Plunderstorm P.S. — Polly Roger

I told my son that I was done playing Plunderstorm, but we were only one [Prize] Level away from getting the fancy pirate bird, and I thought he could get it all by himself if he kept playing Plunderstorm.
He kept playing, and he got it.
If he keeps playing Plunderstorm and manages to get us to Renown 40 by the end of the event, great! If he doesn’t, that’s just fine, too.

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DONE with Plunderstorm! **phew!**

On Tuesday night, I got to Renown 36. On Wednesday night, I just wanted to be DONE with Plunderstorm, so I pushed through to Renown 38.

Blizzard, please don’t put something as desirable as a high-res, modern version of the long red pirate coat worn by Baron Longshore that I’ve wanted forever behind a PvP game mode ever ever again.

Or if you do, PLEASE at least make a separate bracket for all the players who have reached the end of the cosmetic rewards track and then keep coming back because they really only care about the PvP.
Some sort of grace period with no PvP allowed at the very beginning of each match would have been nice, too, whether it was a timer or a certain level that a participant has to reach before they can initiate or be targeted by PvP. Perhaps level 7? Because for some of the quests, even with a “good” landing, I would often reach level 6 from killing creatures and picking up Plunder on the ground before I was even able to complete the quest.

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CAVEAT: I am not particularly interested in Polly Roger for myself, but my kids think it’s fun to look at, and I’m sure they’d enjoy playing with it if my account had it. My oldest did contribute meaningfully to my Renown progression, so if he regularly earns computer time and spends at least some of that computer time playing Plunderstorm, I think he’ll manage to get from Renown 38 to Renown 39 all by himself. Still, once a close date for Plunderstorm has been announced, I’ll probably check in with Da’kash in the main Valdrakken inn to see if my son has actually succeeded in obtaining Polly Roger, and run a few more matches to make sure that we get it if he hasn’t.

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The Plunderstorm — first impressions upon actually playing it

In my first couple of Plunderstorm matches, I died to PvE stuff before I even saw another player. I’m still trying to get used to having my default melee ability on R, since that’s not a key I have hotkeyed to anything in the normal game. I figured out that if I could land my parrot in a relatively isolated spot, I could level up and gather plunder from PvE mobs for awhile before encountering another player — at which point, I would die. I am definitely not getting about 500 reputation per match! 50 would be more like it. For this first night, weaving Plunderstorm matches in between Whizbang spawns and my reset day routine, I did enough matches to get to Renown 2.5-ish.

I’ll have to get to Renown 38 — almost to the cap of 40 — to get all the Mog stuff; there are three increasingly fancy Mog sets and a selection of weapons. There’s also Trader’s Tender at two of the intermediate Renown levels, which will be a nice boost for being able to purchase whatever shows up at the Trading Post in April.

To articulate a little better why I like the Plunderstorm being independent of main account activity: this means that I don’t have to either park the character that I want to do it with out in Arathi Highlands or do a lot of traveling back and forth between the Dragon Isles and Arathi Highlands with a character who also wants to keep working through her usual Dragonflight weekly routine.

My son, watching me trying it out, was interested in it and asked if I would let him play it. When he’s earned his screen time tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have to show him how to get into the Plunderstorm.

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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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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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Cobalt Assembly at Maximum Power!

That didn’t take nearly as long as I was afraid it was going to.
Even better, the Cobalt Assembly swag unlock does seem to be account-wide… mostly. Kamalia can purchase all the armor and weapons she can use, but she can’t purchase the Dragonriding Drake Customizations that require higher levels of Cobalt Assembly reputation.

I haven’t been playing much with Kamalia lately, so she doesn’t have enough Dragon Isles Supplies on hand to buy any of the Cobalt Assembly gear, but it’s good to know that when I do get around to playing with her some more, I don’t have to worry about this rep grind.

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Scooting along in Dragonflight Renown

The College’s Fall Semester begins in a month. My incomplete preparation hangs over me like the Sword of Damocles. Yet I continue spending my after-bedtime hours playing WoW instead of working on course materials*…

Though I haven’t completely maxed out Iskaara or Maruukai, I’ve met my Renown goals for the basic four factions of Dragonflight. Kaelinda hit Renown 16 with Loamm this week and got the Ornate Black Dragon Labwear accessory set, so I’m done with Zaralek Cavern for now**. I looked up the Time Rifts Soridormi reputation and was relieved to find out that I only need to get to the third reputation level (out of five) to get the Rift-Mender’s Vestments accessory set. I might be able to get that reputation just from doing enough Time Rifts to collect the whole Anachronistic set.

Kaurinka finally got enough upgrades from Suffusion Camps to qualify for Aberrus LFR; I ran the first wing the other night in hopes of getting the cloak from Kazzara to Revival Catalyst into the Druid tier set cloak. Kazzara didn’t drop the cloak, but maybe it’ll be in the Great Vault next week? If I luck out, then she’ll be done until 10.2.

The big obnoxious grind that Kaelinda is still slowly grinding away at is the Cobalt Assembly. I can only effectively work on it every other week when the Cobalt Catastrophe world quest is up, and even then, the best days of the week to find groups for it are Tuesday and Wednesday. The drop rate for the Wild Arcana that actually increase Cobalt Assembly reputation feels so slow; the only buff I actually care about when I’m doing Cobalt Assembly is “Fun Detected”. I’m at 4000-something out of 6400 in the final stage, and it feels like it’ll still take the rest of the year to get there. I really, really wish that progress on this reputation was account-wide, because I do NOT want to do it again on any other character… not even to get the blue version of the Dracthyr armor.

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* I haven’t made no progress, however — I’ve almost completed making a new set of homework assignments for my general education chemistry course!
** Perhaps in some future expansion’s lull time I might come back and grind Barter Boulders to get Ponzo’s Hat, but since I’m not particularly keen on how it looks on either Blood Elves or Tauren, it’s not a priority.

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baby steps into fractured time

Meet my Tauren Warlock!

There was not the crowd of new Warlocks I expected to find in Exile’s Reach on Tuesday night, but as a Warlock with a Voidwalker to tank for her, health funnel, and healthstone and/or drain life, she was able to take on that elite bear with ease and get the shoulders for the Expeditionary Cloth set.

I was rather delighted to discover a graphical update not mentioned in the 10.1.5 patch notes — or anywhere else that I’ve noticed, though I’ll grant that I may have missed coverage of it when Patch 10.1 went live — a Destruction Warlock’s pure fire spells (Immolate, Incinerate, Rain of Fire) now use the orange-magenta-violet Shadowflame effect introduced in Patch 10.1!

I’ll probably still get green fire for her eventually, but in the meantime, I appreciate the further differentiation of Destro Lock from Fire Mage
Mua ha ha HA HA!!! XD
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Prompted by the Valdrakken Weekly, I did a few Time Rifts. They are moderately entertaining chaotic scrambles of mindlessly smashing things. I haven’t been to Eon’s Fringe yet; I decided that Kaelinda needed to do the Thaldraszus leveling questline first. At my level of play, I’ll have to wait until Patch 10.1.7 splits the new Mythic mega-dungeon Dawn of the Infinites into two Heroics to finish the Bronze Dragonflight storyline, anyway.

I would like to eventually collect all of the cloth Anachronistic set. I’d also like to eventually get the Rift-Mender’s Vestments accessory set from Soridormi reputation. Although I’m not much impressed with the Decorous Garments set as a whole, I’ll probably pick it up for the mix-and-match possibilities of the gloves, boots, and shoulders. I’m not going to go out and farm that stuff, however, until I’m done in Zaralek Cavern — I’m at Renown 13 with Loamm and would like to get to Renown 16 for the Ornate Black Dragon Labwear accessories.

With the Zaralek Cavern Campaign set representing the Black Dragonflight, the Patch 10.1 world drops set representing the Blue Dragonflight, the Fyrakk Assaults set representing the Red Dragonflight, and now the Time Rifts set representing the Bronze Dragonflight, I can’t help but wonder if the Dreamsurges coming in Patch 10.1.7 will finish out the collection with a Green Dragonflight coloration of that armor style.

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out of the long shadow of the Shadowlands at last

As the story of Dragonflight advanced — and I had fallen behind because I hadn’t yet completed all the stories unlocked by the four launch faction Renown tracks — I increasingly wanted to just be done with Shadowlands — to not have my unfinished business in that expansion still nagging at me.

So, I’ve spent the past several weeks pushing hard to get through the things I hadn’t done in the Shadowlands yet. I did the 9.0 Kyrian Campaign a second time with Kaelyla to get the silver and blue version of the vesper staff. I finished the 9.0 Necrolords Campaign with Kaelinda — looking back on Shadowlands, I really should have just done all four 9.0 Campaigns with her to begin with. With that done, I was at last ready to finish the Korthia Campaign. I liked the Covenant chapters of the Korthia Campaign. It seemed like each Covenant got a meaningful advancement to their story, particularly the Kyrian.

Of course, while I was doing each of the Covenant-storyline-advancing chapters of the Korthia Campagin as a member of the relevant Covenant, having finished that Covenant’s 9.0 Campaign, so I could get the Covenant-specific extra bits of story, I also needed the appropriate Eversong Elf Mage persona, and an appropriate outfit for each chapter:

Bwonsamdi’s Watcher





Crown of the Seducer (LFR), Mantle of the Skyterror (LFR), Osteowings of the Necrolords, Divine Fury Raiment (LFR), Master Builder’s Shirt, Prime Conjurer’s Gloves, Prime Conjurer’s Cinch, Prime Conjurer’s Slippers, Staff of Earned Tranquility
I never thought I’d use the shoulders and robe from the Battle of Dazar’alor set — which I picked up while trying for the Crown of the Seducer — but whaddayaknow, they work really well with the Renown coloration of the Necrolords pieces.
The Crown of Autumnal Flora would coordinate nicely with the staff, but Mistcaller hadn’t coughed it up yet.

Although Bwonsamdi appears in the Ardenweald storyline, his aesthetics are rather more Maldraxxus. The use of Necrolords pieces in this ensemble made it fitting attire for Kateleina while finishing up the 9.0 Necrolords Campaign and doing the 9.1 Necrolords chapter as a Necrolord.
I liked how this chapter tied up some loose ends related to Kel’Thuzad and gave Thrall and Draka a chance to get to know each other.

Red is for Revendreth



Crown of Eternal Memorial, Soulbreaker’s Ebony Mantle, Burnished Crypt Keeper’s Mantle, Lovely Red Dress, Redeemed Inquisitor’s Handwraps, Vibrant Wildercloth Slacks, Sinful Inquisitor’s Slippers, Crypt Watcher’s Spire
After Kateleina finished the 9.1 Necrolords chapter, Kaelinda could do the 9.1 Venthyr chapter as Venthyr.
I liked how this chapter finally completed the crown of the medallions (a very obvious loose thread from the 9.0 Venthyr Campaign), gave Vashj and Kael’thas a chance to compare afterlives, and opened up a story thread for a future expansion (where have the Dreadlords taken Denathrius and will we see him as a boss again?).

Twilight Courtier



Night Courtier’s Regalia with Fae Revel Masque, Night Courtier’s Pack, Vestments of the Twilight Grove, and Meadow Guardian’s Staff
After Kaelinda finished the 9.1 Venthyr chapter, white-haired Khrysanthemina took up the baton to do the 9.1 Night Fae chapter as Night Fae.
I definitely appreciated how this chapter brought in some excursions to and interactions with the other Covenants, something which was lacking in their 9.0 story. I also liked how it gave a small measure of closure for Tyrande and the Kaldorei (a story which was further followed up in the Zereth Mortis and 10.0 Campaigns) and revealed new information about the relationship between the Winter Queen and Elune. Are the Winter Queen and Elune each others’ only sisters because they are from the diametrically-opposed forces of Death and Life, or do they also have sisters from each of the other cosmic forces? Is Eonar their sister from Order, Xal’atath their sister from the Void, and do they have sisters from the Light and from Fel/Chaos that we have yet to meet?

Selfless Seeker





Vestments of the Selfless with Crown of the Righteous, Selfless Sigil of the Archon, and Selfless Watcher’s Spire
After Khrysanthemina finished the 9.1 Night Fae chapter, Kaelyra took the opportunity to do the 9.1 Kyrian chapter as Kyrian.
I liked how this chapter finally brought the Kyrian who had been stranded in Maldraxxus home, gave souls assigned to Bastion the choice to keep or cleanse their memories, and clarified the nature of the Soulbinding relationship. I was intrigued that Apolon has a platonic, sibling Soulbind relationship with Artemede — and a romantic relationship with Kynthia.

When Kaelinda left the Shadowlands to move on to the Dragon Isles, she was halfway through Revered with Death’s Advance, with enough Stygia banked to get the Death’s Advance colorations for two out of the five Covenant 9.1 sets. I pushed that reputation to Exalted. I was dreading grinding the Stygia to get the Death’s Advance colorations for the rest of the Covenant 9.1 sets — until I discovered that, duh, farming Stygia from Maw star mobs was a piece of cake at level 70, with ilevel 402 gear.

With the goal of getting at least one piece of the Sepulcher of the First Ones Mage Tier set, I’d done the first four chapters of the Zereth Mortis Campaign so as to unlock the Creation Catalyst. After I finished the Korthia Campaign, I decided that I really ought to get the Shadowlands fixed up with a new Arbiter and Sylvanas sentenced to the Maw to retrieve all the souls who had improperly been sent there, so I finished up the Zereth Mortis Campaign (and all of its follow-up quests), too. I’m glad that I took the time to experience those stories for myself. I did the Zereth Mortis weekly & dailies until I had enough Sandworn Relics to get the purple Choral chestpiece from Rafiq and then upgrade it to the LFR version of the Sepulcher of the First Ones Mage Tier chestpiece using the Creation Catalyst. Along the way, I also managed to finish up Unlocking the Secrets. So when I was almost done with Zereth Mortis anyway, I finally got flying for the zone. Ah, well, that’ll make getting around there for Mog photoshoots easier to do 😀

I’d had Kaelyla hearthed at Root-Home trying to convince Mistcaller to just give me the Crown of Autumnal Flora already; yesterday, I got it!

I always hearthed or teleported out of the dungeon immediately after defeating Mistcaller — I didn’t continue on to Tred’ova — so I don’t have a count of how many tries it took me. At least a couple of months of doing it just once a day on Heroic (sometimes twice, with both Kaelyla and Kaelinda), I think.

Today, I finished the Stygia grind and got the last Death’s Advance Covenant 9.1 set. I also got the Anima-Siphoning Sword (its lavender color will be so perfect for Arcane Mage outfits!) after about two weeks of camping The Engulfer.

And now, at last, I am DONE with Shadowlands.

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