Iron Man: You Don’t Know Fear… (2/9)

…until you’ve quested in Ghostlands and you aren’t allowed to die. For you see, there are not one, not two, not three, but four elite quest mobs throughout the zone. Kel’Gash the Wicked is an easy kill, but the other three. Whoo, boy.

       

For those of you who haven’t quested in Ghostlands, Knucklerot and Luzran are level 21 elite abominations: Luzran wanders up and down the Dead Scar, while Knucklerot travels on the road from Windrunner Village to the Howling Ziggurat. They also do buttloads of damage, and as you can see, their paths can cross. Leveling in there as a level 17 druid was terrifying – I even ended up Hearthstoning out of each ziggurat out of fear. There is also a rare spawn, Dr. Whitherlimb, who can spawn in either the Bleeding or Howling Ziggurats, or in a number of locations in Deathholme. I jumped about a foot in the air when SilverDragon went off outside the Ziggurat (paranoia from abominations is the worst XD)

As if they weren’t enough, there is still another elite quest mob: Dar’Khan Drathir. A traitorous blood (high?) elf, located in the city of Deathholme. Also a level 21 elite, he takes a lot of damage before he really gets hurt. He also deals a lot of damage, and has a fear that can send you right into as many as 4 groups of hostile mobs. Thankfully, I cleared out two of them, and he didn’t fear me into the others.

While fighting Dar’Khan, I realized something that I took for granted on my main druids: Natural Insight. This is a passive ability gained at level 10 for Balance and Restoration druids, which increases your mana pool by 400%. I tend to go in cat form for questing, so I didn’t really notice it, but wow. I soloed Dar’Khan in cat and only went out to heal myself, and I ended up running out of mana – from about 8 or 9 casts of Rejuvenation. That’s crazy!

By the way, I soloed Kel’Gash at level 20, Knucklerot and Luzran at 21, and Dar’Khan at 22. Which, of course, is the point of this post:

My dear, sweet, precious Mora has now passed her second milestone: level 20! Hoping to get her to 90 before Warlords, but we’ll see how things go.

-Katherine

Rise, Legendary!

Sighing, I finally give in and, gracelessly plopping down to the ground, pull off my boots. This miserable fool would pay for all that he put me through. I stand again, relishing the soft sand between my toes for only a moment. I trudge on, ignoring the hissing and shrieking of the nearby Hive’Ashi, and keep my eyes on the horizon – on the Crystal Vale. This fresh torment started several weeks ago…

My home away from home…in WoW

2 weeks ago (wow, I’m falling behind), Syrco Owl posted an interesting question:

I’ve played WoW for many years now and I’ve spent a lot of time running and flying around exploring the different zones and areas in the game. Most of the zones are very unique and nothing like anything I’ve ever seen in real life, but some of them reminds me of where I’m from and they feel like home. (…)Now, tell me: What in WoW reminds you of your home?

As soon as I saw this question, I knew I had to make a post about it. The only problem is, Canada is a very diverse country, and you could drive for 30 minutes and you wouldn’t recognize the scenery. So, I thought about doing my home province. But, while Saskatchewan’s stereotype is that it’s “wheat fields and flat”, it’s actually more diverse than that. Yes, there are fields, but there are also forests and marshes and sand dunes and the Canadian Shield and giant lakes up north. So I took a step back and thought, The question is what reminds me of my home. So, here’s my home!

Iron Man: A Challenger Approaches! (1/9)

Yes, I decided to enter a challenger into the Iron Man Challenge.

Several levels ago, but she’s still pretty much the same.

Meet Mora Goldenearth, younger sister of Aleer Goldenearth (one of my “four druids”, who I will be posting about later). When I created Mora, she was just going to be another druid for me to level. I had already heard about the Iron Man Challenge, of course, but I hadn’t really seriously thought about making a Challenger. Just a few weeks ago, once the school year finished, I was able to get back into actually putting some time into playing WoW. I then decided to make Mora my Iron Man. Thankfully, she was only level 5, and hadn’t broken any of the rules yet. Just this morning, I got her up to her first big milestone – Level 10.

10 down, 80 to go.

Wow that’s a cluttered screenshot I will be making milestone posts every 10 levels, and will do brief recaps of any important or exciting news that happens with my Iron Man throughout the leveling process. Unfortunately, I don’t have a very good track record of keeping my characters from dying.

That is more than 3 deaths per level – even more so, as she is a DK.

But, we shall see. Wish me luck!

-Katherine

Azeroth in Real Life – Westfall Stew

Before I get started, I feel like I have been neglecting something:

Happy Canada Day, Eh!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

I started reading WoW blogs about a month ago, but really got into the idea of making one myself after stumbling across Kamalia et Alia. I spent most of the last couple of days perusing her blog, and came across an interesting recipe: Westfall Stew. I read through it and thought, hey, this is something I can do! So, my first real foray into the world of Azerothian cooking IRL. I made it for supper for me and my family tonight, and the end result was lovely. It also tasted amazing.

Delicious Westfall Stew.

I urge everyone reading to check out Kamalia’s blog, and also, to try any Azerothian dishes they want in the real world!

– Katherine

Oh Bliss, oh Rapture…

…oh rapture, oh BLISS!

(How can you tell I’m in the pit Orchestra for HMS Pinafore?)

Anyways, yesterday was a great day. I had Deathdaisy camped out on Jaguero Isle, and Silea by the Gaping Chasm in Tanaris for about 2 weeks, waiting for rain and sandstorms, respectively. Every time I logged on to level up my druids, I would pop over to them and check for pets. I logged on to Silea early yesterday morning, and as luck would have it, it was the middle of a sandstorm! I ran down into the Chasm, and picked up a Silithid Hatchling of my very own.

My new skittery little lovely!

I checked in on Deathdaisy, but no luck. After playing for most of the morning, I stopped in with her again over lunch, and lo and behold: rain! The ever elusive Baby Ape is now mine! Mwahahaha!

Look how fierce he is!

Happy days for this pet collecter! Now, I only have to grab the Minfernal for Old World-level pets, and I’ve got everything from Outland. Onto Northrend I go, once I level my Terrible Turnip up to 20 like the others.

Question for you, readers: what is the most recent pet you obtained? And what is the most difficult pet that you obtained?

Hello and Welcome!

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft ever since 2005, during the Vanilla years. In that time, I’ve come to love (and at times, hate) the WoW community. Recently, I’ve been spending more times on WoW blogs, and I decided, hey, why not make one of my own? I hope to regularly update during the summer, but I make no promises for the rest of the year, due to a busy schedule and starting my first year of University in September. But, enough of that; you probably want to meet these “4 druids and a death knight”.

Deathdaisy is my main character, a level 90 Unholy/Frost Night Elf DK.

Way back in Vanilla, I made my very first character, a human warrior named Goldenblade. The entire reason that I didn’t make a Night Elf, or a druid, was because my sister already made one, and my dad said that we had to make different characters. I honestly can’t remember how much I played her, and how much I got my dad to level her for me. I do remember her getting to 60 before Burning Crusade hit.

I also remember being extremely lucky, and being sick on the second day of BC – in other words, I got to stay home and game out all day. I made two new characters on a new server (Nordrassil) – a Draenei Shaman named Cadrathya, and a Blood Elf Mage named Spinadrella. I got Cadrathya to 16 before I deleted her, and Spinadrella to 20 before she met the same fate. I never could be bothered with leveling; I think it was because I love being able to go anywhere and do anything, without any restriction of level or gear or whatnot. They came back several times, always the same race and class, but never got much farther than previous attempts. I still played Goldenblade, and got her to level 70 in Outland. However, she fell to the wayside when I heard the news about Wrath of the Lich King.

When I heard about Wrath, I got my sister to hurry up and level her Draenei Hunter, Silea, so that I could make a Death Knight on Nordrassil. I also found out about the pet tab in the spell book. So, I made a new human mage, also named Cadrathya, and sent all kinds of gold to her from my sister’s and dad’s characters so she could buy pets for me. When Wrath hit, Deathdaisy was born.

What beautiful Outland quest gear you have!

My favourite quests at the time were the Death Knight starting quests, and I absolutely adored Northrend. Honestly, I don’t think anything else inspiring really happened. And then, along came Cataclysm…

Mourning the loss of the Park, and the druids in it.

Coming up to Cata, I took part in both of the launch events – the Elemental Rifts, and Operation: Gnomeregan. I rushed to get Deathdaisy up to at least 75 in order to take part in the latter…and then spent a few months doing nothing but Argent Tournament dailies. When Cataclysm came out, I made two brand-spankin’-new characters: Rhea, a Worgen Druid, and Kellista, a Goblin Hunter. I got frustrated with the Xylem quests in Azshara, and deleted Kellista at around 16. Rhea made it all the way to 20, before she, too, got the axe. I also took Deathdaisy around Azeroth for the first month or so, just to see the changes to the world, and to do every new quest. I also created some new druids, but none of them lasted past level 12.

When Mists of Pandaria came out, I decided to get serious about my druids – they are my favourite class, after all. So, over to Cenarion Circle I went, trying my hand at roleplaying. I created 4 druids off the bat, one of each race (I’ll make separate posts later describing them). They are: Kethysa, my Night Elf; Aleer, my Tauren; Isabelledobs, my Worgen; and Zanjun, my troll. I also quickly got Deathdaisy up to 90 and started working on rep grinding – shiny new mounts, tabards, and pets, ahoy! Recently, I also got a few other characters going – Meie, my Pandaren druid monk; Althene, my druid of the flame; Cielbright, my Night Elf priestess, and Mora, my entry into the Iron Man Challenge. So far, she’s level 5, as I have been focusing on leveling my main alts over her. I also intend to level a “For the Neutral” Pandaren – created on Caelestrasz with the name of Tzaziki.

Aleer at level 40.

I am eagerly looking forward to Warlords of Draenor, and everything I see with item models and character models and zone art and pets and mounts just…GAH. It can’t get here fast enough!

I am a hardcore casual player: I collect pets, mounts, and tabards, I grind reputations, and I farm achievements. I also run dungeons only when I can solo them, and I am working on soloing Vanilla, BC, and WotLK raids. I also want to try my hand at Battlegrounds this summer, though I have no idea what to expect.

I think this blog is going to be a fun project, and I hope to meet some great friends and fellow WoW-junkies while I’m running it!

-Katherine