WoW Journal - 13-Jun-2005

Apart from the PvP reported in the other article below, and some non-computer weekend activities like going swimming, and seeing Star Wars Episode 3, I spend a good number of hours playing my several characters.

Honey, the gnome warlock, leveled up to 30 by doing the last quests in Redridge Mountains, and by doing some quests in Stormwind. There is an ultra-long series of quests about treason in Stormwind, for which I had already picked up pieces in the Deadmines and the Stormwind Prison. In the end you need to kill a high-place traitor, and you are awarded an audience with the king. And you get a rather crappy ring as reward, so don't do the quest series for the reward, do it for the story.

My undead priest, Kyroc, now regularly teams up with a mage of the same level, played by my wife. We leveled up to level 18 this weekend together. Priest / mage is an okay combination, much firepower, some emergency healing, but no tanking ability. In the open space we rule, but quests that require us to enter confined spaces in buildings are difficult. My wife sitting right next to me when we play together, and us thus being able to use "voice chat", just without the software :), helps with coordination.

We quested in Silverpine Forest for the last couple of levels, and we will probably move from there to Tarren Mill in Hillsbrad. One level 20 quest led us to the gated wall that closed the access to the kingdom of Gilneas, but you can't pass that gate. But a quick look on the world map revealed that in fact there is a "zone" behind that wall. And there are other similar blank spaces on the world map, which are currently inaccessible. Interesting, it seems as if Blizzard could open up those zones later, adding more content to the game without adding a new continent.

But most time this weekend was spent playing my main (that's why he is called my "main" :) ), Raslebol the troll warrior. I reached level 58 this weekend, and I still see no end to his rest bonus xp. I finally finished the Sunken Temple, on the third try, with another pickup group. Me, a level 60 rogue, and a warrior, priest, and hunter of around level 51. A well played level 60 rogue is impressive, my DamageMeters addon indicated that the rogue did nearly half of all the damage of the whole group. The group was well organized, and we did the complete tour, first killing the 6 guys holding up the shield, then killing Jammal, Hakkar, and Eranikus. Third time lucky, this time we were able to kill Hakkar without ending his summoning prematurely, and I finished my last quest there. Not much luck with loot though, I would have liked the shield of Eranikus, but he didn't drop it. I ended up with only one green item, a half-decent 1h axe.

But on my previous Sunken Temple expedition I had gained a blue two-hand sword, and the quest reward for killing Hakkar was a blue dagger, both being quite good. So I spent some time skilling up 1h axe, dagger, and 2h sword, to be more versatile. The ideal place to skill up those weapon skills was the Hinterlands. With the last patch Blizzard had added more content to that zone, a Horde village on the coast, complete with flight path and a bunch of quests level 48 to 51. Green to me, but that way I could use my new weapons, and skill them up without too much risk.

Another zone I did this weekend was Azshara. The zone is big enough, and good for gathering herbs, but there aren't many quests there. There are still a couple of zones I have never visited, like the Plaguelands. So I still have the feeling that there is a lot left to do for Raslebol. I just wonder what happens when I hit level 60, whether I will still be motivated to do quests, or whether I'll more or less retire him and play the lower level characters. Will depend on my mood then, I'm not really making plans here.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:42 AM Permanent Link