Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Dark Portal, Bombing The Abyssal Shelf, and level 60!

From Stormwind, you take a portal at the top of the Mage Tower, which plunks you in the Blasted Lands.


Walk through The Dark Portal and you arrive on The Stair Of Destiny, Hellfire Peninsula, Outland.


This is a strange, hauntingly beautiful land.

Shatter Point - Report to Runetog Wildhammer


Runetog Wildhammer: "Hah hah!  A fresh draenei from the mainland!  Well don't worry -- Shatter point might make you queasy but she doesn't stray far!  And I've only seen her flip upside down once ... or twice."

Okay, this doesn't sound too good ... "... If this is your first time to Shatter Point, ... Speak with Wing Commander Gryphongar ..."


Wing Commander Gryphongar ... "if Shatter Point starts to teeter, then grab onto something that won't float away!"

... Did he say "teeter"? ... .... what is this place?

But wait ... it gets much, much better ...

Wing Commander Gryphongar ... "... get on a gryphon ... here are your bombs ..."
Mission: The Abyssal Shelf
Slay 20 Gan'arg Peons
Slay 5 Mo'arg Overseers
Destroy 5 Fel Cannons

OK, here we go ... wow ... this place is so cool!  Look at the moons/planets and the very bright ?? whatever that bright  yellow stripey is ... so cool ...


Wait! ... ... What? ... 

... How do I drop the bombs? ...[voice rising in alarm] Wait! ...
... How do I pick up the bombs? ...Wait! ...
... and then drop 'em? ... Right click? ... Left Click? ... [voice in the shriek zone]... HOW!

Molim's voice comes over vent.  Low 'n slow.  "Are you ready to listen to me now?"

"YES!" ... [gulp][Noritam makes a conscious effort to reduce the pitch of her voice out of dog-hearing-range and back into human-hearing-range]  ... "yes"

((I'm honestly hyper-ventilating a bit just typing this and my brain is fuzzing around the edges, if asked to spit it out - right click or left click - Right This Minute ... I can't remember!  ... ... OK, now I'm having a hot flash.  ... and my fingers are trembling. -mutters to self- Let's just type "click" and leave the left/right determination up to the ether and hope that I have a "muscle memory" thing happen the next time.))

Molim is explaining in a calm, slow voice: "OK, ... you see on the right of your screen where the quest is listed?  There should be a bo"

"I KNOW WHERE THE BOMBS ARE! ... WHAT I DON'T KNOW IS HOW TO GET THE BOMBS FROM WHERE THEY ARE, TO WHERE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO GO!"

... ... ...

[at this point, in real time, and with hindsight, ya gotta ask yourself, did Vier really know what she was asking for when she kept asking her mother to come and play World of Warcraft with her?  I mean, let's face it, during "the terrible teens", Himself [Vier's father], Himself's favourite daily saying was "OK you two, play nice".  Seriously, stereotypical mother/daughter teen-aged crap.  ... ... So really, even though we're almost decade out from that, and lots has changed since then, when it gets in the thick of it, during this --- --vent silence-- --- ya gotta wonder, ... just how good of an idea was this? ... ... just sayin']

... ... ... [Molim/Vier's voice, just a teeny, tiny bit terse] "Click on the bomb.  When you move the bomb over the ground, you'll see the green targeting circle.  That circle will show you where your bombs will drop.  Click again and the bombs will drop where you aimed them with the green circle.

... ... radio silence ...

... I did eventually figure out how to work it from Molim's kind help, and I was concentrating very hard.  The gryphon "bombing run" only lasts so long, then it fly's you back to home base.  If you haven't completed your mission, you must take another flight and try some more.  You can see by the time in the next screenshot that seven minutes have gone by and I've only killed 5/20, 2/5, and 2/5.


It felt like I was doing those bombing runs for nine years next to forever.  I had finally calmed down enough to get a handle on the flight path of the gryphon, be aware of the cool-down time on the bomb thingy, differentiate between the peons, overseers and cannons, and make choices of when I was going to drop bombs instead of just spamming them.

I had time to apologize to Molim for taking so long "No worries, I'm keeping myself busy on other tabs on my computer, let me know when you're done."

By the time I was finally done, and I could sit back for the return trip to Shatter Point, the physics of the place finally hit me.   It's an upside down iceberg, so ya, ... it would be tippy!

And have a look at the destroyed tower ... part of the left-over ruins are just floating in space up there.  Wonder when --that-- is going to fall down and hurt someone?


After all that, at least we got some good gear out of it all!  For Red Bear, generally you have four choices for rewards.  When it is gear like this, WoW helps you out by telling you what the changes would be if you took that particular reward.  This screen shot is a composite of 4, top left = choice #1; top right = choice #2, bottom left = choice #3 and bottom right = choice #4, 'k?

What the little helpful hints --don't-- tell you, what you're supposed to remember  [and we know how good I am at remembering stuff, eh?]  is the ---type--- of gear that is good for you.  I, a Paladin, am never, ever, EVER supposed to wear cloth or leather.  Only mail or plate is good for me.

If Vier/Molim ever, EVER, catches me in cloth or leather gear --- I'm toast.   So, choice #1 and choice#2 are not choices at all.  It's a trap.  Don't fall into it!


That leaves me with choice#3 v.s. choice#4.  Up until very recently, I have put great stock in the Armor number.  However, Molim muttered something about that not being important and I felt too sheepish to ask why.  So, if the Armor number doesn't matter, what does?  Glad you asked.

As a Holy Paladin, I am always to choose "intellect" and "spirit" over everything else.  Something to do with that's what powers my spells and abilities.  It's what makes me Holy.

Now, logic would dictate, if the armor number does  not really matter, I should pick choice#3, right?  3 and 4 both give me +11 intellect BUT choice #3 ALSO gives me +12 spirit, which is good.  Right?

OK, maybe so, but I can not bring myself to choose less armor between me and the bad guys, intellect and spirit be damned.  I'm always running into trouble, literally, so I figure I need as much armor between me and nasty, red-labeled mobs as possible.

Molim, I vaguely recall, is chortling with glee over her new gear acquisition.  but ... [as Penny would say] Holy.  Crap.  On.  A.  Cracker!  Look what my daughter is wearing to go into battle!!  Or should I say, look what Molim is not wearing to go into battle!



I've a lot more to blog about, ... it seemed to take forever to get to level 60!

Oh so close!

YaY!


What we had to do to get to level 60, ... FLYING!, discovering the strange beauty of Zangarmarch, getting my first FLYING mount!  I'm too tired to do all that right now, so you'll have to wait for pics of me flying!

Today I'll sign off with a little snapshot of how far we've come between Dec. 12, 2013 and Feb. 25, 2014.


'night all, Nor.

2 comments:

  1. "This is a strange, hauntingly beautiful land." And it is red. You're getting there!!

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  2. I hate to break it to you, but since you hit level 40 you're supposed to wear Plate only.

    ReplyDelete