Because I absolutely hate myself more than anyone else, I decided to level up a Void Elf shadow priest for the sweet, sweet transmog heritage armor set. To PROVE I hate myself, I created her on Moon Guard.
I like RP servers quite a lot; they are my "default" experience because I enjoy the atmosphere, even if I don't often participate. My first characters back in Vanilla originally started playing on Wyrmrest Accord. When I returned in 2010 post-Aion, Strev was only created on Whisperwind because my friends were there.
My previous experience on Moon Guard has been "as long as you turn off trade chat and avoid Goldshire, it is an amazing place for Alliance players." So let's do this. I installed the TRP3 (Total Roleplay 3) addon, mostly so I can read everyone else's extended character descriptions, current moods, etc on mouseover. (This is a really fun thing and I recommend creating a level 1 and just strolling around Stormwind (in particular the mage quarter and cathedral areas just to experience it). For my own part, I simply set a fairly generic description and threw OOC notes of "Player is 18+. I do not ERP ever, thanks." to keep "friendly whispers" at bay.
As with other Allied Races, you start at level 20 and I began chain running classic dungeons. For all of the pain of leveling, I adore running through the classic dungeons with strangers from 20-60. Queue times for DPS is rarely over 10 minutes, most people have heirlooms, and the fight mechanics aren't overwhelming. They are fast, (generally) painless, and smooth experiences.
While in down time between dungeons, I'd read trade chat for "fun". Trade chat is server-specific, so no one uses /general. Mostly it is guild spam and such. Like other servers, you will still get hit with a barrage of guild invites and whispers from recruiters, so I decided to pre-emptively sign up. Reading through the ads, one caught my eye. Something to the effect of "Friendly lifestyle guild with social events, new and returning players, very active, etc." So I chatted up the recruiter. "Hi! May I have a guild invite, please?" And that's where things took an odd turn.
"Just so you are aware we are a lifestyle guild. That means we're BDSM+ and need to make sure that's ok with you before I send an invite."
I blinked. Immediately I had several questions, not the least of which was "what in the hell does the 'plus' mean"? I mean, it takes all kinds. "I'm not really into that sort of thing, personally, but I don't find it offensive at all."
"That's ok. We have social members that don't participate. What kind of social role do you see yourself filling?"
At this point, I realized I was completely out of my element. "Food Catering?"
I never heard back from him again. I think it was for the best.
Shortly thereafter, I was hit with the double whammy from another recruiter.. a whisper and a Guild Invite. It hit all the right notes: the request was funny "Hi! Do you often find yourself falling off cliffs with no one around to laugh at you? (etc)" and I could see they had thousands of points of guild achievements. Thus, I joined "Azeroth, Inc."
Holy. Crap. 40+ people online, people running BGs, Mythics, Legion Transmog runs… all at the same time. Friendly chatting in the game, not relying on Discord.
I'm seriously considering a server transfer for Strev.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
You are NOW Prepared!
Just a quick little update this glorious Flag Day. After stomping around in Warfront, I wandered back to Argus, knocked out a couple of dailies and unlocked Void Elves. The questline for them was only slightly more involved than the Lightforged Draenei: you have to run around Ghostlands and click a few glowies before running a Scenario that lets you see how the Void Elves come to be. Spoiler: they get touched by the Void.
Afterwards I celebrated on my new purple chicken mount (Voidstrider?) and ran over to the Firelands to do a quick 25-man heroic solo clear. This little distraction netted a couple thousand gold worth of cash and loot and brought me a little closer to exalted with "Avengers of Hyjal".
I'm not really a big "rep" person (only 53 or so exalted factions), but it is the LAST one I need for Cataclysm.
Yes, I realize how it sounds when I say "only 53", but there's well over a hundred now.
Afterwards I celebrated on my new purple chicken mount (Voidstrider?) and ran over to the Firelands to do a quick 25-man heroic solo clear. This little distraction netted a couple thousand gold worth of cash and loot and brought me a little closer to exalted with "Avengers of Hyjal".
I'm not really a big "rep" person (only 53 or so exalted factions), but it is the LAST one I need for Cataclysm.
Yes, I realize how it sounds when I say "only 53", but there's well over a hundred now.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
You are NOT Prepared!
Well, it turns out there IS a method to the madness when it comes to Argussian rep! The non-kill-a-big-bad dailies give a handful of reputation to the actual faction listed on the quest, Armies of Light (AoL) or Argussian Reach (AR). The kill-a-big-bad dailies give 525 for both factions, regardless of the faction listed on the quest. There's 2 weekly quests to clear a few invasion points and collect drops from elites that give 1k each for both factions. Boo-yah! Using this, I was able to surgically pick off all of the quests that gave AoL reputation and managed to earn ALL I needed to hit exalted with AoL. This gave me an elephant mount, a title, and a cookie-eating grin as I made my way back to Stormwind to begin the quest chain to unlock my missing Allied Races. To my credit, it only took me about two minutes to realize how I screwed this one up.
Turns out you need BOTH factions at Exalted to get both Allied races. AoL by itself only gives the Lightforged Draenei. The Void Elves require AR… and I was still 10k rep short on that one. Typical, really. Still, half a loaf still makes sandwiches, so I started the Glowing Goatgirl unlock chain…and I gotta say, it was a LOT less involved than the others. As in "teleport to the ship you just came from", watch a cut scene, play a single scenario, watch another cut scene, and done. Compare this to Dark Iron Dwarves, which was a fairly long road to ride. Still, I can't complain. Glowing. Space. Goats. Created a Paladin, "just cause", realized I hate playing paladins, and promptly switched back to Strev.
Ran a Darkshore warfront and got a tiny bump to the ilevel (394 now, which is "good enough" for me). Got the necklace to level 46. Called it a night.
Turns out you need BOTH factions at Exalted to get both Allied races. AoL by itself only gives the Lightforged Draenei. The Void Elves require AR… and I was still 10k rep short on that one. Typical, really. Still, half a loaf still makes sandwiches, so I started the Glowing Goatgirl unlock chain…and I gotta say, it was a LOT less involved than the others. As in "teleport to the ship you just came from", watch a cut scene, play a single scenario, watch another cut scene, and done. Compare this to Dark Iron Dwarves, which was a fairly long road to ride. Still, I can't complain. Glowing. Space. Goats. Created a Paladin, "just cause", realized I hate playing paladins, and promptly switched back to Strev.
Ran a Darkshore warfront and got a tiny bump to the ilevel (394 now, which is "good enough" for me). Got the necklace to level 46. Called it a night.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Legion Heir's Disease
Back from vacation and time to strap into an MMO-- *spins wheel* Warcraft! It started off innocuously enough, as it so frequently does. "I really should finish up that stupid enchanting rod quest." This took a little mob hunting and Yet Another Visit to Waycrest Manor, but I finished it and… it was worth the effort, I think. Disenchanting greens yields 9-10 dust each, and epics give a crystal and a shard. Eventually it will pay for itself. Eventually.
Then I started thinking "Man, I should unlock the rest of the Allied Races-- what do I still need for that?" It turns out, just Exalted rep with the Armies of Light. Where I last left Legion I was on the low end of "Honored" with both of the Argussian factions, the aforementioned Armies of Light and the Argussian Reach. Argussian Reach lets you purchase the Argus flight whistle at Revered and a few mounts at Exalted, but the dailies on Argus seem to be rather arbitrary as to what gives reputation for which. It may be an "AR" daily, but on completion, you get both flavors of rep. So, I cleared all the dailies on Argus…for multiple days. The most obnoxious part was discovering that in order to open up a chunk of dailies on one of the three sub-zones, I had to run a heroic Legion dungeon. On a related note, I discovered that I can solo a heroic Legion dungeon.
I'm still about 10k rep shy of the AoL and I honestly don’t care about AR now that I have the whistle upgrade. I should be able to finish this completely in another 4-5 days or so, then I can work on the questlines for both the Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei.
Otherwise, I added another level to the Heart of Azeroth necklace (45!), a few more achievements to the total (Island-related, 35 points), and another dozen mounts to the pile. At some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and properly grind the Argent Crusade, but I figure if I've waited ten years, another five won't kill me.
Two unexpected delights: I stumbled on a quest series that was added in 8.1 that leads into the Crucible of Shadows and explains where that crown/trident/and other thing came from-- you basically power up an evil artifact (the shadow priest dagger from Legion) until it takes a human form, betrays you, and leaves you at the mercy of N'Zoth. Good times! Then there was Chromie!
I'll begin by saying Chromie was Legion content I was 'kinda aware of', but had never checked out since it was all the way in Wyrmrest. I wish I had done it years ago. Your own level and gear doesn't really matter. You are set to level 112 and ilevel 1000 for the duration of the scenario. I've always loved "time loop"-type time travel plots and this one is FUN. "The Many Deaths of Chromie" takes place in the near future-- you and Chromie witness her future-self dying. She knows this isn't supposed to be "her time", so you both travel back in time to prevent it. Problem is, she's only able to give you 15 minutes to stop 8 assassination attempts coming from all around the zone and from different periods in time. It isn't possible at all at first, but the quest is repeatable and you WILL repeat it lots. Each loop lets you earn reputation with Chromie, which eventually unlock more of her talents (like increased speed, more damage). Once you've "solved" one of the first four assassination attempts and exposed the boss, that boss remains exposed in future loops, greatly cutting down the amount of time required to complete. Each boss drops a shard that opens up portals to the other 4 events (like the Siege of Stratholme, the Well of Eternity, etc). I've been able to get four done in a single run, but the four portals are kicking my butt.
All in all, I'm getting ready for the eventual 8.2 release. I'm looking forward to flight, new content, and a great fishing quest that has you hunting down a couple dozen hidden fish that eventually awards the toy: Hyper-compressed ocean. So psyched!
Then I started thinking "Man, I should unlock the rest of the Allied Races-- what do I still need for that?" It turns out, just Exalted rep with the Armies of Light. Where I last left Legion I was on the low end of "Honored" with both of the Argussian factions, the aforementioned Armies of Light and the Argussian Reach. Argussian Reach lets you purchase the Argus flight whistle at Revered and a few mounts at Exalted, but the dailies on Argus seem to be rather arbitrary as to what gives reputation for which. It may be an "AR" daily, but on completion, you get both flavors of rep. So, I cleared all the dailies on Argus…for multiple days. The most obnoxious part was discovering that in order to open up a chunk of dailies on one of the three sub-zones, I had to run a heroic Legion dungeon. On a related note, I discovered that I can solo a heroic Legion dungeon.
I'm still about 10k rep shy of the AoL and I honestly don’t care about AR now that I have the whistle upgrade. I should be able to finish this completely in another 4-5 days or so, then I can work on the questlines for both the Void Elves and the Lightforged Draenei.
Otherwise, I added another level to the Heart of Azeroth necklace (45!), a few more achievements to the total (Island-related, 35 points), and another dozen mounts to the pile. At some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and properly grind the Argent Crusade, but I figure if I've waited ten years, another five won't kill me.
Two unexpected delights: I stumbled on a quest series that was added in 8.1 that leads into the Crucible of Shadows and explains where that crown/trident/and other thing came from-- you basically power up an evil artifact (the shadow priest dagger from Legion) until it takes a human form, betrays you, and leaves you at the mercy of N'Zoth. Good times! Then there was Chromie!
I'll begin by saying Chromie was Legion content I was 'kinda aware of', but had never checked out since it was all the way in Wyrmrest. I wish I had done it years ago. Your own level and gear doesn't really matter. You are set to level 112 and ilevel 1000 for the duration of the scenario. I've always loved "time loop"-type time travel plots and this one is FUN. "The Many Deaths of Chromie" takes place in the near future-- you and Chromie witness her future-self dying. She knows this isn't supposed to be "her time", so you both travel back in time to prevent it. Problem is, she's only able to give you 15 minutes to stop 8 assassination attempts coming from all around the zone and from different periods in time. It isn't possible at all at first, but the quest is repeatable and you WILL repeat it lots. Each loop lets you earn reputation with Chromie, which eventually unlock more of her talents (like increased speed, more damage). Once you've "solved" one of the first four assassination attempts and exposed the boss, that boss remains exposed in future loops, greatly cutting down the amount of time required to complete. Each boss drops a shard that opens up portals to the other 4 events (like the Siege of Stratholme, the Well of Eternity, etc). I've been able to get four done in a single run, but the four portals are kicking my butt.
All in all, I'm getting ready for the eventual 8.2 release. I'm looking forward to flight, new content, and a great fishing quest that has you hunting down a couple dozen hidden fish that eventually awards the toy: Hyper-compressed ocean. So psyched!
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