Greetings, fellow Travelers! It’s World of Warcraft Early Access launch week and many of us have been able to jump into The War Within expansion for the first, live and official, time. There’s lots to discuss, so let’s get right down to it.
(If you’d like to read last week’s installment: you can do so here)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT RETAIL: THE WAR WITHIN EARLY ACCESS
For most of the past week I played the waiting game. Waiting eagerly for The War Within to launch into Early Access on Thursday afternoon, August 22nd.
Before then, I continued running multiple alts through the Radiant Echoes event. I brought my Undead Hunter Wyldshot out of Shadowlands content where she was wasting away and brought her to 70 in the event without much trouble.
Bopchop lopppin’ off a boar’s top
I also ran my level 12 Orc Warrior Bopchop through a good deal of Radiant Echoes madness and brought him all the way to level 48 before running out of steam. The event is fun, for sure, but I burnt out on it sometime last week. I may need to finish Bop’s leveling experience more traditionally in Dragonflight.
Eventually, it was time to get my Mists of Pandaria: Remix characters sorted out and into Dalaran. It was great that the five characters I made there were finally available in retail. I don’t think I’m going to keep all of them, as I have far too many characters overall, but I haven’t decided yet where the axe is going to fall. I’m almost certainly hanging onto my Mechagnome Hunter Tincan and my Gnome Warlock Blueheart at the very least.
Shockwerk in his new Goblin Heritage Armor. Kezan you dig it?
While dusting off and leveling my nearly-forgotten Goblin Shaman Shockwerk, the questline for “Heritage of Kezan” armor opened up. I followed that along to its surprisingly long, but fun conclusion by delivering invitations across the map and engaging in a lot of fighting in Crapopolis.
On Thursday afternoon, I was able to log into The War Within Early Access about an hour after it went live. Pretty much everything went smoothly and that’s always a nice way to begin a new expansion experience.
I focused on getting my main, Tipton, through the exciting intro sequence in Dalaran (no spoilers to mention – but expect lots of juicy in-game cutscenes) and onto the new continent of Khaz Algar. I got myself all set up in the wondrous main city of Dornogal and set my hearthstone at the inn there. I expect I won’t set it anywhere else until the Midnight expansion drops.
Candid shot of my crew in Dorn
Tipton picked up every available quest in sight and by the end of the evening had hit level 73 and started down the Deathstalker Hero Talent tree for Rogue. I really enjoy that honeymoon period with new expansion content where you aren’t paying much attention to your experience bar. You’re just loaded up with fresh things to see and do and collect, and eventually, you ding a new level without even realizing it was approaching.
Over the weekend, my buddy, Ceredoric the Demon Hunter, and I ran The Rookery and Stonevault dungeons with Follower helpers filling out the group. I picked up a few nice pieces of blue-level upgrade gear therein. We also ran the Earthcrawl Mines and Kriegval’s Rest Delves reaching the current Tier 3 cap quickly. A good time was had.
Tipton eventually moved on to the Ringing Deeps zone and spent a hearty amount of time questing there. He hit level 77 on Saturday evening. When I first explored Ringing Deeps in Beta (grabbing screenshots for Warcrafty), I wasn’t as impressed with it compared to the Isle of Dorn before it and Hallowfall after it. But, I’ve gotta say, There’s a ton of excellent questing to be enjoyed there and I was not disappointed with the place at all.
Tipton at level 79…again.
On Sunday morning, I began adventuring in Hallowfall and it felt good to bring the fight to the dastardly Nerubians. There’s also a ton of treasure chests and lost bags scattered around the zone and I can’t help but zip over and scoop them up whenever I spy one. I’ve got a real case of treasure-itis. And the only cure – is more treasure! Tipton hit level 79 before I needed to move onto weekend tasks outside the game (such as this diary) but I should hit the new 80 cap later tonight or tomorrow.
If you haven’t played yet, I’m pretty certain you’re going to enjoy yourself. Just remember to stretch your legs periodically and stay hydrated. There’s more to life than World of Warcraft – but right now, I’m hard-pressed to think of something else I’d rather be doing.
Until next time, fellow Travelers. May Beledar shine its light upon thee!