WoW Journal - Day 3 (and 4)

Sunday I log on at 8 am. Most people are still in bed, only 41 Horde players on, highest is level 26. Only 30 ms of latency. The day starts well, I find the pattern for Gemmed Copper Gauntlets in my mail, from a guild mate. I make three pairs, wear one, and put the other two up on auction. Then I decide to head for the Barrens and do quests.

One quest has me collecting 15 centaur bracers, which means killing a lot more than 15 centaurs. And I remember something from beta: There is a Kolkar Booty Chest in a centaur village northwest of the crossroads. The chest respawns quickly, always has good loot for the level, but it is locked. And by killing centaurs there, one can find the key. This way I loot that quest four or five times. Only thing I can use is an 8-slot bag, I only have 6-slot bags up to now. The other green loot items I send to guildies.

In between Barrens quests, I always head back to Ogrimmar, selling loot, doing a bit of smithing, and putting smithed goods up on auction. My copper armor rarely sells. But I can make a magical copper axe with decent stats, and the thing sells like hotcakes. While I'm there, I also check what other people are selling. Surprise, surprise, the first blue item is in the AH, and it is a good 1h axe that would be just right for me. Bid at 75 silver, buyout at 1 gold 50. I just have 1 gold, but the timer is down to medium, so I place a 75 silver bid. Bingo! Two hours later I win the auction. The axe is called Serpent's Kiss, some people must be high enough for Wailing Caverns now, where it drops. While my smithed axes (I was using one) do 8.6 damage per second, the Serpent's Kiss does 13.4 dps, plus a proc that deals additional poison damage. A steal at that price.

More and more guild members come online, over 20 are online in the afternoon. I do one guild group for the quest to storm Northwatch Hold. First time my warrior is in a full group. It's working well. I'm using defensive stance all the time, so I can taunt. As reward I get a gun, so I spend 10 sp in Thunders Bluff to learn gun. Trolls normally have a racial bonus to thrown weapons, but the gun deals twice the damage than the best throwing axe I can buy. Forget about trollish tradition, I like shooting guns, even if I'm not a dwarf.

In the afternoon a census counts 498 Horde players, the highest being level 27. I'm doing more Barrens quests. The undead apothecary gives a series of two quests which are very easy, and the reward is a very nice staff. Good to know, but my blue axe is better. Anyway, I'm sticking to 1h weapon and shield. That is not only the best "tank" setup, it also allows me to use shield bash, a move that interrupts enemy spellcasting. Very useful. With all these quests I'm doing, I'm already level 17.

Late afternoon and more level 16 to 18 guild mates are online. Time for the first instanced dungeon: Ragefire Chasm. I show the others how to get the quest for the end bosses from Thrall in Ogrimmar. Name sounds familiar? That's the main character of the orc campaign in Warcraft 3, now a NPC chieftain of Ogrimmar. The others have quests for Ragefire that I don't have, we share, and end up with 4 quests to do.

In Ragefire I improve my strategy a bit, and sometimes chance between stances, so I can use the battle shout buff. The other group members are a warlock, two rogues, and a shaman, so funnily my battle shout is the only buff, not counting the totems. Having read up on warriors I knew that Tactical Mastery is the most important talent, and I already got 3 ranks in there, allowing me to keep 15 rage when changing from one stance to the other.

I die once in a tough combat against Taragaman the Hungerer, but the shaman rezzes me. We manage to kill one of the two end bosses, and do all the other quests, but can't find the other end boss. Looking around we notice that many mobs have already respawned. Then the shaman has to go afk because of Real Life calling him, and without a healer we promptly get wiped out. While waiting for him to come back, I find a map of Ragefire Chasm here. The second boss is behind a very dark, hard to see passage. When we are ready again, we fight our way there and kill him easy enough. Dungeon finished, except for the Lost Satchel quest, which we didn't get for some reason. Need to remember to get that one in Thunders Bluff. Good that there is a flight path there, otherwise it's a rather long trek.

After Ragefire I'm level 18. And I'm outleveling my armor, still wearing lots of copper stuff. I found tin in the Barrens, even some silver, but my blacksmithing skill isn't high enough, I can only make the very first bronze item, the boots. So I go to the AH and blow my money on copper bars and rough stones, the reasonably priced ones. That gets my blacksmithing skill up to 105. I can make the Big Bronze Knife now, should be another sales hit. I make one, put it in the AH and stop playing for the day. Watching TV with my wife is good too.

Day 4 of the journal will be skipped. This monday evening I'm going to play in my new D&D v3.5 campaign. Good old pen & paper role-playing.
- posted by Tobold @ 12:00 AM Permanent Link