Onward to the Next Raid

As planned, my major roster is on hold for the next week, waiting for Dazar’Alor LFRs on January 30. Only barely I logged in for Fearella and Schlitzchen to complete their Darkshore tour for Ivus and 12 rare kills, and this is it.

I’m deliberately not pushing my toons with incursions and warfronts, because this is what we will be doing during raid queues, not to sit idle.

Meanwhile my small new alt army is catching up slowly, but with persistence.

Arkeona the Warrior is tanking dungeons one by one. The queues are almost instant, and dungeons are a breeze. There are some issues of course. Elemental shaman can’t get that their earth elemental is their emergency tank, used only in cases when your major tank dies. It is not a dps boost – fire elemental is. Many people quit unexplainably. People tend to aggro trash before me and die and wipe the raid. One dude aggroed three packs in Stratholme – deliberately – and quit to leave us wipe. But 80% of the runs are actually fine. I’m a good and responsible tank, and I feel myself in protection spec like fish in the water. Knowing all the dungeons like my palm also helps.

Tip for healers and damage dealers: if you aggro some shit and you can’t bear the damage in your face… Never. Kite. It. Away. From. Others. Your one and only option is running directly through your tank, and that is where you drop the aggro.

Tanks have a whole pack, or a boss, or both on their hands, and they’re trying not to die. Tanks never, ever would like to chase you around the field to catch that single mob or a couple of them, risking to lose the more important aggro.

My dungeon streak for a single session is about 5-7 dungeons, then I get tired of them and go to do anything else on other alts. Arkeona is 50, and I think it’s a nice weekend result.

Melaris the Demon Hunter is now 120 – yay! I’m having a zillion of things to do on her – war campaign, Saurfang, settling on another continent, Darkshore introduction, etc etc – not to mention the Vol’dun major questline which was barely touched during leveling. She’s currently 296, and I crave to drive her to Uldir and warfront 320 asap. The key goal is gearing up, because most of the other quests and activities could be completed while in queues.

Jagda the Shaman has started her crawl through Stromsong – I’m not in a rush with her, but leveling is vital in the coming weeks. Transferring to BfA content is actually great – even in Legion an alt felt like an outsider. Now she at least walks the same roads.

Kargash the Fire Mage has brought honor to the Mag’har:

She’s already started trotting the BfA lands as well, clad in her brand new heritage armor. It is actually very cool: they give you the same set in three colors – blue Frostwolf, black Blackrock and red Warsong. Canonically Kargath, Ner’zul and Kilrogg didn’t make it with their clans, so they don’t give you these options of Shattered Hand, Bleeding Hollow and Shadowmoon. Nevertheless, my mag’har hails from Shattered Hand, so I chose the fitting black colors:

It is awesome to associate my orc with the heritage, so let it be it for now :) I even kept the shoulders.

As planned, Jagda is blended with Kul Tirans citizens: she uses the heritage armor vest, a Kul Tiran belt, a smaller Kul Tiran anchor shield and a fitting fist weapon which is conveniently hidden in all shaman situations, but doesn’t spoil it if it’s occasionally out:

She actually feels at home when dealing with the locals.

So, another week of alt-only gameplay coming for me. Good luck to those who start the raid progress tomorrow!

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Ready & Done

There, my major Gnome/Goblin roster is now ready for the next raid.

This week’s reset has brought Pins the very last remaining Uldir piece – and even without a coin. Now every weapon and every armor set from the raid are complete!

There will be Uldir runs for my leveling alts to help with gear ups, but it’s comforting to know that I do not farm anything on purpose from now on there.

Reputations are done too – now every toon is Exalted with BfA and has absolutely no need to farm any world quests.

I think that an emissary / a warfront / an incursion will be just an activity to while away time for extra bonuses while in queues, but until Jan 30 I’m done with the initiate alts.

Kargash the Maghar Fire Mage has completed Azsuna in full with all its side quests and is now 104.

Melaris the Demon Hunter is still 115, although crawled half a level up.

Arkeona the Nightborne Warrior is 32 – I’m planning to level her to Pandaria without leaving Orgrimmar :)

Finally, Jagda the Dark Iron Shaman is now stationed in Boralus!

As with all allied races, you visit the race leader at 110 and get your heritage armor. I like the vest and shoulders, but the helmet is from Duck Tales episode where they used a plot of Iron Mask from three musketeers:

Not that any of my toons is wearing helmets anyways :)

There is an important thing on my to-do list. The Dark Irons have their personal teleport racial – a mole machine which can be launched once in 30 minutes. By default it can bring you to Stormwind, Ironforge or Shadowforge. Rumor is that there are lots of other places you can go to, but you must discover them first in the open world and tag them. Once I’m 120 with her, I’m planning to find a guide and drive her around the world to be more mobile than a mage. Exciting :)

So, from now on it’s two weeks of alt leveling for me. Four alts to level cap and further. I don’t really care if they are not ready for the raid by Jan 30 – as long as I am there :)

Tinfoil Hat: The Battle for Azeroth Finale

Kaylriene has written his own speculation about the future of lore. I’ve started to answer in comments, then I thought it deserves a post of my own.

Here is what happens next:

1. Battle of Dazar’Alor leaves Kul Tiras and Zandalar with their fleets reduced to 5-10% of initiate might.

2. Azshara raises Nazjatar from the depths – there is no better timing to do that, and we have a chance to finish her. Upon dying, she says something like: Mwahaha, you’re late!

3. N’Zoth is actively corrupting Azeroth the Slumbering Titan, and we go to the heart of the world, Underwater / Black Empire, to stop him.

4. Our last playground is gonna be the said Underwater / Black Empire.

5. The final raid is tentacles, tentacles everywhere. The last boss of the expansion is ‘Corruption of Azeroth’ – we fight the tentacles or some sort of N’Zoth manifestation to stop the process.

6. It is important that we do not kill N’Zoth by ourselves. We will use the Heart of Azeroth as an ultimate remedy, unleashing all the collected power to clean the tentacles around her. This may either be a part of final cinematic or an encounter mechanic.

7. In the final cinematic, Azeroth is clean and awakened, and she kills N’Zoth with her bare hands – to show how powerful of a champion she is. This is gonna be cosmic and epic.

8. She says: ‘Thank you, my champions. Laters’.

9. She then leaves to see other titans, to gather strength, to learn and maybe even try to convince Sargeras back from Chaos. She says that ‘We will meet again to fight the Void’.

10. We are left on our own for now.

11. Details may vary, but my core idea is that we will finally see the awakening of a titan, and the planet will be released from the Old Gods grip forever.

12. The next expansion 10.0. is Death theme. We will get a revamped Northrend, with Bolvar/Taelia, Calia Menethil, Bwonsamdi, Sylvanas (which ran away, not dead), Helya (vrykul again) themes. The Checkhov’s Gun of loose massive undead forces must be solved once and for all before we leave to another planets to fight the Void Lords.

 

My Alt History Chart

*Click to enlarge

It was interesting to track the alt history :)

All alts here all reached cap level and participated in the expansions’ final raids – I don’t include the trial alts here, or abandoned during mid-leveling.

All of them left some trace on Azeroth soil and in my heart :)

Almost There

It is funny how I got so swallowed up by alt leveling this week that my major roster went unattended. Tired of leveling, I logged in on Sunday night with them only to discover that their weekly routines were untouched!

Off they went, and with astounding results:

• The last mail piece – check, so Baisa and Schlitzchen are officially done with Uldir.
• The last remaining 2H weapon – check, so Fearella is officially done with Uldir.
• One of the last leather pieces – check, so Pins is not officially done with Uldir, but she now can skip the second wing (phew!)

So, it’s only 1 (one) Taloc run per week left. I’m crossing my fingers to get this last piece to drop before Dazar’Alor – it’s 2 more weeks, 4 tries with coins – to transfer for the next tier with a light heart.

Uldir is not a bad raid neither in boss mechanics nor in lore, but it will always be remembered as a raid where trash caused more wipes than bosses. This is what left me exhausted after half a year runs – not a place where I’d like to return on purpose. From now on, it’ll be simply an extra activity to earn gear for alts.

Darkshore was generous to grant extra tmog pieces – I specifically appreciated the awesome 2H sword drop with a skull on its hilt. Overall, I’m not a huge fan of this warfront gear (except for night elven cloth which is one of the coolest ever), but weapons are amazing for both factions and a must have. Warfronts are a cool and exciting gameplay for both siege and patrol modes to me.

My incursion routine is 1 toon per incursion – that is, quick and non-grindy. The goal is still completing every incursion on all toons. Then I’ll be doing them if they are up during my raid queues in February.

I’ve saved enough medals to buy a small dino pet on the Alliance side – it’s the cutest thing ever, and it was worth every medal spent and more. I believe the Horde has the same thing, but in color red.

Alts are feeling great: my demon hunter crawled one level up to 115, my dark iron and maghar have finished with Draenor and already carving into Broken Isles. I want to leave them behind asap.

On Friday night my wife was telling our friend that ‘he has 10 toons’, I counted them and realized that I actually had nine :) What do you know, yesterday I had a nightborne warrior up. The idea was to make the number of toons per faction equal like I had back in WoD. She’s already 31 this morning. As always, it’s been class trial first, and I was amazed with her animations and vibe in both Protection and Arms specs. I’d like her to be Arms in the endgame, but now I’m leveling her as a tank due to instant queues.

What do you know, my whole gameplay is about rise and fall of alts.

And I’m Back!

…to blogging, but not to WoW. WoW never left me during these holidays. In fact, me and my wife were surfing between our fridge and laptops, so the game was my major activity :)

My major Gnome/Goblin roster are now finding themselves in a lull situation. What I had left off daily activities was Tortollans reputation, and now I can report just one single toon lacking the last 1500 to go. I may either grind the remains during the week, or simply wait through another 6 days for a next emissary to pop. This chapter will be effectively closed. No more world quests for them are required.

Uldir is still mercilessly greedy – I need Vectis or Zul to drop wrists for my rogue, and four toons are also running the greedy Taloc. World bosses are being more generous: every week it’s a couple of new drops.

Warfronts are still a thing. Whenever they are up, I am launching all toons to try for transmogs, pets, toys and mounts. I’ve worked out which rares I need, so it’s a merry hunt. I’ve finally closed at least one Arathi set – cloth. Also warfronts are a great source of medals – as planned I’m not grinding or track them on purpose. I want it to be a surprise when I will have an opportunity to get a mount :) Tip from holiday events: first save for the most expensive things, then get the cheaper ones.

Incursions somewhat lost a bit of their appeal after I’ve seen them all on both factions and got the achievement. But as they still give the medals, I’ll be doing them while in the new raid queues. It’s quite a fun and engaging activity – all better than sitting on your butt in Boralus or Dazar’Alor harbor.

My toons are now 365+, so they are more than ready for Dazar’Alor raid with an entry access of 350. I require no upgrades before the raid.

As you may well guess, the above described activities are merely peaks after the realm and/or warfronts resets. The core of my gameplay has been alt leveling.

What do we have so far:

Melaris the Demon Hunter – is now 114 and finished Nazmir in full with all the side questlines. For whatever reasons, it feels very long and slow.

Jagda the Dark Iron Shaman has established her Shadowmoon garrison and is now 91. I’m planning to drive her asap through the cross-sworded ‘world quests’ of Draenor.

Kargash the Mag’har Fire Mage is only in the middle of Frostfire questing and she’s already 95. I’m completing the zone in full to see the epic ending again – by then I think I will be near 100.

Leveling was fast enough already, but with the patch buff it’s simply a breeze. Vanilla was just dungeoned through, with 3-4 zones questing to help while in queues. Outland/Northrend part was spent in Northrend, likewise an enormous amount of dungeons required barely half of the initiate Tundra/Fjord questing. I didn’t even see any Cataclysm content – land in Pandaria, earn the cooking fridge and do several serene Valley quests, explore the continent and complete a hub or two of choice while waiting for Pandaria dungeons.

I’ve caught myself on the thought that Halfhill farm and Draenor garrison are a bliss. They really contribute this feeling of extra progress – building and customizing stuff in your own playground was awesome. Thus leveling in these two expansions feels great. Isn’t it the thing that we should have every next expansion? Warcraft should be not only about breaking things, but also building things :)

With artifacts being rid of its perk chart, there will be no such thing in Legion leveling, and frankly I’m not looking forward to leveling there. Likewise in BfA – all storylines played and replayed multiple times, both expansions would be a chore to complete. And yet at least BfA is current, and I’m planning to complete its lore questing in full, following my major roster’s footprints.

Anyways, I’m not far away from the top. I think it will take me exactly the time until January 30 (LFR opens), and my new toons would be ready to join the collectibles farm along with the main roster.

Rolpeplaying the ‘evil’ feels great :) Now and then I would skip the ‘heal the fallen’ quests – like nah, save yourselves. Jagda the Dark Iron would help jinyu not because she likes them, but because she hates the stupid annoying hozen and seeks to destroy them. I would choose the questlines that promise unimagined power or treasure as a reward, and likewise :) Still, my evil toons are not devoid of sympathies. For example, Kargash (of the Shattered Hand clan) would play against Iron Horde and along the noble Frostwolves… well, maybe because she also doesn’t like Thunderlords, but still.

Having things to do before raid, having fun.

Warfronts Transmog: Good News

Here is a small present for you in the last hours of the year 2018.

I’ve been patrolling Darkshore and got like 4 pieces of gear I didn’t have on my shaman:

Know this: every piece you get on a toon, doubles in the collection of the opposite faction. See Baisa:

So, if you have only a main mage on Alliance and then roll a Horde priest, it will have all the warfront cloth set at the ready.

Now I’m really off for celebration – cooking is about to start :)

Happy holidays!