Questing in the new world

I've been questing and exploring on my dwarf shaman, so far I've done Dun Murough, Loch Modan, and Wetlands.  I've also completed the following dungeons - Wailing Caverns, Blackfathom Depths, The Stockade, Scarlet Monastry - Graveyard, Gnomergan & Deadmines.  In the days since the Shattering, between questing and dungeon runs, I've reached level 29 without using any Heirloom gear.  Leveling speed is a lot faster and smoother with the quest hubs and each hub linking to the next.

One hint for the dungeon quests, if the quest givers don't move forward with you.  Teleport out and back into the dungeon, and you'll be back at the beginning with the quest givers.

Quest gear and dungeon drops are generally better than most of the random items drops and will generally have an option that will match you spec, so you'll be ready for for most encounters.

I'm really enjoying working on my shaman.  I've decided to level as enhancement, and the melee style is enjoyable.  Now that i know Nova blast, I'm having to work in dropping at least a fire totem when facing a group of mobs. 

Have fun, and explore the world.

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.

The Dreamer Awakens

In the new fanart posted to the Blizzard Gallery, there is an excellent image of Ysera in her Night Elf form:

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/fanart/index.html#1139

Speaker of dragons, I've been working on the rep for Brood of Nozdromu, finally got out of hated,  Couple of AQ40 runs, and the rep quest, and I'll be able to work on the Scepter of the Shifting Sands questline.  I'm going to try and finish it before patch 4.0.3 hits.

Horseman falls Again

Strumwulf acquired the Headless Horseman's Reins on Monday, so both my 80's have the mount now.

The Horseman Falls

Yesterday, Yekaterina picked up the Reigns of the Headless Horse, and now rides the skys on the Headless Horseman's Mount.

Blizzcon Day 2 - Art Panel

The art panel was a blast.  We got a preview of art from the various new zones, a glimpse at how the art team develops the props that each faction uses, dungeon building, as well as a look at the new opening screen.

Blizzcon Day 1 Away

First day is off to a start.  Chris Metzen had a great intro.  Geeks rule.  The Dungeon and Raid panel gave out some good info, and a preview of some the raids and dungeon coming in 4.1.  The Lore and quest panel gave out a lot of hints and spoilers in their Q&A.  The entries in the costume and dance contests were great.  Looking forward to tomorrow.

Patch 4.0.1 Suggestions.

So far, so good.  I tried out a few of my characters, and here are some suggestions to help you get your characters up to speed.

1) Get your glyphs.  Review all of the glyphs for your class and see which ones you want to use based on your spec.

2) Visit the class trainer.  No matter what level you are, you probably have at least 1 new skill to learn.

3) Review all your spells and abilities.  A lot of spells and abilities have had some type of change done to them.  Your are playing a whole new class essentially.

4) Respec.  All of your talents have been zeroized and all the trees are brand new.

5) Be patient.  If your performance is not at the level it was before the patch, Blizzard will see this and make adjustments.  You can also post on the offical forums and describe what you are seeing.  Make sure you include as much detail as possible.  What you were doing, what abilities you used, etc.   Just saying you are doing less damage, for example, will not be very helpful.

6) Have fun.  Everything is changing. Take some time and learn the game anew.

Welcome to a new world

Patch 4.0.1 drops tonight, and almost everything changes.  All the class, profession, equipment mechanics change.  Sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec 7, we'll see patch 4.0.3 drop which will change the appearance of the world and redo all the quests.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying out all my characters with the new class abilities, and talents.

Character progression -

Strumwulf has reached 350 in engineering, and is starting on the Northrend recipes.
Ksenjai is learning Inscription, and is rocketing through it with the help of Kiriann, who is leveling and picking herbs along the way.
Paksenarrion has joined the Scryers and is working on her leatherworking and enchanting.
Greigol has become Yekaterina and still plugging at at the Dalaran dailies.
Karmag has reached level 71, and Honored with the Kulak.


Hope everyone has a good night, and fun adventuring on the morrow.

Bad Girl III

An excellent pic of Valeera Saguinar by Shiramune.

http://shiramune.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d17ko3e

Achievements

I've picked up several achievements for my characters this weekend.  Strumwulf finally made it into Zul'Gurub and took down Hakkar for the Raid Achievement and finished up Classic Raider, as well as defeating Malygos to earn his Champion of the Frozen North title.  He also made his way through the Scarlet Monastery, Wailing Caverns and Ragefire Chasm to earn the Classic Dungeonmaster achievement.  He's 370 of 700 quests into earning the Kalimdor Loremaster.

Paksenarrion reached level 60, and Karmag, my new Orc Death Knight reached 70.   I'm working on getting Karmag to level 75 so I can finish the Echo Isles event before it goes away.

Greigol fished up a Giant Rat from the Dalaran Sewers.

Have fun and exciting travels.

Bad Girl II

From the Blizzard Fan Art Page.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/fanart/index.html#1116

Bad Girl

Browsing through the EU concept art, and found this picture.  She's so bad, that she's good.

http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/community/conceptart/#376

Still No Beta

Still haven't gotten a Beta key, but I've hoped onto the PTR to check out the changes coming with patch 4.0.1.  I have to say the new UI features are great.  The spellbook layout is very useful, being able to see what spell is available and when is an excellent change.  The additional tabs for professions and pets in the spell book are handy.   I really like how you see the names of each pet and mount. 

More to come later.