Meandering Monday 3 16 26

 I've sent my first two characters onwards from Eversong Woods.

Harandar  

Atherne, my Druid main to Harandar so she can get the Allied Race option.   I kinda don't like Harandar as she's getting booted around.  Maybe tomorrow's class tweaks will help.  She was fine till she got to this jungle paradise.

It's an underground world area, but feels light and open.  It's also so far a very vertical place where nothing much is on the same level you are.   I might send my Paladin here to see if she also gets whomped.  I don't think this was a zone recommended for mining though, and she's my armorsmith/blacksmith.

Zul'Aman

My Brave Little Gnome Tailor is in Zul'Aman happily killing Twilight skinks and getting cloth.  I like the plot line and characters here.  I suspect the brother/second to the throne is plotting against his sister from what little I've seen.  I like her though, and Lady Liadrin is here too, and so far I like her a lot.  It's important to me I like the companions I spend time with.

Decided: I'm just going to send the Blacksmith and Leatherworker to Zul'Aman too and they can go to Harandar better prepared.

Eversong

Speaking of companions, Arator and Umbric, both of whom I had taken a dislike to in all the preview/opening scenarios, were good to work with.  Except Arator went a little cray cray at the end of the Eversong sequence. Was The Light leaking out of his body during the final fight at the Amani Pass?  He looked like he went bananas, frankly.

Screenshot Saturday 3 14 26

What's the first thing you do when Steady Flight for all is announced?  You pop your Death Knight who has Herbalism and Mining into the intro area. Without preparing at all!  Ignoring she hasn't done the reset on her talents!  Who is that stoopid?  Thanks for the "You will not die today" cheerleader lines, Arator!

 

 I can't blame even Talents Unset for not being to hit the broadside of a Voidborn Soarling.  At 2 of 16 for way too long!

 

I love fishing and plan this time around to fish my way to the top.  I love that these floating crates are in the new expansion.

 

Here's a Midnight Map.  I thought from what I'd read that you went just a little bit into Eversong Woods, maybe to Fairbreeze Village, then you could split off to the other zone of your choice.  It turns out you need to finish the Main Campaign in Eversong with at least one character, I think.  I'm close on all four of my first characters.  I'll have done all the quests here before they move on.  Arator's Journey turns out to be just over the mountain range at Light's Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands.  I'll save that for after Harandar and Zul'Aman.  Apparently the possibly icky Voidstorm can only be done once you're at 90 and have done all the other areas.  

Baby's First Midnight Delve  Shadow Enclave

Entering this delve is part of the Campaign.  It's thick with mobs, including sets as pictured below.  You kill the one that looks ghostly, then an elite mob pops up for you to fight.  My Warlock is turning out to be my powerhouse character so far, so she had no problem here.  There are tons of little floating eyes you can't do anything about who send a beam.

The new companion, Valeera Sanguinar, is more of a fighter than a healer, even when set to be one.  I miss Brann, who you know really cared about helping you (sniff).

Wow Flight Changes : I Believe I Can Fly (Once Again)

 

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/midnight-update-steady-flight-unleashed/2271396

I can't recall the last time that Blizzard did something that made me so happy!   No more careening through the skies, tapping buttons to stay aloft constantly, making crash landing after crash landing, hoping I didn't keep going at full speed into some mess of things.  There can be little doubt Skyriding is faster. If you're going a long distance it will get you there fast.

However, you've little control over where you land, and if you land in a bunch of mobs (and you do), you better hope you bounce out of them and can control your direction.  

How great to go where you want, land where you want, hover where you want.   Hugs hugs and more hugs to whoever made this possible. 

Meandering Monday 3 9 26

Button Eyes

How about them eyes?  You'll need to enlarge, but after all of the to-do about Liadrin's eyes in the initial Midnight cinematic, she ends up in the game with little button eyes.  She's the first of the "new" characters I've liked, so, give her decent peeps, eh?

Luma the Dog

Pretty early on out of Silvermoon City you meet a cute little pup.  Follow him a bit and he's yours!

Freako Flying Complaint #101

As has been usual, "Skyriding Flying" is available right away in the expansion and you have to do all the things everywhere to get what they call "Steady Flying".  If Skyriding is so great, why don't they give you the "steady boring " flight right away and hold off the ever desirable Skyriding till you've jumped through every hoop?  

Hearthsteel

Which should of course have been called Hearth Steal, since they are asking you to spend real money beyond your subscription, aka Cash Shop (Stuff) in game to lure you along.  The opening salvo was a bundle of plushies, then they got down and sold some pink leaved cherry trees for your garden.  Some scandal ensued on the trees, pricing, and number of trees in the pack for the price.

Neither of those things are of interest to me.  I've never purchased anything from the shop, and if I did, I guarantee you it would be both of these:

One Button Solves All

I thought since I've never mentioned the One Button Rotation Tool, I should say I haven't used it.  I'd rather not have something take control of what I do in combat, as it's more important to me that I stay alive than it is for someone's programmed idea of what I should do.

Add On's Removal

As I've never used an add on anywhere, this was no big thing to me when it was announced.  

Screenshot Saturday 3/7/26

 

All eight of my Midnight Runners made it to Silvermoon city yesterday.   Eight runs through the hellscape, 3 deaths.  

All were operator error.  The Paladin got cocky and took on The Dripping Shadow and it's many little shadowlettes alone.

The Warrior was caught in a swarm of wandering Void creatures while fighting a boss.  Same with my main Warlock.

My little gnome Warlock thought to evade notice so she did quite a bit of slinking through the shrubbery.  She was just about to slink past a busy group of Allied NPCs  and Devouring Host when they shouted out  "By the light, its (the champion) come to save us!"  She had to step in, didn't she?   This girl made it through virtually unscathed.

Once everyone made it to Silvermoon, my main Atherne, then the Rogue after her in line did all of the quests in Silvermoon City before heading out towards Fairbreeze Village.

Silvermoon is pretty, no doubt.

 

I particularly like the Murder Row area.

 

The Murder Row Dungeon itself, I'm not such a fan. It looks simple enough on the map but there is alot of trash to kill.  Too trashy? Yup.

 

However, that red area of the map above, that's the Horde area.  Grrr.   Twice my Rogue accidentally flew over it looking for a quest that was near its border.  The area just went on and on and the Rogue's health was almost down to nothing by the time I got out of range.

The city has multiple levels, stairs, balconies, towers.  Your quest is up, no it's down, it's up!  Crazy making to navigate.  It is such a relief to head out of the city to continue questing.

Six more to finish the city.  At least nobody should die. 

Midnight Begins

Good news, Midnight opens with a quest called Midnight, not the dread Meet Arator Ka’resh/Maw quest.  Whew.

It has you search for Liadrin’s (image) near wherever you might be, in my case Dornogal.  She’s a blazing image who asks you to come and help defend the Light and Silvermoon.

 

What follows is a rather epic battle sequence in Parhelion Plaza and its surrounds.    You join the forces of Light, including several familiar characters.   I'm only going to Silvermoon and stopping so I have no idea if you ever see them again here.   

 

 

 You’ve various tasks in addition to fighting through legions of the Devouring Host.

 

Fighting by your side is Arator, who was surprisingly useful as a fighter and healer for my Druid but not so much for my Rogue.   Happily nobody died, and that’s all that matters to me. 

 

Arator has daddy issues and no wonder.  His father Turalyon is yelling (literally) at Arator constantly.   Arator makes side comments about his father as you go along.   He didn’t bother me as he did in the Meet Arator sequence, though, and I can work with him. 

 

I think the sequence took me an hour or so, but it was all interesting and manageable.   I’m thinking all of the classes I’m bringing to Midnight will be able to hold their own here. Except.

I thought my Rogue could have trouble. I sent her second to test her mettle.  She didn’t get through the Twilight Highlands pre-patch event, but has a few pieces of gear dropped for others.   She had a harder time than my druid, but thanks to plenty of potions and her stealth, she did fine.

Also, in this opener, there are armor rewards galore that are item level 120, so she wasn’t  at a disadvantage for long. 

My plan is to send everyone through the opening sequence before I do anything else, then they’ll all move on together.   I like it so far.

Next up is my Paladin. 

 

Meandering Monday 3 2 26

 Oof, Google tried to lock me out of my teeny blog.  Hasn't happened for awhile.  Oh well, if I'm suddenly writing on The Last Chapter again, you'll know why.  Otherwise:

Midnight at 5 pm

Why isn't Midnight releasing at Midnight?  That seems like a simple marketing tool.  Who are these guys?

Meet Arator

The Dread Meet Arator Quest--I could only stand to do it on a few characters as it drags you first to Ka'resh, then The Maw.  Surely once the expac goes live later today they won't make anyone go through that first.  Gack.  That would kill the starter experience if anything would.

Umbric The Annoying

Umbric!  I do not want to hear his voice ever again.  Champion! Blah blah blah.   

Forum Rats

The comments on Arator match my feelings about him.  How old is this guy?  Some say a teen in elven years, some say he's a 40 year old guy.  

Apparently Follower Dungeons are required as part of the quest line somewhere.  Lots of complaints about the tank and how the NPCs pull every single mob.  I think they used to be better, but recently when I've been using them for my tailor, every mob gets killed and the Hunter in particular runs over and grabs extras.  The Healer is too busy hopping around like a rabbit to heal.  The AI could use some tweaking.

Here are some of this morning's topics.

Transmog

The one time "free" transmog is finally available.  I almost wasted it but saw the tiny print just in the nick.  I'm not ready to set everyone right quite yet.

Lovely Suramar

I saw a somewhat aerial view of Silvermoon City, and thought to take a screenshot or two of Suramar, that other large elven city.