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 :)

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!

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 :)

Panda Land Diary - Day 1

What a truly magnificent experience this mornings launch of Mists of Pandaria was for me.

When I read about the no log out insta-launch Blizzard had planned I have to admit to being sceptical. This was further fuelled when problems with the launch (9 hours earlier) were reported from the EU.

I can tell you, however, my experience was as smooth as ice.

MoP 'switched' a few minutes earlier than expected (about 5) and this appeared to throw a good chunk of the masses who for some reason were glued to the command board in Orgrimmar (the initial quest automagically appeared in the quest log).

Having decided to take my hunter / gatherer team to 90 first I was hanging out at the skinning trainer on one and the mining trainer on the other. Clickty click quick flight to herbalist trainer and the engineering dude and I was ready to go.

The rest of my brief time in the city is a bit of a blur. I remember a cut scene several thousand heaving virtual bodies reaching out for a big yellow ? ..... then the team are on a zeppelin heading for Pandaria.

At this stage the awesome ratcheted up several levels. I actually tried to record some audio but soon realised it would be several minutes of me yelling in strangled breathy tones 'OMG OMG WHEEEEEE!!'

I had made a point of staying away from the beta for MoP and watching very few videos (all of which were of the panda race starting zones) I am so glad I did. The sheer epicness of it all is something I have rarely experienced in a video game. The hundreds of fellow players made it even more so. For me at least there was also pretty much zero lag which I found simply stunning.

I played for just over 4 hours and apart from a couple of choke points and insane respawn rates all continued to be over and above my already high expectations. I logged out about half way through level 85 a happy man.

So far so fantastic.

A New Beginning

So this morning at 8am UK time a new expansion for World of Warcraft launched on the North American servers.

You may have been aware of the event :)

Poised over my keyboard and mouse my characters loitering near their profession trainers I certainly was.

Finally after what seemed forever Mists of Pandaria was here! And it was good!

I am going to take what seems the perfect opportunity to reboot this blog and use it to record the coming weeks and months in my favourite game. I am sticking with the title as although I no longer have my All Female Gnome Dancing Squad 'Ten Pandas' sounds stupid.

I also want to do a sort of audio diary rough podcasty thing so if you are more about the listening than the reading watch this space or better still follow me on twitter @eljeppy