Contemplating Hero Talent trees for My Four Mains

We’re starting to get some War Within hype with the release of preliminary Hero Talent tree designs… except that it seems like most of the ones that we’ve seen so far have gotten trashed on by Wowhead’s Class specialists — and, presumably, by commentators at other MMO news sites that I don’t read — to the extent that Taliesin & Evitel wonder in this week’s Weekly Reset if War Within is already DOA.

Since I most emphatically don’t play at either the organized raiding or Mythic plus dungeoneering levels of competency, for me, choosing Hero Talents will be a lot like how I’ve chosen the regular Class and Specialization tree talents. I’ll ignore the guides and analyses and pick what I like thematically, what I am reasonably certain that I’ll actually remember to use if it’s an Active ability, and what I think might combo okay for my low-skill-threshold solo playstyle.

For my Mages, choosing Hero Talents, at least at the tree level, will almost certainly end up being a sort of round-robin. Kaelinda is always Fire at the beginning of an expansion and usually dabbles in Arcane toward the end of the expansion — though in Dragonflight, she’s currently Frost thanks to the influence of Vyranoth. Kaelyla is always Frost at the beginning of an expansion and usually dabbles in Arcane toward the end of the expansion — she’s Arcane at present. So Kaelinda will most likely do Fire with the Fire/Arcane Hero tree, Frost with the FrostFire Hero tree, and Arcane with the Arcane/Frost Hero tree; and Kaelyla will most likely do Frost with the Arcane/Frost Hero tree, Fire with the FrostFire Hero tree, and Arcane with the Fire/Arcane Hero tree. Only the FrostFire Hero tree has been previewed so far; the Wowhead analyses of it (Fire, Frost) were even mildly positive.

For Kerisa, I’ll be looking at either the Balance/Resto Keeper of the Grove tree (trashed by Wowhead) or the Balance/Guardian Elune’s Chosen tree which was just revealed and hasn’t been reviewed yet. Although I love my treants and always take the Talent to get them, I might have to try both Hero trees and decide which one I like better from hooves/talons-on-the-ground experience.

None of the Hero Talent trees for Shaman have been revealed yet. I’m leaning toward choosing the Elemental/Resto Hero tree with Kamalia for the thematic reason that I’ve historically played her as one or the other of those specs — even if it’s judged by the greater community to be terrible.

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Who will help Genn in Gilneas?

When the questline to clean up the mess Sylvanas made of Undercity at the beginning of the Fourth War first became available in late Shadowlands, I did it with Kamalia because I’d been missing having her be my Main. I only needed to do it once to get the customization unlock, so I didn’t bother doing it again with anyone else.

With Patch 10.2.5 bringing a questline to reclaim Gilneas, I’ve been dithering about which alt I should do it with. Kamalia, because I did the Lordaeron questline with her and having her do Gilneas, too, would be a pleasing symmetry? Kaelinda, because she’s really my Main now? Kaelyla, because she’s Alliance and reclaiming Gilneas is an Alliance story? Well, even though experiencing it once has been enough for a lot of WoW lore lately, maybe I want to do this thing with all three of them for exactly those reasons.

So last night, in preparation for doing the reclaiming Gilneas questline next week, I ran both Kaelinda and Kaelyla through the reclaiming Lordaeron questline. It was just as silly as I remembered it having been… actually, even more silly. I don’t expect the reclaiming Gilneas questline to be any less silly.

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The Existential Despair of the Shadowlands

Kamalia returned the Gorloc-mauled talisman to Farrier Roscha, who spoke mournfully of her betrothed galloping freely under Onh’ahra’s gaze.
Kamalia realized that the dead Centaur woman’s soul would have gone to the Maw. She wondered if that soul was still intact… and if it was, if it was still sane. Then she remembered that a new Arbiter had been elevated before the mortals of Azeroth left the Shadowlands, and that it had been a few years since they’d come home from the Shadowlands before the Tyrhold Beacon lit and summoned adventurers to the Dragon Isles. She wondered which realm of the Shadowlands Farrier Roscha’s beloved had actually gone to.
She found she had nothing to say about the afterlife that would give comfort to Farrier Roscha’s grief, so she said nothing.
~*~*~
The soul of the Kaluak ancestor appeared above the offering basket at Kauriq Gleamlet and counseled her descendants, the bickering brothers.
Kamalia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
What if this soul had been assigned to Bastion, and had forgotten who she had been in life?
Or to Revendreth, and was locked away in a cage?
Or to Ardenweald, and was asleep in a wildseed or heedless in the form of a critter or beast?
Or to Maldraxxus, and had been obliterated in the ruthless arena in the first moments of her afterlife?
From what Kamalia had learned of the afterlives, it was a wonder that any souls were capable of responding to calls from their still-living kin at all.
~*~*~
The soul of the Uktulut Chieftain’s ottuk companion rose into the air.
Kamalia thought she could almost see the Kyrian Bearer carrying it away.
She wondered if there was a realm of the afterlife especially for beloved animal companions of humanoids.
She wondered if there were any places in the Shadowlands where those who had been family or friends in their mortal lives could actually reunite, or if meeting loved ones again in the afterlife was merely a fable that mortals from every world invented to help themselves cope with the loss of death.
~*~*~
If it wasn’t for the presence of tangible items originating from the realms of the Shadowlands in her own wardrobe and those of her close friends, Kamalia could almost make herself imagine that her experiences in the Shadowlands had been a series of vivid, lucid, horrible dreams.
~*~*~
~*~*~
I’ve been thinking about writing this up ever since I first quested through the Broken Isles with Kamalia a year ago.
I’m grateful and pleased that the writers are writing the Dragon Isles inhabitants’ beliefs about the afterlife as ignorant of what we learned of WoW cosmology afterlives in Shadowlands.
In a way, this story is my expression of “why I think Shadowlands was the worst WoW expansion ever and I want to excise it out of the story like an exon being removed from the mRNA transcript of a gene before it gets translated into a protein”. Yes, worse than Warlords of Draenor (which I also sometimes want to excise), or Battle for Azeroth (which I liked rather more than I expected, as long as I didn’t think too much about the War Campaign storyline), or Cataclysm (because evidently I don’t miss the pre-Shattering world enough to play WoW Classic Era).

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the trauma of the Tauren

Kamalia did the patch 10.0.7 questline with Baine and Scout Tomul in the Ohn’ahran Plains last night.
One of the key themes of the questline is confronting and overcoming the hatred and mistrust that the Tauren of modern Kalimdor have for Centaur because of the post-Sundering generational warfare between Centaur and Tauren on that continent*.
I’ve thought — briefly — before about how Thunder Bluff having been established following the events of Warcraft III means that Kamalia would have spent most of her life prior to the beginning of World of Warcraft as a nomad. Until I was playing through this new questline, though, I didn’t have any sense that her nomadic experience would have involved constant fleeing from, fear of, and hatred of the Centaur.
Though the arrival of the Orcs saves the Tauren from extinction at the hooves of the Centaur in Warcraft III, I feel like what mentions of that history exist in World of Warcraft‘s quests in Mulgore, the Barrens, and even Desolace — in both Classic and Cataclysm** — don’t convey that aspect of Tauren history & culture very effectively at all. The Harpies, Gnolls, and Quillboar are presented as equally important threats as the Centaur. Nothing that I remember of my leveling experience suggested this degree of cultural trauma:


I feel like I might have felt differently about Kamalia’s interactions with the Centaur of the Ohn’ahran Plains when I first played through that zone if I had understood that the conflict between the Tauren and the Centaur in Kalimdor was that horrific.
~*~*~
*In contrast, Lasan Skyhorn, standing near the flight master in Maruukai, comments that Highmountain Tauren do not have this prejudice.
**Perhaps it’s time to play through those zones again, paying more careful attention to the quest text in both text panes and chat bubble dialogs, in Retail with Kazithra/Kaiuna and also in Classic…

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A Romantic Ohn’ahran Picnic

Crown of Boundless Courage, White Traditional Hanbok, Rosy Corsage, Mindsear Shanker, Aegis of the Vindicator
Even though I can’t get Trader’s Tender for doing this anymore, it was too charming of an idea to not do anyway.

Happy celebrations, however you choose to observe the day!

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puttering along in Dragonflight and Shadowlands

The beginning of a new semester is always a slow time in WoW for me as I try to figure out what this semester’s daily and weekly routines are going to be.
Kamalia has reached Renown 10 for three of the four Major Factions; she’s lagging with the Iskaara Tuskar with whom she is only Renown 9.
Marukkai and Iskaara have Leatherworking patterns, so Kamalia will want to push those reputations. Expedition and Valdrakken have Tailoring patterns, so Kaelyla and Kaelinda will want to push those reputations. Depending on how completion of the 10.0 Campaign affects Campaign access in further patches, I may need to push reputation in lower priority factions just enough to get to the story unlocks.
I was pleased to discover that I only needed to reach friendship level 2 with Wrathion to be able to acquire the Obsidian Dracthyr Battlegear. As soon as I can Gather a few more Rousing Fire and Rousing Earth, I’ll pick it up and then it can be what Kamalisaura’s Visage form wears forever. I’ll still want to get all the way to the final friendship level to get black scales for my Dragonriding mounts, though. As long as there are other folks farming in the Obsidian Citadel with whom I can tag along when I have time and energy to do that stuff, I think I’ll be okay.
Speaking of Dragonriding mounts, I’ve been liking Dragonriding as a flight system well enough — though I dearly dearly miss the ability to hover. It’s nice to be able to stop and hover, aloft, to look around at the area below me and figure out where the quest objectives actually are and where the best place to land would be — not to mention hovering while AFK. I only did the basic versions of all the Dragonriding races; that’s good enough for doing the WQs, and looking at some of the Dragonriding abilities, I suspect I just don’t want to bother with the additional mechanics of the Advanced races. That Dragonriding theme music is such an earworm. I merely have to think about Dragonriding and it pops into my head… I don’t need to go Dragonriding with my Sparkle Pony, but I really would love to go Dragonriding with my older drake mounts, especially the Enchanted Fey Dragon. I never did Paragon with Stormheim enough to get the storm drake mount, but if I could go Dragonriding with it, it might be worth going back for…
How do the wind and stone drakes from Cataclysm and the storm drakes from Legion fit into the Dragonflight dragon ecology & society, anyhow? Is this something that the Aspects and the Primalists might spar over in some future patch storyline — each sending emissaries to the “lost flights” to try to persuade them that they belong on their side?
Meanwhile, Kaelinda has worked her way through Chapter 4 of the Zereth Mortis Campaign. Looking up how to get Sandworn Relics, though, she’s thinking ehhh… I’ll come back for these when I’m level 70. She only has a little more Anima to collect to finish off her Kyrian Cosmetics shopping list, and then I’ll really have to stop procrastinating finishing up Shadowlands 9.0 and 9.1 story stuff and grinding Stygia for Korthia Cosmetics.

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Adventure Mode unlocked; Kalu’ak in Iskaara

Kamalia finished up the Dragonflight leveling Campaign and unlocked Adventure Mode! Before I bring any alts out to the Dragon Isles, though, I think I’d like to get the four major factions up to Renown 10, so that they can have the rep boost from the get-go. I’m currently at 7 for Dragonscale Expedition, 8 for Maruuk Centaur, 6 for Iskaara Tuskarr, and 7 for Valdrakken Accord.
But as for how to increase that Renown… I am overwhelmed with stuff to do. There are loads of sidequests in Thaldraszus that we haven’t done and may not come back to while playing together. I haven’t done the Dragonscale Expedition Renown quests for Climbing or Ancient Waygates yet, nor the Maruuk Centaur Great Hunt intro quests, nor the Dragonriding Races for any zone except Waking Shores. I’ve leveled and put some knowledge points into my gathering profession, but I’ve barely touched my crafting profession. Our quest logs are bulging with dungeon quests, so we’ll probably spend a play session or two just running dungeons.

~*~*~
I was wandering about Iskaara the other night and happened upon a pair of Kalu’ak tuskarr. Back in the day, I ground out Kalu’ak rep to get the Mastercraft Kalu’ak Fishing Pole, and that is the item I currently have equipped as my Fishing Tool. I was pleasantly surprised by how the Kalu’ak greeted me!

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Ok Wrathion, we’re good now

During Battle for Azeroth, I pushed the Shroud of Resolve to rank 6 to get the first appearance upgrade, but once that was accomplished, I just didn’t want to keep going. I spent all of Shadowlands feeling envious every time I saw someone wearing the second appearance upgrade for the Shroud of Resolve, which occurs at rank 12. So after finishing the 9.0 Night Fae Campaign, I took my Druid back to Battle for Azeroth to raise her Shroud of Resolve from rank 6 to rank 12. It only took a few weeks. Doing Black Empire Assaults and Horrific Visions at level 60 as a Druid was a good choice; Boomkin AOE is my favorite AOE of all the Classes (though Elemental Shaman is pretty fun, too), and when I’m in the Horrific Vision, Stealth gets me through the trash in the entrance area without needing to spend excessive time or Sanity.
But once again, now that I’ve got the Shroud of Resolve appearance upgrade, I just don’t want to keep going for the Black Dragonscale Backpack. The grind for Corrupted Mementos is too much and too slow. sigh If the devs made a recolor of that item — perhaps in a less-exciting brown color scheme? — and made it not too terribly difficult to get — such as putting it on the new Trading Post or even in the Store for $5 or $10 — I would go for it.
~*~*~
Meanwhile, Kamalia dinged 70 (again) on the 18th at halfway through the Azure Span main storyline. We’ve finished the Azure Span by now, but we haven’t gotten started on Thaldraszus quite yet.
With the Titan constellations appearance of the Shroud of Resolve now in my Appearances collection for real, Kamalia no longer feels any need for Wrathion’s Armoire of Endless Cloaks — and thus no need to choose between Wrathion and Sabellian or pursue Friendship with them at all. The Cobalt Assembly, on the other hand — it has the fun part of Torghast — stacking up OP power-ups — without the tedious parts. BTH and I had a blast one evening running around there. When we feel like just smashing stuff, that’s where we’ll go. And Kamalia wants the Cobalt Dracthyr Battlegear, of course.

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in which we do not want to have to be the ones to decide between the black dragon brothers

BTH and I finally finished up The Waking Shores last night, dinging 64 in the process.
Every time we have to fight elementals, BTH teases me about how as a Shaman, Kamalia should be upset about having to put down these elementals instead of trying to save them by solving the problem that is making them be all riled up.
When we went through the quests involving the return of Sabellian, BTH groaned aloud, “Don’t make ME choose who gets to be the new Aspect!”
Kamalia doesn’t want to choose, either. Although she knows Wrathion better, Sabellian and his followers do have some good points — and it was Sabellian’s actions that allowed the Ruby Oathstone to be restored.
I am starting to get itchy to bring Kaelyla out to the Dragon Isles. At the same time, I don’t want to rush her ahead of Kamalia, because I want to save the delights of first discovery of all the things in the Dragon Isles for Kamalia and playing with BTH.
When they eventually get there, Kaelinda will choose Wrathion, because of greater familarity, and Kaelyla will choose Sabellian, because she feels a wisp of kinship between his experiences in Outland and her experiences with the Void.
Meanwhile, Kaurinka is still considering going back to Uldum & the Vale of Eternal Blossoms after she finishes the Night Fae Campaign to work on getting the second upgraded appearance of the Shroud of Resolve and the Black Dragonscale Backpack (but do I really want to grind that? really and truly?).

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first week of Dragonflight

After sitting out Shadowlands, BTH decided to give Dragonflight a try. A few weeks ago, he reinstalled the game, subbed up for six months, and blasted through the Shadowlands. Now, for a short time, at least, we can play a game together again while we level through Dragonflight with Kamalia and his Bear Tank.
Due to a confluence of RL factors, we’ve only managed to play Dragonflight for three nights so far. We’ve reached level 63, so BTH thinks we must be mostly done with The Waking Shores by now, right? Um, no, sweetie. He has a tendency to pick a cardinal direction and go do whatever in our quest log is in that direction, then move around the compass clearing out quest markers, and with that approach, we’ve been doing so many side quests that we haven’t even finished Chapter 2 (of 4) of the main storyline yet. From past expansions, I’ve learned that when I am leveling together with BTH, I can only look at quest text long enough to identify the objectives as we barrel along; I’ve learned to save savoring the lore unfolding for my second, solo trip through the leveling experience.
There was no place in the Shadowlands that I really truly loved; it is such a relief to be back in Azeroth. I’m enjoying the sappiness of the side quest stories we’ve been doing. I’m liking Dragonriding, though we haven’t made any effort to collect glyphs and so my poor drake is still so easily tired out. I think my Druid might sit out Dragonflight in protest of not being able to fly with her own wings, however, and if I want to collect Dragon Isles leather transmog, I might have to end up leveling my Monk or my new Rogue (during the end of expansion lull, of course).

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