Greetings, fellow Travelers! World of Warcraft’s 10th expansion, The War Within, has been live for all players for just over a week now and I’ve put in a serious number of hours questing across Khaz Algar. Let’s get right down into the new content!
(If you’d like to read last week’s installment: you can do so here)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT RETAIL: THE WAR WITHIN
After tons of Early Access time questing with my main, Tipton the Rogue, I was level 79 by the time official Launch Day rolled around on the 26th. In an attempt to take advantage of the new expansion debut and earn gold, I put up a number of ore auctions. As I’d hoped, they sold almost immediately for nice prices. I sold a Null Stone for nearly 5k and Bismuth and Ironclaw stacks also brought in hearty sums. I made something like 21k in in just a few minutes.
The Auction House returns got me excited for more easy money, so I flew off for a while seeking out mines around the Isle of Dorn. These additional ore auctions were also good for gobs of gold. Green items (weapons & gear) I didn’t need to equip sold for upwards of 400 gold each. I wouldn’t vendor these things right now, dear readers. Throw them up on the Auction House and reap the new expansion golden benefits!
A Pally, an Elf, and a Gnome walk into Hallowfall…
Tipton headed over to the Ringing Deeps to seek out more mines and continue questing. And while assisting Queen Moira in returning Magni’s hammer back to him, I hit level 80 on a mine outside of Gundargaz. My first max-level War Within character. Ding! Gratz!, etc.
A bit after hitting 80, Tipton acquired a new dagger as a quest reward and all of his gear was now replaced with War Within items. Later, he hit 100 mining skill and grabbed the “Professional Algari Master” Achievement. I then focused on finishing up the main questline by further questing in Hallowfall, and later, Azj-Kahet.
Two asides to mention. There’s an absolute crap-ton of treasures to find out in the world and interacting with them has never been more interesting and fun. You never know if you’re going to have to avoid some traps, float in the air collecting spores, or fight a mob to receive the goods. And that’s plain refreshing. And, of course, you glom lots of crafting materials and currency in the process.
There’s treasure in them thar hills!
I also wanted to point out the Arathi Capital City of Mereldar in Hallowfall. It’s one of my favorite new locations in WoW. The Old World look is superb and the place feels real and alive. It’s a pleasure to quest in and around there and the design team really hit this one out of the park. If there was player housing in the game I’d happily set my plot there.
Mereldar, Hallowfall. Plenty of underground parking available.
In other character news, I leveled my off-main, Rootbeard the Prot Warrior, to 74 and that went pretty darn quickly. Since I had a character at 80, Rootbeard received a 5% buff to experience gained. Also, he’s a lot harder to kill than my Rogue and can plow through quests more quickly. Mining ore brought in a lot of XP as well.
I worked a bit on his Blacksmithing and he made new plate boots and a chest for himself and put some extras in the Warband Bank. I’ve gone down the Warrior’s Mountain Thane Hero track, and so far, I’m enjoying that quite a lot. Adding lightning power to Shield Slam and Thunder Clap makes for a happy Dwarf.
I finished running the many alts I intend to level at some point through the opening Dalaran sequence and got them all set up in Dornogal. That took some time and repetitive effort. After more than a dozen runthroughs, I think I’m OK without having to kill spiders in Dalaran for a very long time. Never say “never” though. I’m sure at some point I’ll need to run other characters through that gauntlet.
While playing this week, I tuned in a few WoW Twitch streamers (Hazelnutty & Annie Fuchsia mostly) and unlocked the Ghastly Charger mount. This see-through glow pony flies (which I didn’t expect) and is pretty darn sweet. You’ll want to grab it before it’s gone on September 19th.
After Tipton hit level 80 and beat the main questline, I headed back to Dornogal and picked up additional story quests and the first Weekly Quests. I couldn’t figure out why the Earthen race wasn’t unlocking, as I was eager to create one. I came to enjoy interacting with the Earthen over the course of the storyline.
It took some internet sleuthing to discover that the race is still locked and won’t be available until September 10th. Bummer. As far as I’m aware, this wasn’t made clear to players and the Earthen being available on August 22nd is stated on Blizzard’s roadmap. Ah, well. I’ve got a zillion characters already and can wait a few more days to add to my roster. I just wish the dev team would have let everyone know in advance if there was a delay or misstatement.
Ready to delve the skies
I’ll wrap things up here by mentioning my completion of the first weekly events (Theater Troupe, Awaken the Machine, Rollin’ Down in the Deeps) and opening of various caches (Pinnacle, Algari Adventurer, and Everyday). I received some decent gold, lots of Kej, Crests, Coffer Keys, and a few 574 ilevel gear upgrades which was nice. I also unlocked the Delver’s Dirigible mount and look forward to customizing that rickety beauty in the future.
There’s even more I could mention (I’ve played A LOT this week), but I’m feeling the urgent call of The War Within and I need to jump back into the game. Until next time, Traveling Buddies. The Coreway must be protected!