Will I See Ulduar?

As I continue to play my alts I am reminded that I enjoy levelling. There is no commitment to being somewhere at a particular time. I really do like playing casually more than being part of the raiding scene, week in and week out.

The game is my hobby. But I want it to be a hobby that doesn't consume me or dictate how my evening will play out. Everything should come before playing. That's the reality.

Who knows whether I will get to experience Ulduar when 3.1 goes live. But I'm not fussed. I didn't get T5, so I don't expect to get T8. Raiding is fun but it also prevents one from having ultimate flexibility. I can't live like that anymore.

As for my alts: well, my Death Knight is still 77 but I now have all of his 78 blue gear enchanted and ready to go, as well as Titansteel Destroyer ready for when he hits 80. Running heroics will suffice for gear, although I'm sure there will be opportunity to run Naxxramas casually with friends' alts, too.

My Priest is still level 72 but she has finished Borean Tundra, which means I will be hitting up Dragonblight next time I log her shadowy presence.

I've really been enjoying playing my Warrior. I am only halfway through Zangarmarsh but she is already level 65 -- caught up to my Paladin. I managed to get Warsong Howling Axe in just one run of Blood Furnace, and will get Honed Voidaxe as soon as the opportunity to do Ring of Blood presents itself.

I enchanted the axe with Greater Savagery and have another scroll sitting in my bags for the other one. The rest of my gear is terrible, but that should change as I venture into Northrend in three levels.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Titanic Lightning Rods of Supreme Brilliance

I finished Dragonblight last night and started on Grizzly Hills tonight.

Dinged 77 and got my Cold Weather Flying. Ah, it's good to be able to fly again!

I flew around the rest of the Northrend zones. Words like 'epic' and 'amazing' fail to describe the splendour and incredible magnitude and magnificence of this continent. Such varied environments; such humongous structures; such an amazing array of creatures; and such extreme activity everywhere.

I really love the Titan lore and Storm Peaks captures so much of this across its mountainous terrain: giant structures built into the mountains; rune-inscribed golems roaming the mountain crags and paths; huge temple structures that bring a new definition to monolithic architecture.

I couldn't capture in my screenshots the scope of all there is to see, but I can say that I was in absolute awe of the superb job the design team have done in every gigantic zone. There is so much to see and it all takes your breath away.

Take the time to fly around Icecrown, Storm Peaks, Sholazar Basin and Crystalsong Forest -- and actually look at everything. You won't be disappointed.

Gundrak, Zul'drak

A Huge Crater in Zul'drak

Steps to the Zul'drak Plateau

Crystalsong is Breathtakingly Beautiful

Beware the Creatures of Icecrown

Before logging off, I decided to try and find a good spot to farm Frostweave Cloth. I am going to need hundreds of them to get my Tailoring up. I tried a spot in Icecrown, but the mobs there are level 80, so I would recommend waiting until level 79 and grinding out your last level there if you are after cloth, like me.

I also went to Zul'drak. Just outside of the Argent Crusade area, there is an ongoing undead event. You can kill a number of mobs at once, with a decent droprate on cloth. The downside of this is that the respawns are pretty haphazard and sometimes you can't get out of combat. I had a couple of close calls and had to run for my life a couple of times.

One bonus of killing the undead mobs, though, is that one of them dropped a Manual: Heavy Frostweave Bandage for me.

I intend to continue questing in Grizzly Hills and then probably Zul'drak until reaching 79, when I will do my Frostweave stint and hopefully be able to craft my Magnificent Flying Carpet at Level 80. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Factionblight Temple

My guild, <Exiles> ran Black Temple last night. It was my first time to go in there. We cleared up to the Illidari Council, of whom we had two quick attempts before finishing for the evening. The toughest fight was by far Gurtogg Bloodboil. Surprisingly, despite the lack of Shadow Resist gear across the raid of 23 players, Mother Shahraz was very easy.

We will probably be attempting the Illidari Council again tonight. Hopefully we can get all the way to Illidan! We are all over level 70, with even a couple of 80s, but it is still good to be raiding; even if T6 content is past its prime.

Gaiwyn is level 75. I am still questing through Dragonblight -- in fact, I am probably barely even halfway through quests there. Then again, I could be quite far into it and almost ready to hit up Azjol-Nerub.

I hope to continue working on Azeroth factions, Outland factions and Northrend factions. Check out this character comparison. Click Character and then Reputation -- or look at their wealth: 100,000g from auctions. :o

I wish I was that much of an auction king. Sheesh.　See their standalone Reputation page: 39 oldschool factions at exalted. ;)

More Dragonblight after work. ;)

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

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 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

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

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

Achievements! The Patch is Live

With the patch live, it sounds like a lot of people have had login problems, and other in-game issues. When I get home from work I will be sorting through my addons one at a time and then logging each of my toons to fill in their new skill trees. I have a lot of work ahead of me.

This new patch brought everything I listed last night, and more. There are a lot of achievements that will be easily attainable if enough time is put in. I look forward to the next few weeks until the expansion is released, as we have plenty of opportunity to fill out a number of our achievements before the arduous journey through the frozen wastes of Northrend, striving for that end-goal of level 80 and the end-game content that it will allow access to.

So much awaits. And it is indeed close!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Exciting Pre-Expansion Changes

Patch 3.0.2 goes live tonight. The servers have been down for a while already and will continue to be down until everything is completed tomorrow. I'm going to be restless all day as I wait to finish work. I'm excited about these pre-expansion changes!

Here's a summary of what is being changed and added:

• You can no longer get bear mounts from ZA


• Hand of A'dal and Champion of the Naaru titles are no longer obtainable


• The Onyxia attunement and Atiesh questlines have been removed


• Naxxramas has been shifted to Northrend and will not be accessible until the expansion goes live


• Barber shops are available in major faction cities


• Graphics have been updated, including the new shadow engine


• Stormwind Harbor is available but ships don't yet go to Northrend


• Mounts and vanity pets are now trainable and will go into your Pet tab when learned


• The entrance to Caverns of Time: Stratholme has been added, though you cannot zone into the instance


• Badges of Justice, Marks of Honor, etc are now Tokens


• The in-game events calendar has been added


• Achievements should be live -- check Wowhead for a complete list


• Healing and Spell Damage stats have been combined into the new Spellpower stat -- this includes school specific damage (nature, fire, frost etc)


• A lot of armour and items have been changed to reflect the new game mechanics


• Buffs, debuffs and auras are all now raid-wide


• TBC raid monsters have had a 30% health reduction


• New talent trees for all classes


• Introduction of the Inscription profession: scrolls, vellum and class glyphs


• Two new arenas: Dalaran Arena and The Ring of Valor


• Honor-purchased gems are no longer BoP or unique-equipped, so can be sold on the AH

Go ahead and check everything out if you haven't already. This is a huge patch with many playstyle-affecting changes. Everyone's toons will have to be re-treed tomorrow; and there will be a lot to take in.

I was going to wait to roll my Death Knight before picking up Inscription, but people are likely to charge exorbitant prices for everything. At least we have another month to hoard our gold in preparation for levelling to 80.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Champion, Forge Thy Runeblade

I rolled a Death Knight.

You are prepared

Oh, the Lich King wants to greet me

Forge your blade and then...

...choose a rune

Activate the eye

Explore New Avalon, south-east of Tyr's Hand

Hey, it's Mograine and the Baron!

Kel'Thuzad's brother?

Time to leave Ebon Hold

A scourge gryphon ride down

This looks important

Mount acquired!

Gothik the Harvester gives me a quest. Cool.

I am a mine car

Did someone order gravel?

I am very very sneaky

Escaping the ship

Ding

Essentially, the starting quests for the Death Knight class are amazingly done. It is all very smooth and very cool. It is also very easy to level from 55 to 56, as you begin with rested XP and the quests give you a decent amount. You also receive talent points from particular quests along the way, to ease you into your role as a DK.

I look forward to playing some more. Just don't expect a whole lot more screenshots than this. I kinda got carried away as I quested.

Also, of note, is the announcement that the release date for the expansion is the 13th of November, so mark that down in your calendar, book three days off work or school, and be prepared to launch into Northrend in just two months time!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Account: Activated -- Transfer: OK

I activated my WotLK beta account. I set up a premade gnome mage transfer (not much choice, really). It would have been nice to have been able to level my own mage from the start of the beta, but real life circumstances obviously prevented me from being able to play until three days ago.

I may yet transfer my mage (or maybe my priest) just to check out the new zones and quests. Either way, I will be playing the beta throughout this week. Who knows, I may even take some screenshots. :)

Edit: I transferred my mage and my priest to the PvE beta realm and my rogue to the PvP one. I'll check out Northrend tomorrow. I already saw a little bit of it in the alpha, but I'll be sure to play and see quite a bit more than back then.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Maps and Movies

Check out this interactive map at WotLKWiki.

Have a look at some of the landscape, structures and monuments of Northrend in this 17 min streaming video that was posted to Vimeo three months ago.

For more video content, go to Warcraft Movies. There is a Death Knight soloing Onyxia, among other interesting submissions.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

More Gear

Check out a few more pieces of gear that have been released. The barbaric, rugged Norse theme for Northrend gear is pretty cool:

Unnamed Arena Mace

Grips of Sculptured Icicles

Frozen Forest Kilt

Dragon Slayer's Sabatons

Spaulders of the Careless Thief

Cleric's Linen Shoes

Opposed Stasis Leggings

Lifeblade of Belgaristrasz

Wyrmclaw Battleaxe

Girdle of Obscuring

Eredormu's Ornamented Chestguard

Spaulders of Skillful Maneuvers

Eternally Folded Blade

Centrifuge Core Cloak

Projectile Activator

Leather-Braced Chain Leggings

Raiments of the Titans

Gjarngrin Family Signet

Whew! Also, see what rogues are complaining about.

It can't be long now before I get my laptop. Next week, I should have a home Internet connection and will be able to play again!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Mounts and Jewelcrafting Quests

Firstly, I just want to briefly mention the changes in the latest build (8788). Hunters, Warriors and Death Knights have perhaps received the most changes since my last update. If you are interested, check their talents.

Daily jewelcrafting quests have been added. Six new daily quests have been added that require you to craft items and receive certain drops from monsters. Thoughts are that one random quest will be available daily, but for now you can choose one of the six and the other five are locked. The rewards for these quests are the tokens I mentioned in this post. The Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token allows you to purchase these rewards. See also: screenshot.

Finally, mounts. I'd like to mention again the Magnificent Flying Carpet that I am looking forward to crafting on my mage. It requires 450 tailoring, but it will be so cool to fly around Outland and Northrend on a flying carpet! Also, the speed of mounts has changed to: "Speed scales with riding skill."

Some screenies:

Magnificent Flying Carpet

Black Warp Stalker

The Hog (Alliance)

Winged Steed of the Ebon Blade

Polar Bear

Frost Wyrm

Suh-weet!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

The Sage Completed

Continued from A Mage, a Priest and a Rogue Walk into an Inn...:

Unknown was just starting on Blackwing Lair when the guild leader invited me in. As is usual with joining a new guild, I was under a trial period to prove my dedication and commitment to the guild and to their progression as a raiding body. I fit right in, having found a new home, and was able to attend most raids -- more than the minimum weekly requirement.

We spent the next few months learning the boss encounters and progressing through BWL, while also continuing to clear Molten Core on a weekly basis -- more of us still required gear (I started out with just blues and I think I eventually acquired my full Arcanist set). At the same time, I kept up my PvP as much as I could, achieving rank 7, Knight-Captain. It turned out to be my limit, because I was too dedicated to the PvE elements of the game.

I rolled a warrior at some point and levelled him to 60 throughout that year. I eventually brought him along to alternate runs of Molten Core and Onyxia and got him some Might pieces and his T2 Helm.

Unlike my time as a hunter with BoV, I was present for all boss kills but Chromaggus. My most memorable game moment would have to be when we first killed Nefarian, the final boss for Blackwing Lair, on 10 October 2006. Teamspeak -- our choice of voice communication -- erupted, as everyone cheered and whooped for a couple of mins. It was both exhilirating and relieving and I will never forget that moment. My mage won the roll for the Head of Nefarian, which I handed in for my Master Dragonslayer's Orb.

A week following our first Nefarian kill, I was promoted from regular member to Mage Officer. We had started on the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj -- I could go on about the opening of the gates, our experiences in the 20-man, my grind to exalted with Cenarion Circle to acquire the Blade of Vaulted Secrets, and everything surrounding this time. But I won't. If you want to read a lot more indepth about my 2006 year and my experiences in the game, read my old blog's 2006 entires, as they detail a lot of what happened during the peak of my oldschool gameplay. Warning: plenty of images and detailed World of Warcraft play experience!

Suffice to say, we only managed to get Skeram down, and no other bosses. And when it came to Naxxramas, it was just too close to Christmas and the holiday period before the release of the expansion, so we didn't get even one boss down in that instance. I am immensely looking forward to the Northrend Naxxramas experience!

I did, however, level a rogue to 60, faster than any previous character. It was seven days total playtime, as compared to nine for my warrior. Levelling my fourth 60 before the expansion was an indication that I enjoyed the act of levelling toons. Something about hitting that next level and unlocking skills just appeals to me.

Come the release of The Burning Crusade, I levelled my mage to 70 in eight days. I had run instances with some friends from Ruined and another guildy who was levelling at my own breakneck pace. He beat me to 70 because on the night before I hit that final level, the servers went down. I was two bubbles from levelling and waited for about two hours, but it got too late, so I simply went to bed. When I logged in, guess who had hit 70 overnight. Oh well, I was the first guild member to get my epic flying mount!

What came after the expansion is somewhat tragic. Some of us got impatient and decided to venture off on our own to begin raiding the new content. Infusion was born and we launched into Karazhan in February 2007. We recruited and advanced and made ok progression. We eventually got the numbers to raid Gruul's Lair, but soon after that, interest waned, often not enough members were present to even fill two Karazhan groups, and Infusion dwindled and died.

What I regret the most is our hastiness in going back to raiding. We destroyed Unknown for no good reason but selfishness and impatience. Who knows what might have happened had we waited for enough people to level to 70 and taken things easy for a while. After the fall of Infusion, my PvE raiding went on a downhill slide. My mage went from guild to guild, but everywhere I went, we eventually came up against that brick wall where not enough people would log in for raids. What is it with undedicated people and not wanting to wipe to new content in order to learn and proceed?

I guess this all changed my mindset. As 2008 rolled around, I had levelled six characters to 70. Earlier this year, I gave my 70 warrior to my brother so he could PvP with him. As you can see from my Character List, I enjoy levelling toons almost as much as I used to enjoy raiding. That's not to say that I no longer enjoy raiding -- I love PvE content; it is what drives me in this game. I wish that I was under playable circumstances, but my subscription expired almost two months ago.

When I am able to, I will play again. I will finish levelling my paladin, get my shaman's epic flying mount, try and acquire exalted status with a few more factions on my mage, and possibly even level another toon. I've done the PvP thing a bit, but I will be the first to admit that I'm not the best arena or battlegrounds player. It's fun and challenging as both healer and dps in PvP, but I am wired for PvE content.

I look forward to levelling in Wrath of the Lich King and enjoying these last few months before the expansion is released. I hope that I will be able to raid at level 80 and that circumstances will not prevent me from enjoying regular gaming and monster slaying in the lands of Azeroth, Outland and Northrend.

My World is Warcraft.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore