Now I feel it.

Got several serious hours of MoP time since Friday. It’s been fascinating and I finally feel like this expac has started.

Carrying on from the other night, Mab cleared out some pesky Alliance and was greeted by one of the strange Pandarians who inhabit this continent.

New continent, new spirits and new races, Mab meets a Pandarian for the first time.

After helping out the local village, Mabaho moves deeper into the continent. Its a very beautiful place.

Serenity Falls.

His fellow Horde have some more silly ideas… no Safety regs here!

Mabaho’s father taught him not to fear anything, except when a Goblin says “Trust Me”!

I spent some time bonding with even more new allies, the Hozen.

A bunch of guys, some fireworks, what could go wrong….

Before learning more about these mysterious Pandarians (and some more about myself too)

Meeting the Lorewalker.

His people overthrew their oppressors. I’m sure we will have to deal with them eventually.

Not nice guys apparently. Though Garrosh might like them.

I’m enjoying the quests so far. Levelling seems super slow, especially after running Dasal and Mabango since I finished Mabaho. My gear is holding up ok, though it won’t be long before some of my purples will be replaced. I’m guessing those with top tier gear would hold it for more, but I have enough that mobs aren’t a threat.

Not sure how her holiness, can’t kill a fly, Dasal will go with levelling. Might have to try Shadow again for her to get through. I also noticed that the Goblin Rivet Clutchpop sells some serious gear if you haven’t gotten yourself kitted up prior. Cheap too.

The expac has breathed life back into guild chat and guild life abounds at all hours. That’s a nice change too, it was getting pretty lonely sometimes!

Onwards!

Report to Bladefist Bay!

My MoP CE box arrived today. Started off making up my Panda Monk. So say hello to Monghe.

Monghe

Did a couple of quests before Miss 5 wanted to play pandas, so she spent some time making aklsjdfuif and aoij;dfnrubcn on another server (not their real names, but close…. people are going to think they’re gold farmers!)

Pandaria!!

The kids are in bed and I think one of them is actually asleep so I started Mab off to Pandaria. So far I’ve followed a couple of Org quests and dropped into a battle in Pandaria. I miss our Call of the Elements, oh I had forgotten how annoying it was in Vanilla and BC to drop totems one at a time.

Green Light… go go go….

Miss 3 is being cranky tonight, so I’ve had to log out until I can get her to stay in bed. Still I have a whole weekend ahead of me

MoP Begins … well sorta

I want to write some pun about mops, buckets and cleaning, but can’t think of a good one.   The expac is finally here. I’ve arrived back from my USA trip, with almost a week still of holidays to go.  I’ve updated my add-ons, updated my Mac and downloaded the last patches for WoW. I have my internet back this very afternoon as well. Sounds perfect. I’m good to go for some solid MoP exploration.

Except my copy hasn’t turned up yet. 

Ah hum… it’ll probably be more than a week before it does arrive. So what to do….

Well one of things I wanted to try was the Scenario, Theramore’s Fall.

But Mab doesn’t seem to qualify. I did think it was iLevel, but if it’s 353 as I read somewhere, then Mab has 370 so should be fine. Anyone the LFG tool won’t let him queue. EDIT: Seems they turned the run up to lvl 90 with the MoP official release.

So that’s out.

Can’t level Mab or Dasal, need the expac.

Can’t start a Panda, need the expac.

Could keep working on Mabango… that’s not a bad idea.

Until Tacky suggested Pet Battles.

Wandered over to the trainer (who trains*) and got started. Also bumped into Cymre and must get started on many of her posts that I purposefully ignored, so as not to spoil the expac. But at least I can read about pet battles.

Was a bit lost at first until the first green paw showed up on my minimap. I was well into it soon after. After about 15 mins, I have raised a few pet levels, won a few, caught a few new pets. Been interesting.

I can see you needing to really raise a whole range of pets with their strengths and weaknesses. Then swapping your three slots depending upon the pets in your current zone. For example, near water you are likely to meet aquatic pets, so have 3 slots of flyers probably won’t help, but those same three will devastate cats.

So I guess I will become a pet expert over the coming days.

Mab has a new pet (left side) Rabid Nut something 5000. Also shows the green paws to look for that designate combat pets.

*a reference to the recent Pink Panther movie, Yuri the Trainer who Trains becomes a suspect in the investigation.

Shared Topic – MoP Beta

The few people who do follow my blog deserve a post. I’m actually writing a lot of posts at the moment, but due to an Non Disclosure Agreement, I can’t post them yet. So shared topics give me a great chance to keep posting that I can publish. Otherwise it’d be Mabango is still in the inn at Dal, Mabaho and the rest are hanging out in Org. Not really worth reading. Anyway, this week Frinka has suggested a topic for Blog Azeroth.

Are you playing the MoP Beta? Why or why not? How much time are you spending there vs. the “live” servers.

Oh definitely not. I don’t want to spoil the surprise! I’m happy to roll up to the new zones on the opening night (or a night or two later) and view it all for the first time. I still remember the first time I ran up the road from Mulgore into The Barrens to explore. Its on of the strongest memories I have of WoW. That would be in about June 2005. Oh, the Barren explore ended with my level 5 or so getting wasted by the first thing I came across and I scooted back to Mulgore to keep questing.

Similarly I remember when Mabaho finally levelled enough to enter The Dark Portal. I’ve posted screenshots of that before. I can’t remember as well the WotLK and Cata but it was similar. That’s the exploring feeling I like.

So I’m not spending any time in the Beta. I don’t have a key and made no effort to get one.

It’s also hard as some of my favourite blogs post stuff on it occasionally. Bubbles of Mischief I almost avoid entirely (sorry Cymre!) as she puts a massive amount of effort into giving us all great info on the new stuff. I plan to read it as I go along later. If you are interested in it, she’s has an awesome amount of stuff.

As for live server, due to another Beta (with the NDA), I’m not logging in much anyway. But I’ll be back in September.

Mists Announced

SEPTEMBER 25 has been announced as the release date for the expansion. I’m sure you’ve read it elsewhere. I’ve preordered a Collectors Edition. I like the mouse pad and am really interested in the artwork, much more than previous expansions. I think Miss 5 who was totally amazed by the MoP video will like it too.

And with about two months to go its time for a PrePandaPrep catch up and checking my goals.

Mabaho

Finished the zones, but not Molten Front. I have to say it was getting a bit repetitive and I was enjoying Mabango’s questing more. And he didn’t get anymore purples, but I think he should be fine for the new zones.

Dasal

Got Tailoring and Enchanting a lot further but have run into a problem of lack of mats for the mid range BC level items. Even the AH is pretty bare. No more purples but I didn’t try. Heroic healing was tough and again, I kinda did concentrate on Mabango’s levelling.

Mabango

76. That’s not too far to go. However I’ve only got until the end of August as I will be away for most of September and unable to play (unless they release an iPad version of WoW before then!) And I have another distraction at the moment too.

So I only have achieved a few of my goals already, but I have moved closer on most of them. And to have Mabango so high already has really surprised me. I do still have two months, so lets see – stranger things have happened.

Hammering the Fjord

Has been hard to get a chance to play, so been a while since I’ve put in an update. Mabango has progressed up to 71 and is still bashing away in the Howling Fjords at the moment. Though as I said last time I think that needs to change.

Mabango was given a frosty greeting by one local village

Mobs are going down really easy.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I did try to head up to Grizzly Hills and checked out a quest hub, but the quests are all grey for her. Mabango is too low for the Hills. There’s no point in grinding mobs up there without the big chunks of xp from the quests. However, I will need to check out Dragonblight as it’s really the next done, not Grizzly Hills. I think the problem has been that I have levelled faster than the quests, hence I haven’t got a “quest that takes me to the next  zone” yet.

I’ve also managed a few LFD runs. Building up those JPs already, so when Mabango gets to 85 should have some half decent gear for her.

Several runs through Utgarde Keep. 

Also got to run through The Nexus.

As for MoP. Discussions at work reckon its about 3 months away. That’s about mid October to mid November I guess. The countdown is starting soon!

20,000 Leagues

Under the sea…. hmmm now I’ve got a little orange crab in my head singing “Under the Sea”  - the things I suffer for having two little girls

Anyway, with the success of TH, I turned to what in my opinion whilst being one of the most unique zones in WoW, is simultaneously the most annoying as I hate trying to move about in Vash’jir. Even with the mount and the buff, it’s just annoying. I had no quests left in my log so I planned to search some of the quest hubs to try and figure out where I had got up to.

I zoned in and arrived at Tenebrous Cavern. And standing in front of me are three good fellows with ! over their heads. Yay. I had about 15 quests to finish the zone achieve and an unknown number to finish the quest story after that.

So I got started.

So I was convinced to put one of the Merciless Ones heads on…. didn’t go well.

Finally got it taken off

one of the Old Gods minions to slay

And I put one of these things on my head, again, in order to sneak inside the shellfish

Eventually the goblin sub was attacked and sunk by Naga

Neptulon rises up to face the Naga.

So eventually I finished the whole lot up. The story ends with a leap into the Abyss.

Ding

The leap introduces us nicely to Throne of Tides. The whole instance makes a whole lot more sense now, especially as we’re trying to help the last boss in that run…. Neptulon. Bit of lightbulb moment there

Glad to see the back of the zone. I will have to come back to farm herbs here and maybe one day to kill the whale. Now to Firelands

Pandas – The To Do List.

Inspired by the Harpy who was in turn inspired by this thorough list from Godmother I too have decided to set some goals for Pre Panda Prep.

Where to start.

Mabaho

I think Mabaho should finish up the stories of the various zones, so that means

• Vash’jir (and although pretty I didn’t like moving about in Vash) - done April 25
• Twilight Highlands – done April 22
• Firelands
• see if he can pick up a purple offhand and belt to complete his gear

Breaking in the Dragon

Dasal

Dasal will be all about gear I think. This will infinitely help the transition across to MoP, so Dasal will aim for

• iLevel to enter DS heroic 5mans
• purples in most slots (even Mab isn’t all purple yet!)
• Tailoring to max.
• Enchanting as well.
• save the gold for Epic flying skill.

Mabango

Mabango is the more obvious goal, though perhaps the hardest to achieve…

• level 85.

Sounds simple and she’s more than halfway there. But there’s a big slow patch in Outlands coming up. Mabaho took about 2 years to get to 70, 6 months to hit 80, and about 4 months to get to 85, when he was basically the only one that I was actively playing, Dasal and Mabango have come along since then. Absolutely it is faster now with guild and heirloom bonuses along with better designed quests.

The Others

Of my other alts, they are pretty much going to stay as is. I have to decide what to do with Mandrougas, my lonely Alliance hunter. I expect a DELETE is coming soon so I can get in and save a good name for a Panda. This will give me a free slot with the additional one from the expac so if I ever decide to I can create a Paladin, the only class I don’t currently have.

I still have a bit of a “Horde don’t need no stinking Paladins” opinion, but they have been doing good work as tanks and heals ever since their introduction. 

Perhaps the dust will come off Pumatay, but I doubt it. My other alts, ranging from lowly Engkanto (lvl4 troll mage) to Lusiper (lvl58 Tauren DK) will stay as they are, but I will go through their bags and banks to make sure they’re organised. And prepared to store the cloth and herb I’ll gather next round. (done April 22)

Goals should be achievable and be able to be done in small steps – check. I even have a good mix of stuff I can do when I have lots of time (Dasal and Mab in Heroics) or just ten minutes here and there (quests, professions). If I guess MoP would be out sometime late this year (November/December) I think there is time. Hmm, the beta is on at the moment, so maybe earlier??

Please don’t feed the Pandas

Disclaimer first – I’m not in the Beta, I don’t plan to be in the Beta and I’m trying really hard not to read about the Beta. That last one is hard though.

A few have posted something similar as whey wait patiently for their invites, but for me its a case of I want to walk in there and enjoy it in all its glory, for the first time and explore the place. Mabaho will lead the exploration for me. He will head to level cap. After that I might look at levelling a Panda, (most likely a Monk to experience that class as well) or more likely raise Dasal to 90 as well.

I do have a couple of thoughts. The new talent system sounded awful when I first heard about it, but I am less concerned about it now. I suspect there will still be “cookie cutter” builds, but I’ve never used them (see my toons on Armoury) as they are generally designed for raiding or PvP, not the solo explorer with occasional 5man.

Not bothered either about the whole Panda and lore etc drama. I don’t have a background in the earlier Warcraft series as I never really enjoyed RTS games so no preconceptions there. If I was to worry about Azeroth “making sense” then I wonder more about things like why all the red mobs hang around each other and don’t attack anyone except players, not each other! [note - there are places where this does occur, there's not many though]. Its a fantasy world… so Pandas fit right in! Like giant walking cows.

So that’s my position, trying to save all my “Wow, that was cool!” or “Look at this landscape!” etcs for the real one.

I guess it also saves all the “WTF were Bliz thinking here!” moments as well.