So close I can taste it
79.5, that’s where Kadomi’s at, followed by my shaman at 76. I probably won’t hit 80 tonight, as I work til 11 pm today, but tomorrow it’s going to happen. I just finished off the last quests in Zul’Drak, hitting the quest achievement, so I am going to hit 80 in Sholazar Basin, which is cool, I can do massive mining sessions right after hitting 80. To my shame I haven’t gotten a single bar of Titansteel yet, I am short one ore to smelt my first one.
I have professed my love for Dragonblight before, because the quests there felt so epic, so full of story, and then when I hit Grizzly Hills, I was really disappointed. Like all zones so far, Grizzly Hills has a story, but it wasn’t anywhere as captivating as Dragonblight. I do like the elements of the corruption of Vordrassil, and it’s my wank that the mysterious unnamed raid instance for 3.3 is going to see Yogg-Saron as end boss. The one redeeming quality for Grizzly Hills though? The quest chain introducing Drakuru. That was just freaking cool. As usual, a quest NPC makes you jump through hoops, and it’s your fault for having created an evil troll overlord to conquer Zul’Drak for the Lich King. Very nice touch.
Which takes me right to Zul’Drak, which I completely and totally loved. It’s my favorite zone so far, quest-wise. The Scourge-side had the great Drakuru quest chain where you spend your time as ghoul. So much fun. I cursed a lot in the final event but eventually got the hang of it. All those vehicle and pet quests make me feel like a loser. Speaking of vehicle quest, how cool is it to ride on the back of a giant and squish Scourge, pick them up and throw them around? Very cool.
Moving on to the live troll side of Zul’Drak on the next tier, you get the story of a troll empire, where the Drakkari were so desperate to battle the Scourge that they killed their animal gods and absorbed their power, leaving only one animal god behind. I so loved that quest chain, and really had a lore-squee moment when the Zandalari summoned the ghosts of Halazzi, Nalorakk, Jan’alai and A’kilzon for advice. I am such a troll lore fangirl. I am sad that I am done with Zul’Drak, and I can’t wait to see Gundrak.
Naturally, I loved Drak’tharon Keep as instance. It was beautiful, and the mechanics of the last boss were pretty neat. I am not fully sold on Violet Hold. I probably just need to run it more often to get as comfortable with it as I was with Black Morass. I have yet to find out where those emergency switches are. Not that we ever needed them. It was a bit rougher to heal than to tank in there.
Gear-wise, I am pretty happy on Kadomi. I think the gear plan is well under-way and I am sitting at 20.5k armor, 18.5k health unbuffed and 521 defense now. I have zero enchants, and very few gems, so I really think 540 is not going to be a problem. From my shopping list, I got the Stratholme trash shoulders from a guildie, the Wyrmrest cloak and the Argent Crusade pants.
I need to start making light plans for our first 10-man ventures. Based on our current roster, it’s possible I’d actually heal before tanking, as we just lost a healer. Which would make me a little bit sad. Despite my love for shaman healing, tanking will always remain my first love and favorite spec.
I started doing Heroics as soon as I was uncrittable, and I must say, they arent too difficult. Some of the mobs hit like trucks. Heroic mobs hit for more that old level 70 raid bosses lol. CC will probably be needed a bit, but you wont have to overdo it. Im at 25500 health and 23000 armor unbuffed and Heroics are cake.
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Thanks for the updates I was wondering how you were doing. Yes, I’ve been loving the quest chains & lore, and now that I’ve been 80 for a while, I have tons of time to take my time with the zones I havent done, which is really cool. Enjoying the scourge/ebon blade/argent crusade quests a lot. Tip: dont start griding rep with argent crusade on dailies/heroics unless you did all of their normal quests in stormpeaks (they award a ton of rep and they’re fun & easy)
I would suggest the easy heroics as soon as you hit 80: UK, nexus, VH etc. I’ve completed most heroics now, and tbh with gear upgrades coming thick and fast, the ones you have trouble with today will be much easier very soon.
Make sure you hit up 10man nax & obsidium as soon as you can. Its all about the strats, not the gear. You could pug the gaps too – they’re easy. I found them easier than some heroics. Yeah we’re short of healers too. Dont know where they’re all hiding.
Currently sporting 38k health & 30k armor raid buffed which is sweet; worked on heroic patchwerk last night, which was a blast. I think druids make great OTs, but it depends on your healers too of course. He’s mean: hits quick and hard and his animations are awesome. Pure viciousness. There was an air of concentration and seriousness in the raid; I’m sure we’ll be reminiscing in 6 months time about our first attempts at him. And awesome fight for all classes: its only about the mechanics of your class & your gear.
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Don’t forget to quest in Storm Peaks and Icecrown even your 80!
@Ara
DRuids makes awesome MT! Our druid tank can reach 50k health when he pops last stand or w/e it’s called plus their dps is pretty sick too.
Herc´s last blog post..Bind on Account Items FAQ
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Haha, I hated Zul’Drak! I didn’t even finish half the quests, I booked it for Sholozar Basin as soon as I reasonably could!
And I have to say I am not a big fan of the vehicle quests. Some of them are quite good, but for the most part I find them awkward and difficult to complete. (And not difficult in a “this is really challenging!” way, but in a “this gameplay totally sucks” way. I groan every time I get a vehicle quest.)
I still have to do instances…I’ve only done UK so far!
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admin Reply:
December 8th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Didn’t you do Drak’tharon in a group with Maidai? Indeed you need to run more instances then.
I don’t like all vehicle quests, but riding on top of a giant wiping out hundreds of Scourge, that’s pretty epic.
As you know, I have this obsession about doing instances in order, so I have done the first six instances now, and I am already making plans for the next runs.
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Tomorrow is date night.
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admin Reply:
December 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Oh right, Tuesday. Date night. You are evil.
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I found myself cringing at vehicly quests too. It is something different, but it is still quite annoying. I was happy to finish the Drakkuru quests too as I dont like controlling minions all that much.
Darraxus´s last blog post..Heroics
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Oh, I loved Zul’Drak too. And I also squee’d when I saw the ZA bosses.
If you love lore, definitely quest in Icecrown!
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I am also instance starved. Have decided upon hitting 80 that I must finally save for my epic mount. Only 1K to go.
Agree with other that running through other quest lines at 80 is a lot of fun and you do tend to get more enjoyment from the quests themselves.
One thing concerned me in your post:
“I do like the elements of the corruption of Vordrassil, and it’s my wank that the mysterious unnamed raid instance for 3.3 is going to see Yogg-Saron as end boss.”
Careful with your english as “wank” can mean different things.
Keep up the good work.
Shagh
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admin Reply:
December 9th, 2008 at 3:33 am
I am used to reading fandom sites where wanking means something other than the obvious act, so that thought didn’t even occur to me.
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The quest chains that you’ve done make me want to level my mage faster because with my warrior I never read any of the quests in the rush to get to 80. Now, I’m taking time reading the quest lines. I cant wait till I can get back to doing the other quests. Reading your summaries are making me a bit jealous
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I have a love/hate relationship with VH. Most of the bosses are easy, but then there’s the ethereal and the water elemental boss. I hate them both; the ethereal because of the orbs and the water elemental because she blows up into all the little guys. If you look around the room, you’ll see these little pinkish crystals poking out of the wall, those are the crystal activators. They make the water boss so easy, but still annoying.
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admin Reply:
December 9th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I’ve been to VH twice, and both times we got the Ethereal and the Core Hound. Core Hound = easy as pie, Ethereal = zomg, why did the tank just die!?!
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