It's a brand new world

The Shattering has happened and the world has changed.  One of the biggest changes is new starting areas for all the races except the Draenei and the Blood Elves, which had a couple of small tweaks mainly dealing with the class trainers and the addition of a trainer the can teach all the professions.

Here are the my impressions of the Level 1-5 areas:

     Orc/Dwarf/Night Elf - The quests flow smoother but all in all, very similar to the original areas.  Orcs are introduced to conflict with the humans early on here.  Big change for the Night Elves is the Moonwell quests actually have a spirit show up and tell you the history, instead of you reading it.

     Human - Completely redone, brings to the fore the conflict between the humans and the orcs.

     Troll - Very well done.  You can background on the retaking of the isles talking to some of the NPCs, as well as facing the Sea Witch from WC III, with Vol'jin before heading to Sen'jin village.

     Gnome - The other new starting area, it is also well done.  Mekkatorgue shows what happened at the end of the retaking of Gnomergan, and the story picks up from there.  The hardest part is facing the boss at the end of the quest zone before heading Kharanos.  It helps to have friends to deal with the mobs that spawn as you use Mekkatorgue's special abilities.

     Tauren - You get to see of the changes brought about by the Grimtotem attack, as well as a seemingly larger Quillboar presence.  The quests go lot a faster, and the overall size of the zone feels smaller.

     Forsaken - While several of the quests are similar to the orginal quests for the area, the story is updated to reflect the changes brought about by the fall of the Lich King, and Sylvanus's recruiting of the Vrykul.  You get to see that several of the newly risen dead are not accepting of their new state, leading to them become mindless undead or forming groups that stand against the Forsaken.  Excellent storyline here.

Take some time to check out the new starting areas and see the new lore.  Also the equipment you receive from the various quests, have a more uniform appearance, looking like the belong together.

Have fun.

Strumwulf

Pilgrim's Feast

Azeroth's version of Thanksgiving is upon us again.  As with most holidays there are a variety of achievements to earn and quests to do.  One thing that sets this holiday apart from the others, is that it offers characters a way to advance their cooking proffession from 1 to 300 with little effort.  You buy a recipe book from the one of the event vendors, which has 5 recipes for stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and turkey.  Everything except the turkey can be bought from one of the vendors.  If you have already learned cooking and its above level 300, all you need to do is buy 25 to 30 of each ingredient to be able to finish each quest.  If you are starting cooking you will need to look at what skill level you learn each recipe at and buy enough ingredients to get you to the next level.  For example, spiced bread will get you to skill level 50, and spiced bread stuffing will allow to get to level 100, when you learn the next recipe.  Remember to visit the cooking trainer as your skill goes up to learn more recipes and skill bars.

Have fun,

Strumwulf

Elemental Invasion

The final part of the Elemental Invasion has begun.  The events are a little tricky to start out, but once you have cleared the cities you can queue up to face one of 4 different bosses (2 will be available at a time).  There is a quest available from either Varian or Magni for the Alliance to defeat the boss, which is turned in back at Ironforge or Stormwind (Haven't done Horde side for this part, so you'll have info about that section elsewhere).  You get ilevel 251 gear (initial Tier 10 equivalent) from the bosses, so if you have some level 80 characters that haven't run ICC yet, here's a chance to get some new gear.

Good Luck and have fun.

Strumwulf

Scepter of the Endless Sands

I reached Neutral with the Brood of Nozdromu earlier this week, and started the quests for the Scepter of the Endless Sands.  Yesterday, I finished the Red Shard & Green Shard quests with the help of my guild.  I also want to thank Jinfive, the Tauren Druid for helping out when I summoned Eranikus on top of him.

Now I need to finish up collecting the sections of the book for the Blue Shard, and I'll finish up the questline before Cataclysm hits.

Edit:  Ran Molten Core tonight with my friend, Brian to get the the chapter of Draconic for Dummies vol 2 from Ragnaros.  Now i just need to hit up Onyxia for the chapter, she has and I'll be done with this portion.

Alchemy Humor

I'm leveling Alchemy on Ksenjia, my Priest, and I see that the elixir of detect undead is made from Arthas' Tears.

It's a little funny to that the main ingredient in this potion is named after the Lich King.

Elemental Invasion Part II

The second set of quests for the Elemental Invasion has appeared.  The Alliance get 3 new quests, while the Horde get 2 new quests.   The 1st quest is finding and defending a courier delivering a mysterious package from Northrend.  The courier is next to the southwest Zepplin tower for the Horde, and near the docks on the left side of the harbor in Stormwind.  You defend the courier from a elementals summoned by a Twillight Cultist riding a black drake.  You are given 3 new abilities to counter the elementals summoned.   These abilities make it so charcters of any level can complete the quest.  Just keep an eye on the three portals to see what elemental spawns, and use the appropriate ability to banish them.  Once done, you take the tablets back to Orgrimmar or Ironforge.  The 2nd quest is to pacify 20 elementals in Ironforge or Orgimmar.  I found that this quest was a lot quicker on Horde side. The extra Alliance quest is a feeder quest from Stormwind, sending you to Ironforge where you get the 2nd quest.    


All in all another fun set of quests to do as Catacylsm approaches.  You get some XP and money, and exposure to the developing storyline.  


Have fun and see you around.

Elemental Invasion begins

The elemental invasion has begun.  If you don't know what's going on, there is a great post about the event at:  http://ravenholdtmanor.blogspot.com/ 

You can also find info over at Wowhead and Wowpedia.  

Go out and see what is leading up to the world changing.

A Note of Caution, finding the elemental rifts can be a pain, they spawn at random times at one of several points in the various zones.  If you destroy a rift in a zone appropriate for your level, you can get a daily quest from the mysterious object that appears when the rift is destroyed, which is turned to an Earthern Ring emissary in one of the capital cities.  Also if you destroy a rift of each element, you will get a Feat of Strength.