First impressions of Zaralek Cavern

Kaelinda went to Zaralek Cavern last night.

For one thing, the Valdrakken weekly “get rep and do a Dragon Isles world activity” quest wanted me to go to the new zone of Zaralek Caverns and do the new activity of Sniffenseeking. I was rather expecting this, given that that quest wanted me to go to the new zone of Forbidden Reach and do the new activity of Zskera Vaults the first week that that area was available.

For another, when I went to pick up Professions weeklies, the Drakonid dude didn’t have a quest to steal clothing from Gnolls, and the Gnome dude didn’t have a quest to get scythid legs or tarantula legs. There was a new Niffen fellow there, but he didn’t have a Tailoring quest for me, either. But when I logged in with my Druid, who is a Scribe, the Drakonid dude did have a quest for her. So I figured that the Tailoring weekly must be from the Niffen fellow, which meant I’d probably have to go unlock the Niffen Renown track to be able to get it.

And I did want to get the new Dragonriding Glyphs. This was made quite easy to do by using the map of glyph locations on Wowhead to plan a route around the cavern and the close-up images and specific location directions/instructions on Blizzard Watch to find each individual glyph. I didn’t find any of the glyphs difficult to get to as I moved around the cavern counter-clockwise starting from Loamm.

I played through enough of the main questline to get the quest completion for the Valdrakken rep weekly. I’ll come back for the rest of it later — I want to get through the rest of the launch questlines before I activate Fyrakk assaults so that they don’t interfere with doing the launch questlines. I am going to have to do those Fyrakk assaults eventually, though, since they reward the Cloth gear set coloration that mimics Alexstrasza’s new look. I’ll also have to push Loamm Renown through to 16, eventually, for the Black Dragonflight-themed shoulders-cloak-tabard set.

The environment of Zaralek Cavern feels like a hybrid of Deepholm, Blackrock Mountain, and, oddly enough, Nazjatar. The colors and shapes of the plant life and crystal formations in the entrance passageway are what give me the Nazjatar vibes.

The Niffen confuse me. They talk about how they arrived in the cavern and had to establish friendly relations with the local Drogbar, but where did they come from? How old are they, and how long have they been there? The princess talks about her mom having established the settlement, and the princess’s (former?) BFF talks about digging adventures during early explorations of the cavern, so it doesn’t seem like they’ve been there very long. To me, the Niffen are giving off similar vibes to other small races such as Cataclysm‘s Lost Isles Pygmies or Mists‘s Grummles, created to fill a specific, narrow cultural function niche but without really solid worldbuilding of how they actually fit into the ecology of Azeroth’s spontaneously generated sapient species, and likely to be left behind & forgotten after the expansion that introduced them.

Overall, my initial reaction to Zaralek Cavern is …meh. In the past, I have often put alts that I didn’t intend to actually do the zone questing with through the entry sequence to a new zone just so they’d be able to go there for Mog photoshoots in the future. I didn’t do that with Mechagon or Korthia because those environments did not inspire me at all; Zaralek Cavern is falling into that bin as well.

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Did Kurog Grimtotem use THE DOOMSTONE to free Raszageth from Froststone Vault?

My biggest burning unanswered lore question of Dragonflight: Was the Doomstone what Kurog Grimtotem used to rile up the elementals and free Raszageth from her prison, and if not, why not?
The Doomstone first appears as the MacGuffin of the Twilight Cultist plotline in Cataclysm Thousand Needles. During Legion, it is taken to the Maelstrom for safekeeping by the Farseers during the Broken Shore chapter of the Shaman Order Hall questline. During that questline, enemy agents use it to incite various elementals to dangerous levels of activity.
Having the Doomstone be involved with the rise of the Primalists and perhaps even the key to opening Froststone Vault to release Raszageth seems like a great story fit for that dangling thread.

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Quest text? Who needs that, anyway?

My oldest has been doing well in kindergarten. He’s gotten good at figuring out a word by putting together the letter sounds, and he knows most of the “high frequency” words in the caterpillar that’s been growing on our living room wall. He can read words in simple stories.
He is by no means literate enough yet to read quest text*…
He discovered Transmogrification, but his lowbie toons didn’t have any money. I told him he needed to do quests to get money. I taught him the elementary skills of questing: talk to the person who is sparkling**, pick up things on the ground that are sparkling, loot your kills, the silver arrowhead on the minimap is you and the yellow arrow is pointing where you need to go and when you get to the right place the arrow turns into a yellow dot. I’ve given him occasional help with specific quests that have trickier requirements (such as the one to /wave at the ogre chef in Exile’s Reach).
I’ve been amazed by what he’s managed to figure out how to do on his own.
He can get all the way through Exile’s Reach, the Demon Hunter starting zone, the Dracthyr starting zone, the Warlords of Draenor Dark Portal to Garrison introductory scenario, the Legion Broken Shore introductory scenario, the Battle for Azeroth rescue of Talanji from Stormwind introductory scenario, and the Shadowlands escape from the Maw introductory scenario.
Without reading***.
I’ve shown him how to take the skips for the expansion introduction scenarios, but he likes to play through them. He plays through them over and over, deleting a character he already has# to roll up yet another new Zandalari Troll or Nightborne to do it again. He peppers me with questions about the characters and the storylines (I am so tired of answering questions about Sylvanas…) and I tell him, “kid, you know that better than I do by now.”

~*~*~

*Or, thankfully, city chat channels. I ought to teach him to leave city chat channels whenever he comes into a capital city for the first time with a new alt now, so that he’s already in the habit of automatically getting out of them by the time he’s literate enough to know what they’re saying….
**I don’t use Outline mode because I’m too lazy to turn it off and then back on again when I want to take Sunday Mog Show screenshots. I still have to contend with sparkles in my screenshots, but I think they’re less distracting.
***He doesn’t go out and do any regular zone questing, though, so perhaps it might be better to say that one doesn’t need reading to do an on-rails scenario questing experience.
#My account only has about 8 slots that aren’t filled with my own toons, so I had to teach him how to type “delete” soon after he started wanting to make his own characters instead of just playing with my Night Elf Druid and the Orc Hunter I’d created for him when I first began allowing him to play WoW.

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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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starting out in 10.0.7

Well, I went and collected all the new Dragonriding Glyphs so I could get my drakes some brakes. Kamalia set her hearth to the Forbidden Reach. I’ll work on the Forbidden Reach questline some more another day.
I’m keenly interested in the new Tauren lore in the Ohn’ahran Plains, but I think I’ll wait a week or two to do the questchain so that my screenshots won’t be quite so cluttered up with other players 😛

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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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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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Ember Court goals reached, for now

I reached Revered with the Ember Court this past week. This allowed me to purchase the Cosmetic set pieces I was most interested in, the shoulders and belt. I ran a full Kyrian guest list for that Court and they were all Elated with the party I threw for them. And whaddayaknow, Sika’s tribute chest contained the RNG-dependent item that I’d most particularly wanted from the Ember Court, Tranquil’s Censer, the most golden version of the Bastion bell off-hand.
So… after I get the slate of Ember Court upgrade quests that popped up with Revered cleared from my quest log, and get the guest list RSVPs and the party planning selections for my next Court finalized, I’ll… stop doing the Ember Court.
At least for the time being.
Well… Mostly.
I’ll still want to do an Ember Court at least once during each Holiday, to see Theotar’s take on Azeroth’s celebrations 😀
The Ember Court is fun, and I love the lavishing of detail that went into it. It’s also rather a lot of stuff to do. When I have Ember Court quests active in my log, I somehow don’t dare to Covenant Twist for Korthia because I don’t want to risk having my progress on those quests get reset.
There are things I might like to get from the Ember Court at Exalted, such as the Mantle of Court Blades. I might also like to eventually get my favorite guests to be my Best Friends so they can be my penpals after I leave the Shadowlands. But I can come back to the Ember Court to work on achieving those things when I am finished with Korthia and have moved on to Zereth Mortis….

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further Covenant Twisting considerations

I (Kaelinda) won’t want to do Covenant Twisting every day — maybe only one or two days out of the week. When I do, I’ll want to start and end the day as Venthyr.
Broken Mirrors and the Ember Court deplete Infused Rubies pretty quickly, so I’ll want to stay Venthyr whenever there is a Revendreth Calling.
Swapping Covenants resets your Soulbind to the first one, so I’ll have to be sure to change my Soulbind to Theotar before doing the Ember Court. I’d better check that all of the first Soulbinds + Theotar have appropriate Conduits for whatever spec I happen to be playing at the moment, too.
When I do Maw Assaults, I’ll generally want to be whichever Covenant is running the Assault, so I can take the portal to the Assault location from the Covenant Sanctum. However, I’m not sure that I’ll actually do any more Assaults before I get the Archivist’s Codex up enough to get the thing that reduces Stygia loss from dying in the Maw. I had 14K Stygia, enough to get both of the Venthyr sets as soon as I get to Exalted with Death’s Advance, but then I died twice while doing an Assault, in places where it was not convenient to try to get back and pick up the Stygia I’d dropped, and now I’m down to 9K Stygia 😦
Since she wasn’t doing anything else, I sent Kalaneia to be a scout in Keeper’s Respite. She can’t actually see which Covenant has the Korthia Armor quest(s) for the day — it seems that a character has to have completed Korthia Chapter 4 to see that — but she can find out which two Covenants have the Dailies for the day. That way, I can have Kaelinda already in one of those two Covenants when she heads out to Korthia for the evening.
I’m not fond of the Necrolords Anima Conductor Treasure or World Quest, so I’ll only swap to Necrolords when I’m working on their 9.0 Campaign or when they have the active Assault or the Korthia Armor quest for the day.
I’ve been so busy in Korthia that I haven’t gotten back to Zereth Mortis quite yet, despite the two quests to continue Chapter 2 nagging at me at the top of my quest log.

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