Ding: 74

Cleared Howling Fjord and ventured into Dragonblight. After anchoring myself to an inn and doing a few necessary quests, I was teleported to Dalaran, where I learned Portal: Dalaran. :)

Gaiwyn is now 75% into level 74.

I decided to finish off To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before. I had missed the Ram in Loch Modan -- very hard to find them -- and the Borean Frog. Not sure how I missed that one, as I was in Borean Tundra for so long.

At the same time, I decided to finish off Explore Borean Tundra. All I had to explore was Garrosh's Landing (not having been there while questing in Borean Tundra was an oversight on my part). With that done, I revisited Howling Fjord to get the last place there, Vengeance Landing, to get Explore Howling Fjord.

Three achievements in the space of half an hour. Not bad. ;)

Time to spend some money and level Tailoring!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Utgarde Keep

I quested a little bit on Gaiwyn.

Dinged 73.

Did Utgarde Keep with a couple of guildies and two pugs.

Tomorrow: more questing!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Death in Northrend

My Death Knight dinged 70 after 1 day, 20 hours of playtime (around six of which were spent running around Azeroth levelling Herbalism). I will be hitting Northrend on Sunday, when my brother can play.

I need to play Gaiwyn some more this weekend and see if I can get closer to 80. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Guilded

So I finally joined a new guild with my Mage. I still have a long way to go till I reach 80, but my new buddies are not intending to get into level 80 raiding for quite a while. This is good for my casual playstyle, as it gives me time to get to 80 and gear up in heroics.

My Death Knight is now level 69. I am going through quests in Netherstorm as fast as I can for the drive to 70. Once I hit 70 I will stop and wait for Sunday when my brother is going to begin playing again, and we are going to level through Northrend together.

I would like to get my Mage closer to 80 but my Death Knight has just proven to be too addicting. :p

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Herbalism: Levelling Without Levelling

Ok, so you rolled a Death Knight and want to level a gathering profession. Namely: Herbalism, because it complements Inscription nicely, right?

It essentially breaks down like this:

1. Pick up Herbalism from a trainer.


2. Get Herbalist's Gloves, enchanted with Advanced Herbalism.


3. I recommend installing the Cartographer and Outfitter addons.


4. Start in Elwynn Forest and run around, gathering lowbie herbs.


5. Elwynn Forest > Trainer: Journeyman > Westfall > Redridge Mountains > Stranglethorn Vale > Trainer: Expert > Stranglethorn Vale > Swamp of Sorrows > Hinterlands > Trainer: Artisan > Hinterlands > Felwood > Azshara > Outland + Trainer: Master

Equip the gloves whenever a herb is within ten levels but still out of reach -- here is where OutfitterFu comes in handy. Follow the herbs on Cartographer (filter in only the ones you are working on), making circuits around each zone, as thoroughly as you can. It takes a long time to raise your skill, but I got exploration achievements for every zone while herb grinding.

Stick with it and you will raise your skill from 1 to 300 in 5-10 hours. It takes longer to fully explore all the zones for achievements -- especially Azshara!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Mordreth Awakens

I decided to finally roll my Death Knight last night. I went through all the starting quests and then quested for a while in Western Plaguelands and Eastern Plaguelands, just for the sake of it and to get a jump on levelling in Outland.

I guess it was also helpful to kill lower level monsters and get a good rotation going, as well as getting more used to the Death Knight dynamic again, too.

I will now level his Inscription and Herbalism for a bit before hitting Outland and getting him to 68 as fast as I can.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Howling Fjord - Nifflevar to Level 80

Flying to Nifflevar I am about to take up some more questing on this side of the harbour. I have decided that all of this documenting my progress is detracting from the game and taking away gameplay time. In other words, I am levelling slower because of my blog entries.

So, the time has come to make a decision. I will no longer be taking screenshots or posting such detailed updates. Expect more along the lines of "ding, 73" and "in current WoW news" than "handed in such-n-such a quest and moved onto the next area".

Now, to continue questing in Howling Fjord and not worrying about this blog!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Howling Fjord - Valgarde

I sailed into the harbour and started questing around Valgarde. This area is a lot smoother than it was in beta.

Sailing into the harbour

Not far into questing I entered the Utgarde Catacombs. A quest in there had me run through a heap of ghouls to recover an artifact while surrounded by a protective shield. The shield burned their faces. XD

Sizzling ghoul flesh

Next, it was underwater for some collecting. I was even given a diving helmet so I could breathe.

I met up with the Lich King during my next quest circuit.

The main antagonist himself

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Kaskala to Death's Stand

I rode up to Kaskala and killed some of the raiders. It's freezing at home right now and all that ice scenery didn't exactly make me feel any warmer. >.<

Heading up to Death's Stand was no better, as it is all snow-covered ground as well -- the surrounding area is, after all, called the Frozen Reach.

After killing some of the defenders around the nearby ziggurat, I ventured inside to find Thassarian, a Death Knight. Now things are getting interesting! (And I need a coffee to warm myself up).

Inside The Wailing Ziggurat

Thassarian sent me back to Death's Stand to jump on his horse, Dusk. Sweet, I get to ride a Death Knight's mount!

Off to find a phylactery.

Giddyup Dusk

Next stop:

The Temple City of En'Kilah

Once inside, I simply had to inflict 20 undead casualties.

Inside En'Kilah

A return visit saw me kill three priests, one at each of the three spires.

The final quest was a group quest at the very top of Naxxanar. A small scenario played out and then we got to kill Prince Valanar. I leaped off the top of the necropolis to float down, for half a minute of high altitude perusing of the landscape, before hearthing back to Fizzcrank Airstrip.

After sorting my inventory out I will be logging out. Borean Tundra is officially complete!

Next stop: Howling Fjord.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Fizzcrank Airstrip to the Dens of Dying

I spent about half an hour changing my UI a little. Also, I have a sore left index finger, which makes both playing and typing difficult.

Now that I made it to the Dens of Dying, I'm able to do some more plague-related quests. I finished up by heading into the nearby necropolis.

Talramas

Then it was Back to the Airstrip to finish up this portion of the Borean Tundra.

A quick stop at Amber Ledge to turn in Monitoring the Rift: Winterfin Cavern and I headed back to the start: Valiance Keep, to finally hand in the quest In Wine, Truth.

Next stop: Kaskala!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Fizzcrank Airstrip to Winterfin Cavern

Time for some subterfuge. It looks like Plan B worked.

It Was The Orcs, Honest!

I headed off to deal with some murloc issues. King Mrgl Mrgl sure looks like a murloc... ;)

Diving deep underwater, I gathered some essence to help me learn the speech of the Winterfin murlocs. Now that I can speak their language, I have to gather clams as an introductory gift -- to break the ice, so to speak.

Exploring underwater reveals yet another cool environment

I continued questing for the Winterfin murlocs, also gathering clams as I went. I see that I need 100 to get a Siren's Tear, a reagent in the crafting of a Deathchill Cloak.

Handing in made me level up: Level 72!

After slaughtering some orcas in the frigid water, I was given a Murloc suit and asked to enter the cave, disguised. There, under the pretense of a peaceful murloc, I would slay Claximus for his claw, the climax kill of this culmination of questing.

Grlglmrrrrgllll

The crafty crab slain and his claw collected, a caged murloc escorted to safety and one other Amber Ledge quest completed in the process, I handed in to find that even this area ties into Malygos and his crazy ambitions to control magic.

Back at Fizzcrank, I did an escort quest out of the nearby cave and handed that in. Next stop: The Dens of Dying.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Fizzcrank Airstrip Part II

Questing continues around the oil-soaked areas surrounding Fizzcrank Airstrip: the Scalding Pools and Geyser Fields. I also had to kill some Mammoths. Just don't tell D.E.H.T.A. ;)

I got distracted by some elementals I disovered. Some water and fire elementals were in areas next to each other and every so often two would engage each other and start battling it out, fire vs water.

How cool is that?

I farmed some of the new motes, called Crystallized Fire -- for the sake of it. Ten make an Eternal Fire. The respawn rate for the elementals is pretty good, too. Could be a nice farming spot in future -- as a frost mage, the fire ones are very easy to kill. ;)

Back to questing.

After blowing up a sinkhole and testing a shrink-ray device (results did vary), it was time to hand in the quests, pushing me to Honoured with Valiance Expedition!

The followup to the failed experiment has me heading back out to loot some orc corpses in the area next to the elementals I discovered just before. I'll crack into that after I eat. :)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Skinner, Miner, Warrior

I picked up and levelled Skinning on my warrior to 225 before tonight's server shutdown. It should pay off eventually. ;)

The world's first level 80 Death Knight has a screenshot. The first US one followed shortly after, on Tichondrius: Essay.

Give these guys a couple of weeks and they will start to look very purple and shiny indeed. ;)

I have yet to roll my Death Knight, but when I do, I intend to take him all the way to 80. I can't wait to get into raiding. I'm tempted to make either Warrior or Death Knight my main, but I have sowed too much into my mage for that to ever happen. >.<

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Fizzcrank Airstrip

I hearthed to Fizzcrank to finally start on this quest-hub. Some of the new creatures around the place are pretty interesting and the variations in landscape and environments are well worth checking out. Also, don't type blog entries while riding towards a cliff... :p

After a few close brushes with death, the least contributor of which was gravity, I survived the robotic madness and returned to Fizzcrank to turn in my first quest circuit's bounty.

I continued questing around the area, killing robots, burning planes and searching through dogshit. Really, who comes up with these quests >.<

There is more to go for this area but it's time to eat and then play my warrior for a little while.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

MacGyver vs Chuck Norris

I quested a little more with my warrior last night and dinged 61. Much more of Hellfire Peninsula to go.

Why hadn't I discovered these nifty tools before?
Bladed Pickaxe -- for those gatherers.
Gnomish Army Knife -- great for Engineers; but why the Skinning Knife peripheral?
Hammer Pick -- Blacksmiths who mine their own ore, rejoice.

I took my mage to Feathermoon. Why, you ask? It's time to cash in some Librams of Protection at the Dire Maul library for Shen'dralar reputation. But what benefit does this give you?! Absolutely none. I am a rep whore -- a rep whore who doesn't have Exalted Hydraxian, Zandalar, Nozdormu, Scale of the Sands or Ashtongue. :(

I need 39,809 reputation to reach max Exalted. Each Libram gives 550 rep. That means a total of 73 Librams of Protection, 73 Frayed Abomination Stitchings, 73 Pristine Black Diamonds and 146 Large Brilliant Shards. It also means 73 treks between Feathermoon Stronghold and Dire Maul North. >.>

It's a fruitless endeavour but one I will chip away at over the next couple of years as I strive for other achievements.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Fizzcrank Airstrip to The Nexus

I flew from Valiance Keep up to Amber Ledge and made my way up to Fizzcrank Airstrip. I love how mounts between flight points are different vehicles: dragons, flying machines, etc.

I grabbed the Flight Point before entering the inn to bind myself. I also handed in Distress Call there, a quest I had sitting in my log. Looks like the gnomes around these parts require my assistance. Robot gnomes, indeed. o.O

Before I could leave the inn to pick up any quests, I was sucked into The Nexus -- a partially completed one. I killed the two bosses that were left: Grand Magus Telestra and Keristrasza, completing two of my four instance quests.

Halls of The Nexus

After eventually replacing our tank and healer, we did a full clear, this time also killing Ormorok the Tree-Shaper and Anomalus.

After handing in the four quests, I ended up replacing three of my epics with blues. o.O Haste FTW. ;)

I have now fulfilled my obligation to The Nexus. Next time I play I will definitely do Fizzcrank quests.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Level 60 vs Level 71

I have continued to play my warrior. She is now level 60, which means Titan's Grip has become a reality, It didn't take long for me to level my 2H axe skill from 1 to over 280. One Blood Furnace run later and it is at 299/300.

Anyway, hitting stuff with two huge axes is just as much fun as I anticipated. It was easy enough to adjust to the rage gain difference. Levelling to 70 will be fun indeed. ^^

I have decided to drop Blacksmithing in favour of another gathering skill. If I pick up Skinning, then essentially I will have three skinners. However, I prefer playing a warrior to both druid and hunter, who are my other two skinners. Besides, gathering professions are likely to increase my income a little bit.

In getting my journeyman riding skill, it pretty much cleaned me out. Gaiwyn only has about 60g right now. I will have to do a whole lot more Borean Tundra questing and maybe see if enchants are in demand at all.

After all, I have to save up 1,000g by level 77 for Cold Weather Flying. :/

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Coldarra to Fizzcrank Airstrip

Questing in Coldarra continues, as does my Wyrmrest Accord reputation.

Finishing up in Coldarra, save for The Nexus itself, I fly back to Amber Ledge. Next stop, Fizzcrank Airstrip.

More to come. Time for a break.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Amber Ledge to Coldarra

I killed stuff nearby to get a key to open a prison, then went and checked out some seismic readings before heading back to the ledge to get the followups. The quests here give Kirin Tor reputation.

I ran back to grab a sorcerer whom I dragged back to town, connected by a chain. Apparently Kirin Tor mages have gone missing and questioning prisoners is the only way to find out why one in particular was taken captive.

On my way to getting the key for the next quest, I had to dive deep underwater to check out a larger seismic location. Glowy purple stuff. Oooh.

Rescue time! Our esteemed prisoner awaits my heroic endeavour to destroy the shield protecting her captor and slaying that egregious guard for her key. Unfortunately, she was already dead so all I had to do was simply loot the key from a box. ^^

It seems that the key was damaged and I have to repair it. Two dragon flights later and I find myself in Coldarra. And cold and icy it is.

The Nexus

Some running around saw me complete the initial quests in this area. This whole Malygos and the Blue Dragonflight storyline is pretty cool.

Malygos of the Blue Dragonflight

Quests here give The Wyrmrest Accord reputation. That's four factions so far.

I dinged while doing my second round of quests: Level 71.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Riplash Strand to Amber Ledge

I went over to Riplash Strand to have my first encounter with the Tuskarr. I killed a whole lot of raiders and completed the handful of quests around this area. The main chain involved swimming and killing a seamonster with a huge trident. Handing the last quest in got me friendly with The Kalu'ak.

Ok, time to head to the D.E.H.T.A encampment -- Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. Incidentally, it is also an anagram for HATED. Seeing a little more of the zone, I'm impressed with what Blizzard have done.

I did a whole lot of animal related quests, like freeing trapped mammoth calves and killing poachers. Then it was down to the beach with some crate collecting and underwater looting and killing.

Finding people for small group quests is really easy, since there are so many people questing.

Off to the quarry by Amber Ledge, now that my D.E.H.T.A questing is done.

Two Kalu'ak questgivers here just kept chaining quests together -- more rep is good. I had to run into the quarry multiple times. The respawns are crazy, but it wasn't hard at my gear level, and considering how many people are around. Crazy times. :o

Now for Amber Ledge proper. The Flight Master here is a huge dragon called Surristrasz. I turned in a quest I had had sitting in the log for a while. Time to take a break before these Amber Ledge Dalaran quests.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Valiance Keep

I logged into the server and ported to Stormwind before clearing my mailbox and getting rid of a few things to make room in my bags. I rode down to the harbour and took the ship to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra.

My Lich King journey has begun.

Upon arrival, I grabbed the Flight Point and then ran around town unlocking the next level of my professions: Grand Master First Aid, Grand Master Enchanting and Grand Master Tailoring, as well as learning all recipes available to me. It took a decent chunk out of my miserable 500-odd gold stash.

I picked up quests and ran out into the nearby area to fulfil the requirements. I eventually finished those up, as well as the few around the Keep itself. I moved up into Farshire and had to go into the mine a couple of times to complete some quests in that area.

Some ghoul killing and harvester rewiring later and it was back to the farmers of Farshire -- where I hit Friendly with Valiance Expedition -- and then the inn back at town, which incidentally is now my hearthstone home.

The server had three minutes left on its restart timer, so I decided that it would be prudent to log out while in the inn.

--

After the server restart, I logged back in to finish up a few loose ends before I could head down to Riplash Strand, which I will start on tomorrow.

Day 1 of my Northrend experience complete.

I realise that playing for such a short stretch of time means I haven't progressed terribly much, but this is part of my plan. I have been reading the full text of every quest and just strolling through quests I already did in beta. So far it is basically some guff on cultists among the friendlies and some scourge activity. I know that in reading every quest's description and experiencing every scripted event, I will fully experience this new content and appreciate what the development team have done regarding the whole Lich King story behind it all.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

A 70-80 Levelling Guide

I found this guide for levelling from 70-80. It appears to be a very comprehensive site and has cute little stick figures throughout. Take a look if you are interested in possibly optimising your levelling experience.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

A Decision Regarding Play

My brother kindly upgraded my account for me. This means that when I get home, I could launch straight into the expansion, having set it all up last night.

However, I intend to play around with a little image editing -- especially updating the banner for this website. Northrend sure isn't going anywhere. Besides, the longer I put it off, the fewer people to contend against for quest objectives. ;)

Also, remember that I want to take my time levelling anyway. I will be on the lookout for a guild to raid with at level 80, but may in fact form my own guild. If there are enough decent players around on Proudmoore I may be able to put together a tight-knit team of raiders for clearing ten-man content. We shall see. XD

My warrior sure needs some love if she is to reach level 68 anytime soon. Perhaps by that stage I will be sick of playing a melee DPS and will want to level my priest or shaman after getting my mage to 80. :o

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Level 80

Nymh of the French server, Drek'thar is Level 80 already. :o

He did it in 27 hours (Northrend was opened on European servers five hours before American ones). You can read an interview about his tactic here.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

It's Live!

The expansion went live and hordes of Alliance poured into Northrend.

Wowhead have implemented a blog on their website. I've added it to the sidebar.

When I got home, I logged my level 52 warrior to do a little questing towards gaining a higher level. I did a /who 71 and saw four people at that level after just an hour and a half past the official launch time. Incidentally, they were all in Borean Tundra -- my preferred zone of the two starting Northrend zones.

I gained a level on my warrior and then went out for dinner. Upon return, I already had plans to watch a movie with my friend, but decided to log my mage quickly to see what was going on. Some of my friends were in Utgarde Keep, which kind of made me feel like I was missing out on all the action.

But I'm really not worried. I look forward to experiencing everything that the Lich King expansion has to offer; and I intend to go at a slower pace than in the previous expansion, immersing myself in the lore a lot more and just absorbing everything around me as I move through each zone and fight my way through each instance.

I was finally able to get the Lich King client to download. It finished installing and updated to the latest patch. As soon as my brother gives me the product key from the copy that I had him pre-order for me, I will be able to upgrade my account.

Northrend stoically awaits Gaiwyn. Gaiwyn patiently awaits his expansion upgrade.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Naxxramas Loot Lists

Here are the two loot lists for Naxxramas, as compiled by our good friend Boubouille over at MMO-Champion:

Naxxramas 10-man Loot List
Naxxramas 25-man Loot List

Servers are apparently back up. I am going home within the half hour so hopefully Proudmoore will definitely be up and running at that time. ;)

As a matter of note, in case you didn't catch the announcement at MMO-Champion, Nihilum and SK Gaming (aka Curse) are merging for the expansion. This should prove to be interesting as they form the top Horde guild in the WoW community and bring us more world firsts and professional insight into raid content.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Pre-Install

In order to save the hassle of receiving the game and waiting for it to install before venturing into Northrend, consider downloading the client ahead of time, then just entering your product key when you receive the box.

This could prove to be especially helpful for people like me who would otherwise have to wait a few extra days before activating the upgrade and joining everyone else in their expanded play.

Try either here or here for the client. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

It's Almost Here!

Lich King is but hours from going live. Account upgrades are now available for both US and European realms. You will need to upgrade your account to access Northrend content.

A lot of people have been QQing because of today's extended maintenance. All I can say -- and this coming from a sympathetic viewpoint of someone who can't log in anyway due to being at work -- is: cry more, nubs. Give Blizzard a break. They have a huge responsibility this week -- but they have a daunting task overall.

I am glad that a problem such as this mailbox bug has occurred today rather than in two days' time when every server will be flooded with people attempting to head to Northrend / Ebon Hold to immerse themselves in the new content.

Personally, I will not be receiving my Lich King DVD for a few more days yet. I actually feel really good about this. I am in no hurry to level my Mage to 80. Not only is this because I currently don't have a guild -- therefore there is no pressure on me to get to 80 and snag as much heroic gear in as little time as possible -- but I really want to absorb everything: read every quest description, take my time figuring out quest circuits, level my professions at a leisurely pace, breathe in the surroundings...

I barely did anything in beta. I felt that it was better to wait for the actual release of the real thing to sow my time into something that counted, personally. I also want to experience the content in a fresh way. Having walked the streets of Dalaran prepared me for the confusion of entering a city for the first time; but having not flown over all of the zones means that it will be fresh and new for me when I do enter each new place and experience everything that those places have to offer.

With these last few days that I have I intend to continue levelling my Warrior as if the servers are not aflush with hundreds of level 70s striving to gain experience over in Northrend, or brand new Death Knights pushing their way into Outland, and beyond.

If all goes well, I may end up overlapping with hordes of Death Knights as they merge with the rest of the population and pour into Outland. Perhaps seeing a warrior in Outland will be a unique experience for people who have been staring death in the face for the last four levels. ;)

Suffice to say, I am excited about what is to come over the next few weeks, if not months. It has been almost two years since my Mage was in mismatched armour, and epics were being replaced with greens and blues. To experience it again will be very nostalgic. To experience things for the first time will be incredibly exhilirating and uplifting.

In this positive time, I can only imagine the adventure that awaits. Server issues, quest item squabbling, instance wipes -- all of these are elements that are far outweighed by the breadth and scope of everything else that will reach into my soul and fulfil that part of me that desires accomplishment, advancement and experiencing the immersion of fantasy and lore that the World of Warcraft brings.

Come to life, new adventure -- and face the death that is the Lich King.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

12 Levels to Go Till Titan's Grip

I have been playing Zlaenya a lot. I ran Zul'Farrak five or six times to get three pieces of blue gear: Vice Grips, Big Bad Pauldrons and Ripsaw. It was the axe I was fervently after, but in the process I got a decent whack of XP and the two pieces of armour.

Both of my axes are currently enchanted with +15 Strength. I don't think I will upgrade them for a while, despite my off-hand being a level 40 weapon. Maybe one more upgrade before level 60, when I can dual-wield two-handers! I hope to run Blood Furnace multiple times until I have two Warsong Howling Axes. XD

I ran the latter part of Maraudon twice, getting Elemental Rockridge Leggings and Blackstone Ring off Princess, and Megashot Rifle from Tinkerer Gizlock.

In 10 levels or so, I hope that I will be able to take my warrior through Blood Furnace by dual-boxing my brother's warrior, as I have been doing. 26" LCD screen is so w1n. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Pally Power

Because I decided to level my Paladin's Enchanting, I ended up playing her last night. I was surprised at how much Paladins have changed. It confused the heck out of me to see three different Judgements and then realise that the whole dynamic of judging and sealing has changed.

After spending a long time altering my layout as I quested (and mucking around for ages making a mount / Crusader Aura macro that works), I realise that I'm still going to have to go back and change things around to benefit me the best both for tanking and while soloing. I still have mana issues while questing, so this is something I will just have to sort out as I get used to playing again.

Incidentally, I blew a whole lot of Enchanting mats on levelling her Enchanting to 345. I need more Large Prismatic Shards to push it to 350, and then it will be just a matter of either making Void Spheres or getting Enchanting drops as I continue to level, and applying those for skillups. GG two Enchanters. ;)

Dvaenya is level 64. How I will respec tonight is: 0/51/4. I've been reading a little about how to actually play a Protection specced Paladin well. I knew the basics, but seeing as I play so many classes it can be hard to come to grips with everything you should know in order to be a good player with each given class.

At level 66 I get Seal of Corruption, which should make a difference to tanking / killing stuff.

I'm still having fun with my Warrior. She is level 42 now. I will get Ripsaw from ZF, which I can wield at level 45, and continue replacing gear from the AH and from each instance I zip into as she levels.

I may also replace my Curve-bladed Ripper at level 48 with an Axe of Rin'ji. Maybe.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Dual Wielding Enchanted Axes

The other day, I ran Temple of Ahn'Qiraj with a few people, mostly from one of our server's high-end guilds. It was good because it pushed my Nozdormu rep from Unfriendly to halfway through Honored. If only Hydraxian rep went up that fast. XD

What's unfortunate is that my rep gain could be better. I never won the roll for Head of the Broodlord Lashlayer, even though some -- nay, most -- people who won it when we raided BWL weren't even up to that part of the questline, nor pursued it any further or put it to good use. I was a dedicated Silithian, and yet I never received the head; thus, I cannot gain Brood of Nozdormu rep through Silithid Carapace Fragment turn-ins. AQ40 it is.

And what this teaches us is that 40-man raiding had its negative points. Trying to win a roll against 39 other people is like beating your head against a brick wall in the hopes that you will find its weak point. Oftentimes it is futile. The ironic thing is, I won Head of Nefarian on our maiden kill. o.O

Yesterday, I had the day off. I took the opportunity to play my little warrior instead of my mage. I made five levels and at 38 am ready to do a complete clear of Scarlet Monastery -- having done the prerequisites for the main quest: In the Name of the Light. I guess I will need to spec my brother's warrior to take her through. ;)

What's fun is that every ten levels or so I have been upgrading my warrior's blue weapons. I am sticking with axes, as they tend to have a higher top-end damage. And besides, Draenei don't benefit from any particular weapon, and since axes look so cool, I might as well go with a convention, right?

Currently, she is wielding Sickle Axe and Steelclaw Reaver -- both enchanted with Crusader. It looks friggin' mean -- and when they both proc at the same time: raaaape. ;)

I will enchant my next upgrades with either Strength or Potency, depending on the current cost of Essences of Earth -- seeing as I currently have a huge supply of Large Brilliant Shards, Greater Eternal Essence and Illusion Dust, from having run Stratholme a few times.

Enchanting BoP items is going to be incredibly welcome, now that Inscription has introduced Armor and Weapon Vellum III. XD

I have run into a wee bit of a gold issue right now. I can't really get motivated to do dailies even though I'm running low on cash. I really want to go into the expansion with enough money to purchase my Tailoring and Enchanting upgrades. Still, it's not a huge issue. Having a lot of gold is nice; but it's a luxury, not a necessity. ;)

I guess I need to stop impulsively buying stuff. Yesterday, while searching the AH for Iron Ore for levelling my warrior's Blacksmithing, I noticed that there was a whole lot of cheap Dark Iron Ore. So I logged my mage and bought a heap of stacks to take into Blackrock Depths to increase my reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood. I also found that there were some cheap Lava Cores, so I also got ten of those. :)

The funny thing is, Iron Ore was way overpriced, so I didn't end up increasing Blacksmithing at all. But I did get a nice chunk of Thorium Brotherhood rep. :o A few more MC runs for more cores and I will be working towards two reps at once. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

No Horse Yet

I have been continuing to solo Baron Rivendare in Stratholme for Deathcharger's Reins. So far, I've killed him 18 times with no success.

I have also continued doing lowbie quests and instances for achievements and reputation. I am exalted with Ironforge and over halfway towards exalted with both Stormwind and Gnomeregan Exiles. I have been completely exploring zones and recently got the Well Read achievement.

Not long to go before everyone is levelling in the expansion and I am waiting for it to arrive here so that I can try and catch up!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore