BFA first quests and other stuff

Trying the new posture for orcs … i like it

I thought i’ll write a lot about the new events in 8.0 patch but i think other wrote enough about that, for short: i don’t like how Blizzard is writing the story, i know people are tired of the big bad threat but the alternative to the current story could be another big bad villain, Azshara give me hope that Blizzard will change the direction in 8.1 or 8.2 to focus on N’zoth and the void.

One change i’m really upset about is the Northern Barren music, every time i’m in the zone i hear new war music …. there is always Youtube but come on Blizzard, i always turn on music in the Barrens.

Factions reputation

Anyway, i’m waiting for new zones, leveling in a new place will be exciting, new story and exploring will never get old, meanwhile i’m trying to get exalted with many factions, try to get transmog items and enjoying Legacy mode a lot.

So far i managed to finish grinding reputation for few factions recently:

• 3 Classic faction, Gelkis and Magram Clans reputation are the easiest ones to get, all you need to do is talking with one NPC in Desolace.
• 4 burning Crusade factions
• 4 WoLK factions
• 6 Cataclysm factions, one remains.
• 1 Pandaria faction.

Exalted with 50 factions, in hope to get more soon, sometimes the rewards are worth it, i like collecting transmog items and tabards, but the problem with many tabards is locking them behind reputation grind for all your alts.

Other Stuff

• After two years of trying, at last i get Llothien Prowler, the fox looks nice.
• Highmountain Elderhorn, another paragon mount, i’m hoping to get one more before going into new content, no luck so far with the one i want most.
• Trying to finish Outland Loremaster, one good thing about Outland is unique weapons.
• I’m done with Isle of Giants except for Oondasta, i bought Bone White Primal Raptor.
• Getting Brilliant Direbeak needed sometimes and doing many quests, of all 4 bird mounts i only wanted this one, later i’ll grind for the other three.

That’s it for now, next post will have some screenshots, didn’t want to make this one too long 🙂

More Legacy mode

Bailey says hello!

I wrote about Legacy Mode before, and i’m still testing raids and dungeons to see how it works, and i have more notes.

LFR

Probably the best thing about Legacy Mode is old LFR raids, before Legacy Mode; soloing LFR (like Pandaria raids) give you little to no items, now it showers you with items.

To join LFR raids you need to talk with these NPCs:

• Auridormi, Dragon Soul, in Caverns of Time, Tanaris.
• Lorewalker Han, Pandaria raids, in Seat of Knowledge, Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
• Seer Kazal, Draenor raids, in your Garrison, i think you need level 3 garrison.

Gold

After wrathofkublakhan comment on the previous post, i thought i’ll keep a record of the gold earned from some bosses, i count the gold the boss drop + item prices, and i’ll just put the least amount of gold to the most i earned from each raid, if you tried this you may get different results.

• Ulduar: 70g to 139g
• Blackwing Descent, 25H: 124g to 212g
• Siege of Orgrimmar, Mythic: 119g to 206g

Difficulty

If you walked around Blizzard forums you’ll see few posts saying things like “you ruined the game!” or my favorite “WoW is dead!” because people don’t like change, many raid bosses take more seconds to kill, you can’t one shot them any more, but none of them is a threat, so it’s not a big deal.

Highest legacy raid is Mythic Siege of Orgrimmar, i was soloing SoO before 8.0 easily, and now i still can do that with my hunter, but it takes more time, so i recommend taking a friend or invite 1-3 players to join you, it’ll make things easier and faster.

Other notes

Legacy Mode Does not work in Draenor, Legacy mode should work in Draenor Dungeons and raids if you are level 110, but clearly Blizzard meant you should be 11 level higher than the instance, which means you should be level 111 for legacy mode to work in Draenor.

They changed the notes, it was 10 levels or more, now it’s 11 levels.

Also means: wait for another expansion for legacy mode to work on Legion raids and dungeons … or maybe Blizzard will change the rule one day.

Legacy mode is great! in 2 days i got so many items, it keep me going to raids and dungeons to farm them, before 8.0 i can go to most raids and i get nothing or i get rings and trinkets.

Sometimes a boss drop nothing, this could happen, a boss drop just gold, this happened to me twice now, not a big deal because drop rate of new items is higher than before in all raids and dungeons.

How many items each raid drop? that depend on the raid, here is quick numbers:

• Mogu’shan Vaults, LFR: 6 items each boss.
• Cataclysm dungeons: 2-3 items.
• Dragon Soul, LFR: 5
• Dragon Soul, 25 Heroic: 6-7
• Serpentshrine Cavern: 3
• Sunwell: 4
• Firelands, 25 Heroic: 6-9
• Siege of Orgrimmar, Mythic: 5-6

Trash mobs: in some raids they drop less loot or no gold or loot at all, this might be a bug.

I think that is more than enough testing, i hope it’s useful for someone 🙂

8.0 is here: Legacy Mode quick test

Before going into Deadmines .. with my gorilla friend Bailey

Update: changed the numbers, you should be 11 levels higher than the instance level.

So Battle For Azeroth is here, and it starts with a small step, it seems nothing changed in the game but a lot changed, some classes changed a lot, some content changed or removed.

Legacy Mode is the most important change for me, Blizzard changed loot rules in Legion which made old dungeons and raid bosses drop less loot, and only drop something usable by your class, so sometimes a boss will drop nothing but gold, this made transmog farmers unhappy.

Legacy mode solve this problem:

• It turn on if you enter a raid or a dungeon.
• You should be 10 11 level higher than the instant level, if the raid is level 70 you should be level 80 81 at least.
• In this mode bosses will drop random items but it’ll treat you like a group, so more items will drop.

How many items each boss drop? i made a quick test and this is the results.

Dungeons: i tried Deadmines, Stockade, Magisters Terrace, Utgarde Keep, all bosses drop 2 items.

Raids:

• Blackwing Lair: 3 to 5 items per boss.
• Sunwell: 4 items per boss.
• Icecrown Citadel 25 Heroic: 1 to 3 items, depend on the marks each boss drop, more marks means less items, Lich King dropped 3 marks + 2 items.
• Firelands 25 Heroic: 6 to 9 items, Firelands always drop many items, even before legacy Mode
• Firelands trash mobs: i noticed trash mobs drop less loot and much less gold.

This was quick test, you can get items made for other classes, for example my hunter got 1 axe and 2 swords, all of them with strength stats, means they are made for plate classes, so they will never drop for my hunter before Legacy mode, now i have them for transmog, BUT! … RNG still play role, sometimes you’ll get items for other classes and nothing to add for transmog.

 

Grinding In Karazhan: RIP

This should make me very upset but i’m not … i’m just disappointed Blizzard.

I just learned that people level up from 71 to 80 by grinding mobs in Karazhan, the raid not the dungeon, and i tested that and in one try i gained one level, my first reaction was: WTH … why i learned about this now! i wish i knew this trick months ago.

So i leveled my DK from 74 to 80 just grinding “trash mobs” in Karazhan, it took about 7 runs, i didn’t count, i wasn’t fun but at least it gave me a reason to keep leveling, at least i can reach Cataclysm and Pandaria and i can do questing there.

Honestly I can’t stand leveling alts, not anymore, so any trick to fast leveling is welcome, and now Blizzard will remove this in 8.0, when players find a way to play the game that Blizzard didn’t  expect, they usually nerf or stop this kind of play style, they want to control the experience and prevent any kind of “cheats” or unintended game play.

My excitement for allied races is almost dead, getting an allied race is easy, leveling one is tedious and it push me to play other MMOs.

SWTOR: First impression

When it comes to genres of video games, i always prefer fantasy or real-life settings, it’s hard for me to like any space or sci-fi games, so it’s a happy moment when i find a space game i like, and that’s what happened with SWTOR or Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I  don’t know much about Star Wars world, i watched the movies and like them all, but the world of SW is vast, there are many comic books, novels, TV shows and video games, i never touched any of them, so my knowledge is limited here.

This is the second time i try SWTOR and clearly my first time was not fair, i don’t think i gave the game more than 10 minutes then i uninstalled, but this time i gave it more than an hour and my first impressions is: this game is dangerous!

Let me explain; Battle for Azeroth is coming in few days, i don’t want any other game for at least a month, so why try another game now? but i did, i thought i’ll just test it, leave it for later.

But trying the game gave a taste of what SWTOR can provide, story driven MMO, more than WoW and other games, you live a story and your choices have different result, unlike many MMOs where your choice is irrelevant.

There is so much voice acting, the game need that, the combat is easy and not tedious, the basic game mechanics are familiar to anyone play few MMOs, the game feels like WoW but in space, and the game provide a new world to explore, that will be fun for few months.

The main problem i faced is the limited free-to-play, there are many things i can’t do because i’m not a subscriber, i can’t have a bank for example, bag space is limited but i can grind for it at least.

SWTOR convinced me to pay subscription (i haven’t done that yet),  yes i want to play it, i enjoyed it, and i thought this game could replace WoW for me one day, but not now, i’m going back to SWTOR and i’ll subscribe … someday.

Jubjub and the Westfall chicken

Two battle pets, both need a special way to catch them, if you don’t have them then here is a quick guide.

On alliance character, go to Westfall* and search for a chicken, then keep doing /chicken dance for it, repeat that while you feel embarrassed because other players are hearing you.

* some say any chicken from any alliance zone will do the same, i haven’t tried that.

Eventually the chicken will have a quest for you, buy Special Chicken Feed from Farmer Saldean, go back to the chicken and /cheer it, it’ll give you an egg, congrats … you have a Westfall chicken.

As for Jubjub the frog, you need to wait for Darkmoon Faire, you should have few Dark Iron Ale, 3-4 will do, you can find them for free in Blackrock Depths, basically use the mugs to put them on the ground and make Jubjub jump (repeat jujub jump 10 times fast!) toward Morja, last mug should be near her, she will give you an egg, it’ll take a week to hatch and you get a Jubling.

Blizzard: more stuff like that please, unusual ways to get pets, items or any thing .. i’ll do that even if the prize is silly grey item.

Cho, tell me a story

I still remember the mornings in my grandmother’s old house, always cold mornings, my grandmother will set in courtyard just before the sunrise, i wake up before the sun and join her, it was the 80s so there is not much to do, i was a shy kid and always preferred to be alone, playing with others wasn’t something i like to do much, beside; i’m the only kid who wake up at this time.

My mother will join us soon, there is coffee which i never touched and they never offered it to me, then we have a breakfast after the sun rise, never before it, days are slow and people are not in a hurry, it was always bread baked over charcoal with honey and cheese, the day start to warm up, it was always a beautiful day, or that’s what i remember.

My mother and grandmother will talk about everything, they tell stories after stories, and each story lead to another, usually tragic stories about real people, sometimes it’s gossip about women in the town! and there will be stories about witches, magic, jinn, ghouls, flying wizards and all kind of scary mythical creatures, they scared me with these stories yet i can’t have enough of them, even when i see nightmares in my sleep.

Stories always enchanted us, since the ancient times we gathered around, stayed awhile and listened, now people read and watch stories and in some games they can live the stories, but i feel that we should never forget the old ways, we should from time to time set and listen to storytellers.

In WoW my absolute favorite character is not a hero who sacrificed everything, he is a historian of sort, Cho Lorewalker.

Cho told us stories, i loved them first time i heard them, i loved them more every time i hear them again, from time to time i visit Cho to hear him again.

The Zandalari Prophecy

The Ballad of Liu Lang

The best story of them all: Hozen in the Mist

I wish Blizzard will keep him working as a historian for his people, so he travel outside Pandaria to collect stories and tell them.