Hello, fellow Warcraft Travelers! As you may have noticed, this edition of the diary is coming in a few days late. I had surgery on Thursday and spent that night and much of Friday in the hospital. I’m fine. It was elective surgery to help with some stomach issues, but it still knocked me on my ass for a while. I’m not 100% yet, but I’m feeling up to chatting – so let’s get right to it.
(If you’d like to read last week’s entry: you can do so here)
World of Warcraft Retail: Dragonflight (The War Within Pre-Patch)
Like most of you, my time in World of Warcraft over the past week and a half has been dominated by the Radiant Echoes event that went live on July 30th. As mentioned previously, the event was somewhat lacking in fun in the first 48 hours or so, with lots of downtime and little reward to show for your efforts. Thankfully, Blizzard acted with speed and got everything back on-track with pretty much non-stop event uptime and more rewards rolling in.
When the Radiant Echoes event went live, I had my main, Tipton (Gnome Rogue) check things out first. I did the intro quests with Thrall, Jaina, and Magni. Poor Magni! First, he’s turned into crystal and now knocked out cold. Will he be lying on his back for the entire expansion ahead?
Dagran makes his debut. You’ll see a lot more of this wee lad soon.
I zoned into Dragonblight but the Lich King was already dead. I tried Searing Gorge next, got a Ragnaros kill and scooped up a new dagger. I also eventually received the Achievement “This Takes Me Back.”
My Undead Prot Warrior, Drowsy had just hit level 68 on a raft-riding World Quest and quickly reached 69 battling in Dustwallow Marsh. “The War Within” quest was pushed to him at level 69 and he hit level 70 assisting “The Bronzbeard Family” in Dalaran. Drowsy was languishing at level 54 just last week but the newly reduced XP requirements and Pre-Expansion Update have been a mighty leveling accelerant.
I had more alts join the event, like my Hunter Sweetwater, my old Mage main, Cozmic, and my Pally Starmace. The Warband Bank finally being live has been a real timesaver. I’m transferring all earned event loot to a tab there and having any alt that needs an item grab it.
I also used the event’s fast leveling to max out my original WoW character, Varlo the Dwarf Hunter. And after hitting 70, he needed a new transmog. He’s now sporting the fancy, and recently unlocked, Stormrider’s Attire in red. A dandy look for Dwarves!
Everyone’s favorite slip-n-slide scenario
I ran scads of scenarios and downed the Remembered bosses enough to purchase the Remembered Golden Gryphon & Wind Rider flying mounts (see photo at top), the three pets; Remembered Construct, Riverpaw, & Spawn, and the Band of Radiant Echoes Heirloom Ring. Now, I’m just working on getting some good pieces of gear for each of my alts which is coming along well. After I acquired the must-haves, it feels like the pressure is off and I can just enjoy the event in a more leisurely fashion.
Outside of the Radiant Echoes madness, I’ve been working on maxing out my Dream Wardens and Loamm Niffen reputations. Early last week, the “Sign of Awakened Dreams” buff was live boosting Dream Wardens rep by 50%. That was a big help and got me to level 18. I picked up the newly unlocked mounts Suntouched Dreamstag and Snowfluff Dreamtalon. I also picked up the very cool Dream Infusion mount: Stargrazer. As soon as I mounted up for the first time another player complimented me. Yeah, it’s a sweet ride. Grab this one if you can.
Soon after, my off-main Rootbeard worked on more Dream Wardens rep and I was able to max out at level 20. That allowed me to grab yet another mount: Lunar Dreamstag. Rootbeard then changed up his transmog to a more metal-armor based look and ran Stockades and Deadmines to celebrate. Later, he ran Gnomer for the first time in ages. Then it was off to The Blood Furnace, Hellfire Ramparts, and Shattered Halls. I’m swimming in greens and unlocking new transmogs. Still, I hope I can sell most of this crap.
Gnomeregan – I am in you!
I realized I had two Seedbloom tokens in Tipton’s inventory and went back and purchased the Evening Sun Dreamsaber and Springtide Dreamtalon mounts. And, zing! This unlocked the Achievement & title “Lord of the Reins,” which awarded yet another mount: Heavenly Azure Cloud Serpent!
I visited Zaralek Caverns to work on Loamm Niffen rep and that was trickling in more slowly. Still, running my Demon Hunter Bellefire through the initial questlines and having Tipton run World Quests, I pushed my Niffen rep to 10. Tipton also grabbed the “Adventurer of Zaralek Cavern” Achievement after killing the Rare Magtembo. I’m not sure if I can max out my rep before The War Within early access but I’ll continue chipping away at it.
Tipton and Worgli stand ready to fight or fly the white flag (whatever works)
There was even more going on over the past 10 days of WoW-ing but I’ll bring things to a close with a mention of the August Trading Post. Without any effort, I maxed out my Trader’s Tender for the month by playing the Pre-Expansion event. I purchased the Sentinel War Wolf mount, Worgli Murloc pet, and the Wanderer’s Ensemble: Crimson Trappings (red cape and neck scarf). There was more I would have liked to obtain but I just didn’t have enough Tender. Mercy me.
S’all for now, fellow Travelers. See you next time. Suffer well!