100

[Urbin]

Tonight, handing in one of the last quests in Arak Peak (name?) I hit 100.

Quested all through SMV (about half of it wasted on the 91-1 cap), Gordok
(name?) and Arak Peak (a few quests still open, but I got the achievment for
the zone). Did the quests in Nagrand far enough to upgrade the Barracks to
level 2. Ran the the first three instances (Auchindon twice), so four
instance runs in total. Some gathering, some pet collecting, some XP from
missions.

That leaves me with plenty of instances, most of Nagrand and 1 or 2 more
zones (no longer logged in, so can't check). Next big goal is to gather 1100
more resources so I can upgrade the garrison to level 3.

And I'll probably go back to 25-man Naxx because at 90 I couldn't take on
the dog (forgot name) with its add, maybe at 100 I'll be able to outdps that
fight, finishing up the 25 man Naxx achievments.

We'll see how much of that I manage to squeeze in, the next two days will
pretty much be without game time, so maybe one more night and a little time
on the 27th, on the afternoon of which my time runs out...

But now it's off to bed, I'm long overdue ;-)

Cheers
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin
Tonight, handing in one of the last quests in Arak Peak (name?) I hit 100.

Congrats! :-D Spires of Arak is the English name for it btw, guessing
you're translating from German client? :-)

Post by Urbin
Quested all through SMV (about half of it wasted on the 91-1 cap), Gordok
(name?)

Gorgrond

Post by Urbin
and Arak Peak (a few quests still open, but I got the achievment for
the zone). Did the quests in Nagrand far enough to upgrade the Barracks to
level 2. Ran the the first three instances (Auchindon twice), so four
instance runs in total. Some gathering, some pet collecting, some XP from
missions.

Sounds similar to my range of stuff done, I hit 100 in Spires of Arak
as well, very nearly finished it, having done the first three dungeons
on the way, plus a load of treasure hunting.

Post by Urbin
That leaves me with plenty of instances, most of Nagrand and 1 or 2 more
zones (no longer logged in, so can't check). Next big goal is to gather 1100
more resources so I can upgrade the garrison to level 3.

Sounds like you might've missed Talador on the way up, else you didn't
mention it, that's a really nice looking zone, especially around
Auchindoun. Watch out for the rare spawn who might remind you of
another game which I know you play... ;-)

Resource gathering should be fairly fast if you've not done all the
treasures yet, plenty of those at 20-30 res per trasure generates
resources quickly, a shame they're one-time only, those of us playing
longer than 10 days have to find more reliable lognterm resource
generation, but you'll be fine!

Post by Urbin
And I'll probably go back to 25-man Naxx because at 90 I couldn't take on
the dog (forgot name) with its add, maybe at 100 I'll be able to outdps that
fight, finishing up the 25 man Naxx achievments.

Good idea, lvl 100 is a fair step up vs lower lvl content I found,
Firelands went from manageable but a bit tough, to dead easy, so Naxx
will likely be easier still, even if you don't manage to gear up a
lot.

Post by Urbin
We'll see how much of that I manage to squeeze in, the next two days will
pretty much be without game time, so maybe one more night and a little time
on the 27th, on the afternoon of which my time runs out...

Hopefully you'll manage a few fun things along the way anyway. I very
much enjoyed questing in Nagrand, it bring back a lot of memories of
Outland's Nagrand, yet different at the same time, really nice zone!

Post by Urbin
But now it's off to bed, I'm long overdue ;-)

Hehe, the joys of levelling, "just a bit more exp" and a few hours
pass by ;-)

[Urbin]

Post by Urbin
Tonight, handing in one of the last quests in Arak Peak (name?) I hit 100.

Spires of Arak is the English name for it btw, guessing you're
translating from German client? :-)

Post by Urbin
Quested all through SMV (about half of it wasted on the 91-1 cap), Gordok
(name?)

Gorgrond
Sounds like you might've missed Talador on the way up, else you didn't
mention it

I've switched to the English client about half way through vanilla, so the
only excuse for mangling those zone names and forgetting to mention Talador
is that I haven't played enough yet for the names to stick and that it was
3am ;-)

near Auchindoun. Watch out for the rare spawn who might remind you of
another game which I know you play... ;-)

Haven't seen that one yet, I'm sure it would have registered ;-)

I very much enjoyed questing in Nagrand, it bring back a lot of memories
of Outland's Nagrand, yet different at the same time, really nice zone!

Yes, I generally like how they modelled the zones close enough the the BC
ones to make the names and the layout recognisable but yet different enough
so it still feels new. SMW is pretty much the same layout but with a totally
different look but the main features are already/still there. Talador
matches Terokkar Forest in rough layout, Arak Peak matches Skettis. I guess
Gorgrond roughly matches Blade Edge Mountains and Nagrand is obviously still
Nagrand. Zangarmarshes I figure to be an assembly of the parts where the
other zones meet, including the bit around Khadgars tower and probably the
sea to be drained... Hellfire Peninsula is also pretty obviously the lvl 100
zone we arrived in, the only place I haven't figured out is Netherstorm, but
I guess that just arrived out of the nether :-)

Happy Winterveil to all of you.
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin
I've switched to the English client about half way through vanilla, so the
only excuse for mangling those zone names and forgetting to mention Talador
is that I haven't played enough yet for the names to stick and that it was
3am ;-)

Hehe 3am is a good excuse ;-)

Post by Urbin

near Auchindoun. Watch out for the rare spawn who might remind you of
another game which I know you play... ;-)

Haven't seen that one yet, I'm sure it would have registered ;-)

You'd have remembered it alright - it's somewhere to the north of
Auchindoun (there's another one in that general region which would
also stand out for a different reason, well worth exploring that
area!), don't be put off by the blood elf NPCs nearby if you find it,
they're not hostile to Alliance :-)

Post by Urbin

I very much enjoyed questing in Nagrand, it bring back a lot of memories
of Outland's Nagrand, yet different at the same time, really nice zone!

Yes, I generally like how they modelled the zones close enough the the BC
ones to make the names and the layout recognisable but yet different enough
so it still feels new. SMW is pretty much the same layout but with a totally
different look but the main features are already/still there. Talador
matches Terokkar Forest in rough layout, Arak Peak matches Skettis. I guess
Gorgrond roughly matches Blade Edge Mountains and Nagrand is obviously still
Nagrand. Zangarmarshes I figure to be an assembly of the parts where the
other zones meet, including the bit around Khadgars tower and probably the
sea to be drained... Hellfire Peninsula is also pretty obviously the lvl 100
zone we arrived in, the only place I haven't figured out is Netherstorm, but
I guess that just arrived out of the nether :-)

Netherstorm didn't make it - it would've been an island called
Farahlon (there's the Ruins of Farahlon in the northeast of
Netherstorm as we know it), and was supposed to be added in 6.1, while
Tanaan Jungle (HFP) was meant to be in at release as a lvl 100 zone...
mysteriously Tanaan got put back to probably 6.1, and Farahlon went
silent altogether. I have distinct suspicions that WoD production
overran badly, and a lot of things were left out to get it released on
time, which would explain the unfinished feel of the lvl 100
content...

Post by Urbin
Happy Winterveil to all of you.
Urbin

Same to you and everyone else! :-)

[Urbin]

Post by Catriona R
mysteriously Tanaan got put back to probably 6.1

Are you telling me that the whole zone on the map is just a placeholder and
once I'm done questing in Nagrand I have seen all the currently available
zones? Wow. Now wonder people find level 100 content to be lacking.

Cheers
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin

Post by Catriona R
mysteriously Tanaan got put back to probably 6.1

Are you telling me that the whole zone on the map is just a placeholder and
once I'm done questing in Nagrand I have seen all the currently available
zones? Wow. Now wonder people find level 100 content to be lacking.

Yep, Tanaan is unfinished; last I saw of it on beta, before
flightpaths got routed to not fly over it, the landscape wasn't even
done, there were just a few new things dropped onto HFP! Admittedly
that was a while ago and I'd guess they got a bit further with it by
now but still, it's very much off-limits, all you see of it is the
intro questchain.

For questing, Nagrand is the last of it really, after that there's a
bunch of areas of lvl 100 mobs in various zones, but very little
content to do with them. A rotating daily to grind a heap of mobs
(changes each day), and a weekly to do a handful of quests in one of
those places without a cohesive overall story... that's it for
questing, other than the legendary quest chain, which I didn't get far
with due to the heroic dungeon requirement. That's why I'm rather
disappointed, anyway - not everyone shares my liking for quests and
story, fair enough, but it feels like something's missing for me!

[Urbin]

Post by Urbin
That leaves me with plenty of instances, most of Nagrand and 1 or 2 more
zones (no longer logged in, so can't check). Next big goal is to gather 1100
more resources so I can upgrade the garrison to level 3.

So, I got in some more time last night. Quested for a few hours in Nagrand
(probably did about a third judging from the achievement). Did the war daily
(Engaging the wild, second time in a row) and the fishing daily, cut down
some more timber, visited Skyreach (for a quest I had gotten in the Peaks of
Arak and another quest from my Garrison). Updgraded my Garrison to level 3
and started building a stable (as I really liked remaining mounted while
fighting, gathering etc while in Nagrand). Raised two followers to just a
few XP below 100 and am now totally out of building materials for further
missions or buildings :-)

Questing in Nagrand I came across a few rares and easily killed all of them.
Then I attacked another and after a while noticed that I had hardly dented
his health. Mouseover. 2400k HP? WTF. And of course I dropped him off the
cliff so my pet was constantly pulling those wandering things (not the
clefthoof, the others whose name escapes me right now). Throw in a few
wandering orcs and my pet was tanking this super-HP-rare, 5 or 6 of those
big things and a couple of orcs. My rotation was down to "heal pet, cobra
shot, X, rinse and repeat) where X was either one of my long cooldown
abilities or Serpent Sting. It took me forever and a day to get the rare
down to about 10 percent when my pet pulled another four wandering mobs.
Luckily a horde hunter stumbled past us at that point and helped me finish
the lot off. Phew. Close call. But lots of fun!

I also took the proving grounds quest and easily managed bronze on the first
attempt. It took me three tries for silver and I failed on the second wave
for gold. As I have no plans on visiting heroics anytime soon, I didn't
bother retrying for gold as I had plenty of other things to do but found it
quite a good challenge. I am wondering if the proving grounds for healers
and tanks are as cool/realistic? They should offer this as a permanent
feature next to the target dummies with mobs adjusting to your current level
but keeping their special abilities. This would make it a good way to
practise tanking/healing for someone who has a suitable character that used
to be a DD in the past. If something had existed back in the days, I might
have converted my level cap shadow priest to a healer instead of levelling a
healing shammy from the ground up out of fear of not knowing what I was
doing...

I had raised my rogue/skinner/leatherworker from 65 to 90 a few days ago. As
I had read the descriptions I expected her to keep her stuff in the bags and
her equipped gear to be moved to the free bag slots (there were plenty of
those) and my action bar to be wiped clean/repopulated.

As it turns out, she was given new gear (quite good looking actually), four
24 slot bags a hearthstone, a stack of 20 food and four abilities. That's
it. All stuff from the bags gone. And the icon indicating there was plenty
of mail from herself (as I had understood it, they would only do that with
stuff that didn't fit in the bags, but it seems they do it for everyting you
carry). I thought I'd hearth back to Shattrath (old), where her hearth had
been set before the upgrade and boldly walked through the portal, only to
notice that he hearthstone had been re-adjusted to the dark portal. This
meant my new level 90 character out of her posessions was stuck in Draenor
with no way to get to a mailbox within 30 days unless I'd level here far
enough to get my own Garrison :-( Not even my agent squire worked. No access
to bank, mailbox or anything!

So I suggest if you plan to upgrade a character without the aim of doing the
intro quest straight away that you fly back to SW and set your hearthstone
there before walking through the portal!

Amazingly I found her very squishy (she's a Subtlety Rogue as I made here
mainly to sneak past mobs in order to pickpocket in order to level up
lockpicking to be able to open my own lockboxes). She had about three
abilities (i.e. she was reduced even more than my hunter had been with the
new patch). I would need to sit and eat after every fight and twice I came
really close to dying. Only once we were past the "I will owe you one kill"
arena did I realise that she had gotten only her very basic skills and no
talents. Over the next few quests I got back all her abilities and got to
pick the new talents (yay, free respec :-) and together with the gear
upgrades from those quests she was actually able to take on 2 mobs at the
time without dying by the time she was gathering the timber for the new
Garrison.

Got all her stuff out of the mailbox (so it won't be lost in the Nether
tomorrow night) but am still stuck in Draenor as I didn't quest far enough
for her to get sent to Stormshield and the SW portal. So either I'll quest
some more, find a warlock or let her stranded (I think I'll do the latter).

So with most other things as far as I am likely to get them, I think
tonight...

Post by Urbin
And I'll probably go back to 25-man Naxx because at 90 I couldn't take on
the dog (forgot name) with its add, maybe at 100 I'll be able to outdps that
fight, finishing up the 25 man Naxx achievments.

... I'll form a solo raid and head to 25-man Trial of Champion and 25-man
Naxx and see what I'll do after that.

Then tomorrow at 16.52 my time will be up :-)

I'll let you know how my last day goes...

Cheers
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin

Post by Urbin
That leaves me with plenty of instances, most of Nagrand and 1 or 2 more
zones (no longer logged in, so can't check). Next big goal is to gather 1100
more resources so I can upgrade the garrison to level 3.

So, I got in some more time last night. Quested for a few hours in Nagrand
(probably did about a third judging from the achievement). Did the war daily
(Engaging the wild, second time in a row) and the fishing daily, cut down
some more timber, visited Skyreach (for a quest I had gotten in the Peaks of
Arak and another quest from my Garrison). Updgraded my Garrison to level 3
and started building a stable (as I really liked remaining mounted while
fighting, gathering etc while in Nagrand). Raised two followers to just a
few XP below 100 and am now totally out of building materials for further
missions or buildings :-)

Sounds like you've been busy! I had the stable for a bit, dropped it
when I got all the mounts from it, as I thought I wasn't too bothered
about the buffs, but now i findI miss them, so I'll probably get it
back again when I'm done with achievements from other buildings. You
never get to fight while mounted like in Nagrand, but mining and
looting items while mounted is great! Shame you can't do archaeology
mounted with it, that's another thing I love in Nagrand ;-)

Post by Urbin
Questing in Nagrand I came across a few rares and easily killed all of them.
Then I attacked another and after a while noticed that I had hardly dented
his health. Mouseover. 2400k HP? WTF. And of course I dropped him off the
cliff so my pet was constantly pulling those wandering things (not the
clefthoof, the others whose name escapes me right now). Throw in a few
wandering orcs and my pet was tanking this super-HP-rare, 5 or 6 of those
big things and a couple of orcs. My rotation was down to "heal pet, cobra
shot, X, rinse and repeat) where X was either one of my long cooldown
abilities or Serpent Sting. It took me forever and a day to get the rare
down to about 10 percent when my pet pulled another four wandering mobs.
Luckily a horde hunter stumbled past us at that point and helped me finish
the lot off. Phew. Close call. But lots of fun!

Sounds like you found one of the lvl 100+ rares, which drop rep items
for the goblin faction - those all start at about 2-3million health,
and are rpetty tough to solo; I've done it, but it wasn't that easy
and involved a lot of healing my bodyguard! They're way tougher than
the lower lvl rares in the rest of Nagrand, it's a bit of a step up
between levelling mobs and lvl 100 mobs. I'm impressed you killed it
with all those adds too!

Post by Urbin
I also took the proving grounds quest and easily managed bronze on the first
attempt. It took me three tries for silver and I failed on the second wave
for gold. As I have no plans on visiting heroics anytime soon, I didn't
bother retrying for gold as I had plenty of other things to do but found it
quite a good challenge. I am wondering if the proving grounds for healers
and tanks are as cool/realistic? They should offer this as a permanent
feature next to the target dummies with mobs adjusting to your current level
but keeping their special abilities. This would make it a good way to
practise tanking/healing for someone who has a suitable character that used
to be a DD in the past. If something had existed back in the days, I might
have converted my level cap shadow priest to a healer instead of levelling a
healing shammy from the ground up out of fear of not knowing what I was
doing...

The healing proving ground is great, very like a real 5-man party,
it's even smart enough toa dd everyone to the UI so my addons work
normally. i think one or two abilities glitch out slightly, but
voerall it's very good for practicing, I totally recommend it.
Although real people in pugs are rather less efficient than the NPCs
lol, NPCs actually interrupt and move out of the fire!

You don't need gold for heroics btw, only silver :-)

Post by Urbin
... I'll form a solo raid and head to 25-man Trial of Champion and 25-man
Naxx and see what I'll do after that.

Good luck, it *should* go ok, however beware in TotC, the faction
champions are very very annoying. My bf and I did it at 90, we were in
no danger of dying, but it took forever to get them down, as they had
3 healers, which healed each other very effectively, and also they had
dps who liked to CC and interrupt us. With the icnreased dmg from
being lvl 100 you should be ok, but may need to blow a cd or two to
get the first healer down, once one is down it's much easier to get
the others down!

Post by Urbin
Then tomorrow at 16.52 my time will be up :-)
I'll let you know how my last day goes...

Hope it's a fun one! :-)

[Urbin]

Post by Catriona R

Post by Urbin
... I'll form a solo raid and head to 25-man Trial of Champion and 25-man
Naxx and see what I'll do after that.

Good luck, it *should* go ok, however beware in TotC, the faction
champions are very very annoying. My bf and I did it at 90, we were in
no danger of dying, but it took forever to get them down, as they had
3 healers, which healed each other very effectively, and also they had
dps who liked to CC and interrupt us. With the icnreased dmg from
being lvl 100 you should be ok, but may need to blow a cd or two to
get the first healer down, once one is down it's much easier to get
the others down!

Well, as it turns out Trial of the Crusader was a walk in the park, Naxx 25
was even easier (one shotting trash) and I got my missing achievments within
10 minutes. Then the Obsidian Sanctum with all three dragons up, took less
than two minutes plus the mount dropped. Next stop Ulduar where most bosses
were trivial, on many I even got additional hard mode achievments. Struggled
on Thorim as I had never done that fight before, but after being permalocked
with the dwarves some googling solved that. Died once to Mimiron, all else
went fine except I couldn't kill Yogg Saron. I had never seen the fight
before and even after reading up on it I kept getting stuck on Phase 2. Not
dying, just being stuck, as soon as my pet killed a tentacle holding me I
was either permastunned or grabbed again or so slow I wouldn't reach the
portals in time. I managed to get inside the brain once but got ported out
before I could kill everthing (due to timer or loss of all sanity?), maybe I
shouldn't have attempted that without the keepers... Anyway, at 3am I quite,
quite happy with what I achieved. All of the above was in 25man mode, by the
way.

Anyway, not sure if I'll managed to log in tomorrow a last time. If not, it
was 10 good days but it's not a big loss not playing, I could already feel
my completionist side raising its head :-)

Cheers
Urbin