it’s like the Sparkle Pony all over again, only more serious this time

Darn it if that Celestial Observer’s set that just got added to the cash shop isn’t pretty. It might even be just the thing to encourage Kerisa to get her feathery Boomkin bum back into Horrific Visions of Orgrimmar to get Ashjra’kamas upgraded to its final appearance — that set and that cape look like they’d go together quite beautifully. If the ghastly news about Blizzard’s internal culture hadn’t broken open over the summer, I’d have bought the Celestial Observer’s set and be showing off new Mogs with it in this post already. Now, though, it seems like a money grab and an attempt to distract (or something) from the increasingly bad PR, and I feel rather conflicted about giving Blizzard anything more than my sub.

The “Baby Murloc Satch-Shells” that have also just been released seem like an attempt to ride the coattails of the popularity of The Child from The Mandalorian. Apparently they’re tied to a 6-month sub, so I’ll be getting them by default. I’d rather have the Celestial Observer’s set by default.

Wowhead has some early datamining of the Mythic Progenitor Tier set models. The Mage set looks really bland to me; I think I might be more interested in collecting the lookalike items for the Priest and Warlock sets (from the LFR colorations, of course). The Warlock robe I think looks especially nifty with the ribboned panel with the design that goes across all the ribbons on the front of the skirt.

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venturing into Horrific Visions

The Horrific Vision was Orgrimmar, which is generally believed to be the less challenging of the two. The guide from Blizzard Watch suggested that at lower gear and particularly early Titanic Research Archive levels, stealth classes have an easier time because they can skip all the trash except the guards outside the boss room. I therefore took Kerisa through the rest of the 8.3 questchain. Along the way, I fortuitously collected enough of the 8.3 currencies for several Horrific Vision attempts.
I didn’t have much trouble with the guards or with Thrall — though if I hadn’t been able to sneak through all the trash, I’m not sure I would have had enough health and sanity for those fights — and soon I’d gotten Kerisa’s Shroud of Resolve to rank 5. I discovered then that the appearance change doesn’t happen until rank 6. I took a deep breath and tackled the Valley of Spirits. I used all three charges of the Sanity Orb getting through it, and the boss fight at the end of the wing was a very near thing indeed — I died just moments after the boss did — but the boss died first. Now I have the first upgraded appearance of the Shroud of Resolve. Hooray, another goal checked off of my rest-of-BfA/pre-Shadowlands to-do list!
Will I go back to push for the second upgraded appearance, which occurs at rank 12? Perhaps. It was rather exhilarating. Not anytime soon, though. At the moment, I’m not feeling up to the grinding for various currencies to fund more attempts or to get more of the Titanic Research Archive filled out before I make more attempts.

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Minipost x2: Kaelinda gets a Legion Legendary; Flower Circlets!!!

Yesterday’s Emissary quest was Suramar. When Kaelinda turned it in and opened the box, this fell out:

It’s even a class and spec-specific item, not just a generic all-around utility item!

That’s my third Legion Legendary item (as player, not character), and so far, I’ve gotten all three of them from Suramar Emissary caches.

~*~*~

Lookie what’s coming in Patch 7.3! Squeeeeee!!!!!

Preview images & info from Wowhead

I have wanted a flower circlet headpiece for a long time. I wonder how we’ll get them? I hope it’s not something ridiculously complicated like the pink hippogryph and all that other secret stuff in Legion so far. They’d be appropriate for a holiday such as Love is in the Air or Noblegarden, but I’d like to be able to Mog with them year-round, so I hope they’re not associated with one of those holidays. Maybe the Darkmoon Faire? That would be a good venue for this sort of thing to be a new reward.

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re-engaging with Legion content

By the time Kamalia got all of her Artifacts to 35 traits in mid-February, I was so ready to be done with World Quests. I went off and rattled around in legacy content, merrily bullying old raid bosses for their pocket change (seriously, Nefarian, just give my Priest her robe, okay?). After awhile, that began to get boring, but I wasn’t quite ready to jump back into Legion content, either — I couldn’t quite bring myself to do endgame stuff with Kam, nor could I quite bring myself to go level with any of my alts.

Now, though, the Legionfall campaign is fully unlocked. People are getting their class mounts and parading them around the streets of Dalaran.

I’m sure I will eventually do all the class mount quests for the stories. After seeing them in action, the class mounts that I’m most excited about getting, the ones that will get their own space on my characters’ action bars, are the Rogue raven and the Mage disc. The Paladin horse, Priest owl-gryphon, Monk tiger, and Warlock demonsteed will go into those characters’ mount macros. The others may not ever get used at all.

Now I can start the Legionfall campaign and progress through it at a rate limited only by my ability to complete the quests in a timely fashion. Plus, it’s World Quest bonus week. I skipped the last couple of those because I wasn’t doing anything with Order Resources. I wasn’t even running missions using the mobile app. I’ll need Order Resources again once I get started on the Legionfall stuff, though. This seems like a good time to come back to Legion content.

So I started doing World Quests again the other day, just enough to complete my Emissary quests, and lo and behold, what should fall out of the Suramar cache but my second Legion Legendary!

I got my first Legion Legendary, the equally generic and even more lackluster Sephuz’s Secret, from a Suramar Emissary cache, too. So I guess I should keep doing those Suramar Emissary quests, and maybe one of these days I’ll get a Legion Legendary that’s class & spec specific.

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Sunday on the Promenade 21

This series of posts began because I set myself a goal to document new Transmogrification outfits in a more timely fashion. As soon as I create a new outfit, I write it up in a draft post. As the weekend approaches, I start working on taking fashion screenshots, processing them, and updating “Things my [Class] Wears” posts. On Sunday — though not every Sunday — I publish the collection of my recent efforts. Then I begin the next “Sunday on the Promenade” draft post.

Occasionally, I have ideas for themed Transmogrification collections that take several months to completely assemble. Thus, some of these outfits might get re-posted at a later date as part of such a themed Transmogrification collection.

Alternate Interpretation of the Law

Headguard of the Order, Pauldrons of Swift Retribution, Iceguard Breastplate & Leggings, Girdle of the Endless Pit, Gauntlets of Martial Perfection, Ornate Boots of the Sanctified, Venerable Dal’Rend’s Sacred Charge, Dal’Rend’s Tribal Guardian*
The dungeons of Burning Crusade are notable for dropping recolors — some partial, some complete — of the classic Dungeon class sets and the Molten Core and Blackwing Lair raid sets. Some of the high end crafted gear from Burning Crusade is also recolors of classic Dungeon or Tier sets. This deliberately silly clown suit uses items from the three Burning Crusade recolors of the Paladin Tier 1 “Lawbringer” set. The lavender and pale blue Iceguard set is crafted and has three pieces — helm, chestplate, and leggings. The belt and gloves are the only known items of the green and gold recolor and drop in raids. The purple and red recolor is a full set, but only two pieces were needed to fill in the remaining slots after first using the items from the partial recolors.
To top it all off, I was able to use the original white and yellow hat because the rewards from the class quests at level 20 to get a weapon from Shadowfang Keep and at level 50 to get a T1-lookalike hat from Blackrock Depths became no longer class-exclusive when the Appearances collection went live.

Chocolate Truffle

Bark Covered Pauldron, Brutish Breastplate, Earthswell Belt, Honorary Combat Engineer’s Legguards, Patrol Captain’s Gauntlets, Fungal Resistant Plate Boots, Malice, Felstone Bulwark, Rustic Workman’s Shirt
Once upon a time, the chocolate brown color of the Brutish set was quite unique. Subsequent expansions have introduced additional brown plate armor sets, allowing me to now make this kit that features items from each expansion. I particularly like how there are so many items that are brown with gold trim, as I am fond of that rich, autumnal color combination.

Emerald Dragonsworn

Demonbreaker Helm, Pauldrons of the Dragonblight, Breastplate of the Terrible Price, Girdle of the Immovable, Greaves of the Bloodwarder, Crystalplate Gauntlets, Highstrider Boots, Sword of Nefarian’s Hand
This chestpiece was mail before Patch 7.0. Now that it’s plate, it combines nicely with these Warrior T5 recolor pants to produce a nice dragon-scaly look for this outfit.
Although I didn’t use hats in the kits I made for my Paladin and Death Knight using the Hour of Twilight shoulders, I couldn’t resist how splendid the combination of this hat and these shoulders looks.

Illidari Prime

Cursed Vision of Sargeras, Grizzly Jerkin, Infernal Firecord Sash, Cranefeather Britches, Ranger Gloves + Illidari Bracers, Griftah’s Authentic Troll Shoes, Warglaives of Azzinoth
It took Kiralaira 18 weeks to obtain the off-hand Warglaive of Azzinoth. It took her another 13 weeks (31 weeks total) to obtain the main-hand Warglaive of Azzinoth. When she had obtained both of Illidan’s Legendary glaives, I made this attempt to mimic his entire appearance.
Kiralaira only put on the changed horns and hair as a glamour for the photoshoot with Illidan, however, because that appearance made her look like someone else’s Demon Hunter — not mine.

If any of you, my dear readers, have kits that you’d like to share, I’d be happy to add you to the show! Just email me your picture(s), along with a list of the items in the outfit. I don’t regularly check my blog email, though, so if you’ve sent me an outfit, please make a comment on the most recent Sunday Mog Show post so that I know to check my blog email for your contribution.

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the other orange blade

After her thirty-first petition, Illidan finally relented and agreed that Kiralaira, as the Prime of the Illidari, could have safekeeping of the main-hand Warglaive of Azzinoth as well as the off-hand blade if he should ever be… indisposed.

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an orange blade

After her eighteenth petition, Illidan at last agreed that Kiralaira could have safekeeping of the off-hand Warglaive of Azzinoth while he was… indisposed.

How much longer would it take to convince him to give her charge of the main-hand weapon, as well?

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In Which Kamalia has a Spot of Good Luck… and oh yeah, Blizzcon X happened, too

One day when Suramar was the faction-of-the-day, Kamalia opened up the prize box and out fell an orange ring.

Sephuz’s Secret is not a particularly exciting Legendary for Kamalia’s preferred playstyle, but it was still a significant ilevel upgrade over the rings she had been wearing, so she put it on.

Another day, she was doing one of the murloc world quests on the northern coast of Highmountain and happened upon a Flotsam kill in-progress. So she hopped in, because the gold reward for the associated world quest was good, and lo and behold, a Hidden appearance for the Doomhammer fell out.

Although I like the default appearance of the Doomhammer just fine and hadn’t been planning to actively seek out the Hidden appearance, now that I’ve got it, I’ll have to make a Troll-themed kit around the Warmace of Shirvallah appearance one of these days. Now, did I remember to save Kam’s Throne of Thunder gear long enough to get it loaded into my Appearances tab, or am I going to have to re-collect it…?

~*~*~

So, that news from Blizzcon X…

I’m glad that there will be another chapter of the Order Hall Campaigns in Patch 7.2 — though it does mean that I will now have twice as much to do to achieve my grand expansion goal of completing the Order Hall Campaigns for all twelve Classes. I do hope, however, that having completed Improving on History will not be a prerequisite for being able to participate in the Patch 7.2 “Armies of the Legionfall” storyline. I can probably convince BTH to run Kamalia through the necessary Mythics for that questline, but I probably won’t be able to convince him to run all twelve of my characters through those Mythics.

Regarding those class-specific mounts from the Patch 7.2 Order Hall Campaign continuation —
The Rogue raven, Priest owl-sphinx, and Paladin armored war-steed v2.0 are awesome.
The Mage flying disc is pretty much what I guessed that the Mage mount might be before I even looked at the gallery. It’s plenty awesome, though, and I’ll definitely be using it once I get it.
The Monk glowy tiger is kinda nifty. I love the details of the kegs and teakettles hanging from the back of the saddle.
The Druid Warden-owl looks kinda goofy in that shot. Maybe it looks more awesome from other angles? As long as I’ll be able to choose whether to use Stormcrow form or Warden-owl form, I’ll be happy with it.
Is that Warrior mount essentially a red version of the blue Skyscreamer mount from Throne of Thunder? If so, yeah, that’s cool and I want it.
Meh on the Shaman, Hunter, Warlock, Demon Hunter, and Death Knight mounts, though. I doubt I’ll be using those.

I’m also intrigued by the idea of solo challenges to unlock new Artifact appearances. I just hope they’re not quite as frustrating as the Thunder Forge and Blessing of the Celestials scenarios from the Mists Legendary Cape questline were.

And Flying is coming in Patch 7.2, is it?
During the past week or two, Kamalia reached Revered with the Valarjar and the Wardens, completing Broken Isles Diplomat. Now the only piece of Broken Isles Pathfinder, Part One I have yet to complete is Good Suramaritan. But Loremaster of Legion is an account-wide achievement, so if I’ve completed the four leveling zones with Kam and then do Suramar with Kaelinda, I should still get the meta-achievement complete, ja?
And then I guess I’ll do the bits and pieces of Broken Isles Pathfinder, Part Two with whomever is able and has the most interest in doing those bits and pieces.

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Aluneth & Ebonchill

Kaelinda dinged 102 last weekend — again from Fishing dailies — so when she returned to the Hall of the Guardian, Meryl sent her off to get the Arcane and Frost Artifacts.

I got the Arcane Artifact right away.

Going into the Nexus to get it made me wish I’d done the Dragonwrath quest chain. Maybe I will do it with Kaelinda, at some point, so that after Legion is over, Aluneth and Tarecgosa can argue with each other in her closet at night.

Then I got busy working on the Quel’Delar story and didn’t go get the Frost Artifact until today.

I find it interesting the way the surroundings of the Frost and Arcane Artifacts are reversals of each other. To get the Arcane Artifact, one goes into the frozen halls of the Nexus; to get the Frost Artifact, one needs to deal with various arcane wardings.

I like both the base and upgraded appearances of Felo’melorn and Aluneth. Ebonchill, not so much — though I like the upgraded appearance (and the red tints) a little better. My top two choices to mog over it are the Ethereum Life-Staff, which I already had, and the Apostle of Argus, which I didn’t. Luckily, it only took me two attempts at Hyjal Summit to acquire it. It’s not that Hyjal is hard, of course, just that the trash in the Horde encampment is so spread out that it’s really annoying to solo.

Meanwhile, Kamalia finally completed “Nightfallen but Not Forgotten”. Oculeth is my favorite of the Shal’dorei whom I’ve met so far. Kamalia also reached Revered with the Nightfallen and the Dreamweavers. That puts her at 4/6 for Broken Isles Diplomat. She just has the Valarjar and the Wardens left. I had been choosing the Nightfallen whenever Kirin Tor was the faction-of-the-day; now I’ll be choosing the Wardens — at least until I’m Revered with them, then I’ll probably go back to choosing the Nightfallen.

At this point, though, I’m debating whether or not to continue doing the Nightfallen storyline with Kamalia. I’m a lot more interested in following that complete storyline with Kaelinda. Kaelinda is more personally interested in the Highborne and their magic, and she actually wants her Order Hall shoulders for their appearance — unlike Kamalia, for whom her Order Hall shoulders would certainly be a stats upgrade, but she doesn’t particularly care for their appearance.

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impostor syndrome

I haven’t listened to the Legion lead-in audiodrama that came out this week, but something in one of the BW posts about it made me wonder just what happened to Cordana Felsong, and why she’s going to be a dungeon boss in Legion. So I hopped over to Wowpedia to read up on her. Because Cordana is so closely associated with Khadgar, the article also provided a nice synopsis of the Legendary Ring questline.

Reading about what “the Commander” did made me feel even more like my characters are not really qualified to be the heads of their class Orders in Legion.

I only progressed in the Ring questline far enough to discover the fate of Kairoz in the Time-Lost Glade. Most of the things that “the Commander” is supposed to have done, I didn’t do.

I didn’t LFR during Warlords, not even running through them once in “tourist mode”. I made a choice not to bother with it at the beginning of the expansion, and I stuck with that decision. The only time I set foot in LFR this whole expansion was to get the Shipyard equipment blueprint for the Gyro-whatsit that drops from the Fel Reaver. On a Real Life basis, I don’t regret not raiding.

Sitting in my Garrison running Follower missions and doing profession CDs and farming old raids for Mog gear, though, I wasn’t “the Commander”, the great Hero of three worlds (counting Outland and Draenor separately)… I was more like the 2nd Lieutenant in charge of Logistics, or something.

And so I feel like my characters don’t quite deserve the accolades with which they will be greeted and treated as they undertake the Artifact questlines in Legion.

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