Not Quite Ahead

Once Sloosh entered the Dragonblight from the West I put myself in LFG for an Azjol-Nerub group. A few of my guild mates had been in there and they said it was fast and fun. After an hour I had no invites but I had kept busy.

An “Exit Borean Tundra” quest The Lost Courier had taken me to Star’s Rest. There were one or two quests for the area but instead I followed the messenger line. It flapped me out to Wintergarde Keep. There’s was a lot of Scourging to deal with yet the first quest was very fun, Flight of the Wintergarde Defender. You get a whistle to summon a two-seater Gryphon to rescue people on. And when flying out of the approved area (or sometimes when you are still in the approved area), the bird drops you off with a handy parachute!

Tromping around the mine I saw Cellar looking to do the group “Wanted” quests so I sent a whisper. We picked up another two, Bobbyorr and Galathenar, then headed out. Kreug Oathbreaker ended up killing Cellar with relative ease since he didn’t even bother to put on a shield so the rest of us finished the kill. We actually wiped at Bloodpaw because each of us brought mobs from different camps on the way in. Thankfully Iustus went down without a problem.

Since I was pretty far North East in the zone I decided to head over to the Crystal Forest. Started to go through the Crystal Vice but there were too many elites for a clothy so I followed the North West border to the middle of the zone. There were a few elementals in the way but it was pretty easy getting to the incredibly high overlook. Being a Priest, I backed the horse up a few steps then took a running leap, casting Levitate at the last possible moment. *snicker* There was some aggro from Level 78 wolves but nothing I couldn’t outrun. Turned on achievement tracking so I could be sure to open up all the main areas. The only one I couldn’t easily get to was the one I was most concerned with, naturally. I finally got the Windrunner FP by following the East zoneline path.

Landing back at Wintergarde I got an invite from Cõõlbreeze for Azjol-Nerub. I headed over to help with summons once we found Whaam, Babyboi, and Aetius. Babyboi and I were the only ones who hadn’t been there so it went pretty smoothly. It was quick and I completed Death to the Traitor King and Don't Forget the Eggs!. That took me from 774,349xp to 920,509xp.

I left that group fully intending to get a few errands run then camping out for the night yet when I saw someone actually requesting a Shadow Priest for The Old Kingdom I sent a whisper; ended up being a good decision. Hooked up with four people from Spies Like Us: Littlehammer, Goocher, Crimsonmage, and Enhancment. They were all in their vent so I’m sure I was missing stuff but it’s always a pleasure to group with people that work well together. Littlehammer knew the instance well so our only wipes were from exhaustion.

After the first run I was good for more XP and Littlehammer really wanted the Plate Chest from Jedoga Shadowseeker. Goocher had to go so they had Sephestra join—lotsa totems! Herald Volazj’s Insanity ability was very fun. The whole party turns on each person individually; each image has the same abilities but only 4000 Health. With Fear and my PvP skills it was cake but still amusing. The two runs and completion of The Faceless Ones had me go from 922177xp to 1210919xp.

Really wanted 74 for the new Mind Blast and Mind Flay, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Oh well. There’s always tomorrow…

Nexus and Surrounding

RL got in the way in the form of a full day at work—stupid deadlines. Got home a little after 6pm once my random pieces were done. Sloosh was 71 (437448/1539600) and it was time to be 72. Joined the LFG channel for the Nexus and before I could finish Gamel the Cruel some random hunter invited me. The Priest, Saintjergens (Holy lotion?! *lol*), was decent but the Pally Tank, Osgard, was horrible. He asked to be reminded to use Righteous Fury. *sigh* The Hunter did know the instance so we made it through and I had another instance achievement done.

With the free summon out to Coldarra I decided to start on those quest lines. Unfortunately it was Saturday evening and rather busy by then. Trying to do Keep the Secret Safe took three times as long since Arcane Serpents were in short supply. About the only thing keeping me sane was the chit chat on my Vent server. We were all in different areas but suffering together. Guinnessnow noted with amusement how everyone with Quest Helper or Carbonite flock to the first spawn option that presents itself. He turns track on and finds another set of mobs to complete his stuff with ease. Was a good point so I started wandering more myself from the clusterings.

Cosno was also visiting so we were giving him some encouragement as he was making his way through the last 60% of level 79. The guy was pretty hard core. He had maybe twelve hours of sleep since Wrath went live. Was pretty cool to see the world achievement announced. People in my guild grumbled things like “these people need to move out of their mother’s basement” so I shared all the comments with him.

Definitely liking the quests in the Borean Tundra over the ones in Howling Fjord. Gained a lot of ground in Borean today so I’ll probably get those finished up before moving on to Dragonblight.

[Image: Nexus]
[Image: Cosno]

There's 71

Was up a bit late last night but Sloosh logged off about 400k into level 71. Tried two runs in Utgarde Keep. Got to Ingvar the Plunderer with the first one but our tank had less than 12k health and the Pally couldn't keep him alive. I tried helping heal after Ingvar's rez then the Pally let himself die. After the fourth attempt we disbanded. On the second boss we wiped on the four pull so I was out.

Though I started out getting a number of quests done in Borean Tundra, after getting summoned I picked up in Howling Fjord. I'll check my achievements for the highest quest count but I'd like to go back to the Borean Tundra to finish up. Would also like to see the Nexus.

It's a real joy questing with BT-level gear as a Shadow Priest. With a Vampric Touch, Mind Blast, and Power Word: Shield I can finish with wanding and have zero downtime. If I feel frisky I can Shadow Word: Pain three or four mobs, fear them, then tag a few with Mind Flay after tagging one with VT/MB. None of the quest reward gear has been an upgrade so I've been collecting enchanting materials. I wonder when the upgrades will start flowing…

Warrior Continues

Over the last few days Fearce's engineering went from 305 to 350, exhausting my entire supply of Fel Iron ore and nearly all my Adamantite ore. Being a pack rat does help lighten the financial blow of such training. Was really excited to get the Gnomish Poultryizer made now I have to get the Flying Machine Control done then find a way to get a primal nether so I can make Tankatronic Goggles.

Pretty sure Fearce can do Heroic Ramparts now. Went in with some randoms and it wasn't too bad. We didn't get far though because I didn't recall the pulls; Ramparts was always easy to storm through before. Plus we had a 68 shaman healing. Oh well. Have to beg Rool, Ladaron, and Hennesy for help and it shouldn't be too bad.

Was happy to get the Kara key fragment out of Steam Vaults. It was tempting to ditch the pug after downing the beast, but it there was a chance for the Devilshark Cape and completing The Warlord's Hideout for Myrmidon's Headdress. Took some time but we eventually got Warlord Kalithresh down. Naturally he dropped Ring of the Silver Hand and Moonglade Shoulders, so Fearce had to be content with faction and the quest helm.

On Wednesday Azjol-Nerub's PvP daily was Arathi Basin so Sloosh queued up on a whim. And won. Won a second game, too. Was kind of encouraging now that Alterac Valley is Horde-fucked. She really needs to get enough honor for the Medallion of the Alliance, but it's so depressing trying to farm the honor. Really need to spend time on Virulence to enjoy the PvP Goodlife Hordeside.