My Blogger Blog wouldn’t display these cinematics, but WordPress has no trouble.
In the first, Alleria hears a voice on the Battle field, and sees that there is black blood all around them. She knows they’ve all been played and heads off to confront Xal’atath
Xal’atath laughs at Alleria’s thinking she can be killed, but lets her know she relishes and is fed by all of the violence mortals produce.
Thank you Blizzard for not drawing this return of Khadgar and redemption of Alleria and Anduin out over several expansions. All mystery readers know if there’s no body, there’s no proven death. I love that the two pick up their “dad” figure and carry him out, after all they’ve been through. My faith is restored.
Yay! Blaugust is on its last day, and this is the last scintillating Blaugust post for 2024. Written in advance, because once I had the post title, the rest wrote itself. I’m pleased with my entries this month. I thought the expansion posts might be a bit more detailed, but they went all stream of consciousness as I remembered things I liked, and things I didn’t.
Watching all those Blizzcon announcements was great fun, I think the only one I’ve actually seen the year it happened was for Shadowlands. What sticks in my mind there, is the Diablo guy roaring, in the middle of the Pandemic, “we’re taking you to Hell!!!”. He was standing next to J. Allen Brack, I think, and Brack was all in with this idea, looking much like Kermit in the first clip above. Because, surprise! World of Warcraft was taking you to hell too. Gack. Oh well, as they said in Cujo, “over, done with, gone.”
Thanks for reading, thanks for stopping by whenever you could.
This is the last post for me to write for Blaugust since Saturday’s Wrapup is done and scheduled. And another night where a big storm threatens to take out the power before I finish! Sheet!
Breathe easy! My Calling the Stormriders quest took me not into the air to fly badly and fight off Nerubians, but into a Follower Dungeon instance of The Rookery. Doing it in sequence with the story line quests gave the dungeon run more impact, I think. When you come out, the story continues, taking in the events of the dungeon and what it means for Dornogal.
Despite the fact I let the “tank” lead the way, several times the bozo just stood there and went nowhere. Thanks for the hot tips.
It really is an easy dungeon as these things go, nobody died, nobody seemed to take damage as a matter of fact.
The Coreway is opened, we are off to The Ringing Deeps, the first underground zone. Unlike Deepholm, from the Cataclysm era, this is a lively underground mining area with all sorts of intrigue going on.
A witless ruler:
Kobolds are attacking (haven’t ventured out yet so haven’t seen the upgraded no doubt candle wearing skeevers), Shipments are missing, workers don’t return for their shifts, no one seems to have been working for millenia on anything of importance.
The main city here is Gundargaz. It hasn’t all of the amenities of tiny Freywold, so perhaps not a place to spend much time. I do love the name of the place, and the ambience of it. There are treasures (legitimate ones!) everywhere, and lots of herbs for me.
Tomorrow I’ll try to complete this area (which includes a Delve from Brann: The Waterworks). I ‘m just doing each Delve as I come to it rather than trying to run each multiple times. I’m sure you can do that later.
Quick note, after Blaugust is over, World of Warcraft posts move to my Atheren’s Adventures blog, and all other games are here. Best of luck!
Thank God they tweaked things so I’m dead all the time. Isn’t that what you expect in a new xpac? Oh yeah! I meant to be keeping a Daily Death Count as I was playing, but there was no need. Now we got something to write home about. Death Count begins tomorrow.
Freywold Village is finished up and now it’s fight elementals, fungals, and finally Nerubians with faces.
I made some potions, after all the fighting was done. I’ve been using Shadowlands ones and they might as well be a glass of Ice Cold Milk.
On behalf of my Tailor/Enchanter, I was a bit horrified to take this quest to learn to Enchant my gear.
Last quest offered for the day, after considerable deaths and more than usual rowdy dog activity in the background (in real life, not the game). Eat my shorts, dwarf thingie. I know this is some fly and fend off attackers quest. Not today.
My questing continues at Freywold Village. This little place is packed with quests, and I do all quests I find as a habit. In case you missed the profession trainers at Dornogal, many are here as well.
Monday night The Rookery Dungeon became available when I hit level 71, so I watched a couple of videos, and went in Tuesday night. The fights themselves were simple but, there are drop after more drops going down, and I just wasn’t seeing how to navigate them after the first one. Should I be checking my pack for a little goblin glider kit? Do they work here? Luckily I caught up and fought my way with the group to the end.
I always like the idea of Wow Housing, but in truth, whoever designs homes and haunts in this game doesn’t know how to make a place look homey. Until Freywold and its little mechanicals, who somehow have nice cozy hovels, most featuring books, all over the place as a proper home does. Their beds are way too small for a Night Elf, though. That’s the only flaw.
I’ve been getting as many herbs as I can, and fishing in any little pool or bay. Very relaxing!
Atherne is level 72 1/2, so moving nicely along, enjoying the game. I’m sending her completely through all the content first to unlock all the things such as “real” flying so nobody else has to ride in a runaway race car with no breaks. Fly here, land there. So easy! So pleasant!
I have read all the spoilers, it’s easier for me to take bad news if I’m prepared. The opening sequences in Dalaran were pretty dynamic, lots of action as the city is under attack.
Once on the ground, more fighting and trying to find survivors on the ground. Can’t fault the seamless storytelling as you are scrambling to help while fighting more Nerubians.
Then off to the city of Dornogal, home to the Earthen who remind me of the constructs from Bastion in the Shadowlands. They have directives and purpose.
Flying. They let you skyride fly, in fact force you to get from the beach to the city in that manner. I suppose everyone who played Dragonflight is used to the flying rings. That’s just not needed. I can fly with skyriding, as I used it in some of the Radiant Echoes events just to get from spot to spot faster. I just don’t like it and don’t care to be forced to use it.
I feel bad for the people who get motion sickness from it. Grrrr.
After a city tour, off to a small village that you will have to fly to.
The builders among the Earthen are here, but they were attacked as well by Nerubians, and need your help.
Maybe you’d go rescue some of their friends who were dragged into the Earthcrawl Mines Delve?
Delves here are inspired by ESO’s delves, but are nothing like them. In Elder Scrolls, you might get a quest to go into a delve, but they are available to enter at any time. Other adventurers are often in the delve as well and can be helpful with bosses. Delves are often full of recipes and crafting ingredients.
In War Within delves, it’s an instance. You have Brann for a companion and you can choose his role as Healer or DPS. He is upgradeable.
You make your way through the mines at your own pace, helping a rescue cart get filled with webbed Earthen. Step on webs and lots of little critters skitter out. Plenty of larger Nerubians lurk. There are little treasure pots to pick up. More fun than I expected from videos and descriptions.
Except for flying, I’m liking the quests and the world. Really well done.
The character model for Anduin has undergone yet another change. Leave the kid alone. Alleria not much different just shorter hair. Everyone is kind of emo, though I suppose the word isn’t used anymore.
If you haven’t watched this interview, it’s entertaining and informative, two old friends sitting down for a chat. I’ve not heard of Scott Johnson or The Instance Podcast before this. It is making a comeback as The Instance 2.0.
What’s not to like when the podcast starts off saying “let’s rebirth this corpse”. I listened to all but about fifteen minutes of it (it got late). It covers World of Warcraft alone, though it seems it used to cover other games as well. These guys are huge enthusiasts of the game, and knowledgeable. It will be out once a month. Enjoy.
Thanks to the dreamy days spent in Classic Wrath and now Cataclysm, I’ve spent almost no time in the Dragon Isles.
I created a Dracthyr, did the intro sequence, which I liked, then I landed, plunk! in the starter area where my Dracthyr stands, awaiting a successful run at the quest that teaches you how to COAST. Or, how to be sucked down to the ground before you can say Dragonblight.
The character who got the farthest questing in the Dragon Isles has made it to the Ruby Life Pools.
I can’t think of another expansion area where I just never felt like I was getting anywhere, no matter how hard I tried. Have not crafted a single item. I of course have lower levels who will eventually come to this land, maybe it will all seem easier then.
Apparently happy with the Gul’dan re-tread idea, Shadowlands put Sylvanas, recently of Battle For Azeroth Big Bad stature, into the fore for the new expansion.
We can’t get enough of her, can we? As an all Alliance player, I was so disappointed to see her again. If there is an explanation for why she opened the veil between life and death, what she gained, I can’t find it. As far as I could see, via cinematics as we went along, looking at forum posts and Reddit, her purpose was to be a mustache twirling villain in service to The Jailer.
I found myself railing against the game version of an Afterlife, even if it was specifically Azeroth’s afterlife. It made no sense. What exactly was the purpose of each zone? Wowhead’s explanation is as good as any:
Just thinking of writing this post got me in a bad mood. I wrote of the zones:
Bastion: Twisted Angels
Maldraxxus: Traditional chest beating warriors
Ardenweald: Fricking squeaky fairies
Revendreth: Cartoonish torment
One the plus side, this expansion is where I kept my top five main characters in step with each other, level by level, and I enjoyed that.
I was heavily into the tradeskills of the game, and kept everyone in the best armor I could make, potions were plentiful. Here’s another expansion where I thoroughly enjoyed fishing and cooking.
The real big bad of the expansion, one that ranks as the worst thing Blizzard has done, is the LEVEL SQUISH. These characters who had been adventuring for years dropped overnight from level 120 to level 50.
It stills rankles, of course, as Cataclysm Classic gets you to level 85, while you are about to start the newest expansion to date at level 70.
Luckily for those who love World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft Classic was released on August 26, 2019. Shadowlands released November 23, 2020. Once you’d played through as much Shadowlands as you could stand, there was Classic, in all of its upcoming iterations to see you though.
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