Zul'Farrak

We decided to have a go at Zul'Farrak, since we had seven quests in there and we'd got a couple of levels since the last time we tried. All in all it was a great success - of those seven quests we were able to deal with five, and we could probably have handled one more if we'd really wanted to.

We figured out a strategy that seems to work well when you get bad guys in small groups: both of us targeted one of the group (usually the one with the lowest level) and went in swinging until the baddie went down. The reasoning was that the bad guys do the same damage regardless of their health, so it's better to have two baddies with 100% health than three with 30% health since two can only do two-thirds the damage that three do. And this plan seemed to work very well, and even seemed to get better as we worked our way through - I guess we were just getting practiced.

Using this strategy we made our way round the place, knocking down trolls and collecting vials of Troll Temper (we needed twenty each) and bashing scarabs for shells.

We found a troll we needed to whack for a special stone - the first of two - and got that, which completed a third quest, then made our way to another part of the map to collect the matching stone and get the Tiara of the Deep, both from the same character. This last part we managed but not without gathering a following of trolls who of course kicked our collective butt.

No matter; that was five quests complete and we were happy to leave the sixth for another day. (The seventh, it turns out, involves sounding a gong but we can't so that until we've got hold of a special hammer that comes from the Hinterlands.)

We had to do something of a world tour to cash in the quests for the XP - one of the questgivers was in Gadgetzan, another in Steamwheedle Port nearby, another on Teldrassil and I think there was even one in Booty Bay. The XP was enough to push us to level 49 - great news since it seems to have taken us an age to get there. Hopefully we'll get level 50 quite soon now.

Exploring All Over

We ran a bit of a marathon the other night to finish mapping a number of zones, starting out in Westfall then going east to Duskwood and down into Stranglethorn Vale. In the Vale we closed out a couple of quests while we finished up the map, then went to Thelsamar to finish mapping Loch Modan. After that we rode north into the Wetlands and took care of three areas at the eastern end to complete Kate's map. Finally we went back to Ironforge and ran out into Dun Morogh, since neither of us had mapped much of the eastern and southern regions.

After that we flew out to Darkshire and ran through Deadwind Pass into the Swamp of Sorrows. Mapping the area took longer than we'd hoped, for a couple of reasons: first, the place is a herbalist's dream - there's stuff everywhere. Kate needed herbs too much to pass any of it by, so we made our way along the northern edge then south down the coast, stopping to pick herbs wherever Kate found them. On the coast we were able to fish for Mahi-Mahi - another fish needed for Nat Pagle's fishing quest - before heading west along the southern edge of the swamp. We ran into trouble here, because there's a horde outpost right there and I got just a bit too close - I hadn't known that there are high-level guards camped outside the compound fence, and they saw me before I'd realized they were there.

All the same Kate was able to collect quite a pile of herbs and we both finished our maps of the zone before heading south into the Blasted Lands. Nethergarde Keep is just to the east of the road passing into the Lands; we went in and opened up the flightpath.

That was a lot of regions completed along with a quest or two, and along the way we'd both hit level 47. I'd originally thought we'd stay in Nethergarde for the night but as far as we were able to tell, there's no inn. Instead, we settled in Darkshire since it's pretty close.

Yesterday we returned to Nethergarde and rode back up into the Swamp of Sorrows - Kate needs money, lots of money, and we figured the best way to make a pile quickly would be to go herbing again and auction what she picked. In the meantime I scouted the edges of the swamp looking for minerals to mine. The night before I thought I'd seen quite a few deposits and veins around, but this time I wasn't so lucky - I suspected another player must have mined the area out just before I got there and I was only able to find a couple of Iron Deposits and a Mithril Vein or two.

Ultimately, in the northeastern part of the swamp, we decided it was time to call it a night; rather than ride all the way back to Nethergarde we decided to short-cut things by hearthstoning. Our hearthstones are set for Gadgetzan, though, so we finished a long way from where we started. All the same, when we start out next time we'll be able to finish mapping Tanaris and we have quests that we can complete along the way; we're even considering having another go at getting into Zul'Farrak, but we'll see how that goes.

Exploring Stranglethorn

We went to Stranglethorn Vale to quest and we're still at level 46, although very close to 47 now thanks to the one quest we were able to complete in the time we had. For this quest we had to find Mystics and Witchdoctors in an area in the middle of the Vale and take four somethings (I don't remember exactly what it was we were collecting) and return them to a guy at the rebel camp in the north.

The quest itself wasn't too hard at all and didn't take long but while we were in the area we took care of a couple of other things - exploring for the achievement, and fishing up a bluefin for a quest from Nat Pagle that'll get us Artisan level Fishing (we need three other kinds of fish from all over the place to finish this one). On the exploration front we covered most of the zone, only missing out on about four areas. We still have a couple of quests in the area and we'll probably go back very soon to complete those and finish up the exploration.

There is one thing I want to try, that came about because of something we came across in the Western Plaguelands the other day. In Caer Darrow we found a place called the Scholomance, and nearby there was a Meeting Stone. This is something we'd never tried using, and based on what I knew we'd given it a try, only to get a message telling me we weren't high enough level to use that particular stone.

So what occurred to me was that I've seen a similar stone in Westfall, near the entrance to the Deadmines (apparently the stones are all placed near instances). Kate has a couple of areas missing from her map of Westfall, and as I mentioned yesterday we both need the Twilight Vale in nearby Duskwood to complete that zone, so what I'm thinking is that I can fly down to Sentinel Hill and ride out to the Deadmines, group up with Kate and try to use the meeting stone. If it works we can then finish up that little bit of exploration before heading back out to Stranglethorn.

After that... well, we don't have much left in Stranglethorn and Kate's mentioned heading out to the Blasted Lands; for that I think our best bet is to dash through Deadwind into the Swamp of Sorrows then head south - if I read the map right, there's a road leading through to the Blasted Lands from there.

Still 46

We've been moving around quite a bit, trying to get some quests done. As part of one quest we found ourselves in Alterac and while we were there we made a point of exploring every corner, since there are a whole bunch of achievements we can get by doing that for each zone. As part of my exploration we ran across a new flight point in the Western Plaguelands - a nasty area that we'll probably need at least another five or six levels before we're ready for.

However for all the exploring, mining and herb-gathering we've done, we're still at level 46 and quite some way from 47, so for the near future I want to make a point of completing a bunch of the quests clogging our logs; that's going to mean a fair amount of travel because they're spread out over the whole planet. I'm going to see where Kate thinks she might want to start, so I have no idea where we'll be going next until she suggests somewhere. I do know that we have high-level quests remaining in Tanaris, so we may start there, but we've also left a bunch of open quests in Stranglethorn Vale.

Also I know that Kate really wants to push those exploration achievements, and there are a number of zones in which we have only one or two areas missing; for example, in Duskwood the Twilight Vale is the only remaining area that we haven't explored (with our Human Paladin and Warrior, anyway - we took our Draenei characters in there once, a long time ago, and high-tailed it out when we saw a level ?? dragon ahead of us).

We've had a few nasty shocks up in the areas north of Alterac - the Western and Eastern Plaguelands and Tirisfal Glades. At first sight the areas don't seem so bad but we ran into some very tough customers in the Western Plaguelands (hence my comment about not being ready for these yet) and at one point I was wandering around a town called Brill which appeared to be populated mostly by level 23 undead - and then I was attacked from behind by a level ?? guard. By the time I'd realized what was attacking me it was too late.

Anyway, as I said I'm not sure where we'll be heading next but I hope by this time tomorrow to be able to report that we've hit at least level 47...

The Number 46

We spent some more time around the Un'Goro Crater but to be honest it was just a bit too high level for us, at least at that time. With only high-level quests in Tanaris, and our quest logs full of quests gradually fading into greyness, we decided to go on a bit of a world tour to clear some of those old quests while they were still worth doing.

After a whirlwind trip starting at the Arathi Highlands and taking us down to the rebel camp in Stranglethorn Vale and on to Booty Bay - which cleared three or four quests all told - we made our way to Desolace. Because of a Paladin-only quest that had taken me out to the Blackfathom Deeps I'd already opened up the flightpath to Astranaar, but Kate didn't have that so we had to hoof it from Auberdine. We rode out to Astranaar and while we were at it we continued west and took the back road through Night Run and Xavian to Forest Song so that Kate could open up that flightpath. And since it was so close, we ran the short distance east and across the bridge into Azshara to open the flightpath to Talrendis Point. From there we flew back to Astranaar and headed south into the Stonetalon Mountains.

I already had the flightpath at Stonetalon Peak opened, for a very strange reason; a few days before, I'd been on the boat out of Auberdine to Azuremyst so that I could see the jewelcrafting trainer in the Exodar, and the boat had vanished out from under me leaving me suspended in midair, then I was disconnected. When I reconnected I thought I'd either drop into the water or reappear on the boat, but neither happened - instead I materialized several hundred feet above a graveyard near the Webwinder Path, and from there had to ride up to Stonetalon Peak so that I could fly back to Auberdine where I'd started. Very strange.

Kate and I rode up to the Peak so that Kate could get the flightpath, then we went back south to find the road into Desolace - and the name's appropriate because the place is truly desolate, with murky looking pools and virtually no vegetation of any kind. It's pretty horrible.

Once there we were able to find Nijel's Point, where there's an inn and another flightmaster; two people we needed to see for quests were there, so we were able to close those out.

And that's where we are for the time being. There are caves to the southwest, including an instance, and we have a number of high level quests in and around that area. Thanks to the level 44-45 elites in the instance we pushed to level 46 the same night that Wrath of the Lich King was released (and yes, I was at the Wal*Mart a mile from the house at 12:30am buying two copies).

Ah, level 46: this is the highest level I've taken any of my characters. My Draenei Paladin is level 45 and until this point was the strongest I had, but I'm planning on sticking with my Human Paladin for the foreseeable future and all the way up to Level 80.

For now, we still have pretty full quest logs and we have more of the world to visit to try to clear more of those, but for the moment we have enough to do in Desolace, so I think that's where we'll be staying for a little while.

Un'Goro

We decided to have a go at getting into Zul'Farrak; we have something like four quests in there, of which a couple are low-level enough that we thought we could handle them. It wasn't to be - right inside the entrance are half a dozen or more high-level elite guys, and they stand around in groups of three so it's not possible to take them on one at a time. I tried to keep Kate alive but they just did too much damage, and in any case firing off Holy Light spells increased my threat so that I became a target too. We died.

There's no point going in there again until we get a few more levels, so we headed south to whack what we could in the area. We found ourselves in the Noxious Lair and we both hit level 44. The bugs in the Lair are pretty tough - levels 48-50 - but being careful we were able to take them on individually and didn't do too bad.

On the west side of the Lair the rocks rise up, forming a wall. I climbed up there mostly so that I could get a good view of the Lair but it turned out that just the other side is the Un'Goro Crater. It's a long drop but I can 'bubble' us so that it's possible to jump without harm. Unfortunately Kate slipped and fell all the way down before I realized what was happening.

The crater has some really tough critters around, very reminiscent of dinosaurs, so we had to be careful and in a couple of places we almost got into serious trouble. We headed north, following the crater rim anticlockwise. On the north rim we found an outpost with, thank goodness, a flightmaster. Since we'd hit level 44 I wanted to get my training so we flew out and made our way to Ironforge. I now have the Hammer of Wrath spell - very useful.

Next trip we'll probably go back to Un'Goro - Kate wants to get herbs and provided we're careful I think we can pick up quite a bit of XP there. It'd be good if we can hit level 45.

Pirates

The last big burst of real activity we had was a few days ago and involved running out to the pirate enclave on the coast and taking care of five quests in one hit - taking down Andre Firebeard, knocking down various numbers of various kinds of pirate, grabbing a stash of booze, and so on. The XP from all that was enough to push us both to level 43.

Since then we haven't done much; Kate's been sick and I've been tired out at work, so really all we've done is one quick foray west of Gadgetzan to use a dowsing widget to collect a water sample.

The last couple of days all I've really done is spent a few minutes checking the auction house for Mithril Spurs; one of those five quests gave a really nice pair of plate boots but neither of us want to use them until we have the spurs to give us the extra speed boost. The problem is that at the moment the only spurs for sale have been way overpriced - market price is something like four gold, but the cheapest I've seen have been around twice that, and I'm not about to give someone the satisfaction by paying that much. I've placed a limit on how much I'll pay: six gold, no more.

We have a fair pile of outstanding quests all over the world - a couple in Alterac, one in Arathi, a couple in Desolace, one in the Swamp of Sorrows, one or two in Dustwallow, and others. What I'd like to do is get out to these places and knock these quests down; if we can hit level 45 in the process we'll be better prepared for taking on the remaining quests in Tanaris, which are all quite high level. I'll put it to Kate and see what she wants to do.