Alas, Auberdine

[MongoJerry]

Neriad's now finished most of the Borean Tundra and has just moved on to the Grizzly Hills. I liked the Borean Tundra very much. It was fun to use the fast flying mount and be able to fly around, scout out quest items or mobs, drop in, do whatever needed to get done, and get out. The best part of the zone was the war between the red and blue dragons in Coldarra. After being so used to flying around unimpeded, I got a rude awakening when a dragon Nexus Watcher annihilated me in the air. I quickly learned to fly low -- "beneath the radar" so to speak. That was a nice added element of danger to the zone. The whole quest line there was quite enjoyable.

After finishing most of the Borean Tundra quests (but skipping a few, because Neriad was leveling a bit too fast), Neriad went on some dungeon runs. Rather than doing random dungeon runs, I had Neriad go on specific dungeon runs so that she could complete all of the dungeons' quests. That way, even if she didn't get any good drops off the bosses, Neriad would still get the benefit of quest reward items. These items have quickly improved the overall quality of her outfit.

I should mention that, yes, Neriad now has a fast flying mount. I created Neriad near the beginning of the Love is in the Air event, and I had been running those dailies for most of a week. At first, I had started them, because I was in classic WoW thought mode where even the vanilla mounts were expensive, and you couldn't even ride a mount until you were level 40. I thought that by the time I slowly grinded my way up to 40 (again, still in classic WoW thought mode), I could get the Swift Love Bird and save myself the cost of buying regular mount. Of course, I ended up discovering that vanilla mounts are cheap and leveling is fast now. So, by the time I actually collected the 270 love tokens to buy the Swift Love Bird, I had already bought my ebony gryphon flying mount. This presented me with a conundrum. Do I keep the Swift Love Bird as a vanity that I could only use as ground transportation? Or, do I sell it for the gold I needed to speed up my current flying mount?

I chose the later option and ended up selling my Swift Love Bird for 8.1k gold. I probably could have sat in channel and gotten a couple thousand more. However, I had seen a guy earlier buying lovely bracelets in bulk, and I guessed he was stocking up to sell Swift Love Birds later for a profit. I was right. He was willing to pay his 30g x 270 token price. That was enough to pay for both the level 70 and 80 flying lessons, so it seemed a good deal to me. I made the exchange and after experiencing the faster flying, I'm happy for it.

[Apostolic]

I've been watching you level at warp speed over these last couple of weeks. They cannot stop you; they can only hope to contain you (never mind who 'they' might be...).

Since you'll be 80 pretty soon, I'm going to chime in and recommend Hyjal over Vash'jir. Vash'jir is novel and interesting initially, but I quickly found it aggravating and interminable, even my first time through (MASSIVE travel distances, too many distinct quest hubs).

On the other hand, completing the first 75-90 quests (I forget the exact number) in Hyjal will open up the Molten Front dailies, should you feel inclined to try those once you hit 85.

[Ruvanal]

- The travel was annoying. You get used to a +280 or +310 flying mount in other zones, then you're stuck with a +100 mount in Vash'jir

Its a +280 speed mount, check your facts. Vash'jir is a very big area composed of several sub-zones. Most of those sub-zones are as large as any of the zones you would now find on land in Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms, which would make for some long travel times to get around from point to point.

I had no issues with doing that Vash'jir on my warrior when I did the first time. Not so sure I would enjoy it so well on some of the other 'non-ranged' classes like rogues or enhanced shaman though. Ranged classes should fair well. The issue for most is going to be how well they can adapt to being in an almost constant 3D operating environment. Most players have a lot issues when asked to move out a 2D (feet on the ground) situation.

Edit: a quick check of speed in game using the character info panel shows the mount swim speed as 371 (or a boost of +271 over standard run speed).

Hmm. It sure felt slow. The 371 number is strange. A +280 will show as 380 speed on the character sheet, plus the guild bonus. If the Vash'jir mount is showing as less than 380, then it's not a +280 mount. I'll grant that it's faster than the +100 I recall.

We are talking about a +280 modifier, but I am unsure what the base swim speed is. A quick check showed me that using a DK with bonus movement from unholy presence(15%) is not the best meter to go by. Base swim speed is 67%. Checked another character that also showed base swim speed at 67% but only had the guild mounted modifier (10%). That character also ended up showing a 371 mounted speed, but they also showed a 148 swim speed in Vashj'ir with the Sea Legs buff. They seem to be doing some odd multipication effects with some of the buffs for moving there. None the less the sea horse mount there has an effective speed about the same as the next to top flying speed.

[shoju]

base swim speed is 60%. Sea legs improves that.

[Sir_Die_alot]

base swim speed is 60%. Sea legs improves that.

And the sea horse mount is like 450% base.

[MongoJerry]

After a few runs in the lower level Lich King dungeons, Neriad moved on to the Grizzly Hills. The whole zone was terrific. Thank-you to everyone who suggested it. I enjoyed myself quite well with most of the quest lines. By the end, I have to admit that I started to get a little burned out, because there were just so many dang quests. At one point I thought I was just about done with the zone and ended up picking up three additional quests that each lead to further chains of quests. Still, again, I had a lot of fun and got the Achievement for doing 85 quests in the zone. I ended up needing the help of two helpful level Lurkers to help me finish off Arugal and his elite pals. As far as I can tell, the only quest I didn't do was the fishing quest, because Neriad's fishing isn't up to snuff just yet.

My original plan had been to then go on a few more dungeon runs and then hit the Storm Peaks, which had been suggested to me by Bolty as being a "must see" zone. However, Neriad was already so high of a level after finishing the Grizzly Hills and the dungeons would clearly level her too fast to give her much of a chance to finish the Storm Peaks before hitting 80. So, I chose to just focus on the dungeons, making sure that Neriad hit every one of them at least once, which she did. You can probably guess my favorites -- the Culling of Statholme and The Nexus (the one where you fly the dragons). It took me about 3/4ths of the dungeon to undersand and get used to what was going on in The Nexus, but I had a surprisingly patient pug group helping me through it.

So, late last night, Neriad hit 80 and after buying the riding mastery skill, she took the boat to Vashj'ir. She's basically just starting. She got her sea horse, and she just rescued Adarrah and her two companions. I am absolutely loving the zone so far. I can't wait to see what happens next.

[Taelas]

base swim speed is 60%. Sea legs improves that.

No. Base swim speed is 67.5%. Sea Legs improved that by 60%.

[MongoJerry]

Well, as most people on Stormrage know, Neriad finished Vashj'ir, spent the entirety of level 84 working on her archeaology, and has been running many many cataclysm dungeons and now heroic dungeons. Due to the justice and valor points, Earthen Ring reputation, and a couple of item finds, Neriad now owns seven epic items and is on the hunt for more.

Boy, I'll tell you, running heroics on just blues was murder. Neriad's spell power was so small that it seemed like her heals were barely doing anything to everyone's health. However, with the addition of the epics, it's getting a lot easier. Neriad's spell power and mana pool are definitely not where I want it to be, but at least she's starting to be able to keep up the occational undergeared tank in the easier heroic dungeons -- provided that the tank isn't completely clueless about the encounters.

Speaking about cluelessness regarding encounters -- the most frustrating part right now is that I don't really know the encounters and everyone in the party is counting on me to keep them alive. I tell people up front, "This is my first time in this dungeon. Please let me know if there's anything I need to know before an encounter." Sometimes this works and I get some good information. Other times, people don't tell me and I die horrible deaths and get laughed at. And then other times, I'm playing with people who either don't know the encounters themselves or are just used to running the dungeons with priests who know the encounters and never had to know what the priests have to do in them. Once I run the dungeons a few times and get to know the encounters, it'll get a lot easier and maybe I can get to the point where I can explain encounters to other new players. But for now, there's quite a learning curve.

And then that brings me to my next point: If you're on Stormrage and you want to run some heroics, please let me know. I'll be up for it at any time. I'm not looking for hand-outs, so please don't come in with your epic raid geared character who can solo the whole thing if they wanted to. But, if you have an alt that you'd like to run heroics with or if your main genuinely could use justice, valor, or reputation points, let me know.

[MongoJerry]

Oh, yes, and I can't help but show off this beauty that Neriad received on a drop from a non-heroic dungeon:


Neriad on her Drake of the North Wind by Geri1971, on Flickr

[Tal]

And then that brings me to my next point: If you're on Stormrage and you want to run some heroics, please let me know. I'll be up for it at any time. I'm not looking for hand-outs, so please don't come in with your epic raid geared character who can solo the whole thing if they wanted to. But, if you have an alt that you'd like to run heroics with or if your main genuinely could use justice, valor, or reputation points, let me know.

Hey MJ - just let me know and I'll be happy to come tank some runs for you. I can even swap in ret pieces to make me squishier if you want. :p

[shoju]

Heh. Makes me wish that I still had something on SR. Silly me, had to go and fall in love with my death knight and move it to horde....

[LavCat]

I'm usually on midnightish most days. My characters (eleven 85's on Stormrage) have run few Cataclysm dungeons and whatever I knew of them I've forgotten. I don't even think I know how the new queuing system works.

[Sir_Die_alot]

Oh, yes, and I can't help but show off this beauty that Neriad received on a drop from a non-heroic dungeon:


Neriad on her Drake of the North Wind by Geri1971, on Flickr

GIVE!

[shoju]

I've never seen one drop from either of the bosses that can drop them.

[MongoJerry]

I didn't know where else to put this, so here goes:

I just got a new computer and hooked it up to my small LCD HD TV. Understand that this was a jump from a computer with 2 GB of RAM with no external graphics card and a processor that was probably 10 years old to a computer with 12 GB of RAM with a good external graphics card with a more recent processor. The game is just night and day different.

I can now get on a cannon on the gunship in IoC and actually see the keep and players I'm supposed to be shooting at. Deepholm was shockingly different and clear. Before, it was just a roving farclipped wall. Now, it's a beautiful colorful zone. This afternoon, I spent 15 minutes just flying above Stormwind, because it looked so beautiful and clear. Told Barad actually had rain and pools of water had textured skins on their tops. Instances and battlegrounds loaded almost instantly, and I don't get "chunking" the moment I first meet the enemy in a battleground or the moment I fly into a new area in Stormwind. This is just amazing.

Also, I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for all of the help and support I received from the Stormrage Lurkers community. As you probably know already, I took an opportunity to join a Mass Exodus heroic progression team. It's a really good situation for me as the group is right where I am -- having defeated Heroic Morchok but wanting to gradually tackle all of the bosses. We didn't get a new boss down this week, but we made some good attempts. Also, we did complete a couple Dragon Soul achievements (Take the Rainbow and Maybe He'll Get Dizzy) and made some attempts at a couple of others that we should get down next week.

I just want to say thank-you so much for all of the help and putting up with dozens of my newbie questions. I will definitely be available to assist in any way I can. I'm still on the Avarice chat channel, and if you could use my assistance with Lurker raids or whatnot, just let me know.

[LavCat]

I can now get on a cannon on the gunship in IoC and actually see the keep and players I'm supposed to be shooting at. Deepholm was shockingly different and clear. Before, it was just a roving farclipped wall. Now, it's a beautiful colorful zone. This afternoon, I spent 15 minutes just flying above Stormwind, because it looked so beautiful and clear. Told Barad actually had rain and pools of water had textured skins on their tops. Instances and battlegrounds loaded almost instantly, and I don't get "chunking" the moment I first meet the enemy in a battleground or the moment I fly into a new area in Stormwind. This is just amazing.

What keeps me coming back to WoW, perhaps the primary reason, is just how beautiful it is. You probably know that horizonFarclip can be set beyond ultra. I use SET horizonFarclip "2112".