First steps into Shadowlands

Here it is and it feels so weird, i mean to start again and to explore new lands, when i logged in and started the opening quest for Shadowlands i felt like BFA lasted forever, and i liked BFA, still i felt happy to put it behind me and go for the new content.

I didn’t stay up late at night to catch the start of Shadowlands, woke up early, made tea, did some work, read some articles, did more work then i played WoW, first thing i noticed was the empty Stormwind, no one there, i was prepared, my bags are empty, so is my quest log, started the quest line for Shadowlands, no need to tell you about it, you already know it or you going to see it soon.

The Maw was foreboding, heavy on the soul and a place so well designed to make you dread it, and we are going there again and again, the quest line here is well designed and i didn’t feel there is any unnecessary quests here.

Reaching Oribos was a relief, here is a beautiful circle city, it’s easy to explore and find everything, i spent some time here checking every vendor to see what they have, i found a fishing vendor selling a new fishing pole and baits.

Found trainers, learned Shadowlands professions, then went to Bastion, the zone is breathtakingly beautiful, i spent so much time looking at everything and taking screenshots, start doing the quests slowly.

I noticed that i didn’t use mounts so far, i ran every where and i didn’t feel the need to rush and use mounts, being a hunter helps since i run faster than other classes, but i felt it’s the right thing to do, just walk around and no need for mounts, i’m listening to the Pandas, i’m slowing down.

Early in the zone there is a rare that need activation first before fighting it, i saw many players take one look at it then go out without trying to solve the simple puzzle, just look around and click on stuff, i activated the mob, killed it, and i got from it a quest item that give more XP than the normal quests.

I also found a toy, exploring the zone and clicking on stuff, that’s all it took.

Anway, i’m not in a rush to finish the quests, i’ll take my time, so far i did just one part of Bastion quest line, spent some times fishing, mining and crafting, also doing the side quests, my main will do everything so my alts can skip some of it.

This is Gwyn (means white in Welsh and Cornish languages), first pet to tame in Shadowlands, but my main pet will always be Baily the gorilla.

Bring the day in WoW with this item

If you play WoW at night everyday then you only see Azeroth at night, it’s great if you like it this way, but if you are like me (don’t worry, there is a cure for that!) you like to play in the day, you like the sunshine and you want to see zones bright colors as they should be, what to do?

First play in the day if you can, or use this item: Sunwarmed Sand, sold by Otela in Cavern of Time, she also sell a toy that cost 1000 Timewarped Badges and do the same thing but with 24 hours cooldown … sigh … why Blizzard? why? i wonder who decide the cool down time on toys, because i want to ask them why for each toy.

Anyway Sunwarmed Sand turn the night into day, this is for example Boralus at night:

And this is the same place after using the sand:

It costs 10 Timewarped badges and it lasts for 2 hours, so i think it’s better to buy the sand instead of the toy with that silly cooldown time.

I didn’t know about this item until yesterday when noticed the vendor for the first time, anyway, that’s all 🙂

New level 50 destruction warlock

Finally i finished leveling first character in the new leveling experience, a gnome destruction warlock, i found the spec fun to play, my other warlock is affliction which i need to learn it again because i didn’t touch that alt for a long time.

For this character i chose Cataclysm for leveling which mean the old zones in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, it takes more time to level in these zones but that’s ok, i love these zones and they always feel nostalgic for me.

So what what do i think of the leveling system?

It’s fast, feels too fast at early levels and slows down a little in late levels, after leveling this character i started with another one, which is a good sign, in old leveling system i’ll feel sick of doing this again.

Having abilities at each level is fun, well not all levels but many of them, growing in power makes the game fun to play, more abilities means more things to do, and learning how to play the class quickly.

The freedom to go any where is great, in Timewalking leveling most zones are open for you, go to whatever zone you like, even if you choose an expansion you can go to other expansion zones and level there if you want, this freedom means leveling is more open and leas linear.

Gear and items from all expansions, i’m sure there are some players who want to have the best gear and now they can mix gear and items from different expansions, i just hope Blizzard will not find a way to restrict this.

This is not a mount, i searched the mount tab and didn’t find a horse like this … i need one

Class trainers have no role, this is not a new problem and probably most player don’t care about it, but i care, i think class trainers should have a role, some quests to gain some abilites, quests to earn special gear, quests for lore related to the class, some flavor, that’s all i’m asking for.

Dungeon queue is not working … for me, because i think most players are busy leveling in Daenor, i could not find one dungeon group and i waited for the dungeon finder for a long time, this is not a big deal honestly.

Crafting needs overhaul, the old crafting system is not working for the new leveling system, for example i’m leveling a warrior in Draenor, crafted blacksmith armor require level 36 at least, this just one example, BFA cooking food need level 45, crafted gear require the same level.

A new player will be forced to go to BFA zones for their first character at level 10, and they will see this crafting system that does not work for them in the next 35 levels, this need fixing.

There is a potential for the new leveling system, it needs more work to fix the little details and i’m not expecting Blizzard to fix everything at once, but with time they should fix them.

Into the Exile’s Reach

WoW Patch 9.0 changed the game in many ways, leveling now require less time and you can choose in which expansion to level, but choosing an expansion means just choosing the dungeons you want to do, as for zones; you can go any where, from level 10 to 50 you can quest a little in Don Morogh, then go Howling Fjord then Val’sharah, you have so many options.

The other major change is adding Exile’s Reach, the new starting zone for old races, allied races don’t get this option, this new zone is well designed, it’s basically a tutorial for new players, old players will not learn anything from it.

If the new player paid attention, they’ll learn major ideas from the quests, the NPCs and the interface tells them what to do, but there are other things they have to notice, like treasures, side quests, rare mobs, the zone have few of them.

Old players may want to try the zone to collect transmog, i did that on a mage, the set looks nice, the island provide weapons i talked about before, they look normal and boring which is great, there is a vendor who sell them, you can find this vendor in the major faction city:

Alliance: Quartermaster Richter
Horde: Provisinoner Jin’hake

I’m going to collect other armor type transmog from the zone, but all the sets are missing the boots as Wowhead reported.

Exile’s Reach quest line is short, focused and engaging, by the end of it there is a dungeon you can join many times, i tried and i got from the last boss 3 items:

I wish Blizzard make more dungeons like this, short and quick, another thing you get from the island is bags:

Tunk’s Trunk, drop from one of the dungeon bosses, 12 slots
Torgok’s Reagent Pouch, 6 slots
Tattered Leather Bag, 10 slots
Standard Issue Knapsack, 10 slots
Emptied First Aid Kit, 6 slots

After finishing with the dungeon you go to major city faction, there are quests that guide a new player to the mount vendor and riding trainer, they get a free mount, old players probably have this mount, they learn how to set a hearthstone, then start a quest line for BFA.

Old players can skip these quests and go to Chromie to choose leveling zones.

That’s it, now old starting zones look really old, i hope Blizzard update them one day.

Edit: I just checked, getting the transmog on one faction unlock it for both factions, but it looks different.

Centaurs as Allied Race

“Can i buy chocolate muffins in Crossroads?”

WoW players ask for more allied races, i see people suggest dryad, Harpy and even Furbolg, but i don’t see anyone suggest Centaurs, so i’m here to do just that, we need centaurs as allied race.

They have four legs, all other races have only two, four is more, more is better .. enough said.

A centaur is its own mount, they can run any where and even indoors, something other races can’t do, centaurs can carry other races if they want to, all raid teams will want half of the raid to be centaurs, just for the speed, for flying; a Centaur need to preform a ritual to turn into a pegasus … just imagine the glory and the terror of a flying centaur.

They have magnificent facial hair! no explanation needed.

A whole expansion could be about centaurs, they find a way to fly and they start a war against the horde (they live in Kalimdor, and the horde use centaurs hide in their cities!), one faction of centaurs are against that, they are the allied race … there i wrote an expansion story!

Suggested classes: Warrior, Hunter, Shaman, Druid, warlock.

I should point out that i’m joking about the whole thing, i’ll admit that i love the centaurs, that’s all, i just wanted an excuse to write about them 😅 i mean just look at them? their old model is so charming and they need updating, and when Blizzard do that i’ll miss the old model.

I do believe there is a need for unusual allied race, one which can’t show normal armor, some people want Naga, i want Centaurs.

In non-centaur news; there is WoW Humble Bundle, pay $18 or more and you’ll get so many books and comics, 16 days remain for the offer as i write these words.

And Happy pre-patch day 🙂

Pre-patch in 1 week

In less than a week we will play the pre-patch of Shadowland, for me this is more important than Shadowlands itself, mostly because i want to go back and level alts, it will be nice to focus on leveling alts without having to do that for 120 levels on each alt.

Also this means for me a chance to focus on the Horde side of collecting transmog from quests, some items are only available for one faction, if you did these quests then you can use the transmog on both factions.

The plan is to level enough alts and make them ready for Shadowlands, then go to Shadowlands with my main, finish the quest lines, explore the zones, then start with the alts who will probably skip the quest line and focus on leveling and crafting, i made list of alts and which Covenant they will join, the goal is to collect all the transmog for each type of armor, this may take a long time.

Anyway, that’s all, i’m excited for Shadowlands, in the first day of the pre-patch i’ll be in the barber shop to change how my character look 🙂

All the things, alts and mains

I tried another addon to help me get more addicted to collecting all the things, the addon is useful and it works by showing the player what they can collect from the zone, move to another zone and the list of things change.

While i’m in Twilight Highland i found that there are items drop from a mob called Julak-doom, a world boss! i never read about Cataclysm world bosses before, years of playing WoW and now i learn this? because they are so rare.

For Pandaria world bosses all you need is to be in the same zone and you’ll hear the boss says something to the whole zone, and Blizzard changed the spawn time to make them spawn every 15 minutes, also they made them last few seconds before getting annihilated so players can get a chance to tag them, why Blizzard didn’t do that with Cata bosses?

Again i find myself thinking about changing my main and not being able to do that because my main have most of the reputation, it’s irrational because reputations are shared in the achievements, but Shadowlands offer a chance to play many alts at almost same level, my main can do the quests and the story line while the alts focus on leveling and skip the quests, i’ll see how this works.

Also i’m thinking about healing or tanking.

The only thing that keeps me logging in to WoW now is Brewfest, the event makes me happy, this is what i love about MMOs and now most people stuck inside their houses these events are better, even when i run out of things to do in the fest i just listen to the happy wacky music:

Pre-patch should come soon because every thing i want to do depend on it, mostly leveling alts.

2 Transmog addons i use

I used these two addons for months now, both help with collecting transmog, the first one is mOnar’s WardrobeHelper, it gives you a window with a list of dungeons and raids and how many items left in each one that your character did not collect, this helped me to focus on some bosses instead of trying to clear the whole place.

Better Wardrobe, this one offer something i wish Blizzard did, a tab for all non-raid sets, like questing sets, dungeons sets and many many green sets you find in the world, mostly in classic zones.

Both addons give me something to do when i don’t know what do in the game, it’s not like i run out of things to do but sometimes mindless farming is the only thing i want to do.

The Loremaster

Last week spent in Northrend to get the Loremaster for it and the Loremaster title, i’ve done that at last, and i have the achievement, the title and the tabard.

Northrend is rich with lore but i could not enjoy most of it because i’m in a hurry, i wanted to finish all the quests before Shadowlands, but even if i slowed down i don’t think i’ll be able to read all the quests text, because there are so many of them, most of them tell me to collect this or kill these mobs so they are not that important.

Many of these quests require multiple steps, like find this item from killing mob, use the item on that object, and RNG means that you don’t get the item every time you kill a mob, sometimes i kill the whole place and still don’t get all the items i need.

Anyway, i liked Grizzly Hills and i think it deserve another alt who focus on the lore while questing there, i like The Storm Peaks and how much of it about the Titans and the Titan Keepers, both zones have lore about the dwarves which i loved and i wish to see more of it.

Anyway, now i feel lost because i don’t know what to do next, probably Horrific Visions and dailies.

Loremaster tabard, hard to make good transmog for it.

Soloing BFA dungeons, on normal

When BFA started i was tired of dungeons and raids, in Legion i did a lot of them and i thought i’ve had enough, still i want to see the dungeons themselves and doing that in a group will not give me a chance to do that, i need to do that solo, so i did, it was easy, having a high level gear and being a hunter makes soloing BFA dungeon too easy.

I tried heroic dungeons and i could not do them, i need at least a healer, i’ll leave them to Shadowlands, i loved the Underrot, i’m sure i’ll have to go there again to collect transmog, also The MOTHERLODE is beautiful, but it reminds me that we are not going back to Kezan, when a WoW developer said we are going back to Kezan i was happy, but i thought it’ll be a zone not a dungeon.

And here is some screenshots