No Worries, No Level Scaling

 Atherne is having the best time on Argus. Joking.

 

Somehow I thought I could whip through the quests there and get, as it turns out, A Light Forged Drenai or Void Elf, not a Dwarf. Oops. 

I really disliked Legion and did not pay attention to details.

As it turns out, Atherne is whipping through stuff, as everything is 45-47 and she's 57.

Even a truly awful dungeon, Seat of the Triumvirate, I've never been in before was easy for her.  A boss and ten adds?  Poof!

 

Even so it was a pain.   And now I'm to fight Antorus?  I should check, maybe she doesn't have to go in there.

My reputation is now only Honored with Argus so we'll be in Blizzard's version of Hell, before they came up with Shadowlands, for a bit longer.

I feel the need to stroll through TBC's Dustwallow Marsh to cleanse my palate.

Character Go Round

 I've been immersed in The Burning Crusade Classic server since June, and there's no slowing down there.  Only my husband has a character who has reached and gone through the Portal into Hellfire Peninsula.  He's level 61.

The rest of us are tooling along, with my own two highest being a Warlock and a Hunter, both at 46.

The game remains endlessly fascinating.  There is also this thing, for me, that because I didn't do these quests, and live in this world the first time through, I mean to prove myself, playing through all the characters and classes as the changes come to the world in the form of new expansions (I hope) so that I can see the classes evolve and get good at all of them. Always the goal.

The only things I keenly wish for from the present day game are more mailboxes and more flight paths.  Also, I really wish the Dwarven District in Stormwind had a bank, a mailbox and an auction house.  I think I read it doesn't get it till Cataclysm.  That's crazy.

Even so, I've popped into the Shadowlands era of the games a few times lately.  On Blackwater Raiders, I've begun moving people on to Ardenweald, but of course they need to pop into the Maw for a bit, then finish Maldraxxus.  Only my Monk so far had a tough time in the Maw.

Somehow, it occurred to me today that they had changed things so I could add a 13th character to my 12 on Blackwater Raiders.  Following my example on TBC, I made a new Hunter, a Kul Tiran, of course.

This girl is exciting not just because new characters are always fun, but because she gets to be the one who gets all of the Achievements, large and small, a character can get.  I'm going to have to keep her from over leveling  all of the starter area quests.  Must not take anything that would toss her forward to the fabled shores of Boralus.  Slow and steady wins the race.  It must be possible still to make your way through the whole world as you used to be able to do.  We shall see!

 

Shockingly, to me, I am now going to work on getting the other Allied Races.  I'm farthest along towards getting a Dark Iron Dwarf.  I had to get a quest from Khadgar in Dalaran to start the sequence.  Luckily, I did do much of the work towards the You Are Now Prepared achievement which will move me further along.

I never liked Argus, and am surprised I got this far.  Atherne, ever the lead on BWR is working on this achievement.  If I need help, I'm going to be in trouble, as the nearest character level wise who could help is 32.  

Atherne at Arrrgghhhhus

 

Design Remix

 Hi I'm just playing around with the design of the blog. Can't quite get it right.  Hang in there.

Maw Walkers

With all of the interesting things added in 9.1.5, in particular the new druid forms, I'm back dabbling in the Shadowlands.  I love the Ravens, specifically, and would not want the "moth" form, ever.  Here are the previews from Icy Veins.

As you'll recall, my Blackwater Raiders characters, all 12 of them, have been Konga-lining their way through the content.

In the past, I sent Atherne, my Feral Druid, ahead of everyone else.  Some characters eventually caught up, some got left way behind.

I had a thought of sending Atherne ahead again here, just to do the content. But no, with this group, this server, it's no character left behind.

Everyone finished Maldraxxus except for the part where they leap into the Maw, then they go browbeat Baron Vyraz.

I've now done three : Druid, Priest, Mage.  My Monk is the current girl, and she was doing great till she got to "The Brand". She's died twice.  Oof. Why such trouble?  It's his rumbling ground junk, I'm sure.

Here's the order in which they move forward:

Druid

Priest

Mage

Hunter

Rogue

Demon Hunter

Paladin

Warlock

Warrior

Death Knight

Druid

Priest

Mage

Monk

Nothing to See Here

 Just me again, thinking I'll make Google feel more secure if I only post from my laptop, and I should post more frequently, then it will all be good.  

Later on a brief dungeon report. The family did a dungeon last night, yes, that flavor favorite the Deadmines.  The last time we tried, we only had four people and two were under the level of the dungeon.

Last night, everyone was at or above level, so we made it past the Goblin Foundry (a snare last time) and all the way to the end after a couple of deaths to Greenskin (I think that's his name.)  

Har! Here's the (names redacted) picture of us with Van Cleef dead. Screenies or it never happened!

I'm in!

 Lots of warnings about critical suspicious activity, but really, Google it's just me.

Just to include a picture, here's my pal Antonio Perelli who wanders all the way from Lakeshire to Darkshire, allowing you to sell your loot.  It would be nice if he also had a few snacks.

My First Holy Priest Deadmines Run, TBC

 My family has not worked together at all, so my desire to run through the Deadmines with them has been thwarted.

Girding my virtual loins, I saw a group forming while in Westfall with another character, and asked if my level 20 Holy Priest could join.  Yes, indeed.

I'm so proud. I've never played a Holy Priest spec at all, only Discipline and Shadow.  I had her prepped with the best armor and potions I could send her in with. 

No wipes. No deaths.  It was smooth!  Onwards.

Retro Reads

 

I continue to play on the Burning Crusade Classic version of World of Warcraft.  It's just a more interesting game than anything I've played in a long time.  I often find myself thinking it's a better game than the modern version.

There I was this evening, reading blog entries from my sidebar, and I noticed Priest With A Cause talks on her sidebar about trawling through the archives.  So I time traveled back to 2009 where the blog began and was fascinated by the posts on the new Dungeon Finder which came in with Wrath of the Lich King.

Then I hopped over to a couple of other blogs and went back to their beginnings.  Tome of the Ancient ponders the incoming Cataclysm.  Blessing of Kings advocates for Paladins.  Parallel Context is completely For The Horde.  Not All Hunters considers his favorite things about the Hunter Class as well as its challenges. 

I'll be doing a lot more reading, but it seems as if many blogs began in the Wrath of the Lich King era.  Interesting.  Some blogs don't present their archives, which is a shame.  

I am of course most curious about the Classic and Burning Crusade eras, since that's the material we're working through.  All I have to do is read through blog rolls for inactive but archived blogs.  

 

Screenshot Saturday August 7, 2021

 I'm only playing TBC these days, so don't hope for any shots of my characters finally dropping into the Maw to finish Maldraxxus.  Not for a long while is my guess.

The Burning Crusade Classic is a freaking TREASURE CHEST.  There is treasure everywhere.  From the chests you find, to getting cool armor or weapon drops, or just sauntering along the coastline near Auberdine and finding crates of food or barrels of milk.

Fishing!  All of the fish themselves are fun, plus, when used in a recipe, their useful stats seem to double.  I love fishing in game.  There are those floating debris with goodies.

I'm moving my rogue forward and am working on Lockpicking.  I managed to get her to Lockpicking 90 at Alther's Mill. Then no more xp for it.  You can see she got bored.

While working on cooking for another character, I had to go to Silverwind Refuge near Astranaar for the Expert Cooking Book.  Bonus round!  The Water Elementals there drop Bubbling Water which gives 874 mana.  In stacks of 20, if you can believe it, instead of the torturous stacks of 5 everything else comes in.  Useable for Level 15. Perfect for Dungeon Runs, right? I've got four stacks :)

  Also as you see, there were Alchemy recipes, of the type that only appear sometimes.  I lurked and got them all.  Now I'm going to find all the juicy recipe locations and send my Feral Cat (Level 30, Not Atheren) around to get them.

 

The same cat came across a wandering Ghoul in Westfall, and he had a nice two handed sword  called Ghoulfang.

Spot the cat in travel form among the golden grasses of Westfall.

Only my spouse will know the reference as I tag this next picture "up pops the devil, hardy hi"!

Speaking of...we've been working in Stranglethorn.  We use open mic and while it's a good communication device for coordinating in game, if someone (not me) is crabby, shall we say, well things go awry.  That's him in the grass.

This has led us to work solo for a bit, and while I can take a level 38 Tigress with my level 34 Retribution Paladin, it's not workable.  I'll have to gain levels somewhere else.

I also found you can't outrun piles of crocs and panthers, nope, you're going down.

In any case, I'm pleased with my main Druid, and leave her to sleep somewhere nice whenever I can.

TBC Dreaming of the Dungeon Life

Good thing my family (except my spouse) doesn't read my stuff.   I'm trying to encourage everyone to get to level 18, and let me know what character they'd like to use for a dungeon run in that family favorite, The Dead Mines.  Then I can use my crafts and looted items I've saved back to help them be ready.  I love doing this stuff.

Hmmph.  My husband is cooperative but everyone else...

I created a sheet to look as much like the "paper doll" character sheet in game and asked everyone if they'd fill it out for me for their dungeon character.

 

Doods.  My spouse gave it back right away.  The others, zippo.   Maybe if I'd put their character pictures in the middle?

I've got a bad feeling about this.

A Pleasant Evening In Burning Crusade's Azeroth

 My Warlock is level 34 after this evening's adventures.  I keep reading about others who are "re-living the experience" of Classic and The Burning Crusade, but none of us ever experienced this game this way.

 

Everything is useful or it makes you precious silver when you sell it.

My Warlock has been trying to clear her quest log.

She finished up a quest in the Arathi Highlands at Northfold manner, but couldn't get to the Whitebark tribesmen for the next quest.

Somewhere recently I thought I saw that there was a ship to Theramore at Menethil Harbor.  I nver have checked to see where the other boat went because I was busy getting from here to there.

Not only did it go to Theramore, but I could do the quests there.  I do recall Theramore and Duskwallow Marsh from my early days.  I really like the place.

I also needed to get to Ratchet for two Warlock quests long in my quest log.  After checking the route (righto, just travel along the shoreline north from Theramore to Ratchet), I started riding along the shore.

It went well at first, then there were Defias 4 levels over my head, then Murlocs also over my head.  Since my husband swam all the way to Ratchet  (or someplace) from somewhere or other to get fishing training, I hopped in the water. How nice is the "Unending Breath" Warlocks have for just such an adventure?  It's actually 10 minutes, but is easily refresh-able.

By the time there was anything aggressive in the water, the mobs were much lower level than my girl.

All along the way, there were pools of Oily Blackmouth galore, and bits of fishing debris with Light Rumsey Rum and cases with treasure.  I got nearly 40 Oily Blackmouth, and advanced my fishing skills immensely.

It was so relaxing, with the ambient music, and the lapping of the waves.  I could have fished all night!

When I finally arrived in Ratchet, the two NPCs there with quests asked me to go to Ironforge for one, and a choice of Darkshore and Duskwood with the other.  Sheesh.

Baby's First Dungeon: Wailing Caverns

 

We're really enjoying The Burning Crusade, Classic.

It's more challenging and immersive than the current day game, which I haven't been playing at all.  I don't think any of us have.

We're kind of gliding along.  Leveling.  La la la.

Just need my son to level his tank and we can start dungeons.

However.  Who knew you can do a Who search by level on your server to see what classes are online that could fill your dungeon group?  (My son says he saw a streamer do it.)

That would explain how my Resto Druid in the making got a tell while finishing up her day to TANK the Wailing Caverns! I said no, she's Resto.  Actually offered my level 21 Warrior, but no taunt.  In retrospect should have offered my level 30 Ret Paladin.  Didn't occur to me.

Somehow, poor Atheren ended up tanking the Wailing Caverns for four hours.  We did finish.  Lots of deaths. All red armor.

The key was a super patient and super nice group of people with the Paladin who led us and healed us being an awesome leader.

Tanking As a Bear

I've ended up in pugs tanking with every class that could tank, over the years.  Can't hold aggro worth sheet.

In this case, holding aggro was, I felt, the only thing I could do well.  Except, there's a ten second cooldown between hitting mobs with your taunt, which means you have to wait it out while a group attacks.

Swipe is the only skill that looked like it did any damage.  She's level 19 going in, remember.  Swipe hardly ever pops up so there's Maul...

No skills, no prep to tank, in any way.  How did we make it through?

Even worse, I'm not the only unprepared one, I gave all my mana milk to the Paladin who had none.  So mana issues for him, quite a bit.  Wish I had Innervate!

Wish I'd been level 20 and had Rebirth!  Agh!

I've been working with my husband's Mage quite a bit lately, and the mana users love love love his endless supply of mana and foods.   I can see now why everyone wants a Mage in their group. 

The Hunter's Gun broke then he ran out of ammo.  Lesson: bring a spare weapon and an extra load of ammo.

Load up on potions and mana drinks!

I keep going over the whole thing in my head.  Obviously one of the things I'm doing is assessing what I could have done differently.  Start with saying no to Tanking with a character you haven't built as a tank!!!

Stuff happens, however, so just in case, have a go bag with all the things noted above, plus those Maple Seeds needed for Rebirth.

Beware of Druids of the Fang who are stuck in the ground.

 

In summation: No more tanking for Bear Atheren, soon to be Feral Cat Atheren, anyway.  Unless its a family group.  Our family, that is.

I'm thinking more requests could come for my unsuspecting characters just because most people are in the Outlands, except people with alts, or those returning to The Burning Crusade era that they really enjoyed.  Unless word gets around, lol lol lol.

I do feel bad for people trying to get groups together for the Classic dungeons.  Still.  Four hours in a Wailing Caverns that has little resemblance to the Wailing Caverns I've been through dozens of times.

Won't be getting over this soon.  Thanks for listening.

Are You Sure?

 Before the Internet went out this morning I managed to get Atheren into Burning Crusade Classic.  There are multiple confirmations that you want to play The Burning Crusade version, and I can't imagine anyone "accidentally choosing the wrong mode.

At login

 Choose Burning Crusade Classic above then confirm again here.

Confirm by Character (will need to do for each one) on Character Screen

Type in Your Character's Name in the box to give final confirmation you want this character in The Burning Crusade Classic.

Foolproof, Right?

The Check Is In The Mail...Oh, Wait!

 

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/very-extended-maintenance/968539

I want to say that I went through and checked every character's mail and collected it yesterday.  The whole "splitting of the versions" thing seemed way too dicey to leave anything in transit.  So. Wise.

An All New Plan, An Even Better Plan, Part 5

 So, everyone moves to The Burning Crusade era. Nobody is boosted.

Somehow (considerable whining and weaseling) I now have my bestie Mr Big in the game, and my sister and brother in law. 

Huge change to have people to play along with, and to craft for.  I'm in crafter's/gatherers heaven.   Backed by my spouse who never saw a node he didn't want to track down.

This is Paladin 2 with Mr. Big.    I'm making her a Protection Paladin to try out tanking and stanking from the bottom up.  I killed off my Priest and this girl got the spot.

Atheren finally did her Class level ten Druid Quest.  Not bad at all.

She's the captain of her own ship.

We've played a lot today.  Zoned. Out.  Have a good pre-patch day!

Just Another Day in the Barrow

 I've been trying for several days to finish the Relics of Awakening in Classic with Atheren.  Death death death.  Luckily there are lots of people playing this weekend and a few people were around.

One guy, fighting away randomly nearby all of a sudden says "Tribal Pants"?  I replied "Say What?"

Apparently these are a set of leggings I'm supposed to know from the name.  However, my ace Leatherworker made me the nice furry leggings with an armor value of 46 worn by Ath. So I asked if the Tribals were more than that and he said nothing.  Maybe they're super uber things...

Wait, nope, I didn't turn down anything that was too much.  Nice of him to offer, of course.

Nothing To See Here

 

Pop Goes The Weasel (aka Affliction Warlock)

 I'm never listening to anyone again saying you have to play your character this way.

Poof Affliction Talents

Welcome Destruction Talents

Die die die with ease all bad guys. That's what I'm talking about.

 

Atheren the Druid At Level 10

 Currently in Moonglade getting her first Druid quest.  I am not a fan of this sequence.  She'll be ready to go onward on the 18th.

 

My single character who was in a guild, I took out. There were three people online, but the leaders hadn't been on in a year, so they're obviously not getting ready for The Burning Crusade Classic version.  It is vaguely possible they are, but are doing all the talking in Discord, rather than logging in their characters to show everyone they plan to be active.

For a game version where everyone is so set on no changes from the original, doing all of the guild management and conversation outside the game seems, as always, contradictory.

My characters on Bloodsail aren't so bad off level wise, really.  If I'd played a single character instead of 10, we might imagine I'd have a 60.  Not my way.  Collect them all.

Warlock 30

Atheren Feral Druid 10

Paladin 27

Hunter 17

Druid 24

Rogue 13

Warrior 20

Mage 14

Druid 10

Priest 12

Just That Fast..June First, the Portal Opens!

 I'm glad I made the change with Atheren.  Going Burning Crusade all the way for my characters on Blacksail Buccaneers, yo ho.

Getting the Dark Portal Pass for Atheren.

https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/topic/58384-the-burning-crusade-classic-launches-on-june-1/

If You Think You Should Kill Off And Restart A Character At 2 Am, Do It

 I could be considering worse things in the middle of the night.  Ever since Burning Crusade Classic was announced, I've been thinking I should try to level my Classic characters.

Going back in and trying to re-learn it all, yikes.

Then I thought, kill off Hunter Atheren and make a new Atheren as a Feral Druid.  So easy, and it made me happy to play that character immediately.

They're ready to launch the Burning Crusade Classic version soon, it appears, as this big honker popped up at login.

I got Ath to level 3 in a trice, so if I work on her and re-learn the rules of Classic as I go, I should get her back to at least the level 15 she was as a Hunter.

Would almost like to kill off my Affliction Warlock, but I have to find a way to make her a Destruction Warlock so I can stand to play her.  Bleh. 

Fire Mage, incoming.

I think everyone else is ok.

We'll see how this works. If I can choose BC for all of my Classic characters even though they're not at max, I'll do it.  

Here. We. Go.

All Is Forgiven, Superman

 HATED him as Superman, grr grr!

LOVED him as The Witcher.

Total Redemption, though he's loved for the possible role of Arthas (Boo, Arthas, you vile rat),

Henry Cavill in an Alliance Mask is all that's needed to make this man a superhero in my book.

For the Alliance!

For Henry!

Death (Knight) Comes to Maldraxxus

 I don't think I'll write up each character's journey, but as long as I have notes about them I like, here they are.

Kat is my "main" Death Knight. As a  Worgen, she has a couple of skills I have other names for I always have wanted to share, but just didn't have the right spot.  At Atheren's Azeroth, all things are considered.

 

The DK ability "Death Grip" wherein you pull your enemy towards you as if they're on a rope is called

"Rope A Dope."   There you are.

Darkflight, which gives the character a little speed boost is called "Scooty Foot".  I really miss that ability on my non-Worgen Death Knights.

Kat was feeling "squishy" early on in Bastion.  The term squishy has been in my mind with various characters as I've played through.  Usually you hear the term in dungeons.  The Healer is telling the Tank they're squishy (cruddy armor, hard to heal) just before they leave the dungeon.

She made it through the Theater of Pain intro faster than any other character so far, and is having no troubles in fights, so her squishy days are over.  She's Frost, not Blood.  In the old days, I used to run my DK's as Blood through the world but switched to Frost in dungeons because I didn't want to tank.

Now I just work with Frost, no matter how they tweak it up and down.

This is the third character I've run from the Theater of Pain to Plague Watch.  Already I'm twitching at the doing the sequences in the House of the Chosen.  

 

I cannot stand the layout of the place.  It's possible I missed them, but there aren't what I call "amenities" here. No mailbox, flight point (it's nearby but not in the House), vendors, places to craft.  There's a Blacksmith supplier for repairs and selling junk.  As the first place you land, it could have more.

 

Once you're out of the House, it's all good.  The character can gather resources, kill beasties, look for fish!  Kat gathers minerals and herbs.  I've no Marrowroot Alchemy Recipes, but that spawns in Maldraxxus like mad.  Next most frequent is Nightshade. There's very little Death Bloom so far, which is used in everything.  I have to consider not sending a character here who is an herbalist if they can't find what's needed.

Kat found fish!!!!

Some Lost Sole Fish, a couple Elysian Thade, and the ever desirable Pocked Bonefish! At last.  Cooking advanced with her nice catch.

This green slimy water looks like all the green slimy water in the area, but never give up, never surrender.