Category Archives: Cataclysm

My little Hunter is now Level 37 and has 6 pets (4 of which are stabled of course). So far I’ve run through Azshara, Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, and the Southern Barrens. Keep in mind this is all in one week, and I’ve been working on professions and some auction house stuff on the side.

The quests in these zones are way different than they used to be. Well just starting out in Azshara tells you everything you need to know really. Interestingly enough a Hunter I helped out today told me that he couldn’t go to Azshara because he didn’t have the expansion. I don’t quite thing that was the case, but I did help him find the Northern Barrens so he could get some questing in there. Funny guy, pretty much just wanted to get to 15 to start running dungeons and doing PvP. Hey that is where the good gear is.

That of course reminds me that I’ll have to run some dungeons myself. My gear is getting pretty crappy. The dungeon stuff I picked up on my earlier runs pretty much lasted me through the late 20′s. At that point I started replacing bits and pieces with stuff from a quartermaster in Stone Talon. The cool thing was that as I finished quests more of the items were unlocked, it wasn’t a rep thing.

Dungeon gear can really make a difference when you’re running around. The extra crit on the dungeon items I replaced has been hard to pick up again. That really made a difference when blowing through mobs. So far the additional hit doesn’t seem to be mowing things down as quickly, even though it should mean that I’m actually hitting mobs more often. I guess hitting mobs each time isn’t as important as getting in a big blow once in a while? Who knows, I’m still too little for it to matter.

So far leveling a hunter has been a dream. I’m pretty sure that the only reason I’m leveling as fast as I am is because I have two friends in my back pocket there to help take down anything and everything that comes at me.

Now it’s on to Dustwallow Marsh, unless I feel the need to hit Desolace. Stranglethorn is open as well but it’s probably a pretty dangerous place on a PvP server. I will need to get out there eventually though just so I can tame an ape. Maybe once I hit 40, who knows.

Cataclysm has finally landed and I’m really impressed. It was worth the wait Blizzard made the new race areas really fun and it’s awesome to see the differences between the way things were pre and post “Shattering“. The Shattering of course being the utter upheaval of Azeroth by the big happy dragon Deathwing.

Alliance side

I did make my Worgen Hunter and couldn’t finish the starting zone due to technical difficulties with the quest to take back Gilneas. So I re-rolled a Druid and found that I really like playing a druid. The Druid Worgen made it out of the noob zone and I got her up to 18 or so I think.

While it was fun checking out the worgen noob zone as I’d wanted to, I’m done with it for now.

Horde Side

I finally managed to get in touch with Scary on Azgalor so I could join the River‘s guild High Latency Lowlifes. It’s a PvP server which made me kinda leery but meh figured I’d give it a go. It looks like they’ve got a fun collection of people there (not surprising with Scarybooster and the River involved).

So this means a whole new character on a whole new server. Oh goodie. Chances are I’ll roll and play a Death Knight if leveling seems to get to me. That and I’d like to play one of the two real hybrid classes (Paladin or Druid) but sadly Goblins can’t be either one. I could go with a Shaman but I’ve never really got very far with a Shaman so it doesn’t seem like that’s a class that I can enjoy too much.

On the plus side though the Goblin Huntard seems to level ok so I’ll just stick it out.

While the actual game isn’t due out for another couple of weeks, looks like Blizz is trying to set some of the changes in motion already.

Orgrimmar is totally different which is actually pretty awesome. Yeah it’s a bugger to find anything, but it looks so cool that it’s worth it. Though really, I can’t say bringing the Goblins in was such a good idea, they’re polluting the hell out of one part of OG. It’s actually kind of funny really. Though I have to wonder whether or not they would end up butting heads with the tree hugging Tauren.

So far I’ve surveyed a LOT of changes to the game. Not all of them though, not even remotely. Honestly I think I’m going to have to start some new characters just to see how much the game has really changed.

Even Brill, the Undead starter city got quite a face lift. There’s even an awesome new statue of the Dark Lady right in the middle of the town. I love the new mad sciency aspect that the Forsaken took on in WotLK. It’s nice to see that theme pushed out into the old world.

Some of the big changes I noticed that I didn’t expect? Well Thousand Needles and the Saltflats are totally underwater. No more annoying race show. Then again though, what’s going to happen to the Acona chickens? No more Chicken pets? Who knows.

Gadgetzan is now beach front property which is kind of neat. I’ll miss that graveyard that used to be right next to it, but I’ll live. What would be really neat is if there were a folding chair you could use in game to lay out on the beach and fish. Hey it does look like some kind of vacation spot now.

The Barrens of course is quite different, there’s a big cleft running through it. That and Desolace now has trees. I mean the Kodo graveyard, it’s green!

I didn’t log into the Alliance side yet, but from the Horde side it really is quite unique. I can say that it’s nifty to see Tauren Paladins and Undead Hunters already in game.

I have to hand it to Blizzard. Really by starting early they have a chance to iron some things out before Cataclysm is really available. This gives folks a chance to iron out some bugs before all hell breaks loose. I mean of course when everyone and their brother start logging in for the push to 80 in pursuit of the fat lootz.

Really for me though the adventure will be in looking at a world I used to know like the back of my hand and seeing all of the changes. Now it really seems like Azeroth is more alive than I’ve ever seen it. Sure it may just be something bright and shiny that will wear off in time, but I’m looking forward to exploring the changes anyway.

It’s new, different and exciting. I like it.

I spent this evening hanging out with Moms. I did knock out a few quests before she logged on and finally got Geistig (Horde side) to 76. Yay!

After Moms logged I went back to Orgrimmar and then on to Gadgetzan. I’m working on the Horde Raptor mount you get by feeding the baby 20 times and turning in some other random stuff. So far I’m only up to about 5 teeth. I need to log in and feed the little bastard more often, but I haven’t felt like playing WoW much lately.

After that we did the bizzare quests in Orgirmmar to herald the coming Cataclysm. They were interesting, I just wish they’d let us keep the dresses. It looked pretty good on Geistig. Though it did look pretty funny with my cloth traveling hat.

Hey if I’m in the old world, my big bad DK doesn’t necessarily need her fancy Northrend helm. Well at least not until Deathwing blows up Azeroth right?

Once we finished up those wonderfully silly quests, we wandered around both old world continents for a while seeking out Tin ore. Mining on both of our Death Knights leaves much to be desired. The good news is though that my Engineer Hunter will get to reap the benefits of it, should I feel like leveling her again any time soon.

I’ve been debating getting serious with the auction house since I need to get up some gold for Geistig’s cold weather flying, but honestly I don’t know if I have the time or patience for that either.

Meh, I really need to get some more work done on my NaNoWriMo piece. I’m only at about 7k right now. Not bad I know but I’ve been obsessed with working on it. IE, I’ve been enjoying the story so far. I might have to let folks actually read this one.

That’s where I’m at. Embrace the Shadow.