Welcome back, Warcraft Friends! Let’s hop into my week trampling through World of Warcraft’s multiple incarnations. It’s been a seven-day whirlwind of gaming goodness. (If you’d like to catch last week’s debut Diary – you can find it here).
WoW Retail: Dragonflight
Similar to last week, I didn’t spend a ton of time in Retail WoW but I did head over to the Trading Post to shop for new June goodies. I earned all the currency I needed this month without even trying. Playing through MoP: Remix filled my Trader’s Chest with Tender.
I grabbed the two mounts available; the Pearlescent Goblin Wave Shredder and Riding Turtle, as well as the Initiate’s Bo (a bamboo staff cosmetic) and the X-treme Water Blaster Display toy. W00t! Go, Summertime!
Does this new belt clash with my whole ‘dark and mysterious’ vibe?
Mists of Pandaria: Remix
Most of my gaming week was split between Classic Hardcore and MoP: Remix. In MoP: Remix, I created my third new character in order to earn more sweet Bronze to purchase mounts. I’m not a raider or big dungeon runner these days, so going the multiple character route is my best bet at grabbing the loot I’m after. I do still intended to jump into some random-group dungeons, especially as I’m hearing how fast they go, but I haven’t yet indulged.
My new character, Blueheart – the Gnome Warlock, got from level 10 to level 70 in 15 hours and 45 minutes. I know lots of players are finding routes to the level cap that are only taking 2 or 3 hours, but those paths strike me as borderline exploits and that’s not my jam. 60 fast levels in just a few days play is super-fast as it is. In fact, it’s so fast I’m worried that it’s spoiling players, including myself, with regard to leveling speed. When The War Within arrives will leveling from 70 to 80 feel glacial?
‘Bronze me!’ (Blueheart begins her Timerunning journey)
Leveling my Warlock was good fun and she ran with her Imp Minion, Jaktip, the majority of the time. Her blueberry tank wasn’t much needed. Blueheart hit 70 while turning in quests at the Kota Basecamp in Kun-Lai Summit. Many Kafa-Crazed Mountain Goats and Yeti were slaughtered, Kota Berries picked, and Kafa’ goot “deposits” flagged to earn her final level.
And while we’re on the subject, what is it with the WoW devs and poop-related quests? I think we’ve gotten our fill of those over the years. It’s well past time to flush those away. I always imagine a quest designer putting in the first excrement quest and everyone laughing and saying “Giggle giggle. Let’s see if players actually engage with this!” And, of course, we did. We’ll do just about anything for a smidgeon of XP and a reward.
The food was good but service was terrible
But I digress. Blueheart earned 66k Bronze leveling to 70 and then it was time to buy as many mounts as possible. I picked up 8 new beauties; the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent (for a whopping 38,500 Bronze), Rose Riding Crane, Luxurious Riding Crane, Cobalt Juggernaut, Night Pterrorwing, Bloody Skyscreamer, Daystorm Windsteed, and Golden Discus. What a haul! My total mount collection now stands at 309.
World of Warcraft Classic Hardcore
I’m getting so close to the level 60 cap with my Rogue, Slickstick, I can almost taste it. Slick hit level 59 in the Eastern Plaguelands while killing Mossflayer Zombies at The Undercroft. I put in lots of time carefully grinding kills in the zone as old Tirion Fordring needed 30 Plaguehounds and 30 Plaguebats iced and wanted 15 chunks of Carrion Worm meat! Following that grindfest, I moved on to Winterspring to farm Owls and Owlbeasts for Giant Eggs to replenish my stock of Monster Omelets.
I don’t want to jinx anything – but I’m getting tantalizingly close to 60 and I should have some good news to report here next week.
Slick made some new friends in Winterspring
World of Warcraft: The War Within Beta Test (Mild Spoiler Alert)
Having already pre-purchased The War Within Epic Edition, on Wednesday, the 5th I installed the client, patched, and eagerly logged into the Beta Test to find: “No Realms Available.” *Sigh*
When I was able to check in again later in the day, the realms were up and I created my first character. A Dwarf Warrior called Brewton. Without paying close attention to what I was doing, I was surprised to find that Brewton loaded into Stormwind as a maxed-out level 80 with no new content in sight.
With tons of players running around me and the chat flying fast and furious I took some time to get my Talents in order. Checking out the Hero Talents for the first time, I went down Fury’s Mountain Thane track which seems full of thunderbolts and lightning. Very, very frightening…and very promising.
In an attempt to see some new content, I headed over to Gadgetzan in Tanaris for quests related to Warbands. I hadn’t expected actual Warband quests, figuring it would just be new functionality, but it makes sense to have questlines for players to get the whole thing underway.
After trying to kill some mobs amongst way too many players trying to do the same, my game crashed. And I don’t think my nifty new computer was to blame. I would guess it was first day of public Beta server congestion.
A lonely Beta Test Warband of one
After the crash, I took the opportunity to switch to another realm to create a character that wasn’t already at max-level. I made a Goblin Hunter called Rumbolt and started off in a somewhat laggy Exile’s Reach at level 1. This also was not ideal. I’d have to work my way through 68 levels or so to get to War Within content. After playing for a bit I quit out in mild disappointment. I was looking forward to leveling and exploring my way through War Within zones at level 70, but instead was offered a max-level character or a brand new character.
Then it hit me. Not wanting to spoil upcoming content, I had been avoiding Beta testing for the past few expansions. I used to jump into each new Beta eagerly but eventually gave that up. What I should have done is copy over a level 70 character to dive into The War Within Beta. Oh well. I’ll do that today and report back on my Beta progress next week.
Knowledge is power. Farewell for now, mortals.