Greetings ‘crafty friends, and welcome back to another edition of the WoW Diary.
This week, much World of Warcraft was played. Achievements were earned. Mounts were rounded up. But why are we lingering in the intro? Let’s jump in! (If you’d like to catch last week’s Warcraft Traveler – you can find it here)
World of Warcraft Retail: Dragonflight
With the impending approach of The War Within expansion I’ve begun the process of logging in my army of alts. I need to get a grasp on where they stand after not playing many of them for over a year. I need to clean the cobwebs out of their bags and empty their banks. This pre-expansion organizing is something I do in the lead up to each new release.
I began with Sweetwater – the Dwarf Hunter. She was parked in the Ohn’ahran Plains and I ended up running through a number of quests there. Sweetwater is a harvester, with Mining & Herbalism trained. At the end of the play session I sent all of her gathered crafting supplies to my main and alts who can best make use of them.
Speaking of my main, Tipton – the Gnome Rogue, he completed his first Superbloom which brought in another dagger upgrade from a cache reward. After a bit of Flightstone upgrading, this brought the new Serrated Deboning Knife to item level 502. My first item breaking the 500 barrier.
I also finally maxed out Tipton’s Valdrakken Accord reputation. And after running dailies and the Nokhud Offensive with Followers, I also maxed out his Maruuk Centaur rep. This awarded the “Popular Around The Isles” Achievement.
While questing around Shifting Sands, running errands for Chromie, Tipton picked up a half-hidden Expedition Scout Pack and inside was a Verdant Skitterfly mount! That came as quite a surprise. I must have opened more than a hundred of these packs and had no idea a mount was even in the ol’ loot table. Of course, it’s a creepy insect-type I’ll probably never use, but still. I was pleased.
A touch of blue for the Rogue in black
Tipton also engaged in numerous pet battles to level some pets to 25 and earn some Trader’s Tender. It’s bonus week for pet battles too, so that’s definitely a plus. I maxed out my Tender for the month relatively quickly and headed over to the Trading Post in Stormwind to make some purchases. I received the bonus reward Trishi Naga pet, and spent my coins on the Underlight Corrupted Behemoth mount and Ensemble: Vagabond Deep Threads (A blue hood and matching cape).
Feeling nostalgic, and tired of waiting for Warbands to go live, I ran my Prot Warrior Dwarf, Rootbeard through a few old dungeons; Stockades, Deadmines, Scholomance, Scarlet Monastery, and Shadowfang Keep. I sent the loots to my salesperson, Blackmarket – the Gnome Monk.
There’s no lack of scarlet in this monastery
Blackmarket put a number of items up for sale in the Auction House for the first time in ages and I was very happy to sell a Fire-Blessed Greatsword for just under 60k gold. And this was the only item out of 20 listed that sold. A bit of research uncovered that the Greatsword is needed for the Honor Our Ancestors Achievement and that probably attributed to its value.
WoW: The War Within Beta Test (Minor Spoilers)
In Beta, my copied-over Rootbeard learned Khaz Algar Blacksmithing and made his first pair of War Within crafted boots; 515 ilevel Dredgers Plate Sabatons.
While running quests for Earthen in Boskroot Basin, he hit level 74 helping to subdue infected wildlife and angry mushroom men. I haven’t been trying all that hard to level in the Beta but it’s happening regardless. My early impression is that leveling may be a bit too fast. Maybe this is intended. Do the devs want to get players to the end game and push out this trio of expansions more quickly than most may be expecting? We shall see.
Until next time, travelers. Victory lies ahead!