Tada! She's back!

I've finally started playing my Shadow Priest after parking her last June (2008) over Shattrath on her flying mount. I did pull her out and manage to go 1% into level 70 over the past year, but just didn't have any interest in playing her. Now that Sithi is 80, in a raiding guild and is going to try the whole raiding scene, I thought it was time to get Sas out and start leveling her.

She's far far behind on the achievement list, her guild is full of the alts of the people she played with as they've progressed on AND I had to relearn how to play a Shadow Priest after a year.

Having not played her in so long it took about two hours of looking at her talents - trying to remember what and why - setting up keybindings, then finding a rotation that worked but didn't drain mana. We've settled on SW:P, Mind blast, Mind Flay for most single targets, bubble/wand if needed. Rarely using the other DoTs on single target as they're dead much to quickly.

She also needed glyphs, enchants too, so drained what money she had saved! So, lots of catch up!

Fortunately she doesn't have any difficult professions to level (mining/herbing were both maxed, fishing still low, but doable), the worst has been getting her cooking caught up. This dictated a side trip out to Silithus and Felwood to grind out those last levels killing and cooking worms and bears until the Outland recipes came up. Fishing/hunting in Outlands was short and sweet, so she's caught up to Northrend cooking already - yeah!


As this was one of my favorite PvP characters (maxed honor two and half times before level 70), I'm looking forward to diving back into that once she's hit 80. (I tried Winter Grasp and Strand of the Ancients - those are fun!) I've always enjoyed the battlegrounds in WoW - actually glad they keep adding them.


I'm actually trying a new leveling process - following Jame's leveling guide over at Wow-pro.com . So far it's working fantastic! The directions are clear, the circuits may seem odd, but saves lots of back and forth running and the xp has been rolling along. He's really got the kinks out of the process. I've read many of his instance guides (and other contibutors on wow-pro), it really helps make sure you have all the quests and don't miss out on xp/loot. I know some people are against guides, but you still have to do the work, it's not automatic, just simplifies the routes.

In three sessions (this includes the run to Silithus and Outlands recipe chasing) we knocked out Howling Fjord, started our Kal'uak rep dailies (I have a lust for their Mastercrafted Kal'uak Fishing Pole!) and have made our way to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra.

Fighting the Scourge, and seeing Kel'Thuzad (he's that freaky model I've run into in Northrend - just creeps me out!) while flying on a magic carpet - full of win!

It seems to me that Shadow Priests are either much easier to play than I remember or else playing all the other characters has made me a tad more confident and - dare I say it - a better player, as we're having no trouble in chain pulling or handling multiple mobs (3-4 same level), something I never tried in the past.

Colecting Keys

The other day the GM & Co-GM of our guild were discussing getting the Karazhan and Arcatraz keys so more guildies would have them, and they were also completing the Key Master Achievement. Lusting after achievements and keys myself, I waiting for an opportunity to see if others could get in on this too, without whining or begging!

As they were already through most everything short of the Caverns of Time instances, I assumed I would be out of luck, but then mentioned they wanted to take any of the guild this week to get keys too! W00t!! Me! Me! Me!

The GM said as long as I did all the pre-quests up to the first instances they’d include me! Oh yeah! Now mind you, this is 2 a.m. and I really need to go to bed...but I want this DONE! So, off I go to bang through those quests. Shat-SW-Kara-Dalaran-Shat, Netherstorm and all the prequesting accomplished! Love my gorilladin tank!

Last night I log in, the guild is in a funk. Bad Nax 10 raid, that is on the verge of breaking up. I sit quietly in vent, going about my dailies (working for $$ still). The raid finally is called. Moods are not very good and a few people log off. (I found out later one of the raiders was having more fun with Peggle then raiding! : O) Not good!!

The guys are discussing what they're going to do - ah ha opportunity - I mention “I got the pre-quests done whenever you guys go this week.” Now hold breathe.

Not a terribly enthusiastic response. The Co-GM who's normally very jovial in a M-rated way is dead silent, but the GM said we’ll run you through the instances and then continue on the CoT. Yeah! I do make the token, we can do it another time, if you'd like while crossing fingers they'll still want to go!

The GM says no, we'll go! Yippee! They invite another guildie that will get xp (lvl 70) so he can practice healing. Off we go to burn through those instances, two shaman, a druid and my hunter.

Shadow Labs is first up. Fairly smooth - I get turned into a frog by Blackheart the Inciter which was better than when he turned the tank against the dps and healer - lol!

Fortunately he's down fast and we’re breezing through it, except for the healer (lvl 70) that keeps pulling aggro as he’s jumping around. Finally I asked him,

“Do you have ADD?”

“No! But I can’t just stand here, nothing to heal.”

I’m thinking I don’t care if you jump but jump AWAY from the mobs that are so attracted to your level 70 goodness! Fortunately I'm watching him and keep the wolf pulling mobs off him.

We had one wipe, when he uses one of his AoE spells. I feigned, but accidently ‘moved’ (I need to practice when feigned hands OFF mouse and keyboard!) so died.

We ran back, killed Murmur and on to Steam Vaults and then to Netherstorm to Arcatraz. We blew through those too. A couple of remarks by me to the two draenei shammy's on the welcome home /sigh - they didn't get it! We were in out of there so quickly, it literally took longer to get there than the time spent in each instance!

Now to Caverns of Time.

Segue here –I must admit CoT is one of my favorite places to go. I’m a bit of a WoW lore junkie! The more I learn about the ‘whys’ of what we’re doing the more I enjoy questing, visiting areas and listening/reading NPC dialog. I particularly love going to Southshore in Old Hillsbrad just to watch the NPC’s interact. Freeing Thrall from Durnholde is fun for me. The whole story of Thrall, the slave, and Taretha, his only friend, bridging the human/orc hatred. It make questing alive to me and explains more of the whole Thrall/Jaine relationship - although I've wondered at times about those two ... I mean, Horde players go to Tarren Mills and do the Durnholde quests, but I doubt many realize why it’s rubble, and why you’re collecting Taretha’s necklace. Interesting stuff!

Back to our adventure - so, the Co-GM’s brother joins our group for more firepower, so the group is Druid tank, two Shaman dps, Shaman heals and my Hunter/wolf. Needless to say this went very quickly, as the ‘new shaman’ is 22K health unbuffed – scary hits! Everything died so fast and there were so many totems strewn around it looked like a party! The druid tank couldn’t build rage effectively it went that fast! But it was fun. The healer had no healing to do so more jumping and totem tossing was his role.

Off to Black Morass. At first I thought we were in the Swamp of Sorrows as I’ve never been in the Black Morass instance, so didn’t know exactly what to expect. Surprise, we get to meet Medivh at the Dark Portal and found out this was the Blasted Lands before they were blasted, dried out and ugly!

From a strictly lore basis, you have to question why we’d want to help Medivh open the Portal, but the Keepers of Time hint at it being the lesser of two evils. The orcs wouldn’t have arrived on Azeroth, but would the Burning Legion have arrived anyway? Hmmmm…

Good times! Kara key in hand, Arcatraz key later this week!

GM has his KeyMaster achievement, so he’s happy too. They want to see how fast we can run through Kara this week too. I’m willing, as I’m still new to this guild, they’re fun in a casual/relaxed way so it makes WoW so much more enjoyable.

I may actually enjoy raiding – won’t that be a kick?

Howling Fjord

HOWLING FJORD

Howling Fjord is a fun area from a lore perspective, as this is where Arthas first landed in his pursuit of Mal'Ganis. He then burned his boats so they could not leave, stranding his soldiers and we all know what happened to Arthas! Those humans and dwarf descendants have been there ever since fortifying Valgarde.

It's a great area for skinners or those harvesting meat as there are many herds of shoveltusk roaming around (borean leather, scraps, artic fur and meat all sell well on most servers).

The quest Let's Go Surfing Now on a blazing arrow was a quick way back down to Valgarde from the vrykul town of Nifflevar up top.

The dialog between the vrykul is worth reading in this quest - The Echo of Ymiron. Interesting bits of lore sprinkled through the area. Don't forget while you're in the spirit form, make sure to visit the Lich King for his dialog.

Quest humor

I'm a quester.

I love reading the quest dialog as some of it is quite funny. This one on Azuremyst Isle I finally took a screenie of -

It's at Odesyus Landing between Admiral Odesyus and "Cookie" McWeaksauce.

Just the names crack me up :-P