Black Borean Blight

I played my Death Knight a bit yesterday, with my brother on his warrior. He was already level 71, having done some of Borean Tundra.

I started on Borean Tundra myself on Thursday night, but only made it to the D.E.H.T.A encampment. Together, we started on Howling Fjord quests and finished up to the end of the first Explorers' League hub.

We grinded humanoids for about five mins so I could push out my last 1.5% and ding 71. No new spells for DKs at 71! At least I am getting gear upgrades. >.<

I continued my questing in Borean Tundra and completed Coldarra. Next is Fizzcrank Airstrip.

I started on Zul'Drak with my Mage, after a bit of Icecrown AoE cloth farming (and a few deaths). In Zul'Drak, I did this quest. Good fun, albeit a little buggy.

I want to finish each of these zones completely to try and build my reputation with the various factions up, which I will push to exalted through wearing their tabards in instances and doing daily quests.

See my Reputation Dailies guide.

We had a Black Temple raid again tonight. We had a few attempts at Illidan, but couldn't get past phases 3 and 4 (which alternate).

I started questing with my Priest, only to realise that levelling as Holy would be torturous. I respecced to Shadow and have been enjoying it immensely. I'm tempted once again to play as Shadow at level 80. ;)

I really have to push Gaiwyn to 80 and try to get as many gear replacements as I can in the next three days. We plan to start on 10-man Naxxramas raiding this Thursday, and I want in on the action. ;)

Watch for my Pre-Raiding Caster Gear guide.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

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

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

Testing, Testing

Although I wasn't able to get any sort of recount system to function, I was able to test out both my rogue and priest. I specced my priest into shadow and headed to Howling Fjord. I didn't do much, as I haven't got any mods running and it was very laggy. What I did find out is that a. Shadow does decent damage; and b. Healing is still pretty good because of the addition of the attribute, spellpower. It will take me a while to get used to playing a shadow priest again. I look forward to levelling on live.

Next, I specced my rogue to mutilate. Some things have changed, and some things have been added. Gouge and Kick must be relearned, as these have changed in some way. Also, you can no longer make poisons; you have to purchase them from a vendor. Crippling and Mind-Numbing are no longer ranked, either.

There is a new talent, Dismantle. My rogue also has a new Herbalism talent, Lifeblood. And finally, there is a new PvP trinket replacement talent, Every Man for Himself. Anything that replaces a trinket is good!

I went to Borean Tundra this time. It's where I took my mage when I first tried the beta. I must say, mutilate does pretty amazing damage. There's a lot going on at once, and the change to mana / energy / rage regeneration makes things a little tricky at first, but I do know that with mutilate, poisons are just crazy. Also, Hunger for Blood and Cut to the Chase are just amazing talents. You can keep the Enrage effect up pretty much indefinitely. It refreshes to a 3 stack of 30sec if you do it once while the three stacks are still active -- and you don't even notice the 30 energy cost. You don't even have to attack the target you select to refresh it. ;)

Slice and Dice is very easy to keep up, as you simply need to Envenom or Eviscerate your target to renew it. And since you will always have Deadly Poison ticking on your target because of Deadly Brew, you can Envenom just about whenever you like.

I think that with the change of dynamics, if I was to stick with mutilate, it would take a wee bit to get used to, in terms of energy management and skill rotations.

I headed back to SW and respecced combat. I don't have very good weapons, but even taking that into account, there was a noticeable decrease in DPS. I think that either I fail at being a combat rogue or it just isn't as good as mutilate. Once I have tried out a Shadow Dance build, I will have a better idea of what I want to spec when the expansion goes live. For now, I am strongly leaning towards mutilate.

For now, I want to continue levelling my paladin on live and maybe explore a little bit on beta. I don't want to do a whole lot of quests because then they won't be as fun when it all goes live. Also, the default game interface is very lacklustre. It's hard to play without my addons and ui customisation.

I have yet to try out frost or arcane on my mage, and still have to try some level 80 builds with the premades I transferred. So much to do, so little time!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore