In the Desert Again

I started off by heading back out into the desert to whack things to push for level 42 - Kate was ahead of me by something like seventeen thousand points but the basilisks, scorpids, rocs and so on were all level 41 and up so there was plenty of XP, and combined with the rest bonus to double the points for a while it didn't take long to hit 42.

As soon as I got the level I rode back to Gadgetzan and made my way to Stormwind by way of Ratchet and Booty Bay. I could have gone to Ironforge (via Theramore and Menthil Harbour) which might have been quicker but I wanted to go to the cheese shop in Stormwind to get the Alterac Cheese we need for the Clamlette Surprise quest, which will give us the next level in our cooking skill.

In Stormwind I got my level 42 training and took care of some quick business in the bank and the auction house... and completely forgot to visit the cheese shop before heading back. Damn.

Back in Tanaris we didn't really go after any quests, although we both made a point of knocking down rocs for the giant eggs they drop - another ingredient for the Clamlette Surprise. When we'd done these quests as Draenei it had looked like there weren't enough rocs around to supply all the eggs we needed, so we'd gone to the Hinterlands to gather them from owlkins. As it happens there are plenty of rocs in Tanaris; they're just deeper in the desert than we'd looked before. This time Kate got almost all the eggs she needs and I have more than half of my own quota.

Other than that we just took the time to explore as much of the region as we could while whacking away for points. Incidentally the Necropolis that had been within sight of Gadgetzan had moved further south into the deep desert. We need to keep watching it; with a bit of luck we may be able to get our levels up to where we can take on the Scourge and have a chance of winning a few, while the Necropoli are still around.

In the Desert

The Necropolis that was hovering over the desert in sight of Gadgetzan was still there, and still apparently sending various kinds of high-level Undead to the staging area a little way to the west. That hampers us a little bit because we daren't go near those areas.

All the same we have plenty of quests to be getting on with that are much further out in the desert, and so we started yesterday by heading east out of Gadgetzan to take on thieves and bandits, and to whack Caliph Scorpidsting. We both dealt with the required number of baddies and Kate ran into Scorpidsting pretty much accidentally. He's level 46 and in this case had several helpers around him, but I was in range to keep Kate healed and she was able to take him down. When I'd finished with bandits and thieves we hung around the area to the south that appears to be the place Scorpidsting starts from, but after a while he still hadn't showed up so we went back to Gadgetzan to close out what we'd got so far and get repairs done.

For round 2 we had to knock down shadow mages, rogues and assassins in the same area, so after taking care of a few of those I wandered up the trail in search of Scorpidsting. I found him, and better still he was all alone, but Kate got into trouble with one particular assassin who seems to be stronger that her level would suggest, and I was about to leave Scorpidsting to go and help when his wandering brought him just a shade too close and he ran at me, so I had no choice. As I mentioned, he's level 46 - five levels above me. However he wasn't as tough as I thought he might be and I was able to beat him down.

We were pretty much out of time by then so we went back to Gadgetzan to close out quests and pack it in for the night.

Berserker

We made our way out to Ratchet and part walked, part swam to Fray Island, the place where Kate was to meet a guy called Macleod as part of the Warrior-only quest chain she needed to complete for her Berserker fighting stance.

I joined the spectators on the bench, which turned out to be a mistake; Kate stepped onto a grating, which was the signal to start fighting with other warriors as part of a test - and the first fighter targeted me instead of Kate. I guess I was the closest 'enemy'. I ran to a safe distance without retaliating so that Kate could tag the fighter and get his attention, and from there it all went smoothly - Kate knocked down five or six fighters, one at a time, then finally out came 'Big Will' and while from where I was standing at least, he seemed tougher than the other fighters he still wasn't in Kate's league - I think these guys were all about level 27 compared to Kate's 41. Kate got her Berserker stance from Macleod and we went back to Ratchet.

The original plan had been to head out somewhere, probably the Hinterlands, and do some questing but we didn't have time for that; the backup plan was to go to Auberdine and run out to Astranaar and Forest Song to fill in the map and get the flightpaths, but we were too short on time to do that either.

Instead we rode out west into the Barrens then south to the Great Lift (with short side-trips on the way to explore a little, gather herbs and mine ore). The lift took us down into Thousand Needles and we rode southeast toward the Shimmering Flats.

On the way we passed Freewind Post and unfortunately got noticed by the guards, who are level 45. They were tough but at our level 41 they weren't beyond us, and pretty soon we were back on our horses.

At the Shimmering Flats we went mostly south, heading for the pass into Tanaris, but we did go a little further east to get Mirage Raceway on the map, then found the pass, crossed into Tanaris and stopped at our target destination of Gadgetzan.

There was a Necropolis hovering over the desert just south of Gadgetzan, and it appeared to be flinging out crystal totems of some kind that stick in the sand; around these totems we noticed a number of high-level Scourge enemies (at least level 52) and I suspect the totem is the centre of one of the Scourge staging areas that the Argent Dawn people mentioned. I was hoping to be able to take on some Scourge, but that's way too high level for me or Kate.

It was already past time to pack it in so we went back to the inn in Gadgetzan for the night. We've taken on all the quests available from the questgivers in Gadgetzan and I think our plan will be to stick around this area for a while and clear some of those up. We're still quite a way from level 42 but I think some questing in the desert will get us there fairly quickly regardless.

Zombies and Stromgarde

No More Zombies

The plague is gone, but it's left a few traces: there are zombie remains lying around here and there; the Necropoli are still hovering over the cities and mucking up the weather; and the Argent Dawn people are still in the cities.

Just out of interest I talked with a couple of them, and found that in addition to handing out some really useful freebies (three charms that added 14 points to Stamina for an hour), they have a wealth of information about what's happening with the Scourge. I didn't have time to find out much but one nugget is that the Scourge are setting up staging areas directly under the Necropoli, and that's worth knowing since that places the staging areas very near the entrances to Stormwind, Ironforge and the Exodar (and presumably Darnassus and the Horde cities, too). This is something that's likely to affect us directly, so I think it's important to know as much as possible about what else the Scourge is up to.

Also, this may lead to quests and fighting the Scourge on behalf of the Argent Dawn, and that could get our reputation with them way up - which would be very good because that's likely to allow us to push our First Aid skills up (the Argent Dawn have a First Aid training book, but if I remember correctly you have to have a good rep with them before they'll let you buy it).

So one plan I have for today is to spend a few minutes to find out as much from them as I can.

Stromgarde

We had four open quests, three of them in Stromgarde Keep and the fourth in a cave behind the ogre camp to the east, so we flew out to Refuge Pointe and moseyed on over to the Keep, doing a little mining and herb-picking on the way. Kate spent a little time exploring Faldir's Cove to the south of the Keep, then we moved around to the north side and went in.

The Keep is a ruin but there are two camps inside - an Alliance outpost on the west side (this is the place where Deneb Walker sells First Aid books) and an enemy outpost on the east side.

We went east - we needed Stromgarde badges from the baddies, and we had to take down three boss bad guys. None of it took very long, and we moved on east to the ogre camp where we were able to liberate a stolen wand from a boss ogre at the back of the cave.

That was all four quests done and we made our way back to Refuge Pointe to close them out; between the XP from the fighting and the big XP from the quests we both hit level 41. One of the quests leads to another in the chain, meaning that we still have one quest left in this area; we'll have to decide whether we want to bother but my own feeling is that we should do it then move back to the Hinterlands.

We do have one other important matter to take care of, and that is that Kate has a Warrior-only quest she needs to do over in Ratchet so that she can get her Berserker fighting stance. This is important enough that we should do this before anything else. Since we still have open quests in Dustwallow, not far from Ratchet, we'll probably take care of those before coming back to the Eastern Kingdoms.

Plague

On the 'normal' gaming front: we hit level 40 over the weekend, mostly by whacking wolves and owlkins in the Hinterlands, and we also closed out some quests in Stranglethorn Vale. With level 40 we've been able to switch some of our armour to Plate, which of course has been a great help.

Also, since I've been neglecting my fishing skill so that it was abysmally low on skill points, I took a break from questing to go fishing. In just a couple of hours I visited Crystal Lake and Stone Cairn Lake in Elwynn Forest, moved to Lake Everstill in the Redridge Mountains, spent a little while in the Forlorn Cavern in Ironforge, then flew up to Southshore in the Hillsbrad Foothills and by the time I'd finished there I'd pushed my skill level up from 5 to around 140. I'd also managed to catch around seventeen Oily Blackmouths and a handful of Firefin Snappers - Kate needs these for her Alchemy.

However it's not been at all easy. Things have been made very difficult by the Zombie Plague.

It started around Friday night; we first saw it in Mudsprocket, where some of the NPCs were infected. Suspicious looking crates, giving off iridescent green fumes, appeared in Ironforge and there were also roaches - again, giving off green fumes - here and there around the city. Anyone opening one of the crates or killing a roach contracted the infection.

Once infected you have a few minutes at most to find a cure; the cities have Argent Healers around and all you have to do is stand in their light, and also as a Paladin I'm able to cure the infection, but it doesn't always work - sometimes I have to try five or six times and even then it isn't guaranteed.

If you don't get the cure in time, you die and then come back as a zombie. In this state you're immediately marked as a hostile so any NPCs nearby, such as Ironforge Guards, will attack you - and when they do, they get infected too. Since the guards and many of the other NPCs are usually pretty high level, when they turn they're damned hard to kill and they attack anything around them, spreading the infection.

Luckily the zombies have a limited lifespan, if you can call it that - maybe five minutes, then they die properly.

Very soon the infection spread to the other cities and many of the towns. Stormwind became a no-go area, and Goldshire - being on the major road route out of Stormwind - was bad too. Southshore, for some reason, was badly hit. Other towns in more remote areas aren't so bad - Gadgetzan didn't appear to have been hit too badly, for example, and neither was Aerie Peak when we were there.

There are also... things... floating above the capital cities. Huge pyramids of dark stone or metal, dripping green infection from skull mouths on their sides. The first one we saw was above the Gates of Ironforge, then one showed up over Stormwind, and then there was another one over the Exodar. There's probably one over Darnassus by now and I suspect the Horde capitals have their own. Nobody seems to know what they are or where they came from, although it's certain they have something to do with the plague.

By yesterday evening Stormwind appeared to have hit critical mass - the NPCs going zombie, infecting the other NPCs and so on, dying and respawning to get infected again in an endless self-sustaining spiral. I don't know how long it'll be before Ironforge goes the same way - it may already have happened.

It's part of the game's storyline and a lead-in to the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion that's coming out in a couple of weeks. As such I can live with it, and I could probably get used to it until it ends - presumably the infected crates will be cleared away and things will return to somewhat normal.

What I won't put up with, though, is the infantile, schoolyard bully behaviour of some of the players. Using the argument that "it's part of the game", these inconsiderate pricks are going into populated areas and deliberately getting themselves infected, then deliberately avoiding getting cured - to the point of getting abusive with other players who try to cure them. When they turn zombie they infect as many NPCs and other players as they can manage, specifically targeting the auction houses, the banks and the inns.

I've heard that some of these juvenile bastards are carrying the infection into the starting zones, picking on low level characters who aren't able to defend themselves and who in many cases are new players. If the forums are anything to go by, players who've just paid money to sign up are coming into the game for the very first time, only to be killed and turned zombie within minutes, and they have no idea what's going on or that this is not normal for the game. That's a great first impression.

It's basically because of these stupid, childish, destructive assholes - the kind of dumbfucks that get into the whole game atmosphere by picking character names like "Wazzuuup" or "HordeKilla", and whose idea of fun is to wreck things with no thought for other people, that it's virtually impossible to actually accept the plague as part of the game and play as if it were a crisis for players to deal with together - which might actually be fun.

Instead, it's the ultimate Player-vs-Player setup, with the players that want to actually play the game in a struggle against the halfwits that play just to spoil things for everyone else and call it 'fun'. Stormwind is basically cratered; it's not safe to hit the auction house or the bank, or get essential class or profession training, or simply go to a vendor to clear junk out of your pack. Half the time you have to think twice before even going into an inn to get out of the game while getting the rest bonus.

I'm reading in the forums about people setting up vigilante-style groups to go into the cities and cure anyone they see infected, and kill every zombie they can find. If I was high-enough level I'd be tempted to join them, but at the end of the day it shouldn't be necessary just because of a minority (I hope) of destructive kiddies.

In fact I'd wholeheartedly support Blizzard setting up a new class of game realm just for that style of gameplay; in addition to Normal/PvE, PvP and RolePlaying realms they could have Asshole realms where people can and should pick the most stupid names they can think of and where everything in the game world can be destroyed by the players, right down to reducing the cities to rubble. Maybe then these dopey cunts would be happy.

It's a game. It's supposed to be fun, but right now it isn't as much fun as it was and should be. That's sad, and I hope it isn't going on much longer.

Update: CURED

I just read a headline saying that the plague should have been cured, just within the last couple of hours. Apparently there will be some remnants of this episode, including the Necropoli - which I'm guessing are those dark pyramids floating above the major cities.

I'll be glad to see the back of this but when all's said and done it's a bit of a shame, really; it was a chance for the players to show a little communal effort in helping each other. Instead it became a showcase of how a minority of immature assholes who probably destroyed their toys when they were little kids can, given a little freedom, ruin something that should have been fun for everyone. Shame on you, you little snotnoses. People like you don't deserve fun; you don't know the meaning of the word.

Tauren and Raptors

Kate had done a couple of quests that I hadn't, so while she was busy taking care of bank and auction house business I did them to catch up.

The first was to see Captain Darril at North Point to close out a quest, and I got two more quests - one to collect Blackhoof Armaments from the village to the northeast, the other to find their battle plans. I went ahead and did the first quest, since Kate had already done it - a simple matter of gathering the armaments, knocking down any Blackhoof tauren that got in the way. The battle plans are in the form of four notes that you have to pick up from the Blackhoof Elders, and I got one of the notes in the process.

North Point was on the way to the next quest - to pick up wyrmtail stalks from the area south of Mudsprocket - so I dropped in to say Hi to Captain Darril and hand over the armaments.

Finding the wyrmtail stalks was easy - there are plenty around and I only needed eight - but it seemed like every one I went near meant getting a bit too close to either a crocolisk or a dragon whelp, so there was quite a bit of fighting involved. All the same it didn't take long and I went back to Mudsprocket to close out, get repairs and wait for Kate.

We didn't have a lot of time left so we went after two quests just west of Mudsprocket - to gather five Bloodfen Raptor feathers, and knock over Goreclaw the Ravenous. Neither took very long - about half of the raptors drop feathers so that part was quite easy; Goreclaw is pretty huge compared to the other raptors nearby but despite that he's the same level and no harder to take out.

During the fighting with the crocolisks and dragon whelps I'd picked up a couple of green items worth auctioning, and one of the quest rewards was some plate mail armour that I wanted to keep (I can't use it until I hit level 40), so I made a quick trip to Ironforge so I could hit the auction house and drop the plate armour in the bank. When that was done I was out of time - rather than head back to Dustwallow I stayed in Ironforge for the night.

I don't think we have many more quests to finish around Dustwallow and I think after we're done there we may see about moving on to the Hinterlands.

Levelling in Dustwallow Marsh

Starting out from Ratchet we rode south down the coast so that we could hand Razorspine's sword that we'd picked up the day before over to Jarl. That cleared out that quest and completed the chain.

We spent most of the rest of the time finishing up quests in that region - finding a deserter camp, knocking down Grimtotem tauren, testing a captured totem against crocs, gathering venom from spiders and screechers, finding cargo and busting animated slimes around the gnome zeppelin crash site; the XP from all this was enough to get me level 38 and Kate very close to it.

With time running out we continued a bit further south to Mudsprocket to close out one other quest (to see a particular goblin) and while there we picked up three more quests in that area before opening the flightpath and heading back to Theramore.

My packs were almost full with junk I needed to shift, and as I'd hit level 38 and needed Paladin training, I made my way back to Ironforge for that and to make some pack space and get repairs before returning to Theramore.

Kate continued on after I checked into the inn, since she was so close to getting level 38 and was able to get that by whacking a few more of the ghosts and ghouls in the area around Swamplight Manor.

We still have a handful more quests in Dustwallow; I'm hoping we can have another productive session like this one next time - maybe we can close out most or all of the remaining quests and hit level 39 while we're at it. The plan I mentioned yesterday to go to the Arathi Basin battleground has been postponed for the time being, in favour of getting levels. It remains to be seen when we'll get to that, but if we hit level 40 any time soon I'll probably defer it until we get up into the high 40s.

Swords and Bandages

We started way too late to do very much, but we did make some progress. We've gained a few levels since we got the Archeus swords back at Raven Hill (I'd hit level 37 the previous day), so while I was waiting on Kate I spent a few minutes in the auction house looking to see if there were any swords that were better. I found one that does 30.0 DPS with a chance of up to 114 extra damage, compared to 23.9 DPS and a chance of 85 Arcane damage for Archeus. I bought it, equipped it and compared the stats, and it was a beauty so I went back to the auction house and got one for Kate.

Kate needed to get out to Theramore for the Triage quest to push her first-aid skill up a notch, so off we went. The Triage quest is tricky but we've both done it before and I think we've got it down to a fine art; we got it on about the third attempt this time.

We were technically out of time at that point but we decided to do one other quick thing before packing it in; we needed to get Razorspine's Sword (Razorspine being a relatively high-level murloc to be found on the coast north of Theramore) so we decided to take a quick run up the beach, knock over Razorspine, grab the sword then continue north to Ratchet on the Barrens coast to open up the flightpath there.

And it was pretty much that simple. We had a few detours along the way for Kate to collect herbs and for me to mine some copper and tin, and when we got to Ratchet we hit the forge for repairs, and so that I could smelt the copper and tin I'd picked up and do a little jewelcrafting, and made a quick trip to the bank there so I could make a bit of space in my packs, and last but not least opened the flightpath. With that all done we settled in the inn in Ratchet for the night.

We're not sure just yet which way we'll go next; we have open quests in Wetlands, Arathi, Dustwallow Marsh and maybe Hillsbrad (and in fact, I think that's the order we should do them too), but we also need to make a decision about hitting the Arathi Basin battleground (incidentally I did a little more research to answer the big question I mentioned yesterday, and as far as I can tell it's not possible for an enemy player to loot stuff from us if we get wiped).

Here's the deal with the battleground: players go into an instance, bracketed by level (20-29, 30-39, etc.). I'm level 37, Kate's 36; if we hold off until Kate hits 38 - by which time I should be 38 or 39 - we'll be at the top end of the 30-39 bracket and that may give us a better chance. If we hold off until level 40 we'll be at the bottom end of the next higher bracket, and that probably isn't such a good thing. So what I'm going to suggest to Kate is that we continue questing until she hits 38 then go for the battleground right then. I'm curious about the battlegrounds, and I want to get some of the Honour points and be able to buy some of the stuff that goes with them. So basically, although I'm apprehensive about going up against enemies with real, human players behind them, I'm still determined to get in there and have a go.

A Level Every Two Days...?

Battleground

Kate wanted to check out some of the inns we haven't been to recently to try to pick up Hallowe'en candy and so we did a little tour, ending up at Thelsamar. On the off chance that there'd be more at Refuge Pointe we rode north from there, but there was nothing. From there we went west and got to Southshore, where Kate was able to close out a quest and we were both able to get a bunch of the candy (it's really useful - lots of boosts to Stamina, Defence Rating and so on).

We flew back to Refuge Pointe with the intention of taking on some quests in that area and while we were there we decided that we want to have a go at taking on the Arathi Basin battleground. Not wanting to just jump straight in unprepared, I spent a little time to research what we'd be expected to do and so on. It's basically a CTF setup - there are five resource nodes to capture and defend and each team gets points per second as long as they can keep control of one or more nodes. The more nodes you control, the faster the points pour in. The first team to collect 2000 points wins.

I think it would be interesting; even if we lose we still get Honour points just for taking part. Kate wants us to go in paired - not the best strategy from a battle standpoint but at least we might be able to capture and defend one of the flags and keep each other alive long enough to see it through. One thing I haven't been able to find out for sure is exactly how long a battle is likely to take; the best I can figure is that it could take anything from about half an hour to maybe a couple of hours. The only way to know for sure is to just get in and do it.

There is one big, big question I want a definitive answer to, before we go into any battleground: Can the enemy loot your body if you're killed? The last thing Kate and I want is to lose an important weapon, piece of armour, money, whatever. If necessary I'll strip one of my other characters down to soulbound items only, and put all his cash in the bank, and take that character in to find out risk-free.

Levels

Our human Warrior/Paladin pair are only seven or eight levels behind the draenei equivalents and are doing so well that I'm fairly determined to continue pressing forward. I have a sort-of goal in mind to get the humans up to the same levels as the draenei and beyond, and to do that I'd like to be pushing through high-level quests in high-level areas to average a level every two days for the next two or three weeks. I was originally thinking a level a day but I really don't think that's possible - each level needs more XP to get to as you progress so that while a new level 1 character can get to level 10 in a couple of hours, that slows way down as you go higher. I think that if we keep pushing hard we might even make level 50 in time for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, but if we can get to level 45 I'll be happy - not least because at level 44 (or maybe 42 - I don't remember) I should get the incredibly useful Hammer of Wrath spell.

Actually, Hammer of Wrath isn't so terribly important since the 3.0.2 patch made changes to the Paladin system of Seal and Justice spells. I've heard that a lot of Paladins consider that the changes weakened them but for myself I've had very few problems - at least once I understood how the new system works - and if anything it's made things easier. Hammer of Wrath is great for stopping baddies running away to get help when their health gets low and the way things were before that was handy because using my usual combo (Seal of Light, Justice, Seal of Command) I would have to use a Hammer of Justice stun to stop someone running, and if it was on cooldown I had the choice of chasing them and risking running into more baddies, or letting them go and risking them coming back with reinforcements. With Hammer of Wrath I could whack them with 300+ damage if they tried to run and in most cases that's a finisher.

With the new system I can get the same effect as the old three-spell combo with just two spells, and if they try to run I can use one of the new Justice spells to stop them. That's not to say that Hammer of Wrath won't be useful - it will be, and more so as we get into those higher level areas.

Welcome to Theramore

Morbent Fel Down Go Boom

We started off by clearing up one last quest in Duskwood - to take down Morbent Fel. We both had the quest to do, so after arriving at the house on the hill at Forlorn Rowe we grouped up. To get Morbent Fel you have to use Morbent's Bane, a special wand, to dispel his protective enchantments; the bane is an off-hand weapon so we couldn't use it while wielding our two-handed swords, and we had to set things up so that we could switch weapons quickly.

Fel wasn't around when we arrived - someone must have been there just before us. When he reappeared it went pretty easy, although it would have been easier if we hadn't been hampered by another player who arrived after us but was obviously intent on tagging Fel first. It didn't work for him; we got the tag and took Fel out. We had to fight our way out past some ghouls that had appeared in and around the house, but once we were clear it was a quick run back to Sven Yorgen to close out.

Theramore

We crossed the river to Sentinel Hill, flew to Menethil and took the boat to Theramore, and we spent the rest of the time whacking through a bunch of quests: in Theramore itself getting Thresher Oil for the lighthouse, exposing traitors, taking propaganda papers and distributing them after they'd been modified by an SI:7 agent, taking down the boss traitor in the boat moored offshore; then outside Theramore knocking down huge turtles, getting secret Defias orders, tracking down a missing diplomat, investigating the burned-down Shady Rest inn near the border with the Barrens, gathering frog legs, whacking ghosts, collecting herbs and summoning and dispatching Zelfrax (the level 36 demon that our Draenei characters had taken care of quite some time ago).

That was some serious questing and it was enough to get both of us to level 34 when we went back to Theramore to close out. Time was up so we headed back across the sea to Ironforge to take care of repairs and class training before leaving it for the night.

Split Personality

For the last few days we've been playing our Human characters; for myself I've been playing the Mage and the Paladin, and the big problem is that at this time they're both at roughly the same level and covering the same quests. It's really confusing since I can't remember which character has done which quests. Apart from the fact that we were running Kate's Warrior and my Paladin in the northern part of Stranglethorn Vale, I'm getting a bit lost.

I can say that my Mage character has come a long way; with the new equipment he's a lot tougher than he was and he's cleaned up pretty much all of the necessary quests in Redridge and Duskwood, and is ready to move on to Theramore and Dustwallow Marsh.

I've even spent a little bit of time pushing forward with the Human Warlock I created as an auction-house stooge; he's not far from level 8, but since he mostly stays near the auction house anyway I consider him very much secondary.

For today I have a different plan for all of my characters, brought about by the fact that the 3.0.2 patch was activated yesterday and in the process every character's talent points have been reimbursed. We have to take all of our characters back to their respective class trainers because the patch introduced new spells and abilities and we need to make sure we have all the training; after that we need to rebuild our talent trees. Neither of these should take too long and then we can get back to where we were.

Another big change in the patch is that Stormwind City now has a harbour, and I want to see it and find out where the boats go from there. It'd be great if you can go direct to Theramore or even Azuremyst.

On a more personal note, I'm working on another writing project and that means I won't be able to spend as much time on this blog as I have been. I'll either keep writing daily, but with much shorter posts, or I'll keep on with the longer posts but not so often - maybe twice a week. I'll have to see what works best.

Goodbye Duskwood, Hello Stockade

First quest: Kate needed to take out some Nightbane Vile Fangs and Dark Runners, so we took off from Darkshire to an area just west of the Tranquil Gardens cemetery to do that. I did the Healer bit while she whacked and that didn't take too long.

Second quest: from there we went further west to the Ogre Mound to grab a monocle from the ogre Zzarc'Vul that Viktori Prism'antras in Darkshire needs. The ogres around the mound have given us problems in the past but this time we were much better equipped and had no real problems. Zzarc'Vul hangs out inside the cave at the back of the ogre mound and isn't too hard to find; as soon as we got into the cave entrance we grouped up so that we wouldn't have to do the job twice. It was pretty easy; I can't help but remember how hard this one had been in the past.

Third quest: we continued west to find the Defias Docket, which turned out to be in a box in a house in an area infested with Defias scum. Again, mighty easy and I'm thinking our Archeus swords are making a big difference here.

With those three quests done we ran back to Darkshire to close out. Next stop was Stormwind to take care of a new quest that came up as a consequence of one of those we'd completed (the one with the Defias Docket, I'm pretty sure) and to take care of some bank and auction house business.

While we were there we decided to try the Stockade again, since we had three open quests down there and we'd both got a couple of levels since our last try. We geared up and went for it.

It was tough and a good challenge; I was surprised that the elite Defias guys down there were still high-level enough that we got XP - after past experiences with dungeon instances this isn't the norm for us. Also, although we got wiped it was only maybe twice - certainly no more than that - and I think we actually did damn good, considering.

We finished all three quests - one to collect Red Bandannas, one to knock down a certain number of criminals and one to take the hand of one particular bad guy - and somewhere along the way I hit level 31 (it actually startled me; I wasn't expecting enough XP to make a real difference and when the flash went up I thought I was being hit with some kind of magic attack).

We got out of the Stockade and closed out two of the quests, and the XP pushed Kate to level 30; this is a major milestone that we've been waiting for so that she can get a horse. To close the third quest we had to head back to Darkshire so we flew out there and took care of that, then ran north and crossed the river to get into Elwynn Forest not far from Eastvale Logging Camp, where the horse trainer and breeder are, and Kate was able to get her horse.

As far as we know that means we've finished all the Duskwood quests (hoorah!), so we rode out to Lakeshire and flew to our next stop: Menethil Harbour. There are a lot of quests in the Wetlands region so we'll probably base ourselves there for a little while. Incidentally, this means that our Human Paladin/Warrior pair have now reached almost exactly the same point that our Human Mage/Rogue reached before we switched over. From here on out it's all new ground - at least from the Human perspective.

Almost done...

We're approaching the end of the quests we can do in Duskwood (hoorah!) and we should be able to move on soon. We managed to complete quite a bunch yesterday and got enough XP to finally push us over to new levels; in fact I finally got level 30 and along with it got my automatic Paladin warhorse (hoorah again!).

We'd started off doing the Worgen in the Woods quest chain, knocking over Nightbane Shadow Weavers, Dark Runners, Vile Fangs and Tainted Ones in the southeastern part of the region. We also had to get rid of Skeletal Raiders, Healers and Warders in Raven Hill cemetery. None of this was particularly hard thanks to Archeus, the unique sword that we both happen to have.

I don't remember exactly where I got level 30 but that was the signal to head back to Stormwind at the next opportunity to get Paladin training, and of course that's how I got the Summon Warhorse spell.

We had a quest that took us into the Cathedral of Light anyway, and while we were there Kate picked up another minor quest chain (one I'd started some time ago; so long ago, in fact, that I'd forgotten where it started). This one meant a certain amount of running around in Stormwind - to the Keep, then outside the gates, then back to the cheese shop - before sending us back to Darkshire to talk to one of the guards there. The next step (for both of us; this is as far as I'd gone with this chain) is to get the Defias Docket which is located somewhere in southwest Duskwood.

If I remember right this leaves us with no more than four current open quests around Duskwood. After that, where next? We're thinking the Wetlands and Arathi Highlands, but that's what we've done before; maybe this time we'll try Stranglethorn Vale instead.

More questing in Duskwood

First Aid

To get my (Human Paladin's) first-aid skill any higher I needed the medical books from Deneb Walker in Stromgarde Keep, but to get there I would have had to cross the Arathi Highlands and I wasn't sure that I could make it at level 29 without a mount. If I ran into a spider or raptor up to level 33 I could have probably handled it, but I really didn't want to spend any longer than necessary as we had other things to do.

Instead I decided this was a job for my Human Mage, since he's level 31 and has a horse. Also, he had two quests in the area - one to find a guy called Skuerto at Refuge Pointe, and another to talk to someone in Southshore in the Hillbrad Foothills to the west - so he could kill three birds with one stone.

It was a really quick trip: a ride east from Menethil to pick up the road north through Dun Modr and across Thandol Span into the Arathi Highlands and straight on to Refuge Pointe, talk to Skuerto and the flightmaster; then west along the road to Stromgarde Keep, locate Deneb Walker and buy the books; then west again through Thoradin's Wall into the Hillsbrad Foothills and south into Southshore, talk to the guy I needed to find there, then hit the flightmaster for a direct flight back to Ironforge and drop the books into the bank.

I took the Mage out of the picture and brought in the Paladin, and he picked up the books from the bank in Stormwind City. Thanks to the books and piles of wool and silk that Kate and I had hoarded just for this purpose, I got the first-aid skill up to 216; I can now make Mageweave bandages and I have a stock of Heavy Silk bandages to keep me going for a while.

While we were in Stormwind Kate got new axes and I picked up a new two-handed sword a lot more powerful than my old one, a snip at about twenty gold. Little did I know that I wouldn't be keeping it very long...

The Heart of the Embalmer

The first thing we wanted to take care of was to get the Embalmer's Heart from Eliza's grave a little way behind Abercrombie's shack near Raven Hill cemetery. This was pretty simple: we disturbed the grave and out popped Eliza, in a bad mood and not looking at all well. She also had a guard but even together they weren't that hard to take down and we grabbed the heart for return to Darkshire.

Mor'Ladim

On the high ground north of Raven Hill cemetery, not far from the river, there's a weathered grave and when you examine it you get a quest to see Althea Ebonlocke, an Alliance guard in Darkshire. The grave is that of Morgan Ladimore, hero of the Alliance who was corrupted and became Mor'Ladim, the armoured skeleton that wanders the west side of the cemetery, and Ebonlocke sends you to kill him and bring back the skull.

Kate and I flew out to Sentinel Hill then crossed the river and grouped up to take down Mor'Ladim. Thanks to the new weapons we'd bought in Stormwind, plus the fact that we were at least a level higher than the last time we ran into him, I for one was a lot more confident about beating him this time.

We found him in the usual place and, making sure there weren't any other enemies nearby, we engaged him, me from the front and Kate from behind. Even with the new weapons he was tough - he was doing as much damage to me as we were to him and he shrugged off a Hammer of Justice stun that I threw at him hoping to slow him down. Things were getting very close to the wire and I had to put up Divine Protection to give me time to heal myself; as soon as I did that he started bashing Kate but since his attack up to that point had been mostly aimed at me she was in good shape and was able to finish him off.

We went to take the skull... and that's when we realized Kate hadn't got the quest in her log. Ah well. We found the grave up the hill so that Kate could get the starting quest and we made our way back to Darkshire; I handed over the skull and was instructed to see Ladimore's daughter nearby, who gave me a ring to place on her father's grave. Meanwhile Kate got the quest for Mor'Ladim and with those done it was back to knock him over again.

This time Kate whacked and I healed, and she got the skull. I placed the ring on Ladimore's grave and in return got Ladimore's sword Archeus, and what a sword it is - 23.9 damage per second with a chance of serious Arcane damage with every hit. I'll be keeping this for a while, I think.

One more quick return trip to Darkshire so that Kate could get the ring and come back to collect her own Archeus, and we were done.

Pushing for Levels

I've switched my Human Paladin's primary professions a little. I'd already changed my Mage's professions so as to get rid of the rather worthless Tailoring and replace it with Jewelcrafting - this promised to be far more useful, but after working it for a while it became plain that it really needs Mining as a gathering profession to make it worthwhile. Since my Mage had Enchanting, which is quite useful and I didn't want to lose it, I decided to change the Human Paladin's professions so that he now has Mining and Jewelcrafting. The Mage will replace the Jewelcrafting with the Herbalism that the Paladin had before; it'll mean taking the Mage back to Elwynn Forest to be able to start building up the Herbalism but he's level 31 and has a horse; it shouldn't take too long to get that skill level up to where the Paladin was with it.

With my Paladin at level 28 and Kate's Warrior at 26 we decided to have a go at the four quests we had open in the Stockade, an instance dungeon inside Stormwind City. Kate acted as Tank while I made like a Healer and we didn't do too badly - we completed one quest that involved getting the head of one bad guy, and made a dent in one that meant taking down a number of Defias guys. But we got wiped two or three times and basically it was just taking too long in general. The last straw was when we realized that unlike the Deadmines where it takes a long while for baddies to reappear, the guys in the Stockade come back much quicker and we'd have had to fight our way back through the same parts for no real benefit. It would have been cool to clear all four quests but it plainly wasn't going to be that easy, or at least not yet; we decided to move on and come back when we've got another level or two rather than waste a bunch of time.

We went back to Lakeshire to close out the one quest that we'd completed then went north to take down the fifteen Blackrock Champions we needed for another quest. With us grouped this went much easier than I expected and we got the fifteen very quickly. While we were in the cave where the majority of the champions were, we found a guy (I don't recall his name) who'd been reported missing on a poster outside the inn in Lakeshire and he asked us to escort him back to Lakeshire. He moved slowly, which made it easier for us to clear the way ahead of him. Also, he was a level 25 elite and helped out whenever a fight broke out. Once we were well clear of the cave and found the start of the road back to Lakeshire he picked up the pace and we all ran back to the bridge, where the quest ended.

I'd started off with about three quarters of the XP I'd needed to take me from level 28 to 29. The XP from the two quests - clearing the fifteen champions and escorting this other guy - was just enough to tip me over to level 29.

Kate had a quest for which she needed to collect three magic orbs from Blackrock Shadowcasters, and it so happened that one of the casters we'd dealt with while knocking over the champions had dropped one of these orbs; she only needed two more, and I knew where to get them - Stonewatch Keep near Alther's Mill.

So off we went to take care of that. When we got there the place was deserted and we had to wait for the casters to show, so we wandered about a bit with Kate knocking over the sentries while I kept an eye on the yard on the south side of the keep waiting for one particular bad guy to show: Tharil'zun. Since we both needed this guy's head for a quest we grouped, and when he showed up - together with a Shadowcaster minder - we were ready. He didn't last long and neither did his friend; we got the head and Kate got orb number two.

From there we went to wait near the steps leading inside the keep itself, and before long another caster showed; I stood back while Kate took him down and got her third orb.

At this point we could have moved on but we were real close to another quest - to get the head of Gath'llzogg (orc heads must be the fashion in Redridge this month) so we decided to go for it while we were there. Gath'llzogg lives up on the top floor of the keep and we made our way up there - there was a trail of dead orcs indicating that someone else had been there just ahead of us, but it made for a real quick run up to where we needed to be.

We hung around a bit and sure enough Gath showed up, together with another orc minder and an elite Dragon whelp. It was a tough fight. I stood back as healer while Kate whacked away and took care of Gath and the orc minder, but by this time our health was real low, my mana was gone from keeping Kate alive and I had none left to help myself, we'd both taken potions so we couldn't do any more on that front, and the damn dragon whelp was blasting me with fireballs. There was nothing more I could do, and despite Kate whacking at the whelp it was just a second or so too late for me; I got wiped. At least while the whelp was focused on me it wasn't attacking Kate and she did manage to finish it. I got back as fast as I could (I wish there was another boneyard closer to the eastern end of Redridge) and we were able to get Gath's head. As ghost I'd seen that all the orcs inside the keep had returned, so rather than fight our way back we hearthstoned out.

Kate's stone took her to Stormwind and mine to Darkshire, so we had to fly back to Lakeshire to meet up (and we reset our stones to make the place home for now). This time the XP from the orb quest and the two orc heads pushed Kate to level 27. I did a little jewelcrafting with some copper ore that I'd picked up on our travels, and I decided I needed to go back to the trainer in the Exodar so I made my way there while Kate went back to Stormwind to take care of a quest (to do with this guy Stalvan) before following along.

In the Exodar I picked up some more Jewelcrafting plans and while I was there I was able to max out my First Aid to 150/150 - which means I have to get books from Deneb Walker in Stromgarde Keep to go any further.

My hearthstone still had twelve minutes of cooldown remaining so in the Exodar I stayed for the night. Next trip Kate has another quest to complete out near the Tower of Ilgalad so that'll be our first move.

More Goings On at Raven Hill

While Kate was taking care of some things in the bank and the auction house I flew out to Lakeshire with the intention of taking on Lieutenant Fangore, the level 26 (I think) gnoll who hangs out in the eastern end of the Redridge Mountains region. I could take him easily in a fair fight, but he has a couple of friends including a shadowcaster and never strays far from them; it doesn't seem possible to pull Fangore without alerting his mates. I got wiped, and that's a pain in the bum because the nearest boneyard is all the way over to the west so it's a long trek back. I was thinking of trying to pull Fangore's friends one at a time to get them out of the way, but by then Kate wasn't far from done in Stormwind so I left that for the moment.

I went on ahead to Raven Hill and whacked the last handful of the twenty Plague Spreaders I needed for the quest I was working on; that left the field clear for Kate. I made my way back to Darkshire to close out, then flew to Sentinel Hill to hook up with Kate.

From there we swam the river and I watched Kate's health while she got her twenty ghouls. We got into trouble at one point - we went down into the crypt under the cemetery to find a few more ghouls and when we came out there was a herd of the things waiting for us. We got surrounded and it was a wipeout. After resurrecting (which is quick; after all we were already in the boneyard) I thought I was tough enough to take on Mor'Ladim, the level 30 elite armoured skeleton. Actually I could have got him; Kate was helping and we'd knocked him down a good way and had every chance of finishing him off when I was attacked from behind by another skeleton. I went down and they set on Kate, and that was that.

I resurrected nearby and as I was getting back into shape, Mor'Ladim must have wandered a bit too close and came at me from behind again. Slightly irritating because it wasted the two potions and a 'cheesehead' wolf steak I was in the middle of eating when he rudely interrupted. Never mind; his time is coming.

Kate got the rest of the twenty she needed shortly after that. We didn't take off for Darkshire right away - instead we went south to pick up a crate of stuff that Abercrombie wanted from the Ogre Mound. Along the way we knocked down a handful of spiders and that was enough to push me to level 28, which made dealing with the ogres a little easier since they're no more than level 30, and it didn't take long to get to Abercrombie's crate. We made our way back to Abercrombie, who gave us a note to take back to Darkshire.

Time was getting short so we headed for Darkshire to close out quests - there was a certain amount of running back and forth at this point, because the guy we took Abercrombie's note couldn't read it until it was translated so that had to be done. The next quest in that particular chain involves finding the grave of someone called Eliza, which according to QuestHelper isn't far from Abercrombie's shack.

At this point I was about out of time but there was one last thing I wanted to get done; now that I'd hit level 28 I needed Paladin training, so I flew out to Stormwind and ran to the Cathedral of Light to get that done.

By then I really was out of time, and didn't even bother checking into an inn; I found an empty room on the upper floor of a building near the auction house and packed it in for the night. Kate was really close to hitting level 25 by this time and decided to stay on for just a little while to get that.

Ghouls and Skeletons

We went back out to Raven Hill, our first objective being for Kate to hand over the zombie juice to Abercrombie and get the next quest in the chain. With that done Kate was at the same point as me in that particular quest chain.

The next step was to start whacking ghouls all around the boneyard nearby, looking for ribs that Abercrombie wanted for something or other. I was still a step ahead of Kate on another quest for which I need to knock over twenty Plague Spreaders; since these are a type of ghoul and they're in the same area, I was able to make some progress on that quest at the same time.

The rib quest took a while because it seems like fewer than half the ghouls actually drop the ribs we needed, but we got it done and closed out with Abercrombie. I think I got more than half the Plague Spreaders I needed along the way, which will help when it comes to Kate's turn because there aren't a huge number of them about - if I get all mine done then Kate'll have a clear field when the time comes.

Kate had another quest to complete that I'd already taken care of, that involved beating up Skeleton Horrors and Fiends (these are the ones I'd mistakenly thought were around Tranquil Gardens on the far side of Duskwood). She'd already got her quota of Horrors and just needed the Fiends, so I whacked Horrors to keep them off her back while she took care of the Fiends.

Kate had one more quick quest to take care of, to see Jitters in the old abandoned town of Raven Hill, and then we ran over to Sentinel Hill and flew back to Darkshire for the night.

We still have some more quests around Duskwood but as I think I mentioned quite some time ago, Duskwood is depressing. I'd like to get them cleared and move on.

The Human Factor

Kate's pushing hard to get her Human Warrior up a few levels so I think we'll be concentrating on that character, and my Human Paladin, for a while.

The way we've been pushing this is to get as many points as we can by running quests, so when we started yesterday our first objective was to close out a quest we had in Duskwood. Well actually, it was two quests to see the same person; I had to see Abercrombie, who lives in a hut near Raven Hill cemetery, to give him some Zombie Juice he'd asked for, while Kate had to see him to give him Ghost Hair from Blind Mary (which leads to the quest to get the Rot Blossoms needed to make Zombie Juice - in other words Kate's working the same quest chain but she's just a step or two behind me).

Raven Hill is near the western edge of Duskwood and quite a way from Darkshire, so it turns out that the quickest way to get there is to fly to Sentinel Hill in the Westfall then go east and swim across the river. You can run from the riverbank to the cemetery in a hot minute, but we scoured the area a bit first to knock down some wolves for meat; Tender Wolf Flanks make steaks that gives the "well-fed" bonus. We gathered a few flanks then went to see Abercrombie.

Of course Kate got the next quest, to get Zombie Juice from the inn in Darkshire, while I got the next quest after returning with the juice (I have to get some ribs from the Ghouls in the boneyard nearby). I'm holding off going for the next step, since it'll be easier to wait until Kate catches up and we can work it together.

So we went back to Darkshire the quickest way, by retracing our steps back across the river to Sentinel Hill and flying; Kate went to the inn to close out the quest and we headed out to Blind Mary's house to the southeast, which is where the walking skeletons carrying the rot blossoms hang out. I kept an eye on Kate's health and gave her a boost now and then while she whacked the skeletons and collected the blossoms.

With the blossom quota collected, Kate also wanted to bash some Skeleton Fiends for another quest and I mistakenly thought they were to be found near the Tranquil Gardens cemetery, so we headed that way; it was only after we'd been there a couple of minutes that I remembered the fiends are back at Raven Hill so we'll have to head back out there again very soon. (But we have to go there anyway so that Kate can give Abercrombie his juice.)

By then I was about out of time; we headed back to Darkshire and I checked into the inn for the night. Before I continue I'm planning on hitting the auction house to see about getting some better equipment; I'm up to level 27 now and I suspect I can get some better armour at least.