Alts!

So our RAF bonus ran out today, meaning that we don't get triple EXP anymore, nor can we summon each other.  Noritam also can't grant any more levels to Vier's toons :(

Naturally, this is the best time to start some alts!

Say hello to Saely(Noritam) and Sieben(Vier)!

Saely is a Night Elf Priest.  Mom hasn't decided on a spec for her yet. Sieben is a Night Elf Hunter, just like Vier. My goal is to make her a PvP (that's Player versus Player, Red Bear!) toon to do battlegrounds and things, so I don't have to carry two sets of gear on Vier. 

So far Saely has exclaimed "Oh my god, I'm moving so slowly!" which is a big change from when she first started Noritam!

Saely accidentally killed a nice little deer in the Night Elf starting zone.  "Oh dear!" she exclaimed. 

get it?  oh... DEAR.  DEAR... DEER.  hahahahaha.  ha. 

Saely was just thrilled when the time came to go into a cave full of spiders and do some quests.

Before leaving Shadowglen, we had to run up a giant ramp leading to the top of Aldrassil, a huge tree. 

After speaking to Tenaron, we're on our way to Dolanaar!

We did that horrible cave/den quest where you have to go find the four objects strewn about the cave.  Our Sentinel guides kept disappearing, which was extremely frustrating and made the quest take much longer than it should have. 

We finished up in Dolanaar and did some brief questing at the Oracle Glade. Saely had to go eat, so we decided to call it a day before we were sent in to Darnassus.

Sieben chose Beast Mastery as her specialization (of course) and Sealy will choose hers next session. 

Flying! & Zangarmarsh

Right around the time we hit the level 60 mark a few things were happening.  Molim wanted to do a certain quest or two for the rewards, I wanted to fly and we both wanted to get the heck out of this area.  There were so many bad guys at every turn.

I did take some screenshots while we were picking up quests because I think the story will be important in days to come.  My knowledge of World of Warcraft lore is shaky but I do know that Outland is important to the Draenei, my people, so I want to learn it.  No time for reading while questing so saving the text to read later is a plan.  Don't know yet if it's a good one or not!

The Path of Glory: A gruesome tale of the Draenei that stayed behind to fight the Orcs.  Most Draenei had escaped on The Exodar, which subsequently crashed on Azuremyst Isle.  This planet is in fact my ancestral homeland.

Sons of Lothar:  I'm not sure where this story fits in.  For the record though, I'll post it, in case I find further clues and want to come back and read it some day.

While I had been chatting with Warp-Scryer Kryv and Force Commander Danath Trollbane, Molim was waiting for me.  I guess she was chompin' at the bit to get going 'cause she laid out a path of markers to steer me in the right direction.  Saves us both a lot of time and me a lot of thinking!

Now it's time for a little fun!  Molim had fronted me some gold so I could purchase my Expert Riding, my Flight Master's License and my flying mount!

Here you can see one of the advantages of belonging to a high level guild.  A savings of 37 gold, 50 silver on my license that will let me fly outside of Outland.

I've always wanted a license to fly!

Then came the deliberations of which mount to get.  I had a choice between Gold, Snowy and Ebon Gryphons.  The Snowy one sounded nice, the Gold one looked sharp from the front and Molim offered her opinion that the black one was less than ideal.  Fortunately for me, Molim owns one of each so she modeled them for me.

Snowy was out right away, too bland and just a big white blob.  The gold one had a wishy washy yellow back end.  Now, the Ebon one!  Whoo eee baby! Fierce glowing red eyes and a dark orange, leopard spotted back end!  It was love a first sight!

Here are some shots from my first flight.  My Dad would have been proud!  Actually, I wonder what my father would have made of WoW?  If I had a webcam on this computer, I could have also taken a  screen shot of me grinning from ear to ear!

Ebon Gryphon & Me!

am not standing on the tower!  Flying in front of it.

Lookout!  Here we come!

Molim was AFK [away from keyboard, Red Bear.] So I parked beside her and her Flying Dinosaur that changes colour.  The colour changing is cool but, it is a very big mount that becomes overwhelmingly huge when it spreads its wings to fly!

While I was trying to swing my camera around to get a good shot of us, this Wolverine- Hellscream dude kept challenging us to a PVP duel.  [Player vs Player]  I wanted him to go away, there was no way I was gonna fight him, so after the third challenge I told him to "shoo".  He immediately started crying on my shoulder and I felt terrible so I told him I was just waiting for my friend and that I was too scared to fight him.  That seemed to mollify him so he went away.  Phew!

See how the dinosaur wings changed from purple to yellow?

While we were doing the quests for loot, we discovered that having me flying around on my own was even worse for me blundering into trouble than when I was walking on my own!  Molim brought out her Obsidian Nightwing [which we could now fly together on again w00t!] [for Red Bear, all mounts are shared account-wide, so Molim has access to all the mounts that Vier earned.  Until Molim hit level 60 though, we couldn't fly the Nightwing, only ride him on the ground.]

I think it was when we were still in the Blasted Lands when we had to do a couple of extra quests to get me leveled up high enough to go through the Dark Portal that we were ground riding the Nightwing.  Molim was carefully picking her way through the danger spots to get us to the questing areas with the least amount of fighting.  I had remarked that she was a very good sneaker.  Molim asked me to tell Dan that because he thinks she can't sneak worth a darn.  So here it is, Dan, Molim is a very good sneaker!

Off to the Zangarmarsh with the blue mushroom trees!

Zangarmarsh

We were asked to collect plant parts by Lauranna Thar'well

Lauranna Thar'well to the left.

Oh no!  There's Naga in these parts!  I very much dislike the Naga.  At least now when I have to navigate to upper levels of places to talk to people, I can just hop on my Gryphon and fly down instead of doing the stairs or relying on Molim's cloud feet!  whoo hoo!

Haven't talked to many Tauren in the game.

Lethyn Moonfire warned us of the marsh-trekker Boglash.

We learned a new flight path to Telredor, Zangarmarsh

Wow, a Draenei without blue hair!

And that's what I remember of that.  I've been thinking a lot about flying since then.  How nice it will be to do daily fishing quests, easier to navigate around Stormwind.  If only I had a good excuse to go back to Azuremyst Isle so I could fly around there!

Though, now I'm thinking this putting our head down and concentrating on questing sure has been a good strategy for us.  Maybe I can earn my way to the level cap of 90 before Warlords of Draenor comes out!  Wouldn't that be something?

Nor.

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.

I hate Spiral Staircases!

Damn winding circular staircases!

As if I don't have enough trouble navigating them, this one negated my hug-the-wall, close-your-eyes and keep-the-mouse-button-planted and just-go-for-it approach.

Nope, no walls on this staircase, open sides, additional platforms and the damn staircase even changed rotation directions and the degree of turn require to navigate them.

UGH!  

Fortunately Molim has this handy little spell to give us floaty cloud-feet so we can jump off the side of the mountain after goat-punching and to avoid at least one direction of dastardly winding staircases.

Y, know, ... ... just in case you were wondering!  Or. ... ... for the record.

Nor.

Hellfire Peninsula

The theme of the day seems to be "oh, this isn't going to be fun"

We saw a level 61 hunter battling the Fel Reaver. We didn't get to him in time to help, but I was able to rez him so there's my good deed for the day.

Throwing bombs on the guys at the Abyssal Ridge proved to be difficult.

Level 59!

LEVEL 60 YAY!

Noritam finally got her own flying ability! I still get to act as a taxi, though. I don't really mind much, it saves time and keeps us from running into piles of mobs unintentionally.

We finished with Hellfire Peninsula (thank goodness) and moved on to Zangarmarsh. Went to go do some questing in a cave and had lots of fun trying to get out when we were done. Noritam tripped and fell back down into the depths of the cave... a few thousand times.

We quit for the night with Noritam at level 60 and Molim at level 61.

I Can Fly!

Woo Hoo!

Yipee!

The High Cost of Aviation

I'm not sure why Molim is SO excited about going through the Dark Portal and being in Outland.  It all looks kinda dreary to me.

But, I realized after I logged out last time, I'm so very close to the magic of level 60.

Flying!  w00t!

I have no idea where we're gonna get all the gold!

Purchase Expert Flying = 250 gold., a flying mount costs 50 gold, and to fly anywhere except Outland, a Flight Master License cost 250 gold.

$550 Gold?

oh boy, sounds like I have a bit of work ahead of me.

Saturday

Apparently Noritam was awake at 5am and wanted to come on WoW and do some fishing and things in Stormwind.  She goes to do then, when - uh oh! - a problem reveals itself.  "I want to go to Stormwind," she thinks, "But I'm sitting in the dust out here in Badlands! I can't possibly go do fishing dailies now! I'd better wait until Vier wakes up before I do anything in WoW."

So eventually I woke up and heard this tale of woe.  A solution to this conundrum seemed a bit obvious to me. "Why didn't you just hearth back to Stormwind?"

"Oh... duh... I didn't even think of that."

"Yeah, I don't mean to be a jerk but... yeah.... DUH!"

We learned that running headfirst into a Horde campsite is maybe not a good idea. Noritam and Molim both died a couple times.

Got nice and lost in Angor Fortress.

Did the face-punching questline, I sure had a lot of fun but Noritam sounded annoyed.

We got fed up with Badlands and returned to the Hero's Call Board in Stormwind, only to be sent on to Swamp of Sorrows! Huzzah!
 We entered the Swamp of Sorrows at level 51.

Level 52!

Levels 53 and 54! Time to move on to the Blasted Lands!

Level 55!

Showed Noritam the Dark Portal and she was very unimpressed.

56!

57! Almost time to go through the Dark Portal!

58! DARK PORTAL BABY! WOOOOO

aaand with that, Noritam is sick and tired of WoW for the day so we're gonna log.

Next episode airs Tuesday! Stay tuned!

Into the Badlands

A quick post so I'm done with WoW 'til our next scheduled session!

After a long shaky flight on some dude's rocket that kept backfiring, we arrived at Fuselight-by-the-Sea.

Who wouldn't want to fish on this lovely pier?

Lots going on!

Supper time!  Ciao for now, Nor.

Please can we be finished with Eastern Plaguelands?

sigh.

Molim and Noritam hit level 46.

Noritam got Divine Plea and Turn Evil.

We got pretty sick of Eastern Plaguelands, so when the quests there turned green for us it was the perfect excuse to move on to Badlands. When we arrived, Nortiam basically told me to fuck off so she could fish for some stupid clams or something, I don't even know. After that little interlude, I returned and we picked up some quests. Onward!

Time to punch some Billy Goats!

Noritam hit level 47 and Molim hit level 48, then Noritam got sick of WoWing for the day and decided we would stop.  Talk about progress though! I wouldn't be surprised to see us starting on Burning Crusade content by the end of the month!

Plaguelands - RAF Leveling - Steep Learning Curve - Quitting WoW - Kind Strangers

It's been a roller-coaster week in WoW-land for me.  I was ready to quit, had a great "we're all in this together" phased quest with a stranger, RAF-leveled an alt of Vier's, had our first mother-daughter spat in WoW, got my higher level tricked-out Elekk, filed my first help ticket after a hotfix rendered all sorts of "Your video device is not compatible" alarms, updated my drivers, rode floating clouds courtesy of Molim's abilities as a Priest, fought with a one-handed sword for the first time, gained some new spells and abilities, learned to work better as a same-level team with Molim, and, for kicks and giggles, watched Molim and her Dragon Mount switch in and out of shadow mode.

This post is about what I remember and screenshots from February 15 and 18 in WoW.  As usual, my memory is foggy and these are probably out of order, but, to the best of my recollection .... ... ...

The Battle for Andorhal

For the first time, I was ready to quit WoW and walk away.  It was these guys, Stickbone Berserker, [scroll down to look at the screenshots Red Bear] that pretty much did me in. They came in waves of 25 to 30 and once you figured you'd finished a group of them, turn around and there would be another wave.  I just wanted the waves of skeletons to stop, get to a safe place, log out, and never come back. I was completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Entering the Plaguelands

We had joined up with Fiona's Caravan and stopped at the Chillwind Camp.  First a visit to Uther's Tomb to pay our respects to the First Paladin.

High Priest Theldanis sent me to an abandoned crypt to collect some weapons.  This was a phased instance and Vier was unable to enter with me and assist so I was on my own.

On my own until I happened upon a level 37 Dwarf named Jormot fighting with some undead something-or-other, who had stolen the weapons we were to collect.  I helped Jormot kill the undead whatever, and backed away immediately to let Jormot know that I wasn't trying to steal his loot, just helping him out.

In the midst of my own battle with the undead, suddenly I had help.  After the kill, it was Jormot who backed away quickly to indicate his willingness to help and not steal my loot.  This was really, really, very cool. With no communication, either in vent or in the chat window, we were able to establish that we'd help each other.

I was very touched.  I think Jormot was a little surprised on one occasion when I noticed his health was way down, I cast a healing spell and brought him up to full health.  The one thing I ever wanted to do in WoW, be able to help someone else! Mission Accomplished.

Jormot ended up staying in the crypt to help me kill my last two whatever-they-were.  We had been joined by a third player who actually did steal one of my loots/quest objectives.  When Jormot saw that, even though I suspect he was finished himself, as he had been headed up the stairs to leave, he turned around and came back to me.  We went to the opposite end of the crypt away from the thief and finished my quest.  At the top of the stairs we waved to each other as he set off and I went back to join Vier.

At our stop at the Thondoril River, we ended up chasing after one of Fiona's boys, Gidwin Goldbraids, who was trapped in a spider web.  UGH more spiders!  [The white blob is Gidwin, encased in a spider web.  Read the text of the quest!]

After the cave with the spiders, I was to gather some plant things along the river.  I was fishing while waiting between 2 re-spawn points of the plants.  Vier had a notion that we should retreat to Goldshire, RAF level her Priest and carry on as a same-level team.  I fished while I waited for Vier to log out and then log back in as Molim.  We went to a quiet spot by a pond and used my "grant level" ability to bring Molim up to my level 39.  Back to the Plaquelands we went.

We were killing mobs of various kinds, gathering feathers, bear meat to feed someone or other and then the Opengut Behemoth.  

Around this time is when we had our first WoW spat.  Molim was frustrated that I kept wandering off in the wrong direction, more often than not right into a crowd of red-labeled bad guys.  I was frustrated because I kept looking around for Molim after a fight of mobs for a quest objective and I couldn't find her.

Molim, "I'm waiting over here where we have to go next."
Noritam, "But I don't know where we're going next".

When we finished venting our frustrations, I noticed that I was above level 40 and asked if I had to back to the Exodar to get my next higher level mount.  The answer was yes and off we went.

I thought my choice of mount would be easy, between blue, purple or grey, purple is the obvious choice.  BUT ... there was also a green option!

uh oh ... 

Much pondering until I noticed that the colour label referred to the colour of the Elekk's gear, not the Elekk itself.  The "purple" one was actually a sickly green coloured elekk with purple saddle and accoutrements. The "Green Great Elekk" was a purple elekk with green gear!  YaY!  I have my faster mount now!

Here we are with our new mounts and I'm trying to grab a screenshot with both of them rearing and trumpeting/whinnying at the same time.  No dice!  It's too quick of an interval between getting my elekk to trumpet and then hit the "screen capture" button at the same time as Molim got her horse to whinny!

Your video device is not compatible.

Molim can give us clouds to stand on so we can jump off the top of a tower [behind us in the screenshot below] and float to the ground instead of winding our way back down the spiral staircase.  That really comes in handy!  I think I hate spiral staircases as much as spiders in this game.

Catalysm Quest from the Opengut Behemoth called a Stitched Horror.  Swimming in Lake Mereldar to obtain 8 Active Liquid Plague Agents from water elementals.  The flask was cool, it shrank the water elementals so they were easier to kill after getting the sample.  Some of them also dropped some good loot.  We also swam around the bottom of the lake clicking on the fish, snails and crabs for the "Frederick's Fish Fancy" quest.

Level 42, new spell, increased reputation!

At the Light's Shield Tower with a one-hand sword and shield.  Look ma!  No red gloves! 

Ladybug Shoulders!

While I was sorting through my bags and getting on my new sword and shield, Molim was playing with some shadow spell and her mounts.  Here is a shot of her and her dragon mount in shadow mode.

Molim and Dragon mount out of shadow.

Yesterday, in real life, I took a "day off" and spent it colouring.  I was waffling between feeling good [remembering Jormot, Great Green Elekk] and feeling very low [spat with Molim, not being able to remember anything, learning with a cognitive impairment after living a life with an above-average intellect].

This foray into World of Warcraft effectively nullified my annual Seasonal Affective Disorder "January Blues", but I think they're catching up to me in February.  I absolutely hate not being able to remember things, constantly being disoriented, having a very narrow field of view and lacking any kind of situational awareness in game.

My daughter gave me a pep talk last night.  She advised me to go back and read the first post of this blog and realize how far I had come.  She told me that on the first day when I was RP walking, she had thought that maybe bringing me into WoW wasn't such a great idea if we were going to have to walk to level ninety!  That it took the better part of a year for her to level her first toon to max level and Noritam and Molim are half-way there after two and a half months.

This game is huge, the lore and back stories are almost twenty years old, I am not only learning to play this game, I'm learning to play computer games period.

So, once I get this posted and Molim gets her new fridge delivered, it's back at it.

What's going to happen first?  Molim and Noritam get to level 90? or Warlords of Draenor and free boost to 90 is dropped?

However we get there, after level 90 we can work on professions and get me some alts!  Maybe even get a new game ready computer, mouse and keyboard!!

Nor.