Category Archives: Warlords of Draenor

You Know You Should Go To Bed When…

You finally decide to use a toy from your Garrison’s Gnomish Gearworks and it is so much fun to use, you keep playing till you’ve used all 25 Sticky Grenades.

I’ve been trounced by those Botani so many times. Hahaha.  You sail a grenade over to them, it hits them, but they don’t react towards you. Then BOOM!  Down they go and if they have another creature next to them they all go sailing through the air!  Hahaha!

Five Alive in Draenor

I finally crawled my main character to 100.  I could have done it sooner but I had done it over and over for months and bleh just wanted to float.   

I’m so happy to have my level three garrison again and I smile to think this time it won’t be taken away.
Now to level the buildings, finish quest lines and dungeon dive.
Last night my Death Knight got to 90 and I took her to the Timeless Isle.  She only found a couple of armor pieces there.  I got twitchy to test her out in Draenor so off she went to talk to Khadgar.
I typically run a DK through the world as Blood and queue for dungeons as Frost. Somehow I’ve just been playing her as Frost and when I went to swap her to Blood for Draenor she felt weaker and as if she didn’t have as many moves.  Maybe I just need to tweak her rotation.
Now that Ms Big is at max, I can move my Warlock, Paladin and Frost Mage along.
Crafting in Draenor continues to be a slog.  100 Hexweave cloth or 100 Truesteel Ingots for a single piece of armor and the most limited list of recipes ever.  
Cooking is loaded with recipes which makes it far more fun.  Even my son is cooking with his character and fishing!  Unheard of for him.
An awful armory pic of my DK:

Draenor Notes

I’m sending four characters through Draenor.  As usual I’m slinking ahead with my druid.

I’m trying to get every quest and objective in each area.  I’m killing the rares as I see them. 

Must make time to do more fishing. Foods and Potions require them and although I don’t mind stopping occasionally at an appealing pool, I’m finding it hard just to fish when there are so many other things to do.

My Frost Mage is improving survivability wise.  I still despise the loss of Evocation and Arcane Blast (?).  I used that on multiples all the time.

My Warlock waltzes through the world and she even did my first live game dungeon.  Everyone’s favorite Bloodmaul Slag Mines.  It may be the first time I was in a group who did it start to finish.  I finally gave up on beta dungeons because of groups breaking up or problems with disconnects and realm restarts.  Bah nightmarish.

My Paladin is holding her own despite her still puny item levels.

I’m really just playing Blackwater, but I couldn’t help but slink over to my other server and send those three characters through the jungle and settle them down in a garrison.

The garrisons are endlessly entertaining.  I hadn’t upgraded my mine in beta because I didn’t need the materials. Now that my Blacksmith is there, I can send her endless stuff.  I love the Archaeology fragments you pick up in there too.   I’m getting to try all of the buildings thanks to my alts.  Unfortunately my Leatherworkers are Rogues, so that is going to take awhile to get those over.

Somehow I’m going to get my archaeology skills up before hitting the Spires of Arak area.

I have found that the starter areas are just deserted and I’m rarely seeing other people in them.  Sometimes you just like to have other people around sharing the experience but nooo.  I finally noticed I was only seeing Blackwater Raiders people in the intro.  Once out in Shadowmoon, the joint is bursting with Shadow Council peeps.  Well, not bursting, by they seem to be the most numerous.

Draenor Notes

I am so pleased to see so many positive reviews of Warlords of Draenor.  I really felt that once people were in and playing, they would really enjoy this expansion.  That is how it went for me, and how I saw it going each time a new wave of beta invites went out.  People were taken by surprise, in a pleasant way almost invariably.

 That said, I find my main character at what I think of as the dread Darkness Falls quest.  This Shadowmoon Valley quest was bugged for much of the test period.  I finally got a single character through it and she was tossed into a painful scenario that opens with a gold elite fire belching *%#&@  who I could not beat for anything.  Even worse, any time that character got anywhere near Karabor, she got tossed into the freak scenario with Bobby Buttkicker.  Dang.   Call me a weenie.  I’m doing what I did later in the beta and I’m leveling up a bit before I go in there.  Then I kick the belching butt.  Yo.

I got my Blacksmith/Paladin to level 90 and eagerly sent her over to Draenor.  She didn’t get the Timeless Isle gear boosts or anything and she is just Ilevel 415, the lowest I’ve sent to Draenor yet.    She can handle one on one fights with 90s but if she gets a group of podlings or other nuisance things in addition to a regular mob, I dunno.

My Death Knight/Gathering character still has two Pandaria levels to go.  We shall see.  I could really use her gathering skills big time.

My spouse has entered the Draenor building. Nobody gathers things like he does. I think he’ll find Draenor a challenge, which he likes.  Dying while gathering is fine sport for him.  (Hugs, spousal unit.)

What I’m Doing Whilst I Wait for Draenor

 I’ve seen a couple of posts this week on what to do while waiting for Draenor’s release.

Kotaku   http://kotaku.com/how-im-preparing-for-wows-warlords-of-draenor-expansion-1649049761

Wow Insider   http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/10/21/how-do-you-prepare-for-a-new-expansion/

 

I found that when my Druid and Warlock and Mage first got to Draenor  (in Beta) they were getting whomped.  I managed to work with my Druid using Pandaria level potions and scrolls, but they really don’t cut it.  I won’t mention here the many problems over the course of the beta I had trying to make Rejuvenation Potions.  I finally gave up and bought potions from the Big Guy in Stormwind.

He won’t be there obviously in the live game. 

I’ve been working on my Cooking Skills and my Pandaria Farms on all my 90 characters.  ( I play on two servers and have three 90s on each. By launch I’ll have another for each server).

I’m stocking the guild banks with all the potions and flasks and scrolls and foods I can to help everyone get started.

As you know, I’m a bozo from Bozo Town, so I don’t pay much attention to armor and item levels unless my ILevel keeps me from getting in a dungeon.

Now I see that I really need to up my levels in order to play through successfully. 

Doing the Iron Horde Quest with your 90 is a good way to get a few nice pieces of armor that will give you a considerable boost.

Off I went to the Timeless Isle next. 

There are Mossy Chests tucked in by trees and boulders all over the island that give Timeless Coins (for you to buy stuff that will help you but I’m saving for the Mount) and Item Level 496 gear for your spec.  Some of the drops are for other specs but you can send them to any character on your account who can use them.  There are other chests in dangerous locations that give more gear.  Some animals drop gear.

There are a couple of bizzaro platform jumping places for you to get even more treasure.  I just found this spot, and I fell leaping for the first pillar here…
 

My strategy since my characters are all around 440 at best going in has been to slink around the island getting as many chests as possible.  When my Item Level is at 480+ I find I can start killing the Elite Turtles on the beach for coinage.

The next place to go is the (vomitous) Isle of Thunder.  It is one scenario after another.  I did solo scenarios but maybe you can go in as a group?  I dunno.  My Mage got pounded up one side and down another.  She is feeling reluctant to go back.

I sent my Warlock in last night. She is at 497 and it was a walk in the park for her.  I could not believe the difference in her experience. 
 

Get as close to 500 as you can before heading over.  I haven’t gotten anything from these but 11 gold for each completion.  Pretty scummy, even though it’s easy for this character.

I have a Death Knight and two Paladins working their way through Pandaria.  They should be ready to rumble by November 13.

 

 

World of Warcraft Update Tuesday

World of Warcraft is patching in the new game changes this morning.

The inventory changes are awesome.  Class changes are going to be a challenge.  I tested my Druid, Hunter, Warlock, Mage and Death Knight in Draenor.  All but the Frost Mage handled Draenor fine despite class/skill changes.  My test (Template) Shadow Priest did fine too, except she has the weakest heals ever.  Her debuffs are still great so she can handle herself.

The Frost Mage got crushed in Draenor (removal of Living Bomb, Arcane Explosion, Evocation hurt) so I’m trying to up her armor by visiting the Timeless Isle and Isle of Thunder, places I’ve never done.  She is getting crushed in those places too, on live, still having those skills.  Will have to have my spouse come to Timeless with me to get some of that gear.  Isle of Thunder…ouch, ouch. I reek at scenarios.  No question.

I’m excited for the updates anyway, I can always adapt to skill changes, and the grand land of Draenor is now weeks closer.

Since nobody really reads this I can say I predict great success for the Draenor expansion, people will love it.  I am never wrong about how a new game or update will be received.

Draenor has the best storyline I’ve seen Blizzard do.  Entering the world with Khadgar and his pals and running into those folks throughout the world really makes you feel like you’re part of something larger than yourself.  You help them, they help you. 

Some of your favorite characters from the “old world” like Fiona become your Followers.  You send them on missions, they come back with booty, they hang out in your garrison. 

It is just your garrison, but as you enter Draenor it is also the first encampment of your ragtag little group from the Tanaan Jungles.

The garrison has so much to offer, particularly at level 3.  This last character set, I just moved my Druid to 100 then went back and had all these quests to do, including some for the garrison buildings such as the Stables where I need to go out and tame a variety of Mounts.

I will say I’m not a fan of the new character models so I turned that feature off.  I think that will give Blizzard some real work, tweaking that.

The Crafting system and the Work Orders is really uninteresting.  Way too many materials are required to make anything at all.  I do like the quest lines they put in for each craft.  They really need to work on crafting. 

Otherwise, it’s all good and I will be able to grit my teeth and send characters through still detestable Pandaria now, knowing Draenor awaits them.

Draenor Diaries: Strawfigure Queues Up

I thought I might queue Strawfigure up for the Bloodmaul Slag Mines to see how she did on that Beginner Dungeon.  My live Shadow Priest is now level 70 and the skills gained in those next 20 levels weren’t particularly significant so I think I can play her through a dungeon as well as any other class.

I waited 22 minutes in queue. Sent some Followers on Missions. Because I am Insta-100, these characters haven’t been leveling with me, and they don’t have the array of Counter Skills needed for many missions.  I’m sending these poor things out with 0-22% chance of Mission Success.  They still get the XP.

I don’t have the group of Followers I’ve earned on the Leveling Realm because these were Insta-Assigned via Garrison Ford, the garrison guru on the 100 Realm.  I always Choose Onaala, for instance and I don’t have her.  She counters many of the things I can’t counter with this set.  I wonder if I can swap for my real Follower set with the NPC at my Garrison who snares your Followers away when you get over  the allowed number.

When my Leveling Realm character got to 100, I went back to my garrison, upped it to level 3 and voila, happiness.  There were new quests waiting, I could pick a couple of new garrison buildings, and I could go through and complete any achievements I hadn’t done.  I hadn’t worked on crafting much and I could work on that now.  I thought, “there is so much fun stuff to do at level 100”.

With my Insta character, I don’t have that feeling at all.  She was given Skinning and Alchemy as her Professions.  Not the best combination.

There are quest lines to go places I’ve been and done, but meh, are they really worth spending time on for her?  So what can I do with this girl while she waits in an interminable queue?  Hmmpf.

Draenor Diaries Sunday August 17 2014

I ran all three of my characters to some extent. My Cat was  once again stuck in Lag Heck for quite awhile so I sent my Warlock out for a bit then ran my Death Knight through the Golgrond quests I had just done with the Cat.

I sent her into Bloodmaul Slagmines, this time from the beginning of the dungeon.  I think this dungeon will feel familiar to players who have done the various Blackrock Dungeons.

My gnome Death Knight has a different point of view, everything looked so incredibly LARGE.

The feel of the place is very fiery, as if you’re in some monstrous furnace.

The group I was in seemed to know the dungeon and the fights well.

Crescent Oil

I noted a couple of threads on Crescent Oil, a reagent Alchemists need but something they have no recipe for.

Someone said non-alchemists could make it via an alchemy building in their Garrisons, though an Alchemist couldn’t. 

Since I had that small open building slot I put in an Alchemy building and sure enough, the Vendor opens and the recipe for Crescent Oil is right there, as if you were looking at a recipe list you know, only you can only see it via the vendor.
 
 

So, everyone is now stopping to fish hoping to send her the fish to change to Oil.

Frostfire Ridge

After a few sessions of slogging along, I found the passageway to Frostfire Ridge.  The Pass is jammed with bad guys. 

If you get through You’re at the Iron Siege Works, with level 100 NPCs and tank like things waiting for you to give them a try.
 

My Cat is only level 93 since this time around I’ve spread time between three characters. 

She slid on by those guys and comes to Thunder Pass (I think that’s what it was. The pass appears closed with a big tank in front of it but you can just tuck behind it and the path wends it way to the others side. Very narrow passage.

To my relief the mobs and npcs on the far side of this pass were level 90-93 so no problem.

I stopped at the Pit of The Devourer. Tempting for another time.
 

I was trying to make my way to the closest of two ! points denoting a quest that you can see on the map of Frostfire even from Golgrond.  

I didn’t get that far because I found a nice lava pool which is supposed to be a source for Fire Ammonite (used for the Fisherman’s Quest at your Garrison).
 
 

Sure enough, I caught Fire Ammonite large and small, and some Fire Ammonite Bait.

Well worth the trip. I still need to reach those quests.

Draenor: Scribes Quarters

The Scribes Quarters at Level 1 looks just like the Level 1 Alchemy building with different insides.

Your Work order Requires 10 True Iron Ore and 10 Blackrock Ore!!!!  No herbs of any kind. I’ve seen people say only Alchemy is really in place as a Trade skill.

I hope they’re right because that sure is maddening.

Luckily my busy busy little Death Knight had plenty of ore to send over.

The Work Order gives you War Paints and Sorcerous Water.

There were no Draenor Recipes available from the Scribe Vendor. I checked again after completing Your First Inscription Order 1 & 2, nothing.

Then I noticed I had a Treatise on the Inscription of Draenor still in my inventory.  Although it says it requires Inscription L1 to learn it, my Inscriptionist with 600 Inscription got FAILED! The Spell is not Available to You!  Noooo.

Tsk. Stink Stank Stunk.