Dungeons -- Brewfest -- Ret. Pally -- Flyin' High

In August, I took a week off from WoW to have company, Red Bear came to visit irl!  Then I took a couple of weeks off to recover from Red Bear's visit!  And then I got back to Wow realizing ... OMG only two months til WoD drops!

ACK!

OK, we're up to mid-September in the screenshots and level 74.

Vier was getting bored with my questing so for a few days she ran me through some dungeons.  Which was "Holy Crap" Scary at first.  Though, I was getting some sweet gear - like my glowy, shiny, big axe!  And rackin' up the gold ... gotta get to 5,000 gold so I can get Northrend flying and mount!

Here we are in one of my first dungeon runs.

In the Titan Place - very cool.  Very Mines-of-Moria.

At the same time, I was studying to take my Dual Spec live, something I was very nervous about.  Several times I had the thought "just sign in, and Do It!"  But, I'd chicken out.

When I started my Bank Alt, Soozuu, I even made her a Ret. Pally to see what that was like from the ground up.

[for the non-WoW readers: Retribution Paladin.  The damage-dealing specialization of the Paladins.

In Wow, whenever you get into a group, you can play one of three roles:

• a Tank [which I have no earthly idea what they do or how they do it], 
• a Healer [which I told Vier I wanted to be 'cause I had the naive notion I wouldn't be killing things, or killing a lesser number of things -- rolls eyes--], or, 
• a Damage Dealer.  

What I didn't know, and I don't think I would have listened if Vier told me, was that every group has at least One Tank, One Healer and Many Damage-Dealers [DPS].  When you're starting out, it's easier to hide your ineptness if you're one of many v.s. the One Healer - who, if she screws up - wipes or wrecks the whole group.]

So yes, I was makin' a bank alt and I figured I'd get some "sneak" WoW time.  Time when Vier wouldn't be looking over my shoulder and chiding me for not concentrating on questing and wasting my time fishing.  I even joined a different guild on a whim!

I didn't recognize Vier in this spiffy get-up!

Busted!

Might as well get back into my "real" guild!  And of course, do some fishin'!

Soozuu in Fists with her White Kitten Gift.

Holy Crap!  I caught Old Ironjaw!

Old Ironjaw is mine!  

"The legendary uncatchable fish of Ironforge"   According to El's Angling, catching him is a less than one percent chance! Wow!

Now apparently I have to sneak into Orgrimmar to fish up Ol' Crafty!  Not looking forward to that, go to the link and read the first comment by Dsc666.

I got my Holy Paladin up to the low-70s, healing all the way but during my reading on Ret. Pallies, I've been learning that questing as a healer is not as easy as questing as a DPS [damage dealer].  The tipping point came when I had done so much Ret. Pally studying, that it was interfering with my actions as a Holy Pally.  That was when I knew it was definitely time to switch.

So, there was a day lost trying to figure out how to switch back and forth between the two specs and setting up my action bars for the Ret. Pally spec.

I took a day to re-visit some low level areas and get used to being a Ret. Pally.

Nether Faerie Dragon

woo hoo!  I caught me a Sprite Darter thingy in Feralas!  Drat.  Nope.  I caught a Nether Faerie Dragon  in Feralas, which is cool enough.  But it's the Sprite Darter Hatchling I really want.  Next time.

Got some Explorer Achievements.

Cape of Stranglethorn fully explored!

Got my Brewfest Wolpertinger.

It's a Rabbit with Antlers!

Defeated the Dark Iron Dwarves.

No, my new computer isn't crapping out.  The screenshots are blurry 'cauze I bin drinkin' ... hic!

Drank a Lot!

that's a lotta brewskies

 
Ate my way through the Brewfest Diet!

and a lotta sausages!

Can't help but think of my Papa and the rest of my family out at the lake, eatin' sausages and drinkin' beer!

And saw some cool mounts and pets with other 'toons at Brewfest.

sobering up!

I was feeling pretty confident with my Ret. Pally skills after Brewfest, but just to be sure, I went over to Borean Tundra to do the Airport Quests that I missed the first time I was there.

Now I'm REALLY flying!

Fizzcrank Fullthrottle at the Fizzcrank Airstrip

Fizzcrank Fullthrottle started three sets of four or five quests that had me flyin' to Dalaran in a Gnome Aircraft!

Though why they're equipped with floats for a frozen northern zone is beyond me!

That was a LOT of fun!

Great STOL characteristics on this plane!

Vier dropped by on her fancy flyin' disc and ran me through the spider dungeons.

That was NOT fun.

 O.M.G.  

ugh  HUGE spiders and webs everywhere!

shudder

but ...  Ding 76!  YaY!

Now, I've been a Ret. Pally for a few weeks and I ain't lookin' back!

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.

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.

Lunar Festival Highlights

The Lunar Festival in the World of Warcraft coincides with our Chinese New Year. Every year the druids of Moonglade hold a celebration of their city's great triumph over an ancient evil. During the Lunar Festival, citizens of Azeroth have the opportunity to honor their elders by celebrating their sage wisdom, sharing in magnificent feasts, and of course...shooting fireworks!  Elder Ghosts are found throughout the world of Azeroth and each time players finds a new Elder, they receive a token that can be redeemed for special holiday-related items.  I wanted to earn the Purple Festival Dress [cost: 5 Coins of Ancestry] and the Lantern companion [cost: 50 Coins of Ancestry].

Imagine my shock and chagrin when I realized that it meant traveling and exploring all the continents of the in-game world, including some places in Horde territory.  Fortunately for me, Vier had only done a bit of the festival a long time ago and she was game to take me to meet all of the Elders.  Even with Vier's savvy and expertise, I got killed a couple of times and she even got surprised and killed once.  The Festival it seems, is not for the faint of heart.  We started off in Moonglade.  Drank some Moonglow and fired off a few rocket clusters.

In hindsight, again a World Event that offers little opportunity to participate for low level characters.  There is no way I could have traveled to all the elders on foot.  Highly unlikely that I would have survived any attempt at speaking with an Elder in Horde territory.  I love to explore the world and word on the internets is that Blizzard is keen for me to do so.  Why then make it impossible for low levels to participate?  Very Frustrating.

Now that I've had my little rant, some screenshots of our adventures.

Off we went with Vier as her Obsidian Nightwing and me riding on her back. We over flew and discovered a lot of new territory for my character.  Here we are overflying Sar'theris Stand.  No, I didn't get screenshots of every place we were, just a few in fact!

Approaching the Twin Colossals, Vier had to go AFK for a bit.

She tucked me into a safe corner to wait for her return.  I was practicing summoning pets.  With my newly learned skill of "left-click and drag" to move the camera around, I took a gazillion screenshots.   Here's one with Tamm out.

It's quite the trick to get everyone lined up and facing the same way, with none of the on-screen labels obscuring anything.  No way could I get it all done and have Orangey Cu facing the camera!

Here we are leaving the Twin Colossals, over-flying the nasty red beasts

By the time we were overflying Tanaris, I had leveled up to 28!

We had to kill a Sandstone Golem to get to the elder at the Valley of the Watchers.

We followed some mysterious tracks in the desert at the Southmoon Ruins

I leveled up again to 29 by the time we were overflying the Blasted Lands

Discovered Ironforge_Airfield,

and New Tinkertown where we encountered some bad guys.  This is where we both died, me a couple of times and were it took some strategy and low flying and hovering to grab the Elder!

By the time we left and were overflying Dun Morogh, I had leveled up to 30 and my gear and equipment were in bad shape.  This is the first time I saw that red guy over on the right of the screenshot.

Overflying the Howling Fjord, Vier spotted something she had never seen before.  Lucky for me, she was eager to investigate. ... It was High  --  Lair  --  Eee  --  Us! ... ...  A Turtle Boat!

Here we are on the upper deck of the turtle boat, riding Vier's rocket

 A boat structure built on the shell of a turtle, propelled by dangling some carrots in front of the turtle's nose.  Literally!

Check out Vier's Rhino pet "Taxi"!

 We'll see if I can ever find it again once I get my flying mount at level 60, or get the super powers granted to a level 90 character.  At the end of the day, I wanted to go "home", so Vier took us to a point where I could grab a hippogryph ride back to Azuremyst Isles.

There you have it, some highlights of the Lunar Festival 2014.

Nor.