ACHIEVEMENTS: Draenor Gold, Rare Missions, and Two Steps Closer to Flying

Perah is two steps closer to unlocking the ability to fly in Draenor.

Over the last couple of days, I've focused on really trying to get those achievements finished in order to get the final meta achievement: Draenor Pathfinder. Yesterday and today saw the completion of two of the sub-achievements, which leaves only one left.

Yesterday, I completed the final Bonus Event that finalized Securing Draenor. It was Assault on Skettis, and I have to be honest, of all the Bonus Events available to do, this one is by far my favorite, and naturally it would bet the last one I chose to do. I had never gotten it as a quest from the table, as far as I'm aware (I often take those quests, and then abandon them, so who knows). Bottom line, freeing slaves and fighting back was fun, and I could complete it really, really fast. I wish all of the bonus events were completed that quickly. I was also working on the treasure-finding one, and happened to get "Got My Mind On My Draenor Money" while diving for a treasure off the coast of Pinchwhistle Point in Spires of Arak.

Tonight, I got my 100th treasure. I had bought all of the treasure maps to make life easier, and had been periodically going on treasure-hunting outings to get this one done as quickly as possible. I got my 100th treasure in Gorgrond. I also fell to my death once, since those holes in Gorgrond sometimes go pretty deep... Ah, well. It's okay. This is done, and now I can focus on the last achievement left.

Naturally, it's the most time-consuming one: Tanaan Diplomat. I'm not revered with ANY of the three groups that are required. I'm closest with Vol'jin's Headhunters, where I'm most of the way through Honored. I'm only on Friendly terms with Saberstalkers and the Order of the Awakened. Grinding dailies is the least fun sounding thing ever, and I don't particularly love Tanaan Jungle, if I'm being honest.

Still, seems a small price to pay to fly again. While I wasn't up in arms about no flying in WoW, when they toyed with that idea, I also wasn't playing at the time, and so didn't think it really effected me. Taking flying out altogether, like Blizzard thought about for a short time, was never going to work. Once you put it in, you cannot remove it, or you'll lose your playerbase. The grind to unlock flying is a decent compromise.

And I'm nearly there.

Long Time No See, Part Two

So. This is going to be a really, really long post. I'll try to TL;DR at the bottom, if you want to scroll...

It's been an age. My last post here was about my anticipation for Cataclysm, my excitement about the game and how amazing it was going to be. I can say (with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia) that the game lived up to the hype for me, personally. But my goodness, that was a long, long time ago...

Seona the Retribution Paladin
Seona remained my Main and I leveled her to cap in Cataclysm. The Molten Front was a place I spent a lot of time. Seona was there daily, working on unlocking everything available and getting the very cool Fire Hippogryph mount. I also spent a lot of time in the Caverns of Time dungeons that were introduced. End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight were amazing instances, and I love the Bronze flight as a rule, anyway. Once Transmogrification was introduced, I spent hours playing with it, and the MogIt addon, making outfits and enjoying Void Storage. The Darkmoon Faire was given an overhaul as well, making it something I actually wanted to participate in again. When Raid Finder was introduced, I began raiding for the first time in my life and seeing current end-game content. It was something I never imagined I'd see or participate in, and I loved every minute. And, as time moved forward, as it inevitably does, things changed in game. Cataclysm was fun, I leveled several alts, things were great.

Mists of Pandaria
Kung-Fu Pandas?
Really, Blizzard?
Turns out, yeah, really for real, and wow it's actually really fun! Seona was still my main and I enjoyed almost all of the content offered with her. During Mists, though, I turned my attention more and more towards Perah, my Death Knight. I had gotten over my weirdness with the Frost spec, and starting leveling him up and realizing that I really, really enjoyed the combat and playstyle he offered. When he got an invitation to the Brawler's Guild, I really started focusing on him, and slowly came to the realization that Perah was becoming my Main, and Seona was being gradually demoted to Alt status.

Hiatus
All that said, right around patch 5.2, I sort of took a break from WoW. This was during the release of The Isle of Thunder, which is something I never really visited that much, even when I did come back, which was around patch 5.4 and the release of the Timeless Isle.

Perah Sinn'Zaram, Frost Death Knight of the Ebon Blade (Sisters of Elune, US)
Perah was firmly my main at this point, and I had come back into the fold with the Horde. Seona and Loem were left behind a bit as I got Perah to the Isle and started spending a lot of time improving his gear, running Raid Finder, and in general working towards the legendary cloak (which I never actually got on any of my toons; Perah was closest, in the end). With connected realms, I found more people questing when I did spend a bit of time leveling my army of alts, and the game felt more alive again.

That said, Patch 5.4 lasted FOREVER. Mists of Pandaria dragged on for a long, long time. Long enough for me to level several characters to the level 90 cap. Well before the end of Mists, I had 4 level-capped toons: Seona, Loem (my worgen rogue), Yrovi (human warrior), and Perah all made it to cap. I continued playing (somewhat half-heartedly the longer it drew on), and waited with bated breath for news of the next expansion.

Then, finally, Warlords of Draenor was announced. Oh, joy and exhultation! Garrisons looked amazing, and it was a lot of orcs, but the story was interesting and I loved the novel by Christie Golden that was released as the lead into the next chapter of this game. Plus: Level 90 Boost!

I bit the bullet, bought the expansion, and boosted a class I enjoyed but couldn't seem to ever take time to level up: Warlock. Cobb the Affliction Warlock was power-leveled up to 60, learned alchemy and tailoring, and boosted straight to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms within a few days. A whirlwind of getting back into the game, for me, and got me the achievement for 5 level 90s.

Warlords!
The Iron Tide hit the shores of Azeroth hard. And many people returned, heeding the call of battle, and suddenly there were lots and lots of people playing WoW again. My wonderful RP guild that Seona had been in for what felt like an age, however, did not seem to be able to bounce back. Hinik and Krystal were no longer willing to lead the guild, and could not find anyone willing/worthy to take over. Within a month of WoD going live, KoE died. Rather than leaving the guild in less than capable hands, they disbanded, and Seona found herself without a home. I couldn't blame them. I had already more or less moved back to Horde and had all but left my old server behind.

Perah had many adventures. I managed to level to 100 fairly quickly, and worked on my garrison, getting it up to Level 3. Garrisons ended up being a bit of a love/hate thing, though. Warcraft became Chorecraft, as I felt more and more obligated to log in constantly to check on my Followers and send them out on missions. Truth be told, as time went on, the shiny "newness" of WoD wore off very quickly, and I was seeing more flaws in the game, then benefits. I began really disliking the garrison, the way that professions in general appeared to have been completely gutted and made trivial, and how I seemed to spend all my time isolated, rather than doing things out in the world. I decided another break was in order, and this time it was a long one.

Hiatus
I was gone. For longer than ever before, and for a time, I thought it was a very serious possibility that I would not ever be returning to the World of Warcraft.

Who am I kidding?

Triumphant Return! Because LEGION
About one month ago, I returned to WoW after many, many weeks of being away. I was out of the game during the flying fiasco, and the introduction of the Shipyard and the Tanaan Jungle. I decided to come back because, of course, a new expansion was announced. Legion is coming. I can tell from the information released so far, that Blizzard has learned a lot from the current expansion. Garrisons were an interesting experiment, and I think the Class Halls will be a much better iteration of the idea. Artifact weapons look fascinating, and they are improving the transmog system significantly. But most importantly of all:

ILLIDAN!!!

I think Illidan is my favorite character in the Warcraft Universe. He's the guy that tries so very, very hard to do the right thing, and manages to screw up every. single. time. Even better than Illidan, are the friends he's bringing to the party: Demon Hunters. The new class looks great. I will have two for sure, one for each faction. I have very strong opinions of certain genders of elves in WoW, so my characters are somewhat pre-determined, when it is time to roll them.

And that's that, I guess. A very long, very drawn out "summary" of what happened. I guess I never updated this blog because I got so very into WoW in the beginning of Cataclysm, that I forgot to do so, and then became so NOT into WoW, that I forgot this page even existed. (haha oops!)

But I'll try to update things again. I like keeping a log of what happens in WoW, from my perspective, and the perspective of my characters. I will probably also be trying to update and write more fan fiction about my characters on my other blog: ink-and-blood.blogspot.com

Okay! TL;DR time:

Seona was my main from Cataclysm through most of Mists of Pandaria.

Mists of Pandaria dropped and it was amazing, but it also lasted forever, and I ended up switching mains and also leveling 4 total characters to 90.

I used my free boost with Warlords to level Cobb, my warlock, to 90, getting the achievement for 5 level-capped toons.

Perah, my Frost DK, became my main and is my main currently (Warlords of Draenor; patch 6.2).

Warlords of Draenor was fun, but it had its issues, and it has not been my favorite expansion ever (that would be Wrath)

I had some time away from the game

LEGION IS COMING. So now I'm back in the game and loving it again. A break was good. Class Halls, Artifact Weapons, and ILLIDAN WITH DEMON HUNTERS.

DID I MENTION ILLIDAN? I LOVE ILLIDAN!! I EVEN BOUGHT A VIRTUAL TICKET FOR BLIZZCON SO I COULD GET MURKIDAN! BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE ILLIDAN!

I'm currently working on getting flying with Perah and I'm leveling Cobb with an IRL friend. Cobb just got his garrison a few nights ago. You can find Perah and Cobb on Sisters of Elune US, and Yrovi is also leveling up on the linked server, Cenarion Circle. Seona and Loem are, for now, retired.

Here's to more adventures to come in the World of Warcraft!

"It is time, friends, for the world to shatter."

A quote from Zarhym on the official forums.

The shattering is happening now, as I write this. The servers are down for maintenance, the elemental invasion has finally wound down, and MMO-Champ had called it at least a week ago. Finally, FINALLY, the world of Azeroth as we know it is coming to an end.

I, for one, am stoked. I mean, really excited. The only reason why I will be able to sit still at work today is because I know for a fact that the maintenance is going on till at least 3 pm my time, and I'm even somewhat expecting extended maintenance so the servers may not even come up 'till I get off work anyway at five.

I didn't have any real goals or things I wanted to do before the world fractured. I did get Tripping the Rifts on my main, which was the really important thing. I sort of wish I had been more diligent in getting the event quests and such done on all my 80s, but maybe this is the start of a new, less-altoholic me. Which would be nice, considering that I really want to focus on Seona for the upcoming expansion and treat alts as ALTS, not secondary mains or major time-sinks.

I didn't do any of the boss fights, unfortunately. Unlike right before Wrath, where my then-main, Yrovi, got the full set of purple gear from the Argent Dawn for a boost into the expansion, Seona will be moving forward in the same gear she's wearing currently. Not that it's a real issue. The PvP gear I'm in will be easily replaced and won't make me *sadface* when I exchange epics for greens and blues. Besides, it's entirely possible I'll be moving forward with a much larger emphasis on healing, instead of DPS, and may attempt some of my leveling as Holy rather than Retribution to get a feel for the other spec.

As for my other 80s, I fear they'll just have to go up on the shelf and gather a bit of dust for awhile. I can honestly say that, for the first time since playing this game, I have a character that I want to really stick with, not just so that she levels to 85 quickly, but because the people I play with, the server in general, and the play-style are just awesome and interesting. It's these things that make someone stick with a character, not the character itself, and I'm sad to admit that it's taken me this long to come to that realization.

As much as I hate for Yrovi and Purah to do nothing, Seona and the Emerald Dream server will be coming first in this next xpac. I want to level, I want to gear up, and I want to eventually see some of the content I always think I'll never see: Endgame. I re-rolled in the middle of Wrath, creating Seona and discovering the amazing joy that is roleplay, slowly realizing that this was the game experience that I had been craving all along. Now is the time to really enjoy it.

So, as Seona would say: May the Light keep you safe and bless you in these troubled times.