something is rotten in the zone of Icecrown

I logged in with Kaelinda to do the pre-launch lore questchain as soon as I could. Lor’themar was mobbed. Only by mousing around and very carefully watching how my cursor changed could I even tell that an all-star group of other lore figures was there (and almost all of them women!). I talked to them all, of course. I followed the short questchain in Kalimdor, then went up to Icecrown and did as much as there was to do there. I went to Marris Stead, but I was running back as a ghost when Nathanos died, so I didn’t get any loot. When I’d done all there was to do, I looked around and said to myself, “is that all?”

After seeing the lore with the Horde leadership, I wanted to see the lore with the Alliance leadership, so I logged in with Kaylynda and did the Alliance side up to the point where I got the quest to go to Icecrown and the quest to kill Nathanos. This time, when I arrived at Marris Stead, he was almost dead already; I succeeded in not dying myself and got an ilevel 115 staff. Poor Kaelyla had not yet managed to get a 100+ level staff from Emissaries or World Quests — she kept getting swords, daggers, wands, or off-hands — so I ran her through questchain until she got the quest to kill Nathanos, too… and I got a sword, not the staff. ARGH! Why can I not get a decent staff with this character?

I’d acquired enough tokens with Kaelinda to get a first piece of the Mog set — I started with the robe, of course — and found that somehow I’d already obtained that recolor of the Arathi Warfront set, at least on the Horde side (I’m not quite sure how). After I’d waited out the time for the purchase to become non-returnable, the corresponding Alliance piece popped up in Kaylynda’s wardrobe — and I didn’t have that recolor of the Arathi Warfront set yet on the Alliance side. Guess I’ll have to grind the dailies for the tokens to get the Mog set. Hmm, if I do it with Kaelinda and Kaylynda and Kaelyla, and have each of them grab a piece as soon as they can afford one, I could get it done in a third of the days!

I did not get much Exam grading done tonight…

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Draka and the Necrolords; how many alts do I *really* need?

Draka is my favorite character in Warlords. Sorry, Yrel, I play Horde much, much more than Alliance — so as cool as Yrel’s story is, I spent a lot more time with Draka. After watching the new Afterlives: Maldraxxus short, I like Draka even more.

After watching that story, I find myself re-considering the Necrolords as a possible Covenant for my Human Mage. When Shadowlands was first announced and I started thinking about which characters I’d want to assign to which Covenant, I thought I’d do four Mages and tentatively assigned my yet-to-be-created Kul Tiran Mage to Necrolords because Blood Elf would be Venthyr because “duh, Kael’thas” and Void Elf would be Night Fae because blue & purple aesthetics and Human would be Kyrian because Stormwind-like aesthetics. Then the Covenant set previews came out and all my Mages said “nope nope nope” to the Maldraxxus aesthetics, and my Warlock stepped in and said “Hey that fits my style and also I can do Necrolords because I know strong and fight. I did what it took to survive after the Sunwell fell, learning how to draw on fel sources to supply my need for mana, and I’m not ashamed of it.” I still had my Human Mage tentatively assigned to Kyrian, but then my Blood Elf Priest happened. So then I thought my Human Mage might choose Night Fae or Venthyr instead, but oh no, not Necrolords. The ethos of fighting to survive and protect that Draka conveys in the Afterlives short, however, would also appeal to Kinevra, who is a survivor of Theramore and has helped the Kaldorei in their efforts to reclaim Darkshore. And due to their Afterlives short, the Kyrians would seem less appealing to Kinevra because she is not the type who would be relieved to let go of their traumatic memory of the destruction of Theramore, but would rather say “I am my scars” about it.

I wonder how the remaining Aferlives shorts will change my perspectives on the Night Fae and the Venthyr…?

~*~*~

Meanwhile, it is the beginning of the semester, which is often a time when I experience insomnia fueled by a combination of anxiety and going into creative overdrive to try to distract myself from the anxiety. I had a bout of insomnia a few nights ago because I was thinking about my Characters roster — which, after the addition of Keliora, is now 48 alts and therefore almost completely full — and cataloging how their appearances will change with the new customizations coming in Shadowlands — oh yes, I will be one of those who will spend all of the first and possibly the second nights of the pre-patch at the Barbershop just updating my characters’ appearances — and I began thinking that it might be time to dismiss some of my minor alts and convert their appearances into Alter-Egos of major alts.
* Do I really need two female Tauren Hunters? Kawneiha could easily be an Alter-Ego appearance for Ketura and still represent Kamalia (and Ketura)’s mother.
* Do I really need two female Tauren Monks? Kaobeka’s name is an anagram tribute to Akabeko of Red Cow Rise (whom I still dearly miss, after all these years), but she could continue being that as an Alter-Ego appearance of Katewatha — and I haven’t used Kaobeka’s skills as a Professions mule for some years now.
* Do I really need two female Tauren Death Knights? It’s been quite awhile now since I decided that the “Underpowered Death Knight” playstyle experiment had run its course. And if I used the “Kaumaleia” appearance as an Alter-Ego for Kregga, I could still file her clothes as “Things the Underpowered Death Knight Wears” rather than beginning to mix them in with Kregga’s outfits…
* Do I really need two female Tauren Shamans? Even if I’ve race-changed one of them to be Highmountain Tauren? Maybe I don’t really need Highmountain Tauren alts for all their available armor classes. Maybe just Kasheena the Druid will do for having a Highmountain Tauren on my roster. As much as I thought I wanted that Heritage Armor, I’ve certainly been struggling to find interest in spending playtime on leveling her…
But it’s hard to let go of alts I’ve had on my roster for a long time, and so thinking about dismissing these alts — even if I kept their appearances as new Alter-Egos of other characters — was stressful and kept me awake.

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Two months until Shadowlands!

Shadowlands goes live in the evening on Monday 26 October!
What’s my school schedule like that week? Ah, good, I’ll be in the middle of a unit for all my classes — no Exams to be writing or grading. Could I get away with cancelling my 9:30 – 10:30 pm Zoom student help sessions that week?

These are the characters who will be going:

Archmage Kaelinda: Blood Elf Mage, Fire, Scryer/Venthyr
Firelord Kalaneia: Blood Elf Warlock, Destruction, Scryer/Necrolords
Crusader Keliora: Blood Elf Priest, Discipline, Aldor/Kyrian
Archmage Kaelyla: Void Elf Mage, Frost, Scryer/Night Fae

Archmage Kaylynda: Human Mage, Arcane, Scryer/undecided
Archdruid Kerisa: Tauren Druid, Balance, Aldor/Night Fae
Farseer Kamalia: Tauren Shaman, Elemental, Aldor/Night Fae
Highlord Karaelia: Tauren Paladin, Protection, Aldor/Kyrian

At the moment, I am planning on having Kerisa go first. It would feel odd to not lead out with a Tauren. From what little I know about the Night Fae Covenant story (having studiously avoided spoilers), Kerisa is the character who will be most personally invested in that story, so she should go through it first. Kaelinda will probably be next, then the rest of the Eversong Elves, and then Kaylynda — after I’ve seen enough of the Covenants with other characters to figure out which one would be the best fit for her. Kamalia and Karaelia will probably not travel to the Shadowlands until the latter half of the expansion, when I’ve done most of what I want to do with the other characters and have learned how to navigate the zones, questchains, and gameplay systems — and there are starting to be catch-up mechanics for alts in place!

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in which Kamalia considers un-retiring

I was telling BTH about Shadowlands and how I was leveling a relatively new character (Kaelyla) to play in it. Talking to BTH about the characters I had been actively playing, I realized that while I enjoy my Boomkin and my Mages and my Destro-Lock, I missed my Elemental Shaman.

I recalled Kamalia from Thunder Bluff and sent her off to acquire her Shroud of Resolve.

I looked at the Covenant armor sets again and began to consider recalling Karaelia (Tauren Paladin) from the Sanctum of Light to get her Shroud of Resolve, too, because dangit if that Kyrian plate set doesn’t look pretty (though she’d wear it with alternate helm and shoulders).

Still, neither Kamalia nor Karaelia will be in the first group of characters to go to the Shadowlands — unless BTH decides to give Shadowlands a look and I bring Kam out to play with him.

Looking at the Kyrian sets again, I thought how Priestly the cloth set looks. I hadn’t yet used the level 120 Boost that came with purchasing Shadowlands (something I did shortly after Kaelyla dinged 120), partly because I couldn’t decide which existing character to give it to. I thought, I have a Blood Elf Mage and a Blood Elf Warlock, so why not have a Blood Elf Priest, too, to go Kyrian? Golden-eyed and golden-haired, of course…


So, um, yeah.
Four Eversong Elves for four Shadowlands Covenants.

Kaylynda will still go to the Shadowlands, but now she doesn’t have to choose Kyrian if she decides that she’d be a better fit with the Night Fae or the Venthyr…

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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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Shrouds of Resolve obtained; remainder of BfA/pre-Shadowlands to-do list update

Alas, it was wishful thinking that misread the notes about the Echoes of Ny’alotha update to mean that if one character on an account got a rank 1 Shroud of Resolve, all characters would then be able to resume collecting Echoes of Ny’alotha.

Kinevra, Kaelinda, Kalaneia, and Kerisa have now completed “Beginning the Descent” and obtained their rank 1 Shrouds of Resolve. Kinevra has all of her rank 3 Essences; the others can now continue to gather Echoes of Ny’alotha to get the one or two Essences they still need. At some point, I’ll need to run each of them through the rest of the 8.3 questline, so they can cleanse Corrupted items and to decide which of them will take on the task of running Horrific Visions to get the rank 5 appearance for the Shroud of Resolve.

Some other things I still want to do before the Shadowlands pre-launch events begin —
* 7.1 Alliance War Campaign
* Pride of Kul Tiras questline
* recruit Kul Tirans
* Heritage of the Sin’dorei questline
* go back to Broken Isles with Kinevra to finish Order Hall campaign & get Archmage title

~*~*~

Kamalia hadn’t quite finished getting the Mechagon stuff she needed to buy the rank 3 Purification Protocol when the Echoes of Ny’alotha changes came out a couple of weeks ago. She’s now finished that, so bye-bye Mechagon — for good this time!

Kamalia and Karaelia are now retired, more-or-less. Kam will still go out to do Emissaries when the reward is 2K gold, and she’ll send her minions on money missions, but that’s all. I haven’t gotten the Shroud of Resolve with either of them, and I’m not sure if I will.

~*~*~

I’ve been ticking off Mogging goals, too —
* Kinevra & Kaelinda got all that I wanted out of Eternal Palace LFR
* between them, the three cloth wearers collected the Normal Zuldazar cloth dungeon set
* Kerisa got the partial recolor of the Kul Tiras leather dungeon set that comes from reputations and Heroic Mechagon
* Kinevra farmed enough more Seafarers Doubloons to get the other two colors of the Tricorne Hat

Here’s the Mogging stuff I still want to do:
* clothies run Heroic Kul Tiras dungeons to collect that armor set
* clothies LFR Uldir to collect that set
* LFR first and second wings of Dazar’alor to get Phoenixfire Staff and crown from Opulence
* Kinevra farm Darkshore Warfront when it’s up to finish collecting Moonpriest set (just robes & gloves to go!) and get the Sentinel’s Branch staff

~*~*~

And then, of course, I’ll want to level Void Elf Mage, Highmountain Tauren Druid, and Kul Tiran Mage to 120 to get their Heritage Armors. Kaelyla (Void Elf) will also need to get her rank 1 Shroud of Resolve and rank 3 Essences so that she’ll be ready to go to Shadowlands, too; the others may or may not, depending on how much of the rest of my to-do list is still unfinished when they get to level 120.

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Gotta Catch ‘Em All!

Kinevra hit Exalted with 7th Legion and Proudmoore Admiralty this week, which prompted me to finally go finish the last two chapters of the 7.0 Alliance War Campaign. Then I could go recruit the Dark Iron Dwarves — because no matter how much I tried to talk myself out of recruiting all the Allied Races, I just couldn’t resist pairing up each of the Minor Mages with an Allied Race counterpart:

Kivrinne: Undead Mage, 46, Frost
Kymberlea: Worgen Mage, 32, Fire

Kaoling: Huojin Pandaren Mage, 31, Arcane
Koralyra: Tushui Pandaren Mage, 20, Frost

Keriluna: Night Elf Mage, 32, Arcane
Koralythria: Nightborne Mage, 20, Arcane

Kaprikka: Draenei Mage, 92, Arcane/Frost
Krystaliza: Lightforged Draenei Mage, 20, Arcane

Kelilla: Gnome Mage, 42, Frost
Katrinka: Mechagnome Mage, 20, Frost

Kermione: Goblin Mage, 33, Fire
Khariba: Vulpera Mage, 20, Fire

Kikimaia: Troll Mage, 36, Frost
Kilauea: Zandalari Troll Mage, 20, Fire

Kenosha: Orc Mage, 33, Fire
Keshona: Mag’har Orc Mage, 20, Fire

Khrissalys: Dwarf Mage, 30, Fire
Kronakka: Dark Iron Dwarf Mage, 20, Fire

I have yet to do the 7.1 Alliance War Campaign so that I can recruit the Kul Tirans, but my Kul Tiran Mage will go in with my major characters, like my Void Elf Mage did.

Now that I’ve done (almost) all of them, I think that the Highmountain Tauren, Zandalari Troll, and Dark Iron Dwarf recruitment questlines/scenarios were the most epic, and the Vulpera one was the most fun.

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checking in on my BfA bucket list

Let’s see now, where am I at on my BfA bucket list?

Here’s the list, again:

1) Kinevra needs to get to 120 and do the Alliance War Campaign while there will still be enough folks in BfA LFR for there to be reasonable queue times. This is a primary goal partly for seeing the Alliance side of the story and partly for being able to recruit the Kul Tirans and roll a gorgeous curvy ringlet-haired Kul Tiran Mage.
Kinevra recently finished the Nazjatar (8.2) segment of the War Campaign. She has completed 6/8 chapters of the 8.0 Alliance War Campaign.

2) Kaelinda needs to get to 120 and get the Sin’dorei Heritage Armor.
As much as I’d like to get the Sin’dorei Heritage Armor, I’m prioritizing Kerisa and Karaelia ahead of Kaelinda for the current double XP buff because she’s a duplicate clothie, whereas leveling the other two will get me a character of each of the four armor types at level 120.

3) Kerisa needs to get to 120 so that she can wear all of the Island Expeditions stuff I’ve collected off of the AH for her and to be in position to potentially be my first Horde character to level in 9.0 (because Balance Druids, with their self-heals, are more robust than Mages).
Kerisa is currently 118; hopefully I can find enough time during the next month, around the extra workload of doing my classes online, to be able to get her to 120 before the double XP buff runs out.

4) After reaching 120 and kitting themselves up in Benthic gear (they all already have full sets of tokens awaiting them), Kinevra, Kaelinda, and Kerisa need to go smack the Jadefire Masters and Opulence around until they cough up the Phoenixfire Staff and the crown, respectively. A lesser degree of LFR priority is collecting the Uldir and Eternal Palace LFR cloth sets.
Kinevra netted the Eternal Palace gown during her Azshara run for the questchain. Now I’m trying to decide how much I want to spend time in queue for the rest of Eternal Palace to pick up other items from that set. The pieces I’m most interested in are those snazzy golden-toed shoes and the shell/fan belt, though it would be nice to have the gloves and shoulders as well.
I’ve been doing the second wing of Dazar’alor with Kinevra and burning a bonus roll token on Opulence, and while I’ve seen other people winning crowns, I’m still trying for it — and I might never see it at all, if the 1.7% drop rate on Wowhead is accurate…

5) Kamalia needs to get her Heart of Azeroth to level 70 (currently at 65) so she can see all of the dragon stories currently available, and then to whatever level is required for the additional bit(s) of dragon story that will be in 8.3.

6) Kinevra would like to collect the Darkshore Warfront set. Kerithian may not need to get to 120 if the Night Warrior customization option unlocks for her when Kinevra does the Darkshore Warfront introduction questline.
Indeed, my Night Elf Druid is now a dark-eyed Kaldorei. Kinevra hasn’t gotten out to the Darkshore Warfront to start collecting that gear yet, though.

7) Void Elf, Highmountain Tauren, Kul Tiran, Vulpera, and maaaaybe Nightborne alts will eventually want to be leveled for their Heritage Armors, but this will remain a low priority, long game project.
We’ll see if the Void Elf and Highmountain Tauren manage to get any double XP playtime after Kerisa, Karaelia, and Kaelinda have gotten to 120. I did finally get around to spending about half of Kamalia’s accumulated gold to upgrade all of my cloth and Intellect-leather Heirlooms to scale all the way to 120. Hmm, I wonder how Heirlooms will be dealt with in the new leveling paradigm for Shadowlands…?

~*~*~

Kamalia and Kinevra are, so far, my lead “story experience” characters. They will be the ones who will do the greatest amount of the stuff that’s available to do at 120.

As other characters reach 120, I’ll probably do only minimal stuff with them — I’ve got plenty of Benthic tokens lying around to kit them up with, and then they can go to Nazjatar for long enough to unlock the Chamber of Heart questline to boost the Heart of Azeroth to level 50. Then maybe do enough of Nazjatar and Mechagon to get the Rank 1 Essences from those factions, maybe pursue the Crucible of Flame questline up to whatever level their other activities give them enough AP for? Maybe do WQs that award gear to collect gear appearances? Maybe farm Uldir, since those raid sets are the ones that I consider to be the most handsome and desirable out of this expansion?

Getting the Sanity Cloak to Rank 5 is all I want to accomplish out of the 8.3 content. Kinevra’s probably the one who’ll end up doing it because her gear and Heart level have surpassed Kamalia’s and I don’t think I’ll want to spend the time to get Kerisa or Karaelia geared up to do it instead.

~*~*~

Looking ahead to Shadowlands, I’ll be bringing four Mages: Kaylynda for the Kyrian, Kaelinda for the Venthyr, Kaelyla for the Night Fae, and probably my yet-to-be-created Kul Tiran for the Necrolords. The example “Necrolords aren’t necessarily evil” hero soul that we’ll find in Maldraxxus being Draka, I’ve been beginning to ponder what my Kul Tiran’s backstory could be for her to be warlike/battle-hardened enough to choose that faction. Should she be a pirate lass from Tiragarde Sound? Or maybe a forest girl from Drustvar?

Kerisa — or perhaps Kasheena, if I get her leveled to 120 before Shadowlands arrives — will probably go because from what we know so far, it just seems like I ought to do the Ardenweald/Night Fae covenant story with a Druid. Karaelia will undoubtably choose Kyrian if she goes. And Kamalia, if she goes, will probably choose whichever of Kyrian or Night Fae has the armor that I find more appealing.

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spring fever

My college’s Spring Break is officially next week. Classes were cancelled this week, and I should have spent the time practicing with screencasting and web-conferencing software to get ready for taking my courses online after Spring Break. Spring Fever hit me hard in the middle of the week, though, and I spent an afternoon playing Kinevra through chapters 4 – 6 of the 8.0 Alliance War Campaign and doing the Tyrande’s Vengeance questline instead of working. While doing those things, I was sitting in LFR queue for the second wing of Dazar’alor — trying for the crown, of course. Since she reached level 120 a few weeks ago, Kinevra has also achieved Friendly with both Mechagon and Nazjatar to get the Rank 1 versions of those Essences. Kinevra’s ilevel and Heart level have both surpassed Kamalia’s.

Now with Blizzard implementing double XP gain for the next month, I’m sorely tempted to finish leveling Kerisa, Kaelinda, and Karaelia to 120 instead of doing schoolwork…

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Kinevra dings 120

School has lightened up a bit, so I was able to play for awhile this evening. Kinevra had gotten very close to 120. I finished a quest chain, and DING! Now she is my second level 120, at last.

Of course, she was promptly inundated with things to do: do World Quests! Do the 9.0 War Campaign! Do the 9.1 War Campaign! Go to Nazjatar! Go to the Arathi Warfront! Go with Tyrande to reclaim Darkshore!

Although she hasn’t actually quested through much of Kul Tiras beyond Tiragarde Sound, due to the 15th Anniversary Event trivia daily XP, she’s got credit for “Loremaster of Kul Tiras” thanks to the expansion Loremaster Achievement being account-wide and Kamalia having gotten the Zuldazar version. I must admit that my motivation for questing through the rest of Kul Tiras will be severely diminished now.

What I will do first, I think, is go to Nazjatar up to the point where the quest to go to Magni for the necklace upgrade unlocks. That way, the AP rewards from the other endgame questlines will apply meaningfully to Kinevra’s necklace progression. Then I can start working through the other things in order, returning to Nazjatar after I’ve completed the 9.0 and 9.1 segments of the War Campaign.

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