Saturday 10 August 2013

RAF 2013 - Day 6/90 - Late Night Leveling.

I have entitled these 3/90, 6/90 etc but to be perfectly honest it is often hard to work out what day is which. At least it is hard to work out when one day starts and the other begins.

Being a man of extreme leisure I have few set daily milestones. I eat when hungry sleep when tired and use the facilities when nature forces me. Basically I am a very large cat! Apart from medical appointments and the occasional recording there are very few alarm clocks in my life. All of this is further mixed up because I live in GMT and my online world lives in EST (-5 hours). So you can see my confusion :)

I am sure some, if not all of you, are reading the above and forming the words 'lucky bastard' or similar in your minds. Quite rightly so! If it weren't for the constant pain and a body which seems determined to have me hovering between grapes and flowers permanently it would indeed be bliss.

All that preamble was meant to explain why my leveling sessions are becoming more nocturnal. I should also say that the days of me being able to play straight for 12+ hours are long gone. I am now playing in 2-3 hour bursts and sleeping for 8 which also adds to my temporal confusion.

Anyhow I am sure you didn't come here to read all the above bollocks but to find out where the ladies are at.

Last session took place while the good folks of CoD (Clan of Darkness Guild) were planning and executing their famed friday night run. I had the distinct pleasure of once again being able to hop on the mumble server and hear some of the excitement.

The bulk of leveling took place in Burning Steppes which although not perfect desert is pretty close.

"10,000 bloodthirsty enemy and all we have are party masks!? Yeah this should go well!"


No real details to report as it was pretty much a blur of dieing ogres, orcs and trolls (with a few golems and dwarves thrown in).

At 4am I threw in the towel and the ladies went to their digital beds having hit 56.

5 hours later I am back writing this and trying to wake my brain up for the Ctrl Alt WoW record in 2 hours. Should be fun.

Bye for now.


Friday 9 August 2013

RAF 2013 - Day 5/90 - Slowly, Slowly Catchy 50.

A bit of a slower day today but still on a roll.

Once again fought the urge to boost the ladies and spent the session with some more fun questing.

Plenty left to do in Dustwallow. It really is a pretty good zone for levelling. Lots of nice quick quests (higher drop rates across the board helps) and plenty to kill along the way.

I did get a bit close to some Alliance camps which ended in quick painful deaths and 5 minutes of flagged fear. Apart from that, though, it was all plain sailing.

"I've had a few drinks and I'm carrying a dagger so go ahead and call be babe again!"


Left a bit of XP on the table as many quests started graying out (next team to this area will go out there sooner). Next up was Tanaris.

Have to say I have a deep joy for deserts (and indeed desserts). The far vistas and lack of trees and obstacles to get my team tangled on is a real boon.

After butchering most of the indigenous life, killing several bubble farting giants and uncovering some suspicious activity the girls hit 50.

This guy just let off a WMD gas bubble - Ughh!

Not sure I will hit 60 before the CAW record but there is no rush right!?

Another joy of this sessions levelling was getting to talk to some of the excellent CAWlings and CODlings on the new mumble server. Didn't do a lot of talking as I was in the 'zone' but it was nice to have them there. Look forward to doing that more.

Bye for now :)

Thursday 8 August 2013

RAF 2013 - Day 4/90 - Boogie Through The Barrens

So was thinking I might boost the ladies through a few more dungeons but after they gave me a quick slap my mind was changed.

First thing that caused me pain was the change back to having to learn flight paths again! Not 100% sure why Blizzard did this but sheesh. So it was time to hop on a mount and do some riding. At that point I realised I hadn't actually learned riding. Poop. Soon remedied though.


One of the joys of account bound mounts is never having to ride a battle chicken again!

Next pain in the backside was CRZ. How many times did I lose follow? Count the dents in my head caused by me slamming my head into the keyboard! So frustrating.

My destination for levelling was Southern Barrens / Dustwallow Marsh. All in all it was a pretty straight forward thing. Lots of nice kill quests and pretty much all the collection quests gave to both toons.

"We're gonna need a bigger rolled up newspaper!"


My only real visit from Captain Cockup was when Lara opened a treasure chest and earnt 16000xp. This caused (at least to me) an unacceptable gulf between the levels. Some tinkering about though got them back on par. This included a wee bit of pet battling. By the way if (like me) you were hoping the triple XP from RAF included Pet Battles it sadly does not :(

Managed to ding 40 in Dustwallow Marsh and then shortly after that 41. Probably would have been faster boosting through dungeons but actually apart from some niggles it was much more fun - and that is why we play right.

My audio of choice during this session was episodes 39 and 40 of the most excellent Bitter and Salty podcast. Looking forward to more next time.

Bye for now and love to you and yours :)


Wednesday 7 August 2013

RAF 2013 - Day 4/90 - Into the Monastery.

Another day another dungeon - The Scarlet Monastery.





I have run this set of dungeons a gazillion times in the past and I was pleasantly surprised to see they had changed so much.

At level 21 I was too low for the Cathedral but was allowed access to The Scarlet Halls.

Some nice mechanics led to some cool surprises and I am ashamed to say 2 dead mages. Thank goodness for the guild perk 'Oops everyone died - be alive again'

Not sure how but earned 'Scarlet Halls Guild Run' for Clan of Darkness - wooot!

Two runs of the halls got the ladies to 23 so popped into The Cathedral and one run got the team to 25. Sadly this was still too low to get the quests from either wing (Halls 26 - Cathedral 28)

"No worries ladies you loot the corpses I'll grab the gold"


Two more runs through the halls (each run takes about 10 minutes) plus the quests dinged them well into 28 (each quest was netting them 22000+ XP which is about a level!).

So back to the Cathedral.

"Oy Vey! Forget the rain get this damn sword away from my twig and berries!"


Ended up doing two runs as I missed one of the quest parts but it was all good.

We leave the place behind with the death screams of many a crusader ringing in our ears and the ladies at level 33.

Time for a break. Be back soon.

RAF 2013 - Day 3/90 - Dungeons for Dummies

So the first real days levelling session finished with a bit of serious cheating!

"Hello Ladies! Welcome to the gun show ... no really I have an actual gun!"

Out came Wight the booster for some dungeon fun. I guess I could have done LFG but multiboxers are not given the respect they are so obviously due! Also if I want to get yelled at for not doing it right and for being a noob that is what I have a wife for :)

Going in at 13 I did three runs through Ragefire Chasm (which by the way is below Orgrimmar - who knew!) and grabbed the quests at 15. Hit 19 on the last run.

Next destination was Deadmines. (Oh for a three seated flying mount!) Zeppelined the team over to Stranglethorn then flew one over to DM and summoned her mate to meet us. This of course got their XP out of synch due to discoveries grrrrrrr. (OK no three seater flyer how about giving back Have Group Will Travel?)



One quick run through there and the ladies hit 21.

A fine end to the first day.

And now back to the duvet cave - night folks!

Tuesday 6 August 2013

RAF 2013 - Day 3/90 - Onwards to Orgrimmar.

Sadly silvermoon is deader than a Texas salad bar so it is on to the big city!

First a quick dance around the big red shiny ball for some swift translocation to Undercity.



then a ride on a nice free zeppelin (please excuse my robot bunnies shiny arse!)


and before you can punt a gnome you are amidst the sights and sounds of Orgrimmar. Hmm seems like there is some tension in the air. Pfft I am sure it's nothing!



and my team see their first offensive toon name.


I did not return their Hi!!









The Adventure begins (again!)


Ok so I am back blogging (at least for now)

And as you can see I am back levelling because the fact is I love it! Though not slowly so, of course, I am using every crutch available to me. RAF and Heirlooms will be fully utilised :)

First team out of the box are a couple of blood elf mages (pictured above in all their glory)

Larakai and Zarakai (naming toons is possibly the hardest damn thing!)

Technically it is day 3 of the RAF because I created the accounts on Sunday but there was an issue upgrading them from the trials so today is the first day of playing.

20:30 - First things first a quick run around Sunstrider Isle.

21:42 - Level 10

Have decided to go frost spec as I love to have my watery companion.

22:00 - Nice to see that some of the hideous collection quests are alive and well!

http://www.wowhead.com/quest=8884  Fish Heads, Fish Heads (all of those freaking murlocs have heads why does it take soooooo long)


and talking of heads...



We are here for yours Prospector!

22:15 - and as one toon hits 13 the other stubbornly refuses to do likewise. It is the dreaded if it is gray to one it is gray to both! Damn I hate not dinging together it feels wrong. Oh well this time around I can add some XP to one toon via pet battles. Will try and tidy it up as I go along.

22:30 - Time for a nice cuppa tea and a biscuit or three :)