Category Archives: World of Warcraft Draenor

Demon Hunter Day

My new Demon Hunter made it through the beginning experience pretty quickly tonight.  The area was crammed.  I played one in beta through level 110, but didn’t feel too interested in the reputation slog after reaching the max.

The many movement options for this class make it so much fun to play.  They mow through everything in their path, and when you put a bunch of them together, nothing stands for long.

Despite the fact that “everyone hates Draenor and garrisons”, blah blah blah, there were a ton of Demon Hunters in Tanaan heading for Draenor and their own snuggly spot in the world, something they won’t have in any way in the Broken Isles.

My Demon Hunter has the same cold mask as my other elves, but her flaming yellow/green eyes sort of warm things up.  I think.

To Tanaan and Back

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft almost exclusively.  I’m not sure what it is, but I’m switching between characters like mad leveling them.

I’ve even managed to get a Warrior to Dreanor, something that has been a real slog for me.  What is it about that class which seems so clunky to me, when my son, nephew and sister all love it as their favorite class?

I dragged her to Draenor because she’s my blacksmith and I wanted her to make armor for my Paladin and Death Knight, the next classes I wanted to move through Draenor to level 100.  Now that she’s there and surviving well enough, I’m thinking I’ll let her advance instead.

My Hunter made level 100 a couple of weeks ago.  My strategy with her was to do every quest in each area of Draenor.  By the time I finished Talador, she just needed a box or so in Spires of Arak to level up.   I’m continuing the Spires and will do the dreaded Nagrand when she finishes Spires.  Since she has skinning, all those animals shouldn’t be so arduous.

I used to be a total completionist with my characters and wouldn’t move them on to a new area until they had completed every quest in their current place.  Working through that way also feels like it gives the character more gold and better armor.  I’m going to use that method for everyone else who hits Dreanor.

The Hunter is my first Draenor character who could kill every single elite, Gold or Silver, that she came across.  I do keep wishing she had some sort of stealth, as my daily outings in the Tanaan Jungle are much more challenging.  As her item levels go up, it is a bit easier.

I’m having her work towards Draenor Pathfinder.  I still don’t feel flying is of much interest in Draenor proper, but I would really like to fly in Tanaan.  There seem to be quite a few places that can only be entered one way, with other possible avenues blocked.

Lock ups

I have been having total game lockups, particularly in the Spires of Arak. I have to do a hard reboot, at least once a session.  It is so annoying.  I’m not seeing this with characters in other areas of the world.

Paladins

I said last time Paladins were perfect tanks.  Silly me.  I had two in a row in Burning Crusade level dungeons who were in la la land as far as noticing other players in the dungeon.  One kept pulling huge amounts of mobs and everyone died like five times in a row.  The other just ran ahead of everyone, leaving us in a few dicey situations.

Running Through The Tanaan Jungle

Slinking, actually.  The announcement of the Legion expansion has me working on my characters to not just level them but to try to get their iLevels up.

For my main character, I’m mostly enjoying the Shipyard once again.  I got a Battleship this week called Spellweaver.  I love the name.  Almost as much as that of my Destroyer Yrel’s Command.   In order to keep my ships running, apparently I need to head to the Tanaan Jungle.

Tanaan is supposed to be like the Timeless Isle but it doesn’t have that feel at all.  There are these cute little sparkly treasure boxes all over Timeless Isle.  There are treasures in Tanaan, but not many that I found.  It seemed most were guarded by multiple Horde.  Luckily there were quite a few people around.  I like that because they distract some of the groups away from me.  Is Meatshields the word I’m looking for?

Tanaan Jungle is dark, very Horde-like with the green gassy water you find in Horde areas.  What is that stuff?  The monolithic buildings sprawl everywhere.  I wasn’t in a jungle like area tonight, that’s for certain.  I have by no means covered the entire area so it may lighten up elsewhere.

I managed to do only one quest, killing 25 Iron Horde.  You wouldn’t think it would take long but they are largely grouped up.  A few are those rotten guys who yank you over to them with a big chain when you’re trying to lure them over your way.   All too often they pull you into a wandering pack of five or so.

I’ll see how I do on the dailies using the guides at Wowhead and Icy Veins.   I am no fan of dailies, but I need my Oil, and the next ship I’m eligible for is a Submarine.

World of Warcraft Shipyard, Yo Ho

I couldn’t resist the Shipyard any longer, so I logged in to see how involved it might be.  This was my first log in since the 6.2 Patch. 

New is the “Adventure Guide” which suggests things you might do.  In my case it sent me back to my Garrison to see the King and Exarch Yrel. I just love that character. How far she has come from that cave where we first met.

If you’ve been away for awhile, this is a good way to bring new content to the player’s attention.  The current festival/holdiay is featured which is handy.

Rather than having Dungeons and Raids Tabs, it would be nice to have tabs for quests you haven’t completed, Achievements you can work on.  Grouped by continent, ideally.   Mounts and pets you have not collected yet.  Perhaps Dungeons and Raids you haven’t done yet.  Guiding you to what content still awaits you all in one tidy spot would be very useful.

My illustrious guests send me to The Iron Docks to find a shipwright.

Since my character is a Druid, I mostly slunk through the docks, avoiding the elites and fighting the workers only when I had to. 

Things happen fast in these places, but I’m feeling bad as I’m thinking of the area that there was this dead player laying around and I am not in tune enough with this character right now to have thought to rez the poor guy.  Oops, sorry man.

Once back home with my gnarly shipwright, I had to ride way around to Eventide Landing…the place where you first enter Draenor proper, instead of there being some convenient little road down to the sea right inside my garrison.

It turned out alright.  I hoped the whole thing wouldn’t be an interface like the Followers where I didn’t get to be actually in my shipyard admiring my ships.  No problem, the Shipyard is a pretty large area, and very cool looking.

Also, very important, once my ship was built by my nice little dock workers, I could go on the ship (but not inside that I saw…very important for when I get my Submarine).

I was whisked off to the Tanaan Jungle and I’m excited about that.

I haven’t been reading anyone’s posts or guides because I wanted to be surprised by each new shiny thing.  Off we go!

Of Grinds and Treasures

I have been finding the whole Garrison thing to be a grind since I have four characters needing to do these things daily.  Grinding towards a specific goal is fun, but just slogging along repetitively….agh nooo.   I don’t mind grabbing my Garrison cache, but every other thing seems annoying most days.  I particularly dislike Work Orders.  I just feel like I’m dropping resources down a chute and nothing of interest comes of it.

I’ve been working on my Leatherworker who is a Rogue.  Astonishingly my Rogue (!!!!!) has reached level 80.  Somewhere along the way she became a better fighter. People in dungeons stopped yelling at her and trotting out DPS numbers.  My girl is UBER now.

She could go to Hyjal but I’ve become caught up in a Storm Peaks storyline I’ve never done before.  One of these days I’m sending a character through Northrend to do all quests in all areas.  It always happens that I start running dungeons along side of quests and bang, time to move onward.

My Warrior is in Hyjal. She is my Engineer and I wonder if she would get some interesting Engineering parts in Deepholm.  I can’t get there till level 82 it seems so she is stuck.  I’ll get her out before the Outhouse guy, I vow.

In truth I’ve been through Hyjal eight times at least, and it’s okay. A relatively fast place to level but there are a few parts I just don’t care for (The whole Outhouse Guy set of quests, the guy in the cave you bring out through a dream sequence and he betrays you…annoying sucker).

While getting Obsidium for my Engineer recently, my DK completed all of the Vash’jir quests.  Every single one.  I vowed not to send another character through there.  Beautiful area, tons of Obsidium, Stormvine and Ashara’s Veil.  The quests went on endlessly.

This morning I thought, I’m just going to go ahead and play my Main of Main characters, my druid.  I went to Ashran and bought Treasure Maps for Shadowmoon, Talador and Gorgrond.  Did all her Garrison stuff.  Sent her out into Shadowmoon.

Honestly, I thought I had done a pretty good job of finding treasures as I went along but I appear to be a real piker.  It is fun to track them down.  As I hoped once you get the treasure it comes off of your map.  Although there is a Bubbling Cauldron in Gloomshade Grove I just couldn’t see in the landscape. 

While I’m out here finding these, I can get timber and herbs, and work on that Archaology I meant to master.   I found myself to be very happy to be playing my favorite character, and just be out exploring and treasure hunting and resource gathering.  These are some of my favorite in game activities.

Speaking of oddities, you say, for a few weeks I’ve had the longest log in times as the Encoding Table and Residency are checked and then I get a all red realm list but I can bring up my characters. I’ve submitted bug reports and was going to submit a ticket, but if you say you want help with logging in they want your Secret Question.  Good grief. Who could guess what I used?  Way back when.  Are they nuts?   Sigh.

Draenor Announcement Day

I am really looking forward to today’s “street date” announcement.  This lets me know how much time I have to play in the beta and  how much time I have to get my Live Server characters ready to head on in to Draenor.

Just playing in the Beta has given me a whole new view of the game and which characters are most important to keep leveled, and which are most enjoyable to play.

Oddly enough, people comparing Garrisons to Farms on Pandaria has made me actually start working on my farms and on Pandarian Cooking.

I find myself paying more attention to the fish and the game and what creature drops what that I can use in cooking.

I’m working the characters through Pandaria on Live with notebook in hand and instead of just powering through this (still!!!) most unpleasant place I’m seeing it differently.

Having been in Draenor, I want to get all of my Trade skills to 600, even the dread Archaelogy, which looks as if may be much more interesting and puzzle based in Draenor.  What a relief.

I like Fishing in all games, though I wouldn’t touch it in the real world.  It seems in Draenor you can fish up all sorts of useful and interesting little treasures.  Yes!

Treasures, treasures everywhere is how Draenor seems so far.  I love it to death. 🙂