Warlords of Draenor - Month 7

 

Garrisons:
Level 3 Garrisons - Paladin, Warrior, Hunter, Shaman, Priest, Mage, Druid, Death Knight, Alliance Warlock
Level 2 Garrisons - Rogue
(Monk is still level 80 for Herald of the Titans)

Levelled up my Druid with quests and levelled my Death Knight with pet battles. Now levelling my Rogue with Pet Battles.

Gear & Raids:
McTacky - Item Level 687/673 (Ret/Holy)

I have cleared Blackrock Foundry except for Blackhand on Heroic with the guild. I now have a full set of Heroic Tier items, including four tier items. Raids are on hiatus until the patch next week.

PvP
Done a bunch of Ashran. Finished with Humans and Nelf. Working on Dwarf now. I have been told I should have done less Pet Battles and more PvP to get Ashran finished before the patch hits, because there will be no more pre-made Ashran groups!

Pets/Mounts/Toys:
I have converted all 682 of my pets to Rare Quality. Currently levelling up the lower level ones with pet battles on toons I am levelling and using Pet Tokens to level up higher levelled ones to 25. I made a WarcraftPets.com profile to keep track.

Fishing/Archaeology:
No archaeology this month, but plan to do it more once I have flying unlocked.

Thoughts
Patch 6.2 lands next week. The Q&A explained that alt garrisons will earn less gold after the patch so this will greatly impact me, since this was my source of gold the past few months.

Patch 6.1 updated the Belf Character models, added the heirloom tab, added Blackrock Foundry and Darkmoon Faire races. All good things that I enjoyed.

3 out of 5 Phoenix

 

Warlords of Draenor - Day 8

 

Day 8 - Stables Level 2 then I was off to do the last questing zone of 6.0, Nagrand

 

Nagrand was the same as ever before, very nice looking, good music, great atmosphere and a many unfocused stories. The Us vs Warsong Clan story is supposed to be going on, but the majority of the quests I found had nothing to do with the plot like Gorgrond.

 

But when the quests were on point they were very good, but the rest of the zone is hit or miss. The Quest design I found was good, not as grindy as I had been led to believe  (other than Ironfist Harbour).

 

I also had some issues with the story that I won't go into here because it would be spoilers.

 

With a Nagrand Cherry On Top

Nagrandeur

 

TLDR - Strong story when on point. Weak the rest of the time.

Nagrand gets 2 and a half out of 5 Phoenix Insignias

Warlords of Draenor - Day 7

Day 7 - Barracks to level 2. I also maxxed out my Mining and Jewelcrafting to 700/700 skill level. I built a stables and it gave me a quest to go to Shadowmoon Valley. My daily fishing quest also wanted me to head over there.

 

 

Before heading out to Shadowmoon Valley, I had to fix my transmog. With both my Holy and Ret sets sharing several pieces of armour, I had to go with a single transmog.

 

I was surprised to find a neutral Orc town, Exile's Rise, run by the Shadowmoon Exiles. I grab the flight path then do the stables quest.

I ended up exploring the whole zone, killing all the rares and collecting all the treasure I see.

TLDR - Full of Alliance, No Blood Knights

Shadowmoon Valley gets 1 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.

Warlords of Draenor - Day 6

 Day 6 - I hit level 100 early on and upgrade my garrison to level 3. I pushed my Pet Menagerie to Level 2, but I haven't done the pet fight daily there yet.

 The rest of the time, I was questing in the Spires of Arak.

The story expanded on the history of both the Apexis and Arakkoa civilizations. It is also about three gods and the major impact each of them has on the Arakkoa in their history. It was a compelling story that adds depth & context to the older Outland Arakkoa Content.

One of the quests Hot Seat was bugged for me. I was inside the crystal so I couldn't see anything. Luckily if I grouped with someone else who was doing it, I got quest credit. The rest of the time my time in Spires of Arak was bug free.

The Goblin Town, Pinchwhistle Gearworks, not as compelling story. It had the usual Goblin levels of humour but it just felt like filler.

Spires of Arak has plenty of jumping puzzles too. If they added flying to Draenor it would entirely ruin the fun. But I know plenty of people who don't like jumping puzzles.

Arak Star
Between Arak and a Hard Place

TLDR - Strong Story, Zone itself is interesting, Quests above average.

Spires of Arak gets 4 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.

I was level 100 just after I started this zone.

Warlords of Draenor - Day 5

 

Day 5 - After a few chores in the garrison, I head off to Talador.

This expansion has been very kind to me. First with all the Frostwolves content. I have been a member of the Frostwolves guild since 25th Jun 25, 2009 (and my warrior Atain has always been part of that clan in his backstory). 

 But now in Talador we got Blood Knights. Lady Liadrin, Blood Knight Matriarch, is leading the Sunsworn (Belf Magi/Rangers/Blood Knights) in Talador to fight the Burning Legion in Auchindoun and the Iron Horde in Shattrath City. As usual I will avoid spoilers as to the shape this story takes, but I loved it.

The quests weren't as strong as Gorgrond, but leveraged with a far more compelling story. Wonderful music again.

 

McTacky's Note To self: I really need to get a Son of Animus to fit in with my fellow Blood Knight peeps. A good Blood Elf must always keep up with the latest in fashion and Blood Golems are so hip right now.

 

You have become unfashionable Sunreaver Micro-Sentry!

 

I want More Talador
Don't Let the Tala-door ...

 

TLDR - Story excellent, quests strong.

Talador gets 5 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.

I was level 99 when I finished this zone.

Warlords of Draenor - Day 4

Day 4:  Lumbermill, Storehouse and Gem Boutique are all upgraded to level 2.

 I returned to Gorgrond and discovered there were some new quests! It seemed that by choosing the Sparring Pit, the quest giver had been phased out earlier. With it all fixed, many of my issues about the zone having a weak story was resolved. While the story is still not as strong as Frostfire Ridge, the quest design is excellent.

 

 

The local Pet Tamer, Cymre Brightblade was a difficult fight with two of the pets being able to restore their health to full after dying. After several attempts I made a team to defeat the powerful archaeologist.

Putting the Gore in Gorgrond

Gorgrond Monster Hunter

 

 With the additional quests plus the ones I hadn't done yesterday filled out the zone a lot more than what appeared to only be scattered with Bonus Objectives & Monster Hunting without much of a story connecting them. There was now a story and the movement though the zone was cohesive.

 

I didn't encounter any quest bugs today which was good. The Quests and the Monster Hunting was fun, but the story in the end still let the zone down.

TLDR - Quest design excellent, but story is weak.

Gorgrond gets 3 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.

I was level 97 when I finished this zone.

Warlords of Draenor - Day 2

So I logged in for my second day of Warlords of Draenor!

 At the start of my second day I head to my garrison and finish the previously bugged quest.

After doing some quests I push my garrison to level 2 and are able to choose some buildings. Jewelcrafting, Supply Depot and a Lumber mill. Upgraded Mine to Level 2. Was unable to finish off the Fishing Quest because the respawn rate is low and a lot of people are camping it.

 

I showed my Lumbermill guy what a Tree looked like. I don't think his hat is Health-And-Safety approved

You'll Get Caught Up In The... Frostfire!

I ended up finishing all the Frostfire Ridge Story. I won't be posting spoilers, but you get to know a group of characters from the Frostwolves over the coarse of the zone and aid them in a series of quests. The quests themselves were over-crowded I'll have to do the zone again on an Alt to fully appreciate them. The quests being overcrowded and buggy didn't help either.

I finished the day at level 94.

TLDR - Liked story & garrison. Didn't like bugs at chokepoint quests.

Frostfire Ridge gets 3 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.

6.0.2 Impressions

I waited to experience this patch a little before writing down my impressions.

 

Left - Just Before 6.0.2. Right - Just After 6.0.2

1: Stat-SquishI like it. I actually feel stronger than I did before the patch.

But I think it should go further. A level squish. Make the ding mean something again!

I have said for a long time there could be a level squish as well because there are so many empty level between 1 and 60. 5 levels a zone no longer makes sense. Sure the 'ding' looks pretty, but it isn't progress and you don't get something new every level anymore.

2: Ability Pruning
I am very happy with this. Many old redundant Paladin abilities were removed. Before I had a macro to use my cooldowns (Avenging Wrath, Divine Favor and Guardian of Ancient Kings) at the same time. Now I only have Avenging Wrath instead (which is Divine Favor and old Avenging Wrath put together.)

Flash of Light was made useful to Holy again, while Holy Light was removed. Two heals I hadn't used in a while. Divine Light was renamed Holy Light, so everything is cool.

Overall I need to practice some more with the Holy Changes, but I like them!

On Retribution? I guess we don't have Inquisition to punch ever time it is about to wear off anymore. This is a positive change.

3: Storage
Wonderful, wonderful Storage Solutions! New Void Storage Tab! Reagent bank! Toy Box! My bags haven't been this empty in years! Wonderful. Just wonderful!


Bank is so Empty now! So crazy.




4: Pre WoD Events in Blasted Lands:
The new Blasted Lands quests were short and easy as expected, but it did make the Iron Horde look rather weak and not much of a threat to Azeroth. On the upside, it didn't have us running though Nethergarde Mines like the 54-60 Blasted Lands quests.

5: Pre WoD Event Upper Blackrock Spire:I ran old UBRS many times during Classic WoW. I am not the fan of the new UBRS. For the longest time I couldn't articulate why. Was it nostalgia?  The lack of loot? Lack of achievement?

At last I figured it out: It felt incomplete.

With the last two bosses locked off, every run ends in the Rend Room (like people abandoning the group doing the old For The Horde! quest in the Onyxia Chain). It feels like a loss, not a win.

TLDR - Liked gameplay & storage changes. 3 out of 5 Phoenix Insignias.