex lore book as a birthday present. I am puzzled and disappointed that Tarecgosa isn’t mentioned in it at all — she’s not one of the significant Blues given individual profiles, and she’s not mentioned in the profiles of Kalecgos or Arygos and the description of their conflict over who would become the Blue Aspect after Malygos, either.
~*~*~
And now I have completed all of the major Dragonflight storylines so far, and I’m ready for new story on the horizon in Patches 10.2.6 and 10.2.7!

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ONE Pink Dragon!

One of my alts who’s been farming Valarjar Paragon chests got the Valarjar Stormwing this weekend.

Hooray! Now I have both Netherwing and Thorignir in my mount collection to correspond with the Netherwing and the Thorignir being welcomed into the Valdrakken Accord.

And now the question is, do I keep farming Heroic Dragon Soul with 5 alts each week to try to get the Experiment 12-B pink version of the old Drake flying mount model?

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I wanna pink dragon!

…and apparently this pink dragon isn’t quite “it”.

During Legion, I got very discouraged with Paragoning for the Nightfallen trying to get the Leywoven Flying Carpet. Although I did eventually get it, I was too burned out to grind for any of the Paragon chest mounts from the other factions.

After getting the Felstorm Dragon from Dragonflight Time Rifts, however, I decided to give Paragoning for the Valarjar to get the Valarjar Stormwing another go.

I have six characters who’d gotten Exalted with the Valarjar during Legion: Warrior, Paladin, Priest, Demon Hunter, Shaman, and Blood Elf Mage. I sent the first four, who are all under level 70, back to Valdisdall to do Valarjar and Kirin Tor Emissaries; the level 70s return to the Broken Isles just when the Emissary is Kirin Tor.

I’ve been glad that I stuck with Paragoning for the Nightfallen until I obtained the Leywoven Flying Carpet. It’s made me happy whenever it gets selected by the “flying carpets” random cast macro my characters who are Tailors have — and it’s fun to have a flying carpet that my non-Tailor characters can use, too (Patch 10.2.5 added a pastel “Noble Flying Carpet” recolor of the Leywoven Flying Carpet that will likely be obtained from a Noblegarden holiday update; I’ll definitely have to get that.)

So the question is, will I be happy enough with having the Valarjar Stormwing showing up from my “drakes” random cast mount macro every now and then to validate the nights that I’ll stay up longer than I really ought to because I’m pushing multiple alts through old content WQs?

Well, until/unless a not-too-difficult-to-obtain Pink Scales manuscript for Dragonriding mounts other than the Flourishing Whimseydrake gets added to the game, probably Yes.

But if what I want, what I really, really want is just a pink dragon, maybe I should also be farming Dragon Soul up to Ultraxion to try to get Experiment 12-B — which has, like, a 1% drop rate, so I might very well get the Valarjar Stormwing from Paragon chests before I get that to drop…

Wish me luck!

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Come Together, Right Now, Over Me

In the past week, I’ve pushed through the 10.2 MSQ and as many of the side-quests as interested me, so that I could get them done before changing my clothes for Winter Veil* 😉 I was a bit surprised, but glad, that the starter quest for the final chapter became available as soon as I’d accepted the quest to KO Fyrakk in the raid, instead of not becoming available until I’d completed the raid quest.

Although there are those among my blogroll who dislike the current WoW story (to put it mildly) — although there are certainly things the player is asked to do that are quite silly, and goofy plot holes, and occasionally nonsensical character development — overall, I have enjoyed it well enough.
* I appreciated how the Primalists and Qalashi remained relevant antagonists throughout the entirety of the Dragonflight main story — that they weren’t just discarded and forgotten after the leveling content and first raid, but were part of each patch and later raid, as well. I appreciated the follow-up of the Suffusion Camps in the use of suffused weaponry against the dragons in the Emerald Dream storyline. I liked how hearing Qalashi mooks in the first Qualashi stronghold we assault in the Waking Shores leveling questline calling “Igira, see me!” as they die was paid off by Igira awakening, being the yelling head for the Suffusion Camps, then becoming a boss in the Amirdrassil raid.
* I was glad to see that the Netherwing and Thorignir were not forgotten, and I enjoyed the questline in which Wrathion convinces Vyranoth to help him bring those smaller dragonflights to the Dragon Isles. Getting to punch Odyn in the face — seeing that nod by the story team to the community’s openly-expressed dislike of Odyn — and watching Vyranoth literally freeze him in his tracks was great! This is usually the point in the expansion where Kaelinda, who is Fire by default, goes Arcane just to do something different for awhile, but after interacting with Vyranoth, she’s thinking that this time, she will go Frost instead.
* I thought it was awesome to see all of Azeroth come together to defend Amirdrassil. All the faction leaders. All the friends — dracthyr, dragonspawn, centaur, tuskarr, niffen — that we’d made throughout the Dragon Isles.

*After all the silly quests of needing to solo things where I really ought to have gotten at least a squad of NPCs to help me, it was awesome to be more or less part of a raid group of Azeroth’s elites to take down the Prophet of the Flame.

* I loved seeing representatives of everyone who has been a part of this expansion’s story at the party after Amirdrassil blooms — including Big Kinook and Eragosa and Rumiastrasza doing the cooking, the Windtotem Tauren who settled in the Ohn’ahran Plains, the Ancients, the Wild Gods, all the different groups of Tuskarr, the Niffen — and old friends from all over Azeroth both geographically and historically — even a group from Ardenweald.
* I was relieved that Tyrande has found enough peace to let go of treating Kaelinda, a Blood Elf, with scorn and distrust because she is Horde, and instead treated her with respect and appreciation throughout the 10.2 storyline.

So for me, at least, the storytelling in this expansion has been better than Shadowlands, and more comfortable than Battle for Azeroth, and I am looking forward to the “epilogue” stories to come in Patch 10.2.5 and Patch 10.2.7.

~*~*~
* Kaelinda still needs to do the Azure Span leveling questline and the Blue Dragonflight Campaign questline at the Veiled Ossuary, but that will have to wait until January, I think

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a peek into the Emerald Dream and a goal for the rest of Dragonflight

Alas, despite having put a polite reminder of the existence of the Grove Warden and recommendation that it be present in the 10.2 Emerald Dream zone into the Suggestion Box, when I took Kaelinda there last night, no magnificent magical moose were to be seen. :`(

I played through the second chapter of the Emerald Dream Campaign, explored the place to unlock regular flying in the Dragon Isles, collected all the 10.2 Dragonriding Glyphs, and grew a bouquet of Emerald Blooms. I was quite surprised — a bit startled, even — to see Lady Moonberry there. Perhaps she feels like she needs to be there to make sure that Ysera does come back to Ardenweald when her purpose for having returned to Azeroth and the Dream is fulfilled? Or is she there for some secret purpose of the Winter Queen — something going on behind the scenes with the Winter Queen and Elune and/or Eonar that we will eventually find out about in The Last Titan?

On the one hand, during the last couple of patches, it’s felt good to be doing the new things while they were new (and lots of other people were doing them, too). I’m excited to continue the Emerald Dream story and collect the Emerald Dream gear. I’m also excited for the conclusion of the Reforging Keeper Tyr story — and its reward of white scales for Dragonriding Drakes! — and for the story about Wrathion and Vyranoth teaming up to reach out to the Netherwing and Stormwing dragonflights.

On the other hand, I’m still behind on stories from earlier in the expansion. After having originally done all the leveling zone stories with Kamalia and having leveled Kaelinda primarily through World and Profession Quests, I found that I wanted to replay just the MSQ (to borrow FFXIV parlance) of the leveling Campaign storylines with Kaelinda. Kaelinda has finished the leveling Campaign storylines in Thaldrazsus and Ohn’ahran Plains, but she still needs to complete the leveling Campaign storylines in Waking Shores and Azure Span. After she’s done that, she’ll be ready to do the 10.1 Blue Dragonflight storyline at the Veiled Ossuary.

Although going back to the Shadowlands to do Korthia and Zereth Mortis at level 70 certainly made doing those zones much easier — and therefore more enjoyable — than they would have been at level 60, it was also a drag and a delay on my ability to get into the Dragonflight story progression. I had a long tail in Legion before I could properly get into Battle for Azeroth as I finished up leveling and doing Order Hall storylines for all the Classes. Although I don’t recall having a significant tailing of trying to finish up Battle for Azeroth content before I got into Shadowlands, I could have simply forgotten it because that time interval was also filled with IRL stresses.

So I’d like to try to take a step back from vigorously pursuing the Dream for a week or two (or few) to finish getting caught up on the 10.0 and 10.1 stories.

When the War Within arrives, I don’t want to have lingering unfinished business in the Dragon Isles holding me back.

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Another Green Dragonflight Disappointment: Where are the Grove Wardens?

I am still salty that the Dreambound armor from Patch 10.1.7 is not a green, silver, and violet recolor of that armor style, but rather the same red, gold, and white as the Suffused armor.

Looking at the previews for the Patch 10.2 Emerald Dream zone, I keep thinking, but where are the Grove Wardens?
The flavor text for this Legion-preview mount, introduced all the way back in Warlords of Draenor‘s Hellfire Citadel raid, reads: “These magical companions are the wardens of peaceful, primordial groves within the Emerald Dream.”

Yet here we are going into the Emerald Dream, and they don’t seem to be there.
Sloppy, forgetful devs.
Don’t try to handwave this by saying “oh, they are just in another part of the Emerald Dream that we aren’t visiting right now.”
We’ve been waiting to see them in their native habitat ever since Warlords. If there can be musken like we first saw in Pandaria and hairless versions of the hairy rhinos and mammoths we first saw in Northrend in the Ohn’ahran Plains, there can and should be Grove Wardens here, in this part of the Emerald Dream.

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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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Lots to SQUEE!!! about in Patch 10.2

With datamining now rolling off the Patch 10.2 PTR —
Green and pink hair for Blood Elves! Yay! Now I’ll be able to make a proper Green Dragon Princess Mog!
New options for Moonkin form! I’m a fan of new appearance options, and I like the concepts. I’m not sure if any of them will be good fits for my Druid’s personality, though. I might try them out, then end up sticking with plain old ordinary Tauren Boomkin form. I hope there will also be a greater range of colorations for that form, without the extra decorations, and not Race-specific as the current color variations of Moonkin form are.
Fluffy cat-raptors! Again, I like the concepts, but I also am very fond of ordinary Cat Form and am the sort of player who still runs their Hunter with her very first starting-zone Tame, because that was the only companion she’s ever really wanted.
Leafy Druidy armor and weapons for everyone! I think the artists did well enough at making the Emerald Dream stuff distinct from the Ardenweald/Night Fae stuff — though with that said, I will definitely be using the butterfly wand and pinecone off-hand with the Night Fae moth backpacks!
Funny Amirdrassil Mage Tier set! In the Normal mode coloration, it looks very much like an iteration of the Mage Order Hall set from Legion, only even more Final Fantasy-esque. That HUUUGE hat is definitely worth getting, and so is the belt that looks kinda sorta like the Waist of Time (which I will never get because of the Battle Pet prerequisites that I just don’t wanna bother with).
The Netherwing and Thorignir haven’t been forgotten! But will Wrathion and Vyranoth be as amusing a pair to watch as Stellagosa and Arcanist Valtrois?
A Faerie Dragon Dragonriding mount and more colors for the Grotto Netherwing! I like the Enchanted Fey Dragon a lot and was hoping that it would eventually become a Dragonriding option.
Regular flying in the Dragon Isles! With very manageable requirements! As in, I’ve got all but the Patch 10.2 parts of it accomplished already B)

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