WowNotes 6/27/19

Don’t you love that notepad. I determined I could scan a sheet and write over it. So cute.

Patch 8.2 Rise of Azshara

I’ve just had the chance to do the opening sequences with my druid. I was taken aback by how many places you had to hop around between just to begin. Boralus, Nazjatar, Silithus, High Mountain…yikes.

Azshara herself in the cinematic reminds me so much of Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent, in her looks and how she speaks. Another eerie BFA/Disney moment.

Nazjatar is a pretty fantastical place, so far one of the best imagined new areas I’ve seen in World of Warcraft for a long time. I keep gaping at the scenery, endangering my character.

I’m eager to get to Mechagon, which also looks really cool.

There we go, suddenly the Live game is super exciting and fun.

I love the Crossroads cinematic, and have watched it several times. I’ve become a big fan of Jaina this expansion. That moment where she says “we all have blood on our hands” (SNIFF!). I have hoped all along that the story arc for Battle for Azeroth would complete with the faction war coming to and end. Let us talk to each other! Be buds! For Azeroth!

Character Leveling

My Mage is the current character being leveled. I enjoyed sending her in a couple Timewalking Dungeons last week. Mana Tombs and Sethekk Halls. It seems funny people still die and wipe in these dungeons everyone knows so well. I expect in Classic there will be even more grisly deaths as people adjust to their own skills and the requirements of the new/old world.

New Guilds for My Lowbies

I mostly work on Blackwater Raiders, but have low level characters on other servers. Since my own guild peeps haven’t been playing, I’m working on alts, two of whom have found good guilds. How nice is that? Those characters will get more playtime.

Master Character List

I’m all excited of course to make even more new characters in Classic. I’ve picked out three names I want to reserve. I wish they’d post that server list so I can be ready to strike! Hehe.
I’ve a character name folder, but I’d like to combine all my little pages and scraps of paper into one big list, in Excel so I can see where I’ve used them already. I can tell I’m in mode because a good name came to me while I was driving down the road yesterday, but I didn’t try to jot it down behind the wheel, and it was gone amongst other thoughts by the time I got home.

World of Warcraft Stress Test…Smooth

No problems today logging in, creating a character, and entering the world.

I created a Human Rogue to specifically do the Elywnn Forest area this time. Levels were slow. I think it took me two hours to get out of Northshire and onward to Goldshire, just because of slow spawns and high competition for them. It also seemed there were more quests there. People were super good about grouping in Northshire, but not so much once outside of it. I could have just tossed invites myself, and I think in a live game I’ll try to do that or send a tell to prospects. It is all so much simpler with a group.

General chat was convivial, to say the least. It had that warm, fuzzy, aren’t we all so glad to be here vibe. I tossed out comments and one liners left and right. A good time!

Handling two Defias seemed not bad while in Northshire. I liked the story line of the area. Most troups were elsewhere fighting the Horde, and volunteers of all types were helping defend Elwynn from shady characters who had moved in. There was also a line about this area being “The last bastion of human power in the world”. It certainly never feels like that in the current game.

This quest took me so long. You were to kill ten kobold vermin. There were no kobolds called vermin, just Workers and inside the Echo Mine, Laborers. Someone said you had to kill the ones called Workers wearing brown pants. In the frenzy to tag and kill any kobold you could get before someone else, you sure couldn’t check their clothing.

Before I got the brown pants hint, I spent a fair bit of time killing Laborers, and was dismayed to find I had zero of ten towards the quest. You see why kobolds are starting to freak me out. More kobolds than I’ve killed in ten years, I’m sure, all in one night.

My Rogue Trainer was lurking in a barn. I like training for new skills. I like earning new skills. I don’t mind paying for them, though I’ll need to work hard to kill, loot, and make money for my training. I’m ok with it. It’s kind of exciting.

Speaking of the Defias, it’s a little embarrassing when you need that bandana off the guy so bad you have to toss a knife in his back at a particularly vulnerable moment.

Elwynn Forest

My Rogue felt really good, if not powerful, until I hit those Rockhide boars and bears in Elwynn. First death to a pig. I’m sure it means nothing. My Live Rogue has never used the “throw” skill so much, just trying to tag mobs ahead of someone else.

I liked that the quests for candles and gold dust could be gotten at either the Fargodeep or Jasperlode Mines. Fargodeep was huge. I’m sure it’s not that big in Live. But maybe I vaguely recall it being larger at some point. Still, really a rambling place.

The Jasperlode had more kobold opportunities, but they seemed tougher, and I confess I died many times getting that gold dust and those candles. I’ve always thought kobolds were sort of innocuous, but now I see why some have obsessed over them. They’re beasts, nd are all over the early levels of this area. I hope I don’t dream about kobolds tonight.

When you’re dead you’re a sort of cool ghost.

Some wretch was going around and killing all the cows. (sniff)

Stormwind! Are all of those statues there? I have to go look. They look so cool, a really grand entrance.

Stormwind is gorgeous. It’s like a medieval fairy tale city. It’s so cool. Why on earth did they change it?

Stormwind, the Fairy Tale City.

The bank and all the signage, so very retro.

Inside the bank, a long hall.

Then a huge open area, very impressive.

The tavern in Old Town where the Cook trainer is, is so great. Very immersive.

I stopped at level 7 1/2. I think I’m done for now. Stormwind really kind of did me in, and I don’t want to get attached. I’ll be right there in August!

June Gaming Goals

I advanced my ESO and World of Warcraft characters in May, which was my main goal. My Wow Paladin just has one more level to be 120 then it’s only the Demon Hunter of the original “110s” to go. My general plan is to have all the Blackwater characters to max level, and keep them there going forward. All my other server’s characters lead the easy relaxo leveling life.

World of Warcraft

Level Paladin and Demon Hunter to 120, start moving the rest of the BWR characters up.

See if I can continue with my Horde characters with no guilt. Poor babies, none of it’s their fault. I have noticed other bloggers and commenters saying Classic may be the time to go Horde just to experience the game in a more immersively different way.

Classic Thots

People think:

1. Enthusiasm for the old game will be short lived.

2. Classic will empty live servers.

3. Players will whine for modern updates and conveniences to Classic, thus ruining it for lovers of the classic game.

What I think:

1.Same game, different game.

2.Many will play both versions, some will settle on one or the other.

3. Over time, instead of players wanting changes to Classic that mimic Live, they’ll ask for Live to reflect some of the unique and fun aspects of Classic, while still moving forward as a modern game.

4. Lots of re-thinking from devs and players will occur.

5. Everyone wins.

Elder Scrolls Online

I’ve played my Khajiit in Elsweyr exclusively lately. All my characters in the Alik’r Desert are cooling their heels. I haven’t played through the main quest sequence because of the method I’ve adopted for exploring new areas. I kind of fan out from the main city, exploring the countryside for quests, delves, resources, Wayshrines.

Resources: Elsweyr reminds me of Vvardenfell as an area with hardly any nice resource nodes to be had. It’s just kind of barren that way. Not happy about that. Maybe they could add more in. It’s all part of the ongoing treasure hunt that makes the game appealing.

Delves are also sort of bone dry for finding recipes, patterns, treasure chests. Bleh. So far a couple of the delves had world boss level npcs as their Delve Boss. I can almost always take the Delve boss, or wait a minute or so for someone else to show up to help with it. It was not the case that anyone else showed up for these. I suppose Elsweyr is meant to be upper level content, but they could save those for Dungeons and Trials, I think.

Dragons are the new dolmens. Only they move around quite a bit instead of just respawning on a timer.

Sadness and death themes throughout. Lots of loss and regret.

No desire to try necromancy though there are a few “good necromancer” npcs who argue the case for it not being totally evil. Interestingly, the quest text often tries to get you to state if you approve of, or condemn necromancy. I always take the third, non-committal option. Maybe under the right conditions I’d want to bring back my cat Pet Sematary style.

World of Warcraft Classic : Places to Read and Hear More About It

You’re SO EXCITED about the Upcoming Classic Warcraft. You want to really immerse yourself. Here you go:

The Official World of Warcraft forums are a good place to start. They are a bit overloaded with cries of anguish from those who aren’t in Beta, and there’s a weird anti-streamer constant contingent. Actual beta feedback does appear, and you can see any Blue Post comments easily.

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/c/community/classic-discussion/l/latest

The Wow Classic Reddit page has a bit of the above, but much more actual discussion of the game and how Classic plays. There’s advice on class choice, profession information. It’s all here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/

Blizzard Watch I still miss Wow Insider. Once I started playing regularly, I read it every day. Now, you just have to filter through looking for your Classic Wow fix. Matthew Rossi reliably writes great stuff.

https://blizzardwatch.com/

MMO Champion has a Wow Classic Discussion forum

https://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/363-Classic-WoW-General-Discussions

Wowhead has a huge Classic Wow page. Class guides, talent calculator, maps, if you’re looking for it, they’ve got it. Lots of really interesting feature articles, too.

https://classic.wowhead.com/

Icy Veins is starting a new series spotlighting Classic Wow.

https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/43695-wow-classic-spotlight-anathemabenediction/

Vanilla Friends allows you to search for old guildies and Vanilla era friends. You can search by Realm, character name or guild.

https://www.vanillafriends.com/

There’s a podcast I’ve been listening to called Countdown to Classic with Josh Corbett. He’s in the beta, and gives his impressions, plus has other players as guests to get different viewpoints.

https://countdowntoclassic.com/