Trying a few things...

[Catriona R]

I seem to have refound my interest in WoW this past week or so, been
doing a few things out of the usual garrison chores routine:

First up, I have actually voluntarily done some heroic 5-mans :-O When
I did them for the legendary chain I found Auchindoun was pretty much
stressfree, and when the dungeon weekend is up it gives Laughing Skull
rep at 3k+ for about 10-15 mins, which is a great rate compared with
grinding mobs outside (So does Everbloom but urgh, just no). So, ok,
I've run it 4 times over the 5 day weekend, every group was pretty
much fine, that's certainly helping my confidence in pugs (although
admittedly, people who want to farm pointless rep tend to be the more
patient types to begin with...)

Also had a shot at Shadowmoon Burial Grounds duo with my bf; just
normal this time but we cleared the place alright. That cave with the
rockworm boss in looks amazing, talk about atmosphere - high-res
Deepholm for sure, loved it! Decided it was too much hassle to try and
fight through on heroic for the inn quest (item is after the 2nd boss)
but I completed the normal mode one anyway. Which leaves me with only
4 uncomplete inn quests now, so it seems a good enough time to drop
the inn and build a Gladiators Sanctum, the one building I've not done
at all. I'm no PvPer, but since I've done everything else, time to
give this one a shot... and Ashran.

Ashran, hmm, I'm not big on giant PvP maps, because it's hard to learn
where to go, and it's very hard to get to your group if they're down
at the other end of the map. I'm a healer, I don't function well solo
in PvP; give me people to heal! And it seems Horde don't get many good
groups in Ashran, my first 3 attempts were groups scattered everywhere
and being freely slaughtered by the Alliance, although I did at least
eventually collect my 20 broken bones and a human head. Got a much
better group last night and actually completed 2 bonus objectives and
got a heap of kills, that's progress!

Oh and now Brewfest has started, been there, done that, except there's
a pile of toys and a new pet to learn, so I guess I'm doing it again -
I never got last year's toys (no toybox then!), so that's 4 alts
running it to be on the safe side (only 2 can do Direbrew for those
tokens), suspect I'll burn out fast, but hopefully I'll get everything
first. It seems the ram riding route has completely changed since I
last went there, not sure if that was a Cataclysm or SoO change but
that took some relearning. Not a fan of the reins being a spell now,
that I can't drag to an actionbar - I much prefer being able to spam
an actionbar keybind and steer with my mouse, especially when there's
tons of tents and bonfires to avoid along the route!

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
First up, I have actually voluntarily done some heroic 5-mans :-O When
I did them for the legendary chain I found Auchindoun was pretty much
stressfree, and when the dungeon weekend is up it gives Laughing Skull
rep at 3k+ for about 10-15 mins, which is a great rate compared with
grinding mobs outside (So does Everbloom but urgh, just no). So, ok,
I've run it 4 times over the 5 day weekend, every group was pretty
much fine, that's certainly helping my confidence in pugs (although
admittedly, people who want to farm pointless rep tend to be the more
patient types to begin with...)

Auch and Everbloom gives ~8k rep if the group goes for a full clear in
Everbloom. Luckily I hit exalted yesterday after doing both dungeons +
a single mythic with my guild. Another mount. 238/250. And I still
need to craft 4 engineer mounts. Lazy. Mat farming. Argh..

Post by Catriona R
Ashran, hmm, I'm not big on giant PvP maps, because it's hard to learn
where to go, and it's very hard to get to your group if they're down
at the other end of the map. I'm a healer, I don't function well solo
in PvP; give me people to heal! And it seems Horde don't get many good
groups in Ashran, my first 3 attempts were groups scattered everywhere
and being freely slaughtered by the Alliance, although I did at least
eventually collect my 20 broken bones and a human head. Got a much
better group last night and actually completed 2 bonus objectives and
got a heap of kills, that's progress!

You cant win Ashran without a leader and a handful of healers. That is
a fact. Even if you have a drunk leader you still have a good chance to
win Ashran. :)
I can recommend the Ashran Buddy addon which gives you a clear picture
of the fight and the progress towards the final boss fight.

Post by Catriona R
Oh and now Brewfest has started, been there, done that, except there's
a pile of toys and a new pet to learn, so I guess I'm doing it again -
I never got last year's toys (no toybox then!), so that's 4 alts
running it to be on the safe side (only 2 can do Direbrew for those
tokens), suspect I'll burn out fast, but hopefully I'll get everything
first. It seems the ram riding route has completely changed since I
last went there, not sure if that was a Cataclysm or SoO change but
that took some relearning. Not a fan of the reins being a spell now,
that I can't drag to an actionbar - I much prefer being able to spam
an actionbar keybind and steer with my mouse, especially when there's
tons of tents and bonfires to avoid along the route!

Luckily the event lasts for 17-18 days. I did the heroic every day on
6-8 chars last year and the year before and never got a single mount.
Kinda amazing as there is a ~4% drop chance.

Btw. 150 attempts on the vitreous mount in Stonecore and still counting. :)

[Peter T.]

Post by Peter T.
Auch and Everbloom gives ~8k rep if the group goes for a full clear in
Everbloom. Luckily I hit exalted yesterday after doing both dungeons +
a single mythic with my guild. Another mount. 238/250. And I still
need to craft 4 engineer mounts. Lazy. Mat farming. Argh..
Luckily the event lasts for 17-18 days. I did the heroic every day on
6-8 chars last year and the year before and never got a single mount.
Kinda amazing as there is a ~4% drop chance.
Btw. 150 attempts on the vitreous mount in Stonecore and still counting. :)

I'm totally focused on mounts atm. :)

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Peter T.
Auch and Everbloom gives ~8k rep if the group goes for a full clear in
Everbloom. Luckily I hit exalted yesterday after doing both dungeons +
a single mythic with my guild. Another mount. 238/250. And I still
need to craft 4 engineer mounts. Lazy. Mat farming. Argh..
Luckily the event lasts for 17-18 days. I did the heroic every day on
6-8 chars last year and the year before and never got a single mount.
Kinda amazing as there is a ~4% drop chance.
Btw. 150 attempts on the vitreous mount in Stonecore and still counting. :)

I'm totally focused on mounts atm. :)

Hehe I noticed ;-) I saw someone with the cloud serpent for 300 the
other day... just... how?? PvP addict and hardmode raider I guess? I
struggle to see how I'll get to 250; 300 isn't even a possibility I'm
considering lol.

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
Hehe I noticed ;-) I saw someone with the cloud serpent for 300 the
other day... just... how?? PvP addict and hardmode raider I guess? I
struggle to see how I'll get to 250; 300 isn't even a possibility I'm
considering lol.

Someone on DMF got the Mountocular ach when 6.0.1 went life before WoD
went live. He was hanging in the air on his new green mount at the
Shrine several hours every day. :)

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R
Hehe I noticed ;-) I saw someone with the cloud serpent for 300 the
other day... just... how?? PvP addict and hardmode raider I guess? I
struggle to see how I'll get to 250; 300 isn't even a possibility I'm
considering lol.

Someone on DMF got the Mountocular ach when 6.0.1 went life before WoD
went live. He was hanging in the air on his new green mount at the
Shrine several hours every day. :)

Wow, that's some dedication, no idea how people find so many tbh. I
guess pvp and raiding help a lot though, that's where many of my
missing ones are, and I've just written those off as not happening
lol.

[Catriona R]

Found this site http://www.warcraftmounts.com/ is kinda handy for
tracking mounts and achievement credit, it was useful for me to see
exactly what is accountwide and what's restricted to only certain
characters; for example class/profession mounts. That's a minefield,
apparently, my main has 225, my paladin has 227, and my tailoring
warlock has 228.

So, from what I can see... 3 of the carpets are accountwide and one is
not (the Flying Carpet, which I actually only crafted today, having
assumed for years that I must have made it... erm, apparently not);
the warlock and pally mounts are indeed exclusive to those characters.
Interestingly engineering flying machines are also accountwide for
achievement credit.

So the "perfect" character for this is a tailoring paladin, it seems
(mine only has 2 class mounts but there's a 3rd available from the
Argent Tournament - however given my warlock is one ahead, there's no
point in me grinding that out; anyone without a tailor warlock
probably should)... but I really cannot be bothered rerolling so my
warlock will have to do ;-)

Was fun looking over those I don't have; once I excluded all those I
consider impossible for my playstyle (nothing will induce me to do
arena/rated battlegrounds/mythic raiding, nor am I willing to pay real
money for ugly mounts...), yep, 300 is impossible, 250 is hard. Maybe
in Legion...?

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
Found this site http://www.warcraftmounts.com/ is kinda handy for
tracking mounts and achievement credit, it was useful for me to see
exactly what is accountwide and what's restricted to only certain
characters; for example class/profession mounts. That's a minefield,
apparently, my main has 225, my paladin has 227, and my tailoring
warlock has 228.

I only rely on the mountocular achievement which you can set to Follow
so you always can see your progress. It updates very slowly though.
Yesterday I get the life-binder's handmaiden. But I had to restart the
game before the Mountocular got updated. :)

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R
Found this site http://www.warcraftmounts.com/ is kinda handy for
tracking mounts and achievement credit, it was useful for me to see
exactly what is accountwide and what's restricted to only certain
characters; for example class/profession mounts. That's a minefield,
apparently, my main has 225, my paladin has 227, and my tailoring
warlock has 228.

I only rely on the mountocular achievement which you can set to Follow
so you always can see your progress. It updates very slowly though.
Yesterday I get the life-binder's handmaiden. But I had to restart the
game before the Mountocular got updated. :)

Yeah, it only updates when you log on the character with the highest
number of mounts - which will be one of: warlock/DK/paladin, depending
on professions and extra mounts. Took me some time to learn why that
was! Not very helpful, really...

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R
Was fun looking over those I don't have; once I excluded all those I
consider impossible for my playstyle (nothing will induce me to do
arena/rated battlegrounds/mythic raiding, nor am I willing to pay real
money for ugly mounts...), yep, 300 is impossible, 250 is hard. Maybe
in Legion...?

I just got the achievement for 150 mounts. Had to argue with blizzard
over it, but now I have 151 (since you get one at 150).

Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

[Peter T.]

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

[Lewis]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

Flying? You're flying?

You bastard.

[Catriona R]

On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:56:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

Flying? You're flying?
You bastard.

It's really not that hard to get; my bf got it a couple of days back
and he HATES any kind of grind... so if he can do it, anyone can ;-)
Just chip away at it a bit at a time, most parts are easy enough,
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way to loremaster/exploration for a start - exploration goes really
fast if you can get some mug with flying+vial of the sands to fly you
around... yeah, *I* did that bit for him :-P

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R
On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:56:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

Flying? You're flying?
You bastard.

It's really not that hard to get;

In two months of playing I've made almost zero progress on it. You have
to explore every zone and complete every quest chain (why? Because we
want to make sure you've done all our content before we let you use the
majority of your mounts).

You have to go hunt down treasure chests all over filled with entirely
useless crap. Many, if not most, of these chest require playing some
variation on Super Mario Brothers (jump here, run and jump here,
pirouette here, then mount up and jump onto that pixel there so you can
run across that rope (Don't fall or you start over!)... yeah, that
sounds like fun. Oh wait, no it doesn't.

You have to max out the rep with about 10 factions, which means more
entirely pointless farming since these factions do nothing at all for
you.

And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

Post by Catriona R
my bf got it a couple of days back and he HATES any kind of grind...

Obviously not since everything required for flying is a grind.

Post by Catriona R
so if he can do it, anyone can ;-)
Just chip away at it a bit at a time, most parts are easy enough,

The definition of grinding is doing pointless simple things over and
over again. Grinding is never hard, it is tedious, repetitive, boring,
and almost entirely pointless.

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

Post by Catriona R
to loremaster/exploration for a start - exploration goes really
fast if you can get some mug with flying+vial of the sands to fly you
around... yeah, *I* did that bit for him :-P

Sure, exploring is easy if you have flying, which is why the ratbastards
make it a requirement to GET flying.

I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

What the fucking fuck? Are they *serious*?

Who the hell is in charge over there and can we get some new people that
don't hate the player base? Or at least who don't hate flying?

(yes I know, no, we can't)

[Catriona R]

On Sat, 26 Sep 2015 14:04:15 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis
You have to go hunt down treasure chests all over filled with entirely
useless crap. Many, if not most, of these chest require playing some
variation on Super Mario Brothers (jump here, run and jump here,
pirouette here, then mount up and jump onto that pixel there so you can
run across that rope (Don't fall or you start over!)... yeah, that
sounds like fun. Oh wait, no it doesn't.

Eh, outside of Nagrand, which did overuse that, the vast majority are
sitting on the ground, or inside huts you go to anyway while doing
quests. There's over 200 available, you need 100, less than 50%, and
there's not *that* high a percentage of annoying ones :-) And if
garrison resources and free gold are "useless", well... you don't seem
to play the game much if you don't have a use for either of those?
Collect them on an alt (rogues/druids are good, stealth past
everything); most alts are starved for resources and need all they can
get; it's also good exp so that alt can skip doing all those quests
you hate so much ;-)

Post by Lewis
You have to max out the rep with about 10 factions, which means more
entirely pointless farming since these factions do nothing at all for
you.

No, you have to max exactly zero factions. Get revered with three, all
of which take a maximum of 3 weeks, or 2 minutes if you use all that
"useless" gold from the treasures on buying medallions on the AH (1k
rep to every faction on use) :-)

Post by Lewis
And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

All but one of which can be bought from a vendor for garrison
resources, at which point it takes a few minutes each to clear them. I
did 7 in a row with my bf the other day, took us not much over an
hour, would've been less if one hadn't been Skettis (now THAT one
sucks...)

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
my bf got it a couple of days back and he HATES any kind of grind...

Obviously not since everything required for flying is a grind.

Nope, if you play the game at all, then only a very small amount of it
is a grind, since you've already done most of it. If you don't quest,
don't explore, and spend your entire life in queued-for instant
teleport instances, then I don't really see much need for flying
anyway...

Post by Lewis
The definition of grinding is doing pointless simple things over and
over again. Grinding is never hard, it is tedious, repetitive, boring,
and almost entirely pointless.

Well, in that case, none of it's a grind except possibly the
reputations. Do the questlines ONCE (they don't even all have to be on
the same character, as long as you do all of one zone on one alt!).
Explore places ONCE. No repetitiveness in that at all ;-)

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

Wow. I find that utterly incredible tbh, I know you *can* skip to a
new zone immediately on levelling but I've never thought anyone would
do it to the extreme of not finishing a single zone, even on alts (if
you have any, I don't know your character situation) It's mindboggling
to me :-)

Post by Lewis
I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

Eh, what? Have they never heard of... swimming??

Post by Lewis
What the fucking fuck? Are they *serious*?

Erm, no, they're either trolling or really stupid, that might be a
"faster" way of geting there but it's not the *only* way. Either,
that's the island full of lobsters at the south coast, which is so
near the mainland that you can walk through the water maybe swimming
about two strokes before you reach it. Or it's Darktide Roost, which
you get a mission for in the other part of the achievement (so are
going to anyway), and get given a flightpath to for free (my new lvl
90 horde alt can fly there right now, despite never having set foot in
SMV); if you don't get it for whatever reason, then swim/waterwalking
mount there.

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R
On Sat, 26 Sep 2015 14:04:15 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis
You have to go hunt down treasure chests all over filled with entirely
useless crap. Many, if not most, of these chest require playing some
variation on Super Mario Brothers (jump here, run and jump here,
pirouette here, then mount up and jump onto that pixel there so you can
run across that rope (Don't fall or you start over!)... yeah, that
sounds like fun. Oh wait, no it doesn't.

Eh, outside of Nagrand, which did overuse that, the vast majority are
sitting on the ground, or inside huts you go to anyway while doing
quests. There's over 200 available, you need 100, less than 50%, and
there's not *that* high a percentage of annoying ones :-) And if
garrison resources and free gold are "useless", well... you don't seem
to play the game much if you don't have a use for either of those?

Garrison resources from chests are entirely worthless, yes. I get more
than enough just by running missions to never run out. Gold is almost
entirely worthless, though it pays for playing time.

Post by Catriona R
Collect them on an alt (rogues/druids are good, stealth past
everything); most alts are starved for resources and need all they can
get;

Really? My lvl 90s all have 10,000 resources and level 2 garrisons. I
don't foresee them ever running out.

Post by Catriona R
it's also good exp so that alt can skip doing all those quests
you hate so much ;-)

It's doing extra pointless quests that I object to.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
You have to max out the rep with about 10 factions, which means more
entirely pointless farming since these factions do nothing at all for
you.

No, you have to max exactly zero factions. Get revered with three, all
of which take a maximum of 3 weeks, or 2 minutes if you use all that
"useless" gold from the treasures on buying medallions on the AH (1k
rep to every faction on use) :-)

??? I thought you had to have the achievement for exalted rep for
Daenor.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

All but one of which can be bought from a vendor for garrison
resources,

The random daily crystal quests can be bought from a vendor? Huh?

Post by Catriona R
at which point it takes a few minutes each to clear them. I
did 7 in a row with my bf the other day, took us not much over an
hour, would've been less if one hadn't been Skettis (now THAT one
sucks...)

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
my bf got it a couple of days back and he HATES any kind of grind...

Obviously not since everything required for flying is a grind.

Nope, if you play the game at all, then only a very small amount of it
is a grind, since you've already done most of it. If you don't quest,
don't explore, and spend your entire life in queued-for instant
teleport instances, then I don't really see much need for flying
anyway...

None of that describes my game play at all. I did plenty of quests to
get to level 100. I just didn't go do needless pointless extra quests
just to complete some achievement. I did not go popping myself into the
air to "fly" over some island off the cost of SMV just to get an
achievement.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
The definition of grinding is doing pointless simple things over and
over again. Grinding is never hard, it is tedious, repetitive, boring,
and almost entirely pointless.

Well, in that case, none of it's a grind except possibly the
reputations. Do the questlines ONCE (they don't even all have to be on
the same character, as long as you do all of one zone on one alt!).

Right, so go back and do *ALL* the quests in each zone and find *ALL*
the exploration points, even those that require you doing stupid
pointless things like shooting yourself over an island for no reason at
all.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

Wow. I find that utterly incredible tbh, I know you *can* skip to a
new zone immediately on levelling but I've never thought anyone would
do it to the extreme of not finishing a single zone, even on alts (if
you have any, I don't know your character situation) It's mindboggling
to me :-)

There is no reason to finish a zone when better gear and more XP and
faster leveling is available in the next zone. I did less that half the
bird zone whilst leveling.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

Eh, what? Have they never heard of... swimming??

I am not sure that you can get down to the water anywhere near there
without plummeting to your death on the rocks. Anyway, that was the
information on how to get the achievement for SMV that was on Wowhead,
which is the site that Blizzard tells you to use.

And, of course, that is just one example. There are similar out-of-
the-way exploration points that you never need to go to in every
zone. The only reason to go to them is to satisfy some dickhead who
decided to make flying difficult as a punishment to players who've been
flying since the first expansion.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
What the fucking fuck? Are they *serious*?

Erm, no, they're either trolling or really stupid, that might be a
"faster" way of geting there but it's not the *only* way. Either,
that's the island full of lobsters at the south coast, which is so
near the mainland that you can walk through the water maybe swimming
about two strokes before you reach it.

The coast opposite that island is very high.

[Catriona R]

On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:21:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
Collect them on an alt (rogues/druids are good, stealth past
everything); most alts are starved for resources and need all they can
get;

Really? My lvl 90s all have 10,000 resources and level 2 garrisons. I
don't foresee them ever running out.

Ah, well, that's true if you get them the garrison and then never play
them other than to loot the cache, mine which haven't been to Draenor
have 0 resources and if I level them quickly, without leaving them for
weeks at a time, they do struggle :-)

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
No, you have to max exactly zero factions. Get revered with three, all
of which take a maximum of 3 weeks, or 2 minutes if you use all that
"useless" gold from the treasures on buying medallions on the AH (1k
rep to every faction on use) :-)

??? I thought you had to have the achievement for exalted rep for
Daenor.

Nope, just the Tanaan Diplomat, which is revered only, and only for
the three Tanaan factions. Those factions are *far* less grind than
the original Draenor ones.

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

All but one of which can be bought from a vendor for garrison
resources,

The random daily crystal quests can be bought from a vendor? Huh?

The guy standing outside your garrison who gives the invasion quests
sells items like http://www.wowhead.com/item=122424 for all of the
missions, for some reason it doesn't include The Pit, but all of the
others can be bought and done in one day if you like. 200 resources
each, so there's one use for them ;-)

Post by Lewis
There is no reason to finish a zone when better gear and more XP and
faster leveling is available in the next zone. I did less that half the
bird zone whilst leveling.

To me, the fun of exploring a zone and finishing the storyline is
reason enough. It seems so utterly pointless to break off a storyline,
missing out on interesting endings (each zone in WoD was really well
done with solo scenarios and cutscenes... maybe not your thing but a
good number of people do like that!), and decent rewards, just to get
crappy greens in another zone, which hey, I can do in a few minutes
after I finish what I'm already doing. I see no reason *not* to finish
a zone, it's not like it prevents you doing the next zone!

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

Eh, what? Have they never heard of... swimming??

I am not sure that you can get down to the water anywhere near there
without plummeting to your death on the rocks. Anyway, that was the
information on how to get the achievement for SMV that was on Wowhead,
which is the site that Blizzard tells you to use.

I actually looked at the Wowhead page for the achievement before
replying to you, to try and figure out what was meant, and didn't see
that comment, so I still don't know exactly which island is meant. But
it's perfectly possible to get to the sea, there's areas of nice, flat
land next to it in both southeast and southwest of the zone. You might
have to swim further (or waterwalk further), but nothing at all
requires using the feather, that's just a shortcut some people might
prefer to use.

Post by Lewis
And, of course, that is just one example. There are similar out-of-
the-way exploration points that you never need to go to in every
zone. The only reason to go to them is to satisfy some dickhead who
decided to make flying difficult as a punishment to players who've been
flying since the first expansion.

No, not as a "punishment", that's ridiculous. The developers,
strangely enough, want people to actually experience the world they've
put all this time into developing. and it's entirely their right to
decide how they think it is best experienced. I happen to agree that
it's better on the ground than in the air (for a time) - you miss
everything if you fly over it, so making sure people actually
experience some of it before letting them fly is a good middle ground.
It's a pity it wasn't always like this; there'd be far fewer problems
if everyone was used to seeing it as a reward, not a right.

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
Erm, no, they're either trolling or really stupid, that might be a
"faster" way of geting there but it's not the *only* way. Either,
that's the island full of lobsters at the south coast, which is so
near the mainland that you can walk through the water maybe swimming
about two strokes before you reach it.

The coast opposite that island is very high.

I guess you mean Darktide Roost then. Those of us who actually do
quests got a free flight there through the garrison campaign, might be
worth checking your lvl 100 characters' garrisons to see if any of
them got that quest up this week, it's the easiest way :-) Failing
that, swim from either east or west along the coast, that's how I got
there. At least one of my low lvl alts already has the flightpath
without having ever been to SMV, so also worth checking if any of your
characters have it, though maybe that requires having been there on
one character already, I don't really know why I have it on that alt.

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
The coast opposite that island is very high.

I guess you mean Darktide Roost then. Those of us who actually do
quests got a free flight there through the garrison campaign, might be
worth checking your lvl 100 characters' garrisons to see if any of
them got that quest up this week, it's the easiest way :-) Failing
that, swim from either east or west along the coast, that's how I got
there. At least one of my low lvl alts already has the flightpath
without having ever been to SMV, so also worth checking if any of your
characters have it, though maybe that requires having been there on
one character already, I don't really know why I have it on that alt.

I suspect Lewis has blocked me long time ago as I dont remember him
answering any of my posts at all since I returned to usenet. :)
But he can kill the goblins for the rocket jump packs which he can use
for exploring Darktide Roost and maybe they even will work at
surrounding islands in case he needs to explore those too for the ach.

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
The coast opposite that island is very high.

I guess you mean Darktide Roost then. Those of us who actually do
quests got a free flight there through the garrison campaign, might be
worth checking your lvl 100 characters' garrisons to see if any of
them got that quest up this week, it's the easiest way :-) Failing
that, swim from either east or west along the coast, that's how I got
there. At least one of my low lvl alts already has the flightpath
without having ever been to SMV, so also worth checking if any of your
characters have it, though maybe that requires having been there on
one character already, I don't really know why I have it on that alt.

I suspect Lewis has blocked me long time ago as I dont remember him
answering any of my posts at all since I returned to usenet. :)

He actually replied to you earlier in this thread ;-) Sometimes
surprised he never seems to have blocked me though!

Post by Peter T.
But he can kill the goblins for the rocket jump packs which he can use
for exploring Darktide Roost and maybe they even will work at
surrounding islands in case he needs to explore those too for the ach.

Forgot those packs, although first he has to get to the island - you
don't need to explore it to pop the map for the achievement credit;
I'm pretty sure I got it from the water on a lowbie once, wandering
past to see what was there - the lvl 100 mobs put me off reaching
land, or if I did, it was like, 2 steps on shore then run away :-)

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
The coast opposite that island is very high.

I guess you mean Darktide Roost then. Those of us who actually do
quests got a free flight there through the garrison campaign, might be
worth checking your lvl 100 characters' garrisons to see if any of
them got that quest up this week, it's the easiest way :-) Failing
that, swim from either east or west along the coast, that's how I got
there. At least one of my low lvl alts already has the flightpath
without having ever been to SMV, so also worth checking if any of your
characters have it, though maybe that requires having been there on
one character already, I don't really know why I have it on that alt.

I suspect Lewis has blocked me long time ago as I dont remember him
answering any of my posts at all since I returned to usenet. :)

He actually replied to you earlier in this thread ;-) Sometimes
surprised he never seems to have blocked me though!

I only block the unrepentant stupid and the assholes. I can't think of
anyone here who comes close to either of those.

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R
On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:21:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
Collect them on an alt (rogues/druids are good, stealth past
everything); most alts are starved for resources and need all they can
get;

Really? My lvl 90s all have 10,000 resources and level 2 garrisons. I
don't foresee them ever running out.

Ah, well, that's true if you get them the garrison and then never play
them other than to loot the cache, mine which haven't been to Draenor
have 0 resources and if I level them quickly, without leaving them for
weeks at a time, they do struggle :-)

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
No, you have to max exactly zero factions. Get revered with three, all
of which take a maximum of 3 weeks, or 2 minutes if you use all that
"useless" gold from the treasures on buying medallions on the AH (1k
rep to every faction on use) :-)

??? I thought you had to have the achievement for exalted rep for
Daenor.

Nope, just the Tanaan Diplomat, which is revered only, and only for
the three Tanaan factions. Those factions are *far* less grind than
the original Draenor ones.

My mistake. I thought you had to get a meta achievemnet for the original
reps at Exalted.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

All but one of which can be bought from a vendor for garrison
resources,

The random daily crystal quests can be bought from a vendor? Huh?

The guy standing outside your garrison who gives the invasion quests
sells items like http://www.wowhead.com/item=122424 for all of the
missions, for some reason it doesn't include The Pit, but all of the
others can be bought and done in one day if you like. 200 resources
each, so there's one use for them ;-)

Learn something every day. Did they add that at some point? I don't
remember him having anything interesting to sell.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
There is no reason to finish a zone when better gear and more XP and
faster leveling is available in the next zone. I did less that half the
bird zone whilst leveling.

To me, the fun of exploring a zone and finishing the storyline

Right, because you care about the story line. We've long established
that you do and I don't.

Post by Catriona R
reason enough. It seems so utterly pointless to break off a storyline,
missing out on interesting endings (each zone in WoD was really well
done with solo scenarios and cutscenes...

If I ever meet the person who decided to litter Wow with cutscenes there
will likely be blood. The thing I hate most in WoD is the *&*&(*&
cutscenes in every instance that you see every time you go to the
instance and that you cannot turn off.

More annoying that no flying. More annoying thatn the nose-ring quest
lines. More annoying that the forced Lore where you have to listen to BS
talk about things you don't care about to get credit for completing a
quest.

Yep, cutscenes are right at the top of the list of things wrong with
WoW.

maybe not your thing but a

Post by Catriona R
good number of people do like that!), and decent rewards, just to get
crappy greens in another zone, which hey, I can do in a few minutes
after I finish what I'm already doing. I see no reason *not* to finish
a zone, it's not like it prevents you doing the next zone!

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

Eh, what? Have they never heard of... swimming??

I am not sure that you can get down to the water anywhere near there
without plummeting to your death on the rocks. Anyway, that was the
information on how to get the achievement for SMV that was on Wowhead,
which is the site that Blizzard tells you to use.

I actually looked at the Wowhead page for the achievement before
replying to you, to try and figure out what was meant, and didn't see
that comment, so I still don't know exactly which island is meant. But
it's perfectly possible to get to the sea, there's areas of nice, flat
land next to it in both southeast and southwest of the zone. You might
have to swim further (or waterwalk further), but nothing at all
requires using the feather, that's just a shortcut some people might
prefer to use.

By sloth1432 (648 – 6·25) on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
Any idea of where Isle of Shadows is?
23
Krydos on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
I got credit for Isle of Shadows at 39.8, 80.0. It's the small group of
islands southwest of Socrethar's Rise.
5
willturnbad on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
Confirmed, glide down from the nearest flight path.
2
Thissxtwo on 2014/11/16 (Patch 6.0.3)
i ran around bottom of map on my water strider to get there.

(So, I guess the Goblin Glider Kit is an option as well as the feather)

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, of course, that is just one example. There are similar out-of-
the-way exploration points that you never need to go to in every
zone. The only reason to go to them is to satisfy some dickhead who
decided to make flying difficult as a punishment to players who've been
flying since the first expansion.

No, not as a "punishment", that's ridiculous.

The current crop of developers are on record as not wanting flying in
the game *at all*. At least one has said it was a mistake to ever add
it.

Post by Catriona R
I guess you mean Darktide Roost then.

No, Shadows Isle or something like that. The flight point opposite is
high enough that you will not even see the island below you if you don't
have view distance cranked up pretty high (or maybe even maxed).

But the point is, there is *no* reason to go there. At all. There are
not quests there. There is nothing out there. The ONLY reason to go out
there is for the achievement.

[Catriona R]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2015 08:37:43 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
The guy standing outside your garrison who gives the invasion quests
sells items like http://www.wowhead.com/item=122424 for all of the
missions, for some reason it doesn't include The Pit, but all of the
others can be bought and done in one day if you like. 200 resources
each, so there's one use for them ;-)

Learn something every day. Did they add that at some point? I don't
remember him having anything interesting to sell.

Yep, possibly in 6.1, it certainly wasn't there from the start. Makes
life a lot easier for getting that achievement, also handy if you
happen to be doing stuff in one of those areas for other reasons, can
pick up the apexis quest and get some apexis along with that (I did
that when farming ogre waystones at one point)

Post by Lewis
If I ever meet the person who decided to litter Wow with cutscenes there
will likely be blood. The thing I hate most in WoD is the *&*&(*&
cutscenes in every instance that you see every time you go to the
instance and that you cannot turn off.

That annoys me too - I love cutscenes, but not when in a group. it's
pointless, because you can't watch them or the rest of the group will
be yelling at you, so you never get to see them until you way overgear
the place and can solo it. Cutscenes have a place, but that place is
after the last boss, and when solo, *not* in the middle of a group
place.

Post by Lewis
By sloth1432 (648 – 6·25) on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
Any idea of where Isle of Shadows is?
23
Krydos on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
I got credit for Isle of Shadows at 39.8, 80.0. It's the small group of
islands southwest of Socrethar's Rise.
5
willturnbad on 2014/11/15 (Patch 6.0.3)
Confirmed, glide down from the nearest flight path.
2
Thissxtwo on 2014/11/16 (Patch 6.0.3)
i ran around bottom of map on my water strider to get there.
(So, I guess the Goblin Glider Kit is an option as well as the feather)

Ah yeah, it's that one then, you can just walk - down the path from
Socrethar flightpath and round the base of the cliff, there's a nice
flat beach right next to it, it's about 2 seconds swim. Definitely no
need for feathers and gliding is only a shortcut down the cliff
(slowfall would do the same thing).

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, of course, that is just one example. There are similar out-of-
the-way exploration points that you never need to go to in every
zone. The only reason to go to them is to satisfy some dickhead who
decided to make flying difficult as a punishment to players who've been
flying since the first expansion.

No, not as a "punishment", that's ridiculous.

The current crop of developers are on record as not wanting flying in
the game *at all*. At least one has said it was a mistake to ever add
it.

That's not the same as saying it's a "punishment", that's saying from
a design point of view they made a mistake. And given the reactions to
the whole thing, I'm inclined to agree; people have got too used to
their crutch and don't want to experience the world as it was always
designed to be experienced. WoW has never been good at putting in
content which includes flying, so flying tends to mean skipping
everything down below - clearly not what the devs actually want, so
their solution makes perfect sense.

Post by Lewis
But the point is, there is *no* reason to go there. At all. There are
not quests there. There is nothing out there. The ONLY reason to go out
there is for the achievement.

Actually, there is a reason to go; the mobs there drop a pet, so as a
pet collector I had a good reason to go there. Most likely not a good
reason for you, but it is *a* reason! ;-) Not really sure why it's in
no quests, but I'd been there anyway, since to me, uncovered bits of
map suggest it's worth taking a look to see what's there, be it hidden
quests, treasures, or in this case, rare drops off the mobs. But then,
I like exploring.

[Peter T.]

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
On Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:56:07 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

Flying? You're flying?
You bastard.

It's really not that hard to get;

In two months of playing I've made almost zero progress on it. You have
to explore every zone and complete every quest chain (why? Because we
want to make sure you've done all our content before we let you use the
majority of your mounts).
You have to go hunt down treasure chests all over filled with entirely
useless crap. Many, if not most, of these chest require playing some
variation on Super Mario Brothers (jump here, run and jump here,
pirouette here, then mount up and jump onto that pixel there so you can
run across that rope (Don't fall or you start over!)... yeah, that
sounds like fun. Oh wait, no it doesn't.
You have to max out the rep with about 10 factions, which means more
entirely pointless farming since these factions do nothing at all for
you.
And, to top it off, you have to complete all the randomly available
quests out of a raft of 12.

Post by Catriona R
my bf got it a couple of days back and he HATES any kind of grind...

Obviously not since everything required for flying is a grind.

Post by Catriona R
so if he can do it, anyone can ;-)
Just chip away at it a bit at a time, most parts are easy enough,

The definition of grinding is doing pointless simple things over and
over again. Grinding is never hard, it is tedious, repetitive, boring,
and almost entirely pointless.

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

Post by Catriona R
to loremaster/exploration for a start - exploration goes really
fast if you can get some mug with flying+vial of the sands to fly you
around... yeah, *I* did that bit for him :-P

Sure, exploring is easy if you have flying, which is why the ratbastards
make it a requirement to GET flying.
I was reading up on Shadowmoon valley because I really though I had
explored everything. The solution to get the exploration achievement was
to go to the south coast, us the feather to launch yourself into the air
and then fly over the otherwise inaccessible island off the coast.

That is bullshit. You can swim to the islands. And in your garrison
you can get a quest which will send you to the Darktide Roost and get
the FP there which makes it even easier for you.

Post by Lewis
What the fucking fuck? Are they *serious*?
Who the hell is in charge over there and can we get some new people that
don't hate the player base? Or at least who don't hate flying?
(yes I know, no, we can't)

I'm sure youre playing the wrong game. Sorry to say..

[Urbin]

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

I know you and Catriona stand on different sides of the whole lore and
storyline issue. However, I agree with her on this part: If you quested to
level 100 instead of only running instances, you might not have these two
achievements complete but at least very close to it.

I only played WoD for less than a month and very casually at that. During
that time I levelled my main from 90 too 100 by questing through each zone
until there were no more quests to be had (which was a fast way to get to
100). That got me the lore master requirements for three or so zones and
also got me to within 2-3 sub-zones of the explorer achievment of the zones
I quested in, so it was quick work to also get that.

Now I accept that once you have reached 100 and are not interested in the
lore, you might not quest through the other zones of the game. In which case
those achievments require a bit of time (i.e. the time it takes to quest
through the remaining zones) but considering I managed to pretty much get
those two achievments in about a week's time, I don't think it is excessive
and though it might be boring if you dislike questing, I certainly wouldn't
call it repetitive.

I can't speak to the other requirements so I wont :-)

Cheers
Urbin

[Lewis]

Post by Urbin

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

I know you and Catriona stand on different sides of the whole lore and
storyline issue. However, I agree with her on this part: If you quested to
level 100 instead of only running instances, you might not have these two
achievements complete but at least very close to it.

She is completely wrong on how I leveled. I did quest from 90-100.

Post by Urbin
I only played WoD for less than a month and very casually at that. During
that time I levelled my main from 90 too 100 by questing through each zone
until there were no more quests to be had (which was a fast way to get to
100).

Not as fast as moving to the next zone as soon as you were able to.

And, for the record, when I left SMV the first time there were *NO*
quests in the entire zone for me, but I still did not have the
achievement for completing the zone.

[Catriona R]

On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:26:22 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis
She is completely wrong on how I leveled. I did quest from 90-100.

Well in that case you *will* be close to all the questing
achievements. Can't be many more quests in each questline.

Post by Lewis

Post by Urbin
I only played WoD for less than a month and very casually at that. During
that time I levelled my main from 90 too 100 by questing through each zone
until there were no more quests to be had (which was a fast way to get to
100).

Not as fast as moving to the next zone as soon as you were able to.

That makes very very little difference. Couple of k exp per quest, vs
bigger rewards from the end quest, and less time wasted travelling
earlier than necessary. Spending a few minutes longer to finish a
storyline does so little harm that it seems daft not to; let yourself
actually enjoy it instead of going for relentless efficiency over all
else, that's just a route to hating everything. Which by the tone of
most of your posts, I think you probably do...

Post by Lewis
And, for the record, when I left SMV the first time there were *NO*
quests in the entire zone for me, but I still did not have the
achievement for completing the zone.

Sounds like you didn't do the questline you're given at lvl 94 in your
garrison, which I suspect counts toward the achievement although it's
higher lvl than the rest of the zone.

[Lewis]

Post by Catriona R
On Sun, 27 Sep 2015 21:26:22 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis
She is completely wrong on how I leveled. I did quest from 90-100.

Well in that case you *will* be close to all the questing
achievements. Can't be many more quests in each questline.

Maybe, but you have to go find them.

Post by Catriona R
That makes very very little difference. Couple of k exp per quest,

That adds up very quickly, especially when you add instances and rares.
The only zones I was close to 100% on the quest were SMV and Nagrand.

Oh, and the new zone (Tanan?), but that doesn't count.

Post by Catriona R
bigger rewards from the end quest, and less time wasted travelling
earlier than necessary. Spending a few minutes longer to finish a
storyline does so little harm that it seems daft not to;

It's not a few minutes. For most zones it is at least 30%. Oh, and I
have to level and alt to get Frostfire Ridge complete, as I recall.
Well, I suppose it might be possible to explore it on an Alli, but that
seems like a high repair bill.

Post by Catriona R
let yourself actually enjoy it

We enjoy different things in game play. I enjoy most playing with
people, which is why I prefer instances to solo questing. I also prefer
to do my own thing without having the game lead me from choke-point to
choke-point with tugs on the nose-ring.

Post by Catriona R
instead of going for relentless efficiency over all else,

Oh no, if it was about efficiency I'd make sure to login every day and
do nothing but pet battles and instances to level to 100. That is easily
the fastest way.

Post by Catriona R
that's just a route to hating everything. Which by the tone of most of
your posts, I think you probably do...

I hate WoD. I think it is a clusterfuck from beginning to end. I think
most people hate it since the subscriber numbers have plummeted to
levels not seen since the game was new and trending up. Next quarter's
numbers are going to be *appalling*.

There have always been things in WoW I didn't like, but in WoD they out
number the things I do like. TBC was the best expansion, but since then
they have really cranked up the EZMode dials. Lich King was ridiculous,
but WoD is even worse with the gear drops and the ease of getting to
end-game. I enjoyed Pandamania, but a lot of people couldn't get past
the idea that there were Pandas.

Post by Catriona R

Post by Lewis
And, for the record, when I left SMV the first time there were *NO*
quests in the entire zone for me, but I still did not have the
achievement for completing the zone.

Sounds like you didn't do the questline you're given at lvl 94 in your
garrison, which I suspect counts toward the achievement although it's
higher lvl than the rest of the zone.

I don't know. I did figure out what it was later on, but it was a
questline that was not available at level, but one I was evidently
supposed to go back to. The region on the far south-west comes to mind.

Oh, yes, I think that was it. Gather costume parts and kill demons or
something. I did finish SMV eventually, but as I said, when I was doing
the zone at level I did *every* quest and still didn't have the
achievement. This certainly affected how interested I was in even trying
to do every quest in any other zones.

The only reason that I finished Nagrand (just recently, so I lied, I DID
make progress) was that I was over at Ring of Blood (?) for something
and when I was flying there the game crashed so I ended up at ring of
something else and there were quests there. So I did those quests and
then when I flew up to the ogres, there were quests THERE, so I did that
sequence of killing mobs in that ring.

I think I only had the quests at Ring of Blood though because I found
some random item that started the quest.

And I was only even going to ring of blood because I forget where the
turn in was for the artifacts.

[Catriona R]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2015 09:02:39 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
bigger rewards from the end quest, and less time wasted travelling
earlier than necessary. Spending a few minutes longer to finish a
storyline does so little harm that it seems daft not to;

It's not a few minutes. For most zones it is at least 30%. Oh, and I
have to level and alt to get Frostfire Ridge complete, as I recall.
Well, I suppose it might be possible to explore it on an Alli, but that
seems like a high repair bill.

Nah, it should be fine, there's no Horde-only places where you can't
pop the map fragment by going someplace neutral nearby, or else
carefully approaching a side with no guards. Even Bladespire Hold, the
big city, just wander through the ogres underneath it and you get it.
It's tougher the other way round actually, getting Karabor without
aggroing guards involved a lot of running round the outer walls trying
to find the one spot which popped the map!

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
instead of going for relentless efficiency over all else,

Oh no, if it was about efficiency I'd make sure to login every day and
do nothing but pet battles and instances to level to 100. That is easily
the fastest way.

I have doubts on that one - unless you are a tank, nope, time wasted
sitting in queues makes instances the slowest way to lvl. Can't even
make decent quest progress while in a queue since you can bet the damn
thing will pop right as you start some event that you have to lose all
progress on if you accept. Pet battles, true, they're good exp but I
couldn't stand levelling by them, I get bored too easily.

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
that's just a route to hating everything. Which by the tone of most of
your posts, I think you probably do...

I hate WoD. I think it is a clusterfuck from beginning to end. I think
most people hate it since the subscriber numbers have plummeted to
levels not seen since the game was new and trending up. Next quarter's
numbers are going to be *appalling*.

Not necessarily, since a lot of people are subbed by the tokens - the
gold price for those is going up and up in Europe, at least, so
*someone* is buying them! I'm not saying they'll be good, they won't,
but Tanaan was a distinct improvement in gameplay, so probably slowed
the fall, along with the token. I'm liking the game a lot more than I
was, anyway - I've actually found some interest in it again recently,
albeit I still think it's by far the worst expansion we've had, Tanaan
only brought it up to the standard of an expansion at launch, we
should've had a load more content added on top of that by now...

Post by Lewis
There have always been things in WoW I didn't like, but in WoD they out
number the things I do like. TBC was the best expansion, but since then
they have really cranked up the EZMode dials. Lich King was ridiculous,
but WoD is even worse with the gear drops and the ease of getting to
end-game. I enjoyed Pandamania, but a lot of people couldn't get past
the idea that there were Pandas.

I never understood the hate for Pandaria, still don't - for my
playstyle it was the best expansion of the lot. TBC was fantastic, IF
you had a good group of people to experience it with. Which I did at
the time, so my memories are great, but if I was to go there now, with
my friends scattered, I'd enjoy it a lot less, I suspect.

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
Sounds like you didn't do the questline you're given at lvl 94 in your
garrison, which I suspect counts toward the achievement although it's
higher lvl than the rest of the zone.

I don't know. I did figure out what it was later on, but it was a
questline that was not available at level, but one I was evidently
supposed to go back to. The region on the far south-west comes to mind.
Oh, yes, I think that was it. Gather costume parts and kill demons or
something. I did finish SMV eventually, but as I said, when I was doing
the zone at level I did *every* quest and still didn't have the
achievement. This certainly affected how interested I was in even trying
to do every quest in any other zones.

That's the one, yep. I don't get why they did that tbh, it seemed
silly to me at the time and still does - I guess they wanted that bit
of storyline to come a little later, as it introduces us to Teron'Gor
and Cho-Gall, who come into Talador and Nagrand. So we get it at
Talador level, but it would've made more sense to just do it at the
same level as the rest anyway. Considering most people probably skip
it and go to Talador first...

[Urbin]

Post by Lewis

Post by Urbin

Post by Lewis

Post by Catriona R
unless you levelled doing nothing but instances you'll be 90%+ of the
way

I was nowhere near 90% of the way there at level 100 and after months
at level 100, I still am nowhere near 90%. In fact, for the lore
master achievement, I don't have a single zone complete. For the
exploration achievement, I don't have a single zone complete.

I know you and Catriona stand on different sides of the whole lore and
storyline issue. However, I agree with her on this part: If you quested to
level 100 instead of only running instances, you might not have these two
achievements complete but at least very close to it.

She is completely wrong on how I leveled. I did quest from 90-100.

Post by Urbin
I only played WoD for less than a month and very casually at that. During
that time I levelled my main from 90 too 100 by questing through each zone
until there were no more quests to be had (which was a fast way to get to
100).

Not as fast as moving to the next zone as soon as you were able to.

Fair enough, I didn't think of that. So you'd have reached 100 with more
zones partially finished while I reached 100 with fewer zones visited but
those quested completely dry.

In any case, you would need to quest on once you reached 100, either to go
back and finish all zones (in your case) or to visit the remaining zones and
finish them (in my case).

I know you don't much care for the lore. What I hadn't realised was that you
considered questing in itself a chore as well (I had assumed you would just
do the quests without reading the story in the quest text, but that seems to
have been a wrong assumption; I stand corrected).

For me "grinding" is an easy, boring, repetitive chore. As such I wouldn't
have considered finishing up quests to be "repetitive", hence not a grind.
It seems our perception of what consitutes a grind are different.

I agree that the flying conditions are probably fairly easy to fulfil for
Catriona's or my own playstyle (if I were still playing) but qould require a
lot of things you seem to dislike about the game (independent on how one
defines grinding).

Cheers
Urbin

[Lewis]

Post by Urbin
I know you don't much care for the lore. What I hadn't realised was that you
considered questing in itself a chore as well (I had assumed you would just
do the quests without reading the story in the quest text, but that seems to
have been a wrong assumption; I stand corrected).

I used to like questing. What I don't really like is solo questing.
Also, the quest lines are not a challenge at all, so they all sort of
bleed into one long slog through content where most everything dies
without much effort or attention.

I can literally one-button my way through WoD with a very simple shot
macro. Every now and then I mend pet or feign death. Really, the only
trouble I ever have is mobs that ignore aggro.

And its not just because my main is a hunter. My DK horde has hit level
95 with my having absolutely *no* idea how to play her. Shes about 60%
done with Frostridge I think. Maybe more. I just hit 1-6 repeatedly and
she kills everything.

She's going slowly since, having no idea how to play her, I don't ake
her into instances.

The Paladin I've only logged into a coupe of times. As a tank, it takes
her longer to kill mobs, but as a paladin they don't seem to be able to
hurt her.

Post by Urbin
For me "grinding" is an easy, boring, repetitive chore. As such I wouldn't
have considered finishing up quests to be "repetitive", hence not a grind.
It seems our perception of what consitutes a grind are different.

Questing at 100 just to get the achievements may not be repetitive, but
it is still boring and easy and pointless. Hell, most the level 100
content is giving me gear 60 ilvls lower than the lowest item I am
wearing.

[Catriona R]

On Mon, 28 Sep 2015 09:10:27 +0000 (UTC), Lewis

Post by Lewis

Post by Urbin
I know you don't much care for the lore. What I hadn't realised was that you
considered questing in itself a chore as well (I had assumed you would just
do the quests without reading the story in the quest text, but that seems to
have been a wrong assumption; I stand corrected).

I used to like questing. What I don't really like is solo questing.
Also, the quest lines are not a challenge at all, so they all sort of
bleed into one long slog through content where most everything dies
without much effort or attention.

They made questing way too easy post-Cataclysm. It's slightly tougher
if you play as a healer spec in appropriate levelled gear (I was fine
in early lvls but by Nagrand struggling quite badly... I actually need
my Barracks bodyguard to make it not too painfully slow!), but there's
still not much lethal, the main threat is too-fast respawns in the
initial rush at the start of an expansion. I loved it when I retried
vanilla recently, anything above about lvl 3 involved actual thinking
about how to best approach it, and some quests could only really be
soloed with strategic corpserunning lol (not helped by vanish being
very realistically as broken as it truly was in vanilla, sigh...)

That's also why I like the ironman challenge, as it's rather more of a
challenge trying to not die when you're wearing greys and have no spec
- now I know you wouldn't voluntarily do that, since you like to level
as fast as possible, but the playstyle is actually more challenging
and enjoyable if you were to try it!

Post by Lewis
And its not just because my main is a hunter. My DK horde has hit level
95 with my having absolutely *no* idea how to play her. Shes about 60%
done with Frostridge I think. Maybe more. I just hit 1-6 repeatedly and
she kills everything.

In all fairness, DKs are even more easymode than hunters ;-)
Especially if you have even a couple of high lvl bits of gear - my
rogue is 95 now and slaughtering everything easily thanks to a 620 BoA
weapon I got from archaeology... I guess when I get to Tanaan I won't
be 2-shotting everything but at present I can do even the group quests
with only 1-2 cooldowns, never needed to pop *everything* yet.


Although it may not appeal to you, there's some challenges you can set
yourself with all this easymodeness nowadays - someone on the ironman
forum suggested challenging yourself to solo every dungeon, at an
appropriate lvl. I ran out of steam around Scholomance, but it was
actually really fun as far as I got, would often have to turn exp off
and go to quest a bit to get some gear upgrades (heirlooms don't cover
every slot), or sometimes level up for a new ability before I could
beat some boss, but it was a fun challenge and a good way to make the
best out of how silly easy everything is now! The guy who suggested it
made it as far as Blood Furnace I think, haven't heard any more of him
since then but yeah, it could be a fun way to level a new alt.

[Urbin]

Post by Lewis

Post by Urbin
I know you don't much care for the lore. What I hadn't realised was that you
considered questing in itself a chore as well (I had assumed you would just
do the quests without reading the story in the quest text, but that seems to
have been a wrong assumption; I stand corrected).

I used to like questing. What I don't really like is solo questing.
Also, the quest lines are not a challenge at all

Yupp, I agree with you there, even though it makes for easy levelling, I
missed the thrill of knowing I might die to any of the mobs.

The only time I came close to dying (other than from my own stupidity
leading to falling off high places and such) was when I engaged a rare not
realising that unlike the other half dozen rares it had about 15 times the
HP and was sitting in the path of elite patrols. I ended up pulling dozens
of elite mobs, one of them with a couple of million HP. Had to resurrect my
pet several times, laid a lot of traps, feigned death repeatedly, in short,
I had to really use all my hunter skills. I killed the mob with 2% of my
health, then died to one of the remaining 17 elites my pet had tanked while
I tried to revive it.

That was the coolest moment in WoD, it was exciting and required all my
(severely diminished) skill. It reminded me of the hunter class quests in
vanilla or facing Old Sooty around level 12 or so :-)

Post by Lewis
And its not just because my main is a hunter. My DK horde has hit level
95 with my having absolutely *no* idea how to play her. Shes about 60%
done with Frostridge I think. Maybe more. I just hit 1-6 repeatedly and
she kills everything.

Agreed. I raised my Rogue from level 62 to level 90 using the boost. I then
started questing through the scripted WoD quests. At the start I was
severely struggling. It wasn't until I realised that I started off without
any talents, skills or gear of value that I understood why it was so hard.
As the quests progressed and I unlocked talents and skills and got gear as
quest rewards, things steadily got easier and by the time I had finished the
scripted part and arrived at my garrison, I once again was pretty safe from
almost anything at my level despite being on a character I had no longer any
idea how to play.

Cheers
Urbin

[Peter T.]

Post by Lewis

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

Flying? You're flying?
You bastard.

Grind, boy! GRIND!

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAAA!!!

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Lewis
Most of them I'll never use. I have some set as favorites and I have two
bound to specific keys (water strider and travelers mammoth) and that's
all I need. I don't foresee ever going for the next level of the
achievement.

Same here. My hotkeyed mounts are the waterstrider, the grand
expedition yak and the flying cloud. The flying cloud because its small
and doesnt cover my sight when I fly.

I have actionbar space reserved for favourite mounts, each character
uses different ones to suit the character/transmog, but all have the
water strider and yak on the actionbars (except my scribes, who have
the mammoth instead - its vendor sells parchment, while the yak
doesn't, saves trekking back to the trainer every time I run out!)

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
(except my scribes, who have
the mammoth instead - its vendor sells parchment, while the yak
doesn't, saves trekking back to the trainer every time I run out!)

Still selling glyphs? :)

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R
(except my scribes, who have
the mammoth instead - its vendor sells parchment, while the yak
doesn't, saves trekking back to the trainer every time I run out!)

Still selling glyphs? :)

Not so much now, some idiot crashed the market down to 25g each, and
it doesn't feel worth crafting them for that low... *sigh* But I took
up inscriptions on my new boosted gnome rogue, since it's useful to
have and still a better moneymaker than most professions, so been
skilling it up on her instead. It's already a tad annoying when I keep
undercutting myself; that's the downside to the AH being across both
factions now!

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.
Auch and Everbloom gives ~8k rep if the group goes for a full clear in
Everbloom. Luckily I hit exalted yesterday after doing both dungeons +
a single mythic with my guild. Another mount. 238/250. And I still
need to craft 4 engineer mounts. Lazy. Mat farming. Argh..

Grats! :-) About 11k rep to go for me, will get it next dungeon event
then. I should go and farm the outdoors mobs a bit anyway for another
shot at the garrison invasion mounts, still missing 3 of those...
227/250 here. 25k apexis to go for the 150k mount, that'll come fairly
soon...

Post by Peter T.
You cant win Ashran without a leader and a handful of healers. That is
a fact. Even if you have a drunk leader you still have a good chance to
win Ashran. :)

Hehe I've certainly learned to spot the difference between a group
with a leader and one without :-) My bf plays Ashran a lot so he's
explained a few things to me, which sure helps, he also spent ages
last night protecting me from a reeeaaallly annoying Alliance rogue
who made it his mission to gank healers at every opportunity, we only
had 2 healers, me being one of them, so I was constantly sapped,
stunned, you name it. I hate rogues in pvp :-P Got my first kill on
the boss though (not that I saw the boss; I'd died and had to figure
out how to get back down the map alone without being ganked on the
way... just arrived in time for the credit!), and the quest reward box
kindly gave me an epic head; the one slot I didn't have a decent PVE
item in, great!

Post by Peter T.
I can recommend the Ashran Buddy addon which gives you a clear picture
of the fight and the progress towards the final boss fight.

I'll have a look at that, thanks - it's a bit confusing when you're
new :-)

Post by Peter T.
Luckily the event lasts for 17-18 days. I did the heroic every day on
6-8 chars last year and the year before and never got a single mount.
Kinda amazing as there is a ~4% drop chance.

Ouch! I've had those mounts for years, actually had 2-3 kodos on
different alts before mounts were accountwide, not sure if droprate
was higher or I was just lucky though. I also have the super-rare slow
ram, only available to people who did Brewfest 2007; MMO-C reckons
under 1% of players have it so cool, that's probably my rarest mount
:-D

2 toys down, and should today get 200 tokens for the pet and the 200
toy on my 2 100s... getting there :-)

Post by Peter T.
Btw. 150 attempts on the vitreous mount in Stonecore and still counting. :)

Ouch, hopefully it'll drop soon! Mine took somewhere around 108,
forget exactly but I was sick of the place by then ;-)