(WoW) Cataclysmic Log p4

Uldum
Neat little story about being captured on the way in, then there's a couple plotlines running. One is helping the Ramkahen secure and protect their lands. That's relatively typical fare, it feels like, though there are some interesting strategy quests where you give directions to a group in a vehicle-like interface.

The other plotline involves Harrison Jones, with all the requisite Indiana Jones references and homages. Most of this, I loved. It also saw me to the first couple deaths I had by not being cautious enough in stealthing about with an item. What can I say, stealth is so foreign to a paladin I just don't know how to use it? Still, I really enjoyed all this after his brief appearances before.

There were, however, some quests in the zone that got a little tedious. Kill X creatures or Collect X drops get a bit wearying, and the monotony of sand probably doesn't help. But the ruins were lovely, and there were a lot of quests that were more unique or flavorful than that.

Anduin Wrynn
In the middle of all the running around in new zones, there's a quest chain in Stormwind that involves exposing Twilight Cultists and escorting the prince around. Anduin seems a nice guy, and pretty sensible for the most part. And he won big points with me by being a priest, strand as that may seem. Mostly, I was just sad that those quests didn't level him. I suppose that would have been a technical issue, but it would also have been a nice touch.

Any Landing...
My trip out to the Twilight Highlands brought about an odd moment of deep connection with the game. Your character remains essentially speechless in the cut scenes. But after "waking up" and looking up at a crashed dwarven plane in a ship's rigging and panning over to the pilot, my immediate thought was:

Oh, great landing, Flintlocke!

That, in and of itself, wouldn't amount to much. But as if in response, the NPC then said:

"Oh, like you coulda done any better."

I burst out laughing right there. I just couldn't help it...

The Highlands
I finished out all but one quest I know of in the Twilight Highlands. Lots of dwarves with... well... Highland culture. Drinking. Farming. Sod-roofed houses. An inter-clan wedding. Nicely done.

Then there was a bit with the Red Dragonflight. Alexstrasza made a major appearance, and a showdown with Deathwing was had. That was strangely emotional for me as well. Wanting to plead with an Aspect to not do battle... Well, I got a little choked up, I'll leave it at that.

And Mathias Shaw made a major appearance. As another guildmate commented about the spymaster's presence: "Oh, shit just got real!" He sends us off leading soldiers, leading ninjas, and distracting elite bad guys... so he can sneak in and backstab them. Ha! Gotta love the guy.

And that one quest I didn't do? The "final" one in the zone bugged out on me. Repeatedly. There's a big fight going on and anytime I got close to it, I'd disconnect from the server. Reconnecting gave me, at most, thirty seconds before it happened again. I disabled addons. I set graphics to low. And it still happened. After more than half a dozen disconencts, I finally abandoned the quest and everything seemed fine. A support ticket said basically "Well, we haven't had any specific trouble with that quest, here's some generic advice." So I'm not sure when I'll get back to that. At least the quest rewards (while nice) don't involve a plate tank piece.

Level 85
And along the way, my paladin reached max level. This led to a fair chunk of time spent sorting out gear. What to keep and what to lose. What to assign to a tanking set versus a DPS set. And without any particular effort outside of questing, my main is geared well enough to access heroic dungeons. Yay.

Meanwhile, Back in Gilneas
I also got to start in on playing a worgen. Amidst the host of witty names such as WorgenFreeman, Worgenator, and Worgendoner (yep, misspelled), I remade Jhazza, my draenei shaman that never made it past the teens in level. I think "tragic" describes the beginning plotline, as it's mostly a faltering last stand. Gilneas wasn't lost when I left it on a ship to Darnassus, but it was hurting.

And it shows that Sylvanas is evil. I've heard people defending her back after the Wrathgate incident. "Oh, well, that was just a rogue Forsaken faction." Yeaaah. Sylvanas may have claimed that, but anyone who believes is a fool. She's been well aware of the creation of the "new" Plague. And her only qualm about using it is to not get caught - it's politics. The Forsaken may need the Horde's support, but they are out for themselves. I'm not without sympathy for the elf who was slain only to be raised as a servant to help destroy her own land, but Sylvanas and the Forsaken would ultimately kill every living thing on Azeroth, given the chance.

Still, I like playing a worgen druid (so... many... forms...), and I suspect I'll get this character a lot further along than as a draenei. It gives me an opportunity to go around and see how all the "old" zones and quests have changed.

Guildness and Changes
So while I've been pondering guild experience and such, it looks like Blizzard nerfed it. Guilds are now receiving only a quarter of what they were from member's quests a few days ago. So our guild has gone from capping for the day after a few hours to maybe not reaching the daily cap at all - partly due to the nerf and partly due to people moving on to lower-level characters or other non-XP-granting pursuits. I don't know if the change will stand, but now I don't actually expect our guild to reach level 25 by April. It may be six months, or twelve, depending on how active people remain.

The Gathering Begins
My second level 80 to get pushed out into the new zones is actually my death knight. Not because I want get her into endgame content so much as because she's my gatherer. Herbalism and Mining on one character, to send ore to my smith and herbs to my scribe. Some questing was involved just to get to an underwater mount, but that'll dwindle and her presence will be focused on gathering.