Pre-Patch 8.0. – Content Schedule

Here’s some important pre-patch schedule information:

July 17/18 – Week 1

Class changes, talent changes, interface changes, model updates, artifact downgrade – everything but lore. This is the week when we get adjusted to our new gameplay and see whichever achievement, visuals and interface changes are in sleeve.

July 24/25 – Week 2

War of Thorns – Part 1. This is the plot event, dedicated to Ashenvale and Darkshore questline. We see the first step of the Horde offensive in night elven lands and get an access to world quests with gear, gold and whatever other rewards.

July 31/August 1 – Week 3

War of Thorns – Part 2. This is the sequel of the plot event, that will end up with burning of Teldrassil, a presumably stunning and epic cinematic and acquiring the pair of event mounts (Undercity bat for the Horde and Teldrassil dark hippogriff for the Alliance).

August 7/8 – Week 4

The Siege of Lordaeron. Those of us who purchased Battle for Azeroth expansion will get access to the Siege of Lordaeron scenario.

August 14 – Expansion Release

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Icecrown Farming Misadventures

I had some time until pre-patch this week. No Army of Light emissary for 7 days I believe, pristine archaeology demon part is done, and I’m waiting for the next batch of digging (elves or highmountain) to proceed.

Today’s Tuesday, and our EU maintenance is tomorrow – that means that I will see pre-patch events on Wednesday evening after work, as usual. This all left me with an idea to farm some stuff.

I’ve decided to run Icecrown for the last Icecrown pet (ghoul) and the mount Undroppable, followed by Throne of Four Winds for both pets and a dragon chance. Remaining transmogs on the way if they drop. With all of my toons – that is, seventeen 110s.

Gods of random were generous enough to grant me both genie pets. I was not surprised not to get either a horse or a wind dragon, people farm this for ages. I’ve covered several full sets on the way too – paladin, shaman, druid and hunter.

On my trip with Paitsu the Monk before visiting Sindragosa (the one before last boss) I’ve discovered that she’s going in 25 normal, rather than others’ heroic mode. That unveiled the mystery why I were getting so many weapon transmogs that I didn’t have yet. I’ve decided to scroll through the loot tables… yes, the required ghoul pet appeared to be 25 normal only drop.

I wouldn’t say that the previous runs with 16 of my toons were in vain – transmogs and mount tries were definitely worth it. Yet, they did not have a chance to cover the ghoul towards the pet collection achievement :)

Take care.

P.S. Yesterday also I did bank and bags cleaning on my alts. I crafted all the Legion transmogs I lacked, and cleared the space from all the Legion stuff and mats which basically looks too outdated these days.

I’ve kept legendaries in the bank, but frankly I don’t have any feelings for them. Once they could be sold, they will be sold without remorse.

My bags throughout alts now look like this (Anibell the Paladin’s example):

Could be even cleaner: Blood of Sargeras should be exchanged for order hall resources, and for whatever reason the steel bricks should be vendored as well, they don’t belong.

It’s funny how she kept Draenor strength potions throughout Legion :) I believe she had 20, but she still has 4 left. It’s still a nice buff, shall not delete them, but use while leveling or other activities.

Pre-Patch 8.0. Bucket List

When you think of it, this is really, really wild. Not later than tomorrow we will see some significant changes to our game and know that BfA is practically here. At least the gameplay will take form as of the coming expansion.

Let’s see what we must do in the last minutes of Legion and what we will have to do in the first day of pre-patch.

Interface

The most notable change for me will be seen right upon the login after pre-patch drops.

I’m not using any addons at all, so I will immediately see the new interface. Basic UI will have all the system (character, talents, lfg, shop etc.) and bags buttons removed to the right corner ghetto, and the right side of current panels will be action buttons instead.

The overall idea is making the game panels more compact and convenient to use, that I will greet of course. Some time will be devoted to juggling my action buttons on all toons and all specs!

Thing to do: juggle action buttons in the new panels.

Fighting

Next, artifact buffs/talents gone/reworked, squishes, talent changes, GCD for power buffs.

Our fighting routines and rotations will look rather different from now on – I think I may participate in pre-patch events with every class to get the idea and check what I will have to deal with in the coming expansion. I want to check warlocks especially, Faerella will get a major overhaul in her Affliction.

Thing to do: pick the new talents and get used to the new rotations with every class and spec played.

PvP/PvE Mode

All servers will be PvP and PvE both from now on. I will have to check in Orgrimmar/Stormwind with every toon to switch off PvP mode if it’s not going to be PvE by default. I don’t want any surprises later :)

Thing to do: check the PvP/PvE mode on every toon. 

Lore and Questing

We will get the Teldrassil burning questline. Obviously we want to complete it to get the pre-patch only mounts. After the storyline, we will have an access to world quests with gear, gold and resources awards.

Thing to do: see the storyline, get the mount and check the gear rewards to see if they are new models for transmog and/or an upgrade considering ilvl. 

Check Out the Appearance Improvements

• See updated bear and cat druid forms (bears are no longer hunchback asses, cat run animation updated);
• Obtain a demon hunter class tabard;
• Check out the new faces of blood/void elves, golden eyes of blood elves, straight posture of male orcs on character creation screen;
• Check out the possibility to change skin color in barber shop and see if any of my toons need it (Schlitzchen the Goblin surely does, a lighter skin tone);
• Check out the new weapon posture of hunters;
• Druids can now apply multiple looks to their forms: I need a glyph of stars for my moonkin form and a glyph of orca for my seaform on both druids.

Thing to do: go and see all these things :)

Things To Do Before Pre-Patch

• Send out and collect the last gold missions from mission table;
• Spend all the pet charms – I don’t have many, but yet the carriage will turn into pumpkin;
• Wave goodbye to Mage Tower – not that I were a fan.

So, here’s my bucket list :) What’s yours?

 

 

A Perfect Game for Azeroth Explorers

Twitter and other thematic Warcraft feeds are now spreading the word about the Azeroth exploration game.

Here’s the link: http://www.kruithne.net/where-in-warcraft/ 

The game is simple:

1. A complete map of Azeroth locations, including Pandaren Turtle Island, Kezan and everything else. You can scroll in and out of course.
2. You have three lives – that is, your third mistake ends the game.
3. You see a screenshot, and you must make a guess of where it was taken. You can drag’n’pull the screenshots 360o around your spot to look for extra clues.
4. Click on the map to place your guess – remember, it better be not just the specific area, but an exact screenshot spot (it influences accuracy counter).

Even for an Azeroth Explorer like myself it’s pretty hard!

Some of the shots are very obvious – if you’re standing in front of a well-known gate, or see a notable character/mob (like Attumen’s horse). Some of them you really have to watch from all around, looking for clues.

It really helps if you played through storylines and rolled almost every race to see their starting experience. Some shots are set in starting locations, but it still can be managed. Riddles are forgiving to an extent, embracing relatively large territories around the spot, yet try to figure out the very exact spot upon your guesses.

First try to define the zone – it’s relatively easy, then see what notable buildings, structures and mobs are the around or seen at the horizon to guess the unknown point.

My best shot so far:

Strongly recommended :)

Mage Tower: Not My Piece of Cake

As my readers would know by know, I’m not a challenger player – like at all. Mythics, mythic raiding, PvP, those challenging pet battle modes and everything alike are beyond my interest.

I think the major reason is that the game for me is a means of relax, an escapism thing rather than where I come to test my might and grow my virtual penis. It has always been this way – in every game since NES console I’ve been always choosing the easy/normal modes. If I come to see the story and the new places (levels, enemies), challenge modes put extra obstacles to achieving this goal – sometimes ridiculously difficult obstacles if a game design is bad.

Mage Tower is surely a challenging mode. You may remember my first rant when it just came out – there is no way a common player of roughly 860-870 ilvl, the highest LFR ilvl at the time, could beat that. Most kills confirmed showed 905-ish ilvl, although some of the people managed to beat it even with my ilvl.

This morning I gave it a try with my main, mage Micromantica. She has 935 and a growing artifact traits daily, so it surely was enough to win. And you know – I quit after a couple of tries for Frost Mage (brother mages encounter) and four tries for Fire Mage (imp mother encounter).

I know the tactics, and yet I quit after these several tries. I’m just not fond of a content that is “designed to kill you” (c) Vigilant Quoram. I’m not in fond of encounters where you have to deal with 10 things at once, as a juggler on steroids. The content which is unfogivable for a single mistake you make – and where you have to deal with not making this mistake throughout 10 minutes, no breaks.

I’m sure I could have beaten at least imp mother after dozens of tries, as I brought her down to 35% upon even my first four tries. And I just don’t want to do that :) It’s not the excitement I’m longing for.

Archaeology awaits.

Feedspot Blog Award

I’m glad to announce that my blog has been nominated by blog.feedspot.com as one of the Top 15 Warcraft Blogs :)

Here’s the link to their page: Top 15 World of Warcraft Blogs, Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2018.

I don’t know why I was chosen among the best ones – frankly I think there are much better blogs than my fun diary – but I’m flattered anyways. Probably the criteria of choice were great search engine ranking (failing this would be very strange for me as I know a thing or two about SEO – my daytime job) and post frequency that won me the nomination.

There’s a really nice list actually, I’m reading at least half of them already – yet it’s a possibility to discover something new. So check their list in case you’ve missed anything great to follow :)

Trivia: A Month of Digging

It was a weekend of a pretty fun achievement grind.

First and foremost, the last 3k batch of Underbelly eyes is done! It was a fun gameplay, I’ve totaly nailed Underbelly. Never engaging in PvP battles, sneaking out as soon as PvP mode starts and paying the guards to return to their duty as soon as it’s available.

And so Faerella has earned the rat mount! I was worried that it’s not gonna be available outside of Undebelly like temporary rat mounts there. But no, it feels ok in the sunshine:

This mount has also been my last to get:

Yes, it required a login to my paladin which can ride extra 2 mounts of her own. Yet, it’s the last available mount counter achievement and it’s done. Too bad they add 50 or 100 more in BfA :) But as of now, we can rejoice.

The next day I switched to Oulu the Draenei Warrior to grind for the remaining Sentinax bosses – she had 2 left. The routine is as follows:

• Wait for Nether disruptor building to be up.
• Get portal stones – these come from three sources. First, blue quality drop from green skull mobs (on the map). Second, you could buy the items from Legionfall vendor which allow to break the violet portals (seen on mini map) and kill the arriving easier demons for blue quality portals. Third, and the worst, they come with the smallest chance possible from common mobs under Sentinax’ curent location.
• Join or start a group of 5 people (not a raid). It is important to have 5 members to provide excellent DPS, cover all the portals, and also increase the chance to loot the boss stone. It’s cool to have at least one tank for boss encounter, healers are not needed.
• Start portal stones one by one under Sentinax and kill all the demons for loot.
• Green quality stones summon smaller demons which may drop blue and green quality stones. Blue quality stones summon greater demons with a feeble chance to drop the boss stone.

The portals are color-coded: red, yellow, orange, green, blue and violet. Every color summons demons of this very same type. For example, orange stones summon mo’arg and wyrmtongues, yellow color summons beasts like spiders and bats etc. Each color leads to a specific boss, so if you just killed the “orange” engineering boss, you may throw away every orange stone for good and work on the rest.

It is important that people had enough stones on them and tried for the same boss. Yesterday, after we killed the yellow spider queen boss for 3rd time (with different people), I just coded the group name as Sentinax Achievement – GREEN, so that people knew what to expect. One guy even exclaimed upon joining: finally someone’s farming for green portals! And we collected such an excellent group! It was amusing that we apparently had every language possible: there were a Russian (me), an Italian, a Spanish, a German and a French. All communicating in English :)

Half an hour of farming for specific stones made us having 10+ green color stones for every member. Then we launched the portals, and this session brought us the last elusive pit lord to kill.

This is my last Exploration achievement in Legion. This chapter is closed now.

This has also been the last Oulu’s act of bravery in the world of Azeroth. As I had to tank with her throughout the achievement, I was disgusted with the vibe, and multiple transmogs didn’t help either. I presumed that I need another warrior race. So a re-roll was initiated.

With a couple of trial toons, I’ve settled with an Orc Warrior – her movement performance throughout all the three specs appeared to be flawless to me. I also considered an Undead, but they still do ridiculous flip-flops, so not.

Rerolling to an Orc enhanced my Horde roster which is important in terms of faction equality in the coming expansion. And one more thought is that leveling gear will be very specific for factions: Aztec vs Seaman for Horde and Alliance respectively. So having a toon of every armor type on each side is important.

I’ve tried to define my alt roster previously – lol, if you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. As of now, my paradigm is changed: one toon for every armor type of every faction + 1 toon for fun:

ALLIANCE

• Micromantica – Frost Mage (cloth) – as my main
• Aurinko – Holy Priest (cloth)
• Paitsu – Brewmaster/Mistweaver Monk (leather)
• Baisa – Marksmanship Hunter (mail)
• Anibell – Protection Paladin (plate)

HORDE

• Gorhaug – Arms/Protection Warrior (plate)
• Schlitzchen – Elemental/Restoration Shaman (mail)
• Helu – Balance/Restoration Druid (leather)
• Jammu – Feral/Guardian Druid (for fun)
• Faerella – Affliction/Destruction Warlock (cloth)

The Last Month of Legion

…will be devoted to digging. All my gameplay will be devoted to Archaeology achievements. And some pet battles maybe. And Army of Light emissary.

I want to complete these small things of course before the expansion drops on us. Yet at this moment all my major goals are complete. I’m totally ready.