Greetings, fellow travelers, and welcome back to another edition of the WoW Diary.
I got some solid World of Warcraft playtime in over the past seven days, but things were a bit subdued when compared to the week before it. Like most of you, I’m eagerly awaiting that sweet War Within Pre-Patch arriving at the end of next month.
Let’s jump into it! (If you’d like to catch last week’s Warcraft Traveler – you can find it here).
WoW Retail: Dragonflight
At the top of the week, I logged in a few characters from my army of alts that had been gathering dust. First, was my Horde main, Slyboots – the Undead Rogue. He’s currently my highest level Horde character and I brought him from level 64 to 65 working the Ohn’ahran Plains. After leveling at least 10 Alliance characters through Dragonflight, I lost most of the urge to do the same again with my Horde alts. Now, the plan is to level at least one or two to 70 to be ready for The War Within.
After Slyboots, I logged in my very first World of Warcraft character, Varlo – the Dwarf Hunter (see photo up top). I’ve never deleted or moved realms with ol’ Varlo, who was created on WoW’s launch day, November 23, 2004. On occasion, I’ll log him in and get him up to speed with what’s current. This time, that meant leveling him from 64 to 65 in The Waking Shores. I’d like to have him ready for the upcoming expansion as well but that’s low priority. So many characters – so little time.
Mists of Pandaria: Remix
Tincan – the Mechagnome Hunter continued circling around the Timeless Isle, scooping up treasures and battling beasties. All of his gear is maxed out at ilevel 346 (nothing higher will drop out in the world) and I’m only replacing things when a blue item drops (I haven’t seen a purple in ages). The only way to upgrade my gear at this stage is to visit the Timerunner Upgrader and that’s a pricey proposition. To upgrade my rifle one level from 346 to 360 would set me back 9k Bronze. So, I’ve been avoiding that, prioritizing the collecting of mounts. I know I should be running dungeons each day for the Bronze rewards but I’ve yet to do that.
The mounts I gladly blew my Bronze on this time were; Jungle Riding Crane, Pale Riding Crane, Black Riding Yak, Modest Expedition Yak, and Fel Iron Juggernaut.
Into the Bronze Hopper goes Chopper the Time Stopper
I also made another new Timerunning character, changing things up with a Horde option. It had been ages since I ran through Pandaria on a Horde character so I enjoyed seeing the early levels with my Goblin Beast Mastery Hunter – Chopper. I chipped away at Chopper’s levels bring him to level 64 by the end of the week.
WoW: The War Within Beta Test
My time in the Beta Test was limited but I did fly to The Ringing Deeps and explore a good deal. I captured a hearty number of screenshots while poking around the expanses of the giant cavern and you can find some of the attractive results here: WoW: ‘War Within’ Gallery: The Ringing Deeps. More exploring to come, so stay tuned.
A peep in the Deep
Warcraft III: Reforged
I adored the original Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos when it released back in 2002. I played the heck out of the game (and The Frozen Throne expansion) and it’s what really got me excited imagining what a Massively Multiplayer game in the Warcraft style could be.
When Blizzard released Warcraft III: Reforged in 2020 I was ready to pick it up but was turned off by bad reviews and negative comments from the community. This week, with Blizzard’s Summer Sale on, I finally bought the game. I grabbed it for half price, and since I already had a currency balance from previous gifts chilling in the Blizzard store, I basically got the game for nothing.
I’ve begun playing through the prologue campaign and so far so good. I’m enjoying the blast of nostalgia. On the less positive side, while the upgraded graphics are nice, some of the units and buildings don’t quite capture that classic Warcraft look.
And so it re-begins…
Warcraft Rumble
Lastly, in Rumbleville, I spent money for the first time since launch and dropped $4.99 on the Azeroth’s Blessing bundle. This offers up an initial 600 gold coins and then 120 coins and a Major XP Tome each day for the next 30 days. That seems like a decent buy for 5 bucks and seeing the results daily feels worthwhile.
I also managed to get my entire main army to green (Uncommon) level. It remains to be seen how much this will improve my experience but I continue to tap away each day, enjoying the game, while not loving it.
Until next time, travelers. Lok’tar ogar!