I am not quite back. I am sort of quasi back. I was rather bored recently, and there was an offer of 7 free days due to having not played for months (and, apparently, the 5th Anniversary. I don’t know either), so I took it up.

I may be done University for the summer, but I don’t really have the inclination to play WoW for all of that summer. In addition, I am really, really strapped for cash. Ah, the joys of living on your own and not having found a job. But I digress. That is a topic for another blog.

In line with not being quite back, I’m playing an alt. I have popped onto all my characters to pick up the penguin pet I assume was sent due to registering a battlenet account. I did get a rather excited greeting from Yimi (OMG ELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!) when I logged onto Ellaria, but the guild was raiding, so no real banter. Will need to pop on pre or post raid at some point for a catch up. Anyway, my character of choice for these 7 (now 5ish) days is Eisla, my troll Shaman.

I’d last played her at 20, with a cheeky little Turquoise Raptor mount, but without her Water Totem, so that was the first port of call. For said quest, you get sent all over the bloody world, which is kinda stressful when you are on a PvP server – though I’ve yet to be ganked.

20-26 was a rather uneventful experience. There’s not much you can say about grinding your way through quests in the Barrens and Ashenvale. At 26, though, I felt confident about joining BGs without (at least, in theory) being a ridiculously easy target for anyone. Unfortunately, low level Enhancement is pretty dire when it comes to actually dealing damage to other players. We’re great at hindering them, and can speed away from any battles by shifting instantly to Ghost Wolf form, but killing them? Not likely. Slow two handed weapon, only one real instant ability, which is on a 6 second cooldown – not a lot of potential for going toe-to-toe with anyone.

Still, we make quite respectable defenders in Warsong Gulch, since we can easily hinder the target who will mostly be aiming for flight, not fight. In Arathi Basin, I took the role of professional hinderer – being generally annoying to anyone I couldn’t kill who was trying to capture a point. I also had a nice little sideline going in scouting, thanks to Far Sight. When I say scouting, I really mean trying to take pretty pictures of the battle field.

Arathi Basin quickly became my favourite, in spite of the fact I remember having a preference for WSG before. Perhaps it’s the fact it’s totally outdoors – I absolutely hate not being able to ride or shift into Ghost Wolf in the forts in WSG. Plus, WSG isn’t as fun outside of the 10-19 bracket, where Shammies and Druids are totally broken, with our 40% speed boost forms. The fact it seemed to give much better Experience (perhaps due to the fact it was the Call to Arms BG?) helped, too. First time I finished it I got 13k experience! That was a surprise level up, let me tell you.

With the high EXP from battle grounds combined with a tidy cluster of quests in Thousand Needles (Involving some Grimtotem with a distinct resistance to Nature damage. So frustrating to try and interrupt a cast and have your Wind Shear resisted), it didn’t take me very long at all to get to level 30. I dinged mid skirmish, actually, which was an unpleasant surprise to the folk trying to kill me. Oh, they still managed to do so, but I lasted long enough for reinforcements to arrive thanks to the level.

Much to my annoyance, though, I didn’t get my 7k exp at the end of that match, probably because I was no longer within the bracket. Given I only  had 2k EXP to go to level, I’d have been better just grinding a few mobs instead of doing a 20 minute battle, to be honest.

I was considering doing a guide to AB in the vein of a previous post, but my AB experiences were entirely positive. Not a single loss, and the occasional pleasant BG chit-chat, compared to the losses and constant whinging of WSG. Oh, I’ve had plenty of bad experiences before, but it just doesn’t feel right to bitch and whine about a BG that was totally successful this time round!

Not sure if I could make 41 – and the delicious, fully fledged Enhancement Shaman that magical number represents – before my time runs out, but it’s worth a shot. Either that, or I’ll give Ilthiran a dusting off, see if I can try a few dungeons in Northrend, just to keep my hand in. Though part of the appeal of playing Eisla is that the furthest I’ve ever got as Horde is 32 (my Hunter on the same server), so the quests are going to new to me very soon.

Dis wasn’t quite what I meant!

Ya say to wan Blood Elf that "I’ve always wanted a raptor, ever since I was a little chil’”, an’ a few days latah, da courier shows up at Razor Hill wit a strange box, containin’ dis little fella!

He is kinda cute, though… I tink I’ll be keepin’ him!

Anyways, a few seasons latah, an’ here I be – now wit’ my own riding raptor! ‘E’s quite fond of de little wan – dey get on like a hut on fiah!*

-

When they added those Raptors in 3.2, I looked at them and thought about how much I’d like one… Well, I figured, what better character to get one for than my baby Shaman, to complement the riding raptor she’d get later? So, I looked into them all on WoWhead, and the Razormaw Hatchling looked easiest to get. I’d been in those caves a number of times whilst leveling mining on Faulsey, and I’d killed the Matriarch a few times. She’s apparently on a 5 hour or so respawn timer, but, well, when you go into a remote cave on a PvP realm at 3.30 AM, you’re quite likely to get lucky!

I immediately sent her off to Eisla, though the temptation to sell it on the AH for 750g was quite high. The Agamaggan incarnation of Faulsey is a Skinner/Leatherworker, and Eisla is a Herbalist/Alchemist, which means the only source of cash is Cloth and random Greens, so I’m much poorer on those characters than I would normally be.

However, I had a stroke of luck when the recipe for Savoury Deviate Delight dropped in the Barrens. I knew it was quite rare and popular, but I thought it would sell for about 200g. Wrong! A tasty 1k! Well, up to 1.5k, but I was in no mood for waiting ages for the other recipes to sell, and 1k is quite enough for little Eisla!

Whilst levelling, I also got a group for Ragefire Chasm, which I’d never been inside before. It was kinda fun doing a low level instance properly, but it wasn’t fun when, on both runs, people left before I was able to kill a final quest mob – he isn’t worth killing if you don’t have the quest, as he doesn’t drop a blue. Gah.

Now that she’s 20, it’s out into the wide PvP realm, though I won’t be playing her a huge amount now that I’ve reached my first goal of getting a Raptor. Maybe I’ll leave her till Cataclysm – who knows!

Uhm, Cataclysm. I said I’d probably not be playing, but, unless FFXIV is out, and is fantastic, I’ve decided I will be playing casually, to experience the new world. I have my level 10 Warrior to test the new Barrens with, Eisla for the rest of Horde-Azeroth, and my Mage and Paladin for Alliance-Azeroth.

* The big raptor totally kicks the small one in the face, actually.

Eisla is fair speeding through the levels, and at 17, I decided to run her through WSG now that it’s mostly twink free, for some gear and lols. While we did have a 4-1 win-lose ratio, my teams did still drive me absolutely crazy.

So I put together this (incredibly serious) little guide, complete with visual aids!

To begin with, the basic aim of the game:

Doin’ it rite: Capture the enemy flag.

Doin’ it wrong: Graveyard camping. This is level 10-19, kids, you don’t need all that honour. Ok? Ok.

Next, catching the flag carrier:

Doin’ it rite: Do some quick maths and intercept them.

Doin’ it wrong: I’M CHASING AS HARD AS I CAN BUT I CAN’T CATCH UP, OMG.

Simple, right? Now, let’s put all that knowledge into practise.

Here’s a losing strategy:

The EFC is defended by a competent healer, your FC is under serious fire from a group of enemies… and the rest of your team mills around in the middle of the field like a flock of useless, misshapen sheep, contributing absolutely nothing to the match.

Here’s a winning strategy:

The EFC, while defended by a competent healer, is overpowered by your forces. Your FC is defended by a nice healer, and King Leonidas, who destroys all invaders. In the middle, the drooling masses of the enemy assault are kept busy by a couple of Rogues and Hunters, who are keeping their tiny brains focused on KILLING DOODZ instead of capturing the flag.

Now, you can WSG like a pro!

FOR THE HORDE, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

(But seriously, kids, it doesn’t hurt to play the game with a modicum of intelligence.)

Level 70 Druid! Now that I’m in Northrend, I’m actually able to start tanking instances! Yaaay!

Firstly, tried my hand at tanking Utgarde Keep. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great, either. I think tanking is the hardest of the three roles, by far. Target switching to maintain aggro when you have Death and Decay happy Death Knights is a right pain in the neck, and I’m still not sure of all my abilities, nor have I developed any sort of faith in healers – Barkskin and Survival Instincts are used liberally.

(Note to self: Must sort out Omen’s Aggro warning – not really needed as a tank. And it obstructs screen something awful.)

Shortly after that, I tried Nexus. Whilst trash was generally better than it had been in UK (though there are a couple of pulls that aren’t there in HC Nexus, which confused me greatly), we didn’t get Keri down. We wiped twice, and our healer had to go. I did my best, I really did, and we had her at 8k the last time – I swear I didn’t get a single heal the last 10 seconds before I died, so I’m blaming it on the healer. Bah!

Whilst we’re on the topic of the Nexus, I ran it last night with Kazura and Yuanjia for some emblems. I’ve run it something like 25 times now (20 of those actively looking for the stupid mace) and I never saw it, not once. Kazura had a similar record. We’ve both found other maces – I have a similar quality one from Naxx, and she has a nice one from the new 5-man. And do you know what happened when we looted Keri?

NOWAI!

That slimy harpy bitch! D:<

On the upside, I did get this that run.

I’ve also been on a bit of a baby Hordie kick recently. Spurred on by a desire to do Mulgore again – I love Mulgore – I made a little Tauren Warrior, another in a long line of Faulsey’s, who became the first of that class to reach 10… Compared with at least 5 Hunters and 3 each Shaman and Druid. Only thing I haven’t gotten to at least 10 now is Rogue.

Another baby Hordie, this time created due to a desire to get a Raptor on a character (without lots of rep grinding on some higher level Hordies, or grinding ZG on Ellaria), is a Troll Shaman on my PvP realm.

As much as I love Draenei, I feel the Troll Totem quests are a little bit better – maybe because you do get some nice views doing them. Did you know that at level 1 you could quite easily get to Ratchet from the Valley of Trials within 5 minutes?

I reckon I’ll probably play this gal a decent bit the next few days, to get me a raptor!

I’m finished at my little job now – seriously, the management was farcical, I had to get out of there – and am totally free for the next two weeks before I start university. Well, kind of free. I need an eye test and new glasses, amongst other expensive things. Guh. But in any case, interest in WoW has returned somewhat recently, so I should be playing a fair bit.