Lightforged Leveling Done

That’s right, the achievement is mine :)

Kalaari finished Azsuna and Val’sharah questlines along with their dungeons. The rest came from bits of Paladin campaign, blacksmithing/mining quests and bonus objectives (which you can grab much like in Draenor – with no actual storyline questing running).

She sits with an admission to Emerald Nightmare now, so a journey of gearing up awaits. The best way for me is tracking the world quests which grant you upgrade gear, and also doing emissaries to fish out the legendaries. Argus argunite items also help.

Like I wrote in the previous post, Kalaari is not meant to be active in BfA, so her gearing up to 915-ish is purely a leisure activity during lull.

Her current transmog is Lightforged Pretorian, the legacy armor for the achievement pretty much sucks :)

Now we have a Nightborne and a Highmountain to finish their leveling in Broken Isles :)

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Managing Alts in Battle for Azeroth

As in Draenor, I’m entering the new expansion with the same scary amount of alts – 17. It is high time to determine my alt priorities for the upcoming expansion.

The alt system was very simple in Legion: I had to shorten my roster to 12 toons of every class – to see every storyline, class order hall campaigns, artifact weapons, collect every raid set, and later – mounts. Which was a great success, and it totally paid off. This time it will be a lot different.

While my alts cover the played and enjoyed specs nowadays, I’m still going to put a huge bunch of them for later. There will be no class-specific content in BfA, and more – there won’t be class-related raid sets as well. While I probably plan to level them all someday (probably at expansion lull days), I need to pick the priority toons for the initiate days and the first expansion raid.

ALLIANCE

Micromantica

Micromantica the Frost Mage is my main and flagship of the whole game, the first and the ultimate character. She’ll be mastering Frost – whatever Blizzard do to the spec again. She’ll be the first to earn reputations and see every new bit of content during the expansion. No questions.

Aurinko

Aurinko is the major healing toon, so she’s bound to be in the first rows for the first raid. I’ll have to struggle with leveling as Holy (Shadow’s awful nowadays), yet she’s to level up fast and nice.

Paitsu

Paitsu enjoys both tanking and healing – she’s ready to accept both roles in BfA. She’s one of my ultimate tanks, so she’s ready to be there in the first row.

*As soon as it’s gonna be possible – I will roll and level a Dark Iron. She’ll be a casting shaman, and I want to main her among other toons.

HORDE

Schlitzchen

I tend to think of Schlitzchen as my Horde main. She’s the only toon of all others that kept her identity (race) apart from Micromantica, so she’s important to me. As I’m leveling my Dark Iron as a caster, she will go as Enancement like she initially started. as a tropical goblin, she’s so ready for the jungles of Zandalar and will happily return to Kezan in one of the dungeons.

Helu

Helu is my casting druid. She’ll be the one to bombard the bosses and everything as Balance, but she can switch to Restoration in a blink if needed.

Jammu

The playful cat may be this very guy for the initiate Zandalar experience. Rotation built-in sneaking makes her perfect to learn the roudabouts of the new continent and where the enemies and the shortcuts are.

So, it appears to be a Gnome party for the Alliance, and a shaman/double Tauren druid combo for the Horde side.

Fun Gameplay

The toons below are quite enjoyable for me, I like their specs very much, but I will pick them not earlier that I feel like playing them. When I’m tired of rotations of my major roster and when I want something new – I pick one of them. They will be saved for lull times. This includes pretty much every toon left:

Baisa

Baisa will sport Marksmanship like she always did, with no intention to change specs. A pleasure of leveling with a pet tank and a relaxed raiding experience is what I always enjoyed in my hunter.

Faari

Faari is the Fire Mage, and it’s purely a fun character. Her personality fits the spec so well, so she’s my roleplay toon. Fire is a very fun spec to play too – I had one deleted in Draenor, I now have a new one from December 2017 which will stay.

Myde

Myde is an Arcane Mage. The spec is not that fun to level, although it’s absolutely bombastic when geared at endgame. She’s sea-theme clad now, and I may bring her forward for Azshara raiding if we have something later. As a void elf, she’s also interested in Void/Light themes which will drop sooner or later.

Backston

Backston sports Frost and Frost only. Until they completely change the Blood spec from mortar slow blows to rapid vampiric style. She’s a sort of an evil character, and she waits for Bolvar to make his move.

Anibell

Anibell is my another ultimate tanking character, so it’s very likely she will step in very soon. Protection Paladin is one of my best tanking toons, and being Alliance-clad human, she fits so well into the expansion.

Kalaari

Kalaari is a Retribution Paladin. Upon 110, the dim Lightforged zealot will have a long rest. She’s important for roleplay: there are many hints that Naaru and the Light are not as good as it seems. When the Light becomes the new evil, I’m bringing her up from hiatus. She’s my evil character.

Oulu

Oulu is a bloody rangari. She stays in hiatus for now.

Melaris

Melaris is a Havoc fighter. She stormed Antorus, she had extreme fun and satisfaction, but now she’s off for Night Elven woods to reconnect with her elven past. She wants to remember and recover, and she needs a rest from the scorched fel lands.

Berringer

Berringer is currently on a faraway secret mission from SI:7. The Stormwind intelligence has her, and in the wake of war her skills are most needed – whether she wants it or not. It’ll be a while since she will be able to bring her poisonous daggers into the fray.

Faerella

Faerella will eagerly explore Affliction and Destruction ways… later. But she’s a very probable candidate to catch up with her Horde allies soon – for schemes and profits, not for the faction pride of course.

Arkeona

The subtle Nightborne political assassin is currently investigating the Sylvanas reign… She’s seen the atrocities in Hillsbrad and in Dragonblight, and she’s not a fan of her. She’ll be plotting and scheming. She will wait. When the throne of Sylvanas will shake, she’ll be there to help overthrow the ‘warchief’. Not yet. Not now.

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Summing it up, I’ll be good with a smaller amount of toons rushing forward in the coming expansion. I would not feel overwhelmed as I frankly was in Legion. And I will always have another toon for the exciting new class/profession experience or roleplay at the ready.

Dark Iron Dwarves and Mag’har Orcs: Class Choice

Blizzard’s official announcement about new Allies – Dark Irons and Mag’har Orcs – is up! Most importantly, the list of classes and racial abilities is published too. And it is high time to think about our new alts.

Dark Iron Dwarves

The Dark Irons can boast this set of classes:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Monk
• Paladin
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warlock
• Warrior

The variety of classes is really stunning. Of course you could expect the darker and brutal options like Hunters (with bombastic guns), Mages (notably Fire), scheming Warlocks, Shaman (no race is THAT bound to Earth and Fire element), of course Warriors and Rogues. It is surprising to see Paladins… and Priests!

It’ll be really hard to choose the one class and spec from all.

Hunter – no option, it’s Marksmanship with my Gnome Baisa, and I’m not currently happy with the other specs.

Mage – I have toons for every mage spec: Frost – Gnome main, Arcane – Void Elf and Fire – lol, a Dwarf girl. Fire fits so well – but I prefer my Fire Mage to be a cheerful and adventurous ginger girl. Her lighter skin tone contrasts with the coal singed colors.

Monk – sorry, but I still think the idea of giving away monks to every next race is quite silly. Frankly I’d cut the class from most of them, dwarfs and dark irons too.

Paladin and Priest – mmm… nope. The Light thing doesn’t ring a bell with Dark Irons, although it could be justified with them joining Ironforge and learning these paths. Well, it just doesn’t. And as I’ve renounced shadow priesthood with my Gnome priest, shadow is not an option too.

Rogue – is just what we’ve seen the Dark Irons throughout questing in Khaz Modan lands. It fits so well, but I have two Rogues already which cover both specs I like – a highly competent elite criminal human Berringer currently in service of SI:7 (assassination), and a shadow blade political assassin nightborne Arkeona.

Shaman – both Elemental and Enhancement fit so good. As long as my Schlitzchen the Goblin drifts now into restoration, I would consider giving it a try. Most probably it will be Agility’s Enhancement, as Schlitzchen will share Intellect in Restoration/Elemental.

Warlock – probably no chance for me, spawning more pet classes :) I just don’t like pets. Although all the three specs are perfect options for a Drak Iron in my opinion.

Finally, Warrior. This is an awesome and solid option equal to Shaman. My warrior today is Oulu the Draenei girl, which I roleplay as a swift-blade rangari from alternate Draenor. She dual-wields twin axes, so Arms and Protection are opened options for my brand new Dark Iron Dwarf.

To sum it up, a Dark Iron toon is:

• A must for me, I want this alt for roleplay sakes
• It will be a brutal melee girl, just what it says on the picture above
• I will choose between an Enhancement Shaman or Arms/Protection Warrior
• If other class/specs weren’t already covered, my second best choice would be all kinds of rogues, all kinds of warlocks, or a fire mage.

Mag’har Orcs

Them, and Zandalari are not what I’m excited to play. Still let’s see what Blizzard offers us:

• Hunter
• Mage
• Monk
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warrior

In short, Mag’har orcs are alternate timeline orcs which come under Grommash Hellscream’s command, and they obviously lack the hated fel option: Warlocks. The list of classes is as pure and close to nature as possible.

Every option has a strong bond with elements and/or is about good honest steel. Priest option is highly surprising though… I really need a lore explanation for this. Holy Light and Orcs are like… strawberry and fish. You can eat them together, but it’s not natural or tasty.

I’m not planning to roll a mag’har toon yet, but if I were, I would go for the honest Shaman, Warrior or Hunter. The basics.

What are your thoughts?

Leveling Allied Races

That’s right: my first Allied Race toon is now in Legion!

Myde the Void Arcane Mage skyrocketed to 101 just in few sits. After landing in Pandaria she just did the Valley of Four Winds, slowly progressing up to Tillers’ Exalted all the way 80-90. I think she wants herself a summer house, which means doing stuff till besties with Tina – she provides furniture :)

She also did almost every dungeon in Cataclysm and Pandaria. Again, it was a wide range of groups there. Just fascinating asshole tank and healer which managed to run past a couple of mob packs, leaving dps to die and blaming it all on them. Moreover, they wanted dps to manage the packs themselves afterwards even if it were a room behind! All dps including yours truly left the ‘group’ for good. Vice versa, just an amazing group in Blackrock Caverns which discussed tactics before pulls, trying bosses, wiping at first, and then killing them as smooth as possible when we got the strategy idea.

Needless to say, the groups like the second one come to the higher levels well prepared, sturdy, and experienced. Their time spent pays off.

Draenor was as swift as possible. I did some initiate quests in Shadowmoon Valley to get acccess for profession upgrades, and the rest was just doing extra quests (marked with crossed swords fill-the-bars) and continent exploration. I think it’s the best time to replay Draenor nowadays on your way to the top. The whole trip 90-100 took me like 3-4 hours, no dungeons.

Now Myde got her Aluneth weapon, did Legion assault quests in Highmountain (which brought her a whole level up), and worked through the Heart of Light questline, killing Velen’s son :) Ready for proper questlines now.

It’s high chance that this week she’ll be 110, and ready for Legion raids to start raising her ilvl up to planned 910-915. I don’t feel obliged to complete any of the questlines with her, be it main zones, Suramar, Broken Shore or Argus. My class champions have already defeated Legion! So allied races just explore Broken Isles and get ready for the Battle for Azeroth,

This strategy of taking one toon at a moment gives so much progress in no time. I think I’m sticking with it. My goal for May is leveling as much as possible – and the last month before pre-patch will be devoted to grind achievements. My timing seems perfect.

My Toon Roster Revision: Before and After Legion

The major result of the expansion is that I successfully mastered all 36 specs. I may not like playing some of them, but if any situation requires it, I could easily fill any role – be it tanking, healing or dps.

I had an interesting idea to revise my alts list before Legion – and what changes were made to my roster? Specs and even races were changed!

Here I’ll go class by class, revising my toons’ ways throughout expansion and making plans for the next one.

Mage

Micromantica still mains Frost, like it has always been. She had some very tough time in Suramar, and it wasn’t a walk in the park while leveling, but by the end of expansion she’s right at her place. A howling blizzard of raging ice, feeling quite powerful and confident.

I also mastered Fire and Arcane – now I have two more mages for the specs, the fun-leveled dwarf Faari and currently leveling void elf Myde respectively :)

Warlock

Microfury was a Gnome, mastering Destruction when Legion dropped from the sky. She got tired of the warlock order hall, the mess, the brutality, and she retired to being a peaceful jeweller in Stormwind.

Faerella the Goblin picked up the banner, and she went as Affliction in the open world and raided Antorus in Destruction, because mana issues in Affliction is not fun in raids. Yes, there’s no trouble restoring mana in seconds, but it’s just not the thing I want to even think of. I’m eager to see Affliction changes in BfA, it’s my favorite spec nevertheless.

Priest

Aurinko the Gnome started in Legion as Shadow, and quickly got sick of it. She mastered both Holy and the tricky Discipline, opting for Discipline in the open world and Holy in raids. She will stick to the Light side in BfA.

Warrior

Bons the Gnome started as Fury, and in mere weeks changed to the Arms/Protection for leveling. I could say she was the tanking toon throughout expansion, up to and through Tomb of Sargeras. She retired after killing Kil’Jaeden, and Antorus was stormed by my bloody rangari, Oulu the Draenei – in Fury spec only.

I like every warrior spec in Legion, so I’m thinking of making a warrior or two for the upcoming allied races.

Death Knight

Mindebad the Gnome started as Frost and mastered Unholy and Blood for fun, Unholy to perfection and Blood not so much. She abandoned these specs, DK = Frost to me.

No one knows what happened – she probably choked on a cookie on Argus, but Antorus is raided by Backston the Human – Frost, of course.

Paladin

The vengeful Blood Elf Gardell disappeared in Suramar – they only found her corpse with sword wounds. Her replacement is Anibell the Human, who is a master of sword and shield. She’s bored to the bone being a vindicator, and healing doesn’t ring a bell with her. She’s a bastion against demons in The Nighthold, Tomb and Antorus – and she will protect the Alliance troops in BfA.

Kalaari the Lightforged is a Holy Paladin healer. She’s quite dim, but good-hearted, which is essential for a medic in the field of battle. So she’ll be in BfA.

Shaman

Schlitzchen the Goblin entered the Broken Isles as Elemental, and she’s still pretty powerful and ready to travel to Zandalar as such. Yet since Tomb and through Antorus she tends to support her allies in Restoration. Most likely, I’m keeping this casting spec pair for open world/raids in BfA.

Hunter

Lizgun the Goblin started as Survival and enjoyed it while leveling and attacking Emerald Nightmare and Helya’s domain. She retired from adventures, marrying a rich goblin in Orgrimmar – her loot is quite enough for a careless and rich life.

Enter Baisa, the skilled Gnome Sniper, which raids Tomb and Antorus, and doesn’t even think of changing specs in BfA. Marksmanship it is.

Monk

Paitsu started the Legion journey as a Windwalker, but quickly discovered the joys of tanking and healing. Her twin knuckles are collecting dust, and she’s mostly a Drunken Dodging Master now (although Tomb was healed through). She’ll enter BfA proudly wielding a staff and a keg.

Demon Hunter

Melaris the Night Elf started as Havoc, and she still sports her glaives as such. Needless to say, she easily mastered the Vengeance tanking spec as well, but she finds it pretty boring (fun fact: sickly yellow icons of Vengeance abilities are an argument cons playing a tank too). I plan to be a pure DPS in BfA, raids too.

Druid

Mayluna the Night Elf started as Feral, and she found her home in Dreamgrove. Helu the Tauen picked up, and she is equally skillful both in Balance and Restoration, ready to lend a hand in any of these roles in raids.

My new allied druid is a playful cat Jammu. She still keeps admiring the wondes of the world. She will join the Horde fight against Alliance… but she takes nothing seriously. You know, the type that stands in ranks and mocks the warchief’s battle speech in whisper.

Rogue

Hexen the Goblin started as Assassination, and she retired after she stayed to collect heaps of ancient goods from the Tomb. She also lives in Orgrimmar with her sister Lizgun, but unlike her, she’s not into monogamy and prefers many admirers around her, being a lady of class.

Berringer the Human is now raiding Antorus in Assassination, being a quiet, stern and super effective criminal currently employed by SI:7.

My next rogue is also Arkeona the Nightborne, who is a political assassin and a shadow blade of Subtlety. Previously working for Elisande, she’s eager to receive orders from her new warchief, ready to infiltrate Alliance ranks and kill officers and people of power.

Zandalari Druid Forms

It’s just overwhelming.

You’ve probably seen the travel forms before:

Flying Zandalari Druid Form

Ground Zandalari Druid Form

Now just get ready to be knocked from your feet.

Moonkin Zandalari

Bear Zandalari

The only words I have for this is ‘Holy fuck!’

These are amazing. These are beyond amazing. You ever wanted to tank with a turtle – well here you go, and a badass one.

Too bad I already have two druids which I never want to abandon :) And I plan my Zandalari to be either a hunter or a warrior. But it’s such an awesome option for other players, and this would definitely drive troll character numbers to the top.

Cant’ wait to see the cat form… and I keep wondering if Blizzard would add more distinctive racial options for basic races. Because what I see with Zandalari it’s beyond imagination.

BfA Pre-Order Character Boost Effectively… Wasted

This 110 token was tingling my eye ever since I bought the new expansion, and I had to do something with it.

I’m merrily leveling my Allied Races, and as I want the achievements/transmogs/ whatever awaits me at the end of proper leveling, I’m not allowed to ding any of them.

I had this pandaren warrior started and abandoned at 25, but as I foresee a pair of warriors coming in BfA (Arms Zandalari and Protection Dark Iron), there’s no actual need to do so.

What I did after one of the raid runs this week was lazy scrolling through race/class combinations and thinking of what I may try yet.

It appeared that I actually don’t. Really, all race/class combinations were tried and tested. If one of my classes stops resonating with me, it undergoes a race change, and currently I’m quite happy with my major roster. They are just excellent!

I thought of spending my boost for a demon hunter, to make a blood elf, but it felt like an utter waste, considering they actually start in Legion, and only a couple of days separates me from 110.

The curves of my brain finally led me to making an undead death knight, and with a reason. When I previously explored blood and unholy specs, they could not settle with either my draenei, gnome or human (that was my DK’s race story). It always seemed to me too disgusting, and not appealing to any race. Frost – I could always do with it. Bringing the dead of winter on the tip of your runeblade was always awesome, a frozen warrior. But spreading worms and plague? No.

With an undead, the other two specs felt just right in place. A walking corpse is justified both in festering Unholy and flesh-eating, blood-drinking Blood.

On a testing toon, I liked how she has this stooping evil stance and how she deals the blows, so it’s all just fine.

I need to work on transmog yet, but here she is, the bloody ghoul:

Funny enough, she’s not meant to wander anywhere. I may want to try and master the tanking thing when nothing else is left to do before the expansion, but just after she entered Dalaran and her Order Hall, she was put on a standby mode. Maybe I’d like to spread plague someday – then she’ll be ready.

With my alts, I’m now at the point when I need no more class/race combinations – even to try them. So the free character boost was wasted without remorse and without regret :)