Halls of Lightning - Heroic

Finally hit my first Heroic which was loaded with Achievements earned and some gear upgrades. Would like to thank Dwarfinator, Shammiet, Rilli and Efil.

The End or Just the Beginning?

I've finally reached level 80. I have no clue what to do or where to start now. I'm not geared for heroics by no means. I can't do any raids yet either. I guess I'll start by getting all my tradeskills maxed out.

Sholazar Basin Down - Almost Level 80

So with Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills and now Sholazar Basin in the bag, it's off to Zul Drak to get to level 80. Completing that will leave me with three more zones to go.. Icecrown, Storm Peaks and Crystalsong Forest. What will I do when I hit level 80? Not sure yet.. Hopefully do some instances and start getting some gear to get ready to raid.

I want to finish all the quests Northrend has to offer for that achievement and then head back to the old world to do those. When you hit the maximum level there is so much to do yet. I haven't even started the Crusader Coliseum yet. What to do, what to do!?

Brewfest and the Death of Onyxia

Today was pretty awesome. I've earned well over 200 achievement points since this morning. I've done all but four Brewfest achievements, netted myself a brand new non-combat pet (Wolpertinger) got my first two Purple Epics (the Brewfest Daggers, got two of them from multiple Coren Direbrew runs) ran Dire Maul with Rosellia and then kicked Onyxia's ass with just 6 of us. Thanks to my guild again - Gwena, Nightgirl, Imkay, Hex and of course Moderna.

Good stuff.. I'm about to go solo Mauradon to get yet another achievement.

Ahn Quiraj is gonna have to wait..

(this picture is my old Alliance warrior 'Ein' on the Kael'Thas Server. This was taken 3 1/2 years ago when we were making legitimate attempts on AQ40 in Vanilla WoW)

It figures. Everyone is too worried about getting purpled up or getting those dailies done then to go back and do an old-world raid! We are still saved. Have two bosses left to go!! Twin Emperors and then the Old-God himself. Someone said.. Oh Twin Emps are too hard even at 80! Nay I say to them. It's just that they couldn't figure out how to do the first pull properly. After that it's a tank and spank rinse and repeat gimmick fight.

Ahn Quiraj temple as always eluded me. For four years now I've waited to see C'thun die. No, scratch that.. I've waited to SEE C'thun. Finally we get close enough to finish it, and.. No.. No one wants to go back in there.

LAMESAUCE!!!

Warrior News: Devilsade is now level 24

Ahn Quiraj Temple

So tonight turned out to be a great night. It started out with Savexalya and I wanting to just kill trash for the Bug Mounts, and ended up turning into a full fledged raid. We blasted through most of the bosses but hit a snag on the Twin Emps. Special thanks to everyone who attended. Gorrig, Rillith, Drivmustangs, Shammiet, Dwarfinator, Hallard and Efil. There were a few others who came in and out, but I appologize if I don't remember your names. I'm still semi-new to the guild and don't remember all the names.

Thanks for making it a fun night after a day of frustration.

Warrior News - My Draenei Warrior hit level 16 tonight.

I've started my first Alt on Alliance.

I'm angry!! Very annoyed. It seems impossible to get into a group for an instance run prior to level 80 without either being in a large guild or being a Healer or a Tank. The guild I am currently in 'Old-School' is pretty cool so far.. The guild seems to be full of really nice folks, however the majority of them are already level 80. I can't blame them for not wanting to take time out of their daily grinding and heroic runs to run me through an instance or two. To be totally honest a couple of them already have. Personally I don't like being run through an instance, whereas I like the challenge of doing it with others of equal level of myself. Some would call the prior statement as having your hand held, and I believe that when you are run through an instance you don't really learn how to play your class any better. Old-School only has a few healers and tanks so getting instance runs on a regular basis doesn't happen.

So my other option is to go into the LFG system or ask in General Chat. The other day I wanted to run GunDrak with the twin Locks, Moderna and Hexena and I spammed trade and general chat in Dalaran to no avail. I then flew from Zul-Drak to Sholazar Basin and back spamming the request for a Healer and Tank without a single response. One thing I will never do is interrupt people while they are playing with a Ninja Invite. I also don't like whispering folks I don't know and asking them to run an instance with me. I could do this as a last resort, but I'm sure if they aren't AFK, they can see my messages in the channels.

There really isn't any other way to get groups. You see, my favorite, absolute favorite part of playing World Of Warcraft is running instances. You get the best gear upgrades short of raiding and also gives you a real challenge. Let's be honest here.. Questing is fun sometimes, but fighting mobs really aren't much of a challenge. The meat and potatoes of WOW is Instances and Raiding. I don't PVP so the one thing I enjoy I don't get to do.

And you can FORGET about running old-world or BC instances. While it is a rare occurrence to get a group together for instances on Azeroth, it's like pulling teeth to get people to run any content in Burning Crusade minus Hellfire Instances. It's like people get their upgrades so their gear is good enough to have an edge on quests in BC, and then rush to 68 to get to Northrend to repeat the process.

I am level 78 now and I've run only the instances you see in this Blog. I wanted to get some heirloom items to roll a Warrior for myself, but with 6 Stone Keeper's Shards out of the 200 I might need for one piece. It's never gonna happen.

There is a solution on the horizon. Cross Server LFG which was announced at BlizzCon. I have high hopes for it right now, but let's look at the past LFG methods. It hardly worked in the past with the LFG channel, and currently with the LFG system.

LFG GOD-DAMMIT I WANT TO RUN INSTANCES!!!!!!!!!! WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO GET SOME INSTANCE PLAYTIME?

What did I do? I rolled an Alt. I now have Devilsade - Female Draenei Warrior who is level 13 as we speak. I'm going to play her every-other day and hope this fixes the problem of finding a Tank for a group, since I will be one. I gotta do what I gotta do to get some instance runs, even if it means dropping my Rogue that I worked so hard on and making Devilsade my main.

What does this mean for the Blog? I'll keep it. I want to raid with my Rogue..... But.. Will I start chronicling my adventures with my Warrior? I doubt it. No one reads this thing anyway!!!

Ding 78! And yes, thats the Frostmourne..

I didn't have any really good shots of myself hitting level 78, but as I was questing in Dragonblight I came upon Frostmourne Cavern and a quest that showed where Arthas found his Frostmourne blade.

So I am currently finished all Quests in Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Grizzly HIlls. I am currently in Sholazar Basin doing the Nesingwary quests. I can't believe I am almost 80 I get closer everyday.

World of Warcraft Radio!

I dunno how I never ran across this before, but I've found the ultimate radio station to listen to while playing WoW. You can find the live stream on their website HERE

Level 77 - Taking to the Skies of Northrend

It's a bird!? It's a plane!? No! It's Damere flying about in Northrend. I finally got to level 77 and with 1000g I was able to buy my Cold-Weather Flying ability. This should make questing a lot easier and reach places I couldn't previously.

I had 940g when I hit level 77, and I took some greens I was saving in the bank and vendored them for the rest of the cash. Now it's time to save up for Artisan riding so I can get the Epic Flier and then my Netherdrake.

Wrathgate and the Siege of Undercity.

Wrathgate - Before

Wrathgate - After

I love Blizzard's phasing tech. It makes the environment around you change as the storyline develops. Not everyone who runs into it sees it the same way you do (unless they progress the storyline the way you do). This was used extensively for the Death Knights starter quests.

Wrath Gate is one of the cooler questlines in Dragonblight, and the game in my opinion.(Heck it even comes with it's very own cut-scene) Blizzard also mentioned at Blizzcon that they will use phasing extensively in Cataclysm since they mastered the art of it in Wrath of the Lich King.

Also during the Siege of Undercity quest which occurs as part of the WrathGate chain, you get to invade Undercity with King Varian Wrynn and gain a blessing that increases your power ten-fold. You are pretty much invincible throughout the whole thing (as long as you stay with Wrynn and Jaina) - One thing I noticed in the beginning, your standing there with Broll, Wrynn and Valeera Sanguinar. For those of you who don't know, these three characters are the main ones in the World of Warcraft comic book which I collect.

Jenkins!, UBRS and the first boss of Blackwing Lair.

So I guess for a fun night the guild decided to do some old-world instances. Molten Core, BWL, Magisters Terrace where all thought of, but it was decided that Blackwing Lair was it. When we arrived there I guess it was then that we realized that none of us were attuned to take the short-cut into BWL, so we decided to get it done. We split into two groups and while we were in Upper Blackrock Spire I got the Leeeerrroooy achievement. Upon getting both groups attuned we made our attempts at Razorgore, the first boss of BWL. We took him down with ease, but then in common Blizzard fashion, the raid bugged out. The mobs that spawn in the corners of the room decided to not stop coming out.

So we decided to leave the instance and let it soft reset. Thats when we realized one of our members never got attuned (he took the UBRS entrance), so we decided to help him get attuned as well. Well, our luck was about to get worse, as the arena part of UBRS kept bugging out and we kept getting stuck there with Nefarian laughing at us. At this point is was getting late, so a lot of folks started to leave.

So it wasn't a complete loss. I got the Leeeerrroooy Achievement as well as the UBRS dungeon clear one too. Was fun to get a big guild run going even if the instances kept bugging out. Just my luck. Perhaps now that we're all attuned we can go back into BWL and clear it next time.

Level 76 - Drak Tharon Keep

Awesome run through Drak Tharon tonight. Once again the very helpfull and awesome Savexaleya covered the heals, while Tanqu, Hexena and Moderna kept us rolling. I also managed to hit level 76 in this run! 4 more levels to go!

Hour of the Worg

Hour of the Worg is one of the cooler quests in Grizzly Hills.. It involves heading to Bloodmoon Isle to destroy Arugal (the last boss of Shadowfang Keep) again! It seems the Lich King is looking to ressurect his soul and while they are in the process of doing it, you are sent to destroy his shade.

I want to thank Savexaleya, Lottalovely (again!!) and Necromortis for helping me finish the quest. These guys are great! I will repay you all someday I hope. When I get high enough level to make a difference.

Grizzly Hills and Level 75

Today I made it to level 75. I'm also halfway through the quests in Grizzly Hills for the achievement - Fo' Grizzle My Shizzle. As soon as I complete the Grizzly Hills quests I will then head to Dragonblight and finish that zone. I'm thinking I will be pretty close to 80 by the end of Dragonblight.

As you can see by the picture I got the Armored Bear mount from Dalaran. Had a little extra gold left over burning a hole in my pocket so I decided to pick it up. It's pretty cool, a nice little treat to myself since not being able to fly here in Northrend till level 77.

I'm hoping to get another run through Nexus and possibly Azjol-Nerub or Zul Drak.

Its good to have connections!

I don't know many people on the Alliance side.. Not as many as I'd like to have as I had on the Horde. So when trying to finish the Netherwing starter quests to get my Netherdrake I had my Horde Warrior friend Kagem help me defeat Zuluhed.

Now once I get the money for the Epic Flying skill, I can start doing my Netherwing dailies to get a Netherdrake. Good stuff.

The Nexus - Completed!

A couple folks from Old-School ran me through the Nexus, netting me the achievement and a really nice dagger. It went quick (cause they're all 80's)but it was very nice of them to take a half hour out of their day to run a regular instance for me. I appreciate all who were involved. Thanks toTemplar, Savexaleya, Broni and Lottalovely.

I think since Borean and Howling Fjord are complete I want to head to Grizzly Hills.. Only because I've never fully explored that zone. I've done Dragonblight once before on Horde side and got the achievement for it, but I never got to see all that Grizzly Hills has to offer. I'll do Dragonblight after that.

Ding 74

Actually this post is a bit late.. As I got to level 74 two days ago.. Just hadn't updated the blog. Things are going ok so far in Old School. Lots of nice folks.. This is just a quick update as I am about to do my first guild run of regular Nexus.

More to come shortly.

My New Guild - OLD SCHOOL

So yeah.. I haven't been playing much lately. Been really busy at work, but with the limited time I did have to play this week I've been trying to get into a guild on the Alliance side of Exodar. And it's not been easy to say the least. I tried guilds like Essence of Azeroth, Resolve, Chimera and Malicious with no luck. I saw their recruitment posts on the Exodar Forums but most of them wanted 80's ready to raid and nothing less. And I don't think Chimera or Malicious even exist at this point.

So today after dilly-dallying around with my new MMO Runes of Magic, I tried one more time in General Chat to get a guild invite.. And quiet honestly I didn't care who invited me. I just wanted to be in a guild to kill the boredom, have someone to talk to, and hopefully group with. Suddenly I got a ninja invite from a Williy and after looking at the name (Old School) I decided to take it. Afterall I would consider myself old-school in this game.. From playing shortly after the games release..

I hope I make new friends out of this deal and become a great asset to them. Let's see how it works out. I had high hopes for Portent as well, but if you've been reading this blog - you'll know how that worked out.

Speaking of Portent.. I haven't seen Rev or Zavaria in almost two weeks. I hope they're ok. Maybe they server transfered or did the new faction change that was just introduced. - Oh well.

Leatherworking 400 and Dual Spec

Didn't do too much today.. Servers were down and I didn't get much sleep last night. Kagem and I played with our Horde Paladins and got to level 17. With the little time I did get to play Damere I finally got my Leather working to 400 and finally purchased Dual Specs. So now I can swap between Assassination for solo-leveling and Combat for when I run instances. (I miss Blade Flurry for increased DPS in 5-mans).

Tomorrow hopefully I'll get close to level 74 and get a few Nexus runs in. Maybe :)

Another Utgarde Keep Run!

This will be the last time I run Utgarde Keep on normal. I finally finished the quests for it. Next time I run it will be Heroic I hope. The run started out shaky. We had a lvl 69 Deathknight who tried his heart out but kept dying. When to my surprise the level 80 Paladin switched to Protection and carried us the rest of the way through.

Special thanks again to my buddy Rosellia who joined me this time. Also thanks goes out to Toa the Shaman, Narrian the Death Knight, and our savior for the run Bossuber the Paladin. Excellent run, great heals Toa and don't worry Narrian! You'll be kicking major ass when you get a few more levels. Would group with any of these guys again!

Blizz never ceases to amaze me sometimes.

Besides digging through crap, sometimes Blizz never ceases to amaze me with the cool stuff you can do during quests.. Here's a pic of me surfing across the chasm to Valgarde Keep on top of a flaming harpoon.

Little stuff like this makes me smile.

Level 73 - Now back for some unfinished business!

So I got level 73 today and then decided to head back to the old-world to work on my lockpicking that I'd been procrastinating on forever. My skill was in the low 100's so I headed out to the Wetlands to work on it. Currently my lockpicking skill is at 150. Got a ways to go yet. I have over 20 locked chests in my bank that I've been saving of the course of leveling this toon. A lot of money to be made in what I could possibly auction out of all of those. And they're taking up room in my bank.

Other than that I had to leave Portent. I hadn't heard from the GM's in well over a week now. It's a shame because I had high hopes in them. So I've been surfing the WoW forums and applying at all different kinds of guilds. I'm hoping to hear back from the GM of From Beginning to End today. See how that goes.

Oh and REPENT! THE CATACLYSM IS COMING!! lol

And it's Official!!

I'm watching the Blizzcon 09 Live Feed right now.. But yeah.. Cataclysm will be World of Warcrafts 3rd Expansion.. and there is so much amazing new content coming to WoW that I cannot possibly post everything here right now.

Check out Wow's main site, or Wow.Com, and MMO-Champion for all the new news.

But I will be be rolling a Worgen Warrior and Human Hunter come Cataclysm.

BlizzCon 2009!

On the eve of BlizzCon 2009, I thought I'd post my predictions to see how close I am to being right. I want to say right here and now that this is all merely speculation.

As far as their next MMO.. I wonder why they would ever stray from their three cash cows. StarCraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft. Unless their next MMO is something closely tied to what they have now.

Could their next MMO be -

Starcraft Universe?

World of Diablo?

World of Warcraft 2.0?

We all have heard the rumors of Worgen and Goblins for the next playable races, but I wonder.. Can Worgen be Warriors? If so I am soooo rolling one. And I want to know more details about these crazy race to class combinations.. Tauren Priests and Paladins still freak me out. And Dwarf Shamans and Gnome Priests do as well.

Also I want another Hero Class so bad! Come on Runemasters!!! They have to make something to balance out these crazy OP Death Knights.

Will the new dances finally be implemented?

And I hope that the level cap will exceed 85. One can only hope!

Well thats all I have for now. I will post the trailer for 'Cataclysm' here tomorrow if it's released. I can't believe I have had off since Monday and now i'm gotta work while BlizzCon 09 is in full swing. Can't find out any of the juicy info until I get home from work. By then everyone will be buzzing with all the sweet new expansion details.

My Revenge on Utgarde Keep

So finally I found a decent enough group to complete Utgarde Keep. The group was composed of Zodyak the Prot Paladin, Beralak a Mage, Opusdei a Shadow Priest and Tranzformrz a Rest Druid. We had no deaths and no wipes, unlike my last attempt here. Many thanks to you all.

Level 72

It took a while.. Been doing other things like playing my Horde Paladin with a friend. But today I finally made it to Level 72. I took the time to go all the way back to Ironforge to train and only learned a new rank of Feint. I should have just stayed in Northrend.

I don't know where the other members of Portent have been lately. Haven't seen Zav or Rev in three days now. Am really dying to run some instances. Do I have to look for another guild to do these? I dunno we'll see.

Culling of Stratholme: The Retaliation

Awesome movie. This Machinima is definitely going into my top 5 Warcraft Movies of ALL time. Amazing musical score, great presentation, an all around fun movie to watch. It runs about 23 minutes long telling the tale of the events after Arthas ravaged Stratholme and pursued Mal'Ganis to the wastes of Northrend.

I'm not sure if it follows the lore exactly.. i.e how Arthas acquired Frostmourne and became the Lich King etc. But either way it was a blast to watch. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes wow machinima.

http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=121731

Working Day and Night!

Still Level 71 - About 31% of the way in at the moment. The last day or two I've been trying to work on my tradeskills. Finally got Leatherworking passed the 350 Mark and earned the 'Working Day and Night' Achievement. Now I can use all that Borean Leather that I've been saving up since doing the quests in the zone.

So currently my Tradeskills stand at:

Leatherworking -375

Skinning - 433

I'm not going to blog about this, but my good friend Kagem from the Horde side and I rolled Paladin's last night, and when he gets his toon off his brother's account, we are going to use the Refer-A-Friend bonuses to level them together. We originally wanted to bring along Connery as a Paladin as well and start the guild Paladin Pity Party or PPP. Yeah I'm strange like that. Our Paladin's got to level 8 last night. Connery can still roll one if he wants to and join us. I am excited to try the Refer-A-Friend thing for the Zhevra mounts and to see how much bonus XP we can get. And see how fast we can get our Pallys to level 60.. Just a couple days I'm imagining.

Also I am totally psyched for Blizzcon this weekend. I'm not going this year. (I WILL BE GOING NEXT YEAR NO DOUBT!!) but I'm going to try to order to PPV so I can watch it. I can't wait to get all the juicy details on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (Not the Official Name - Yet)

Mrglurglurgl

I think the title says it all.. LOL

Utgarde Keep. My, the floor is nice!

I don't know if it's the tank.. or our gear.. or what exactly. But we couldn't beat the second boss if our lives depended on it.

Avionic our Paladin tank had to leave, so we recruited a level 69 Death Knight tank to finish the run. Let's see if it was the tank and if that made a difference.

Level 71

Ok I was supposed to be jumping for joy in this pic, but that's what you get with action screenshots! I made it to level 71 today.. A mere 153,000 xp. Next level is 156,000 xp away! Hopefully a couple runs through Utgarde Keep will help alleviate some of the pain.

Oh and here's a nice pic of me on a Death Knight's Mount.

Rosellia the Night Elf Hunter

Just wanted to give a quick 'THANK YOU!' to my new friend Rosellia. Started out the evening with some quick help for an Elite Quest and ended up questing together for the rest of the evening.

She is an awesome Hunter and made questing a breeze. It's good to be finally making some friends on the Alliance side who aren't idiots or complete jerks. I hope to get a chance to quest with her again! It was a lot of fun!

On the other hand, I'm almost level 71. Have 20% more experience to gain before I hit it. Should get it sometime tomorrow.

And at Midnight tonight I Ding'd 33 in real life. Yep it's my Birthday today.. and couldn't be happier spending it in WoW (Well I guess I could, but tis the life of a gaming geek!)

LOL.

Cataclysm Classes of Craziness!

Human Hunter - This makes sense to me, I'm surprised there weren't any already. Won't be playing this combo because I don't really like hunters.. but it's about time.

Orc Mage - Another combo that should have already been available. If Orcs can be Shamans, why the hell can't they be Mages as well.

Night Elf Mage - This might take some explaining, because Night Elves really aren't down with the Arcane. But I'm sure Blizz will come up with something lore-wise.

Dwarf Mage - Sure why not. I think any race should be able to be a Mage. Period.

Blood Elf Warrior - When I started on the Exodar server (the eve of Burning Crusade) everyone on the Horde rolled a Blood Elf. And thats why it was so damn hard to find a Tank if it wasn't a druid or a Paladin. It's about time. All races should be allowed to be Warriors, just like Mages.

Dwarf Shaman - Ok this one I don't understand. Blizz has got some splainin' to do! Dwarves all in all remind me of a rugged race, ones who are more for hard work and drinkin'. I can't see a dwarf be in tune with the elements and be all shamanistic. Just like the Night Elf Mage.. this one will be interesting to see how Blizzard explains it.

Undead Hunter - Not as odd as say Dwarf Shamans or Night Elf Mages.. I can let is slide, since the Undead afterall were once Humans.

Tauren Paladin - Ummm.. Yeah this is the apple that fell waaaaaay off the tree. Shamans and Druids.. Sure. Paladin's.. Not so much. I thought Tauren's believed in the Earth Mother and not the light!? But isn't the Earth Mother really Elune? I dunno. I can't wait to see a Tauren bubble it up and hearth away.

Tauren Priest - LOL.

Gnome Priest - I was surprised you couldn't have a Gnome priest in the first place.. but don't Gnomes not believe in the light, and are more technologically inclined? Well it's horrible that you can now have a full group of nothing but Gnomes. Good for them.

Troll Druid - More power to them. A little odd to me cause I used to love playing Trolls, but I guess if they can be Shamans, why not Druids.

With Level 70 comes my new UI.

So I've hit level 70 and a fresh new level deserves a brand new UI. Here it is, I hope you like it cause I do.

Here's some of the mods I am now using:

• Auctioneer
• MSBT Combat Text
• Elfbuffbars
• Pitbull
• Quartz
• Bigwigs
• Deadly Boss Mods
• Recount
• Chatter
• Chinchilla MiniMap
• FuBar - DurabilityFU, MoneyFU, PerformanceFU, ExperienceFU
• Omen
• Bartender w/ Buttonfacade
• AutoproftX
• EngBags

Damere Earns the Achievement: Level 70

Seems like the levels are flying by. I've finally reached Level 70. 10 more levels to go! It also seems like I've only begun to scratch the surface of the Borean Tundra quests. Because Revelt and Zavaria weren't able to get online yesterday I've pulled ahead of them. When I logged out they still were working on getting to Level 68. Don't worry guys.. Once you hit 68.. your journey to 70 will fly by. Northrend is good like that.

I'm ready for some Northrend 5 mans!

Here Kitty Kitty!

Ran across some druids here sitting in a row in Stormwind. I absolutely love the new skins Blizzard added with the latest patch.

They wouldn't dance for me, even when I offered them some treats. :(

Ding 69!

Things are coming along great! I suppose I could do Utgarde Keep soon, just waiting for my guildies to get home from work. I'm loving every second of Northrend. I can't mention it enough of how well designed it is. Makes me very excited to see what they are going to do for Cataclysm.

Anyway, gear wise I've upgraded almost every slot with Northrend Greens. Just for comparison purposes when I got into Outlands, my attack power was 600 and my health was 2820. Now, 11 levels later my attack power is 1350 and my health is 7200.

Also I wanted to mention a couple of my favorite Podcasts I've been listening to lately. Yes, they are all WoW related :P

WoW Insider Podcast - http://www.wow.com

Outlandish Podcast - http://www.outlandishpodcast.com

The Instance Podcast - http://www.myextralife.com/wow/

Easily 100% the best WOW podcasts there are.

Northrend at Last!

Well I did it. Only took a few days to blast through Outlands (yuck! but some good things did come out of going through Outlands i.e Portent) and I've finally made it back to Northrend. This time as Alliance. I went to Borean Tundra first, and began doing some of the quests there. Experience wise I've made it halfway through 68. It was getting late so I didn't get to do as much as I wanted. I love Northrend. Its much better designed and a lot more exciting. The quests are well thought out and the environments are beautiful. Blizzard sure has learned a ton since Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King as an expansion is a credit to that.

I've gotten a few more upgrades in the short time I've spent in Borean, and I got some cool looking shoulders. My attack power went up 300 points, and now I have a haste rating.. LOL.

As soon as I hit level 70 (should be some time tomorrow) I will start doing some of the Northrend instances.

Fun Fun Fun! Thanks again Kagem my Orc Warrior friend for helping me make level 67 go by so fast.

Care-Bear'd My Way to Level 68!

I know what your thinking.. How'd you do that!? Well its a little complicated, but I managed it. I had a ton of Elite quests left from Nagrand that I couldn't do alone and there weren't many volunteers available. So I asked a friend - from the HORDE - to help me do them.

Using ventrilo to communicate, my Horde friend Kagem and I went through Nagrand finishing up my Elite quests. From Durn the Hungerer to the final Elite in the Nesingwary quest chain. I would tag the mobs first and Kagem would finish them off. I got a lot of strange comments from Alliance bystanders. "Is a Horde helping you with your quests?" "Why is that Horde warrior following you around!" Well I wanted to get level 67 done and at the time this was the best way to do it. Heck! It worked right? I ding'd 68 not too long ago. I am clearing out my bags, going to train and getting ready for my trip to Northrend.

Total Playtime to level 68 - 10 days, 21 hours.

NetherDrake.. Not so much...

Netherdrake.. My favorite flying mount in the game. No.. No I don't have one yet.. This is from one of the quests in Nagrand. I just thought I'd post an early preview of myself on one of these grand mounts. I don't like the proto-drakes from Northrend. I can appreciate this one much more.

Anyway for an update.. I am sitting at 7 bars away from level 67. And then it's one more level grind to 68 and then it's off to Northrend. I'll be sailing there by tomorrow indeed!!!

Srsly. Worgens and Goblins? Confirmed?

So before I went to work this morning, I was going through all of my favorite websites and came across this little number from WoW.CoM. - http://www.wow.com/2009/08/10/cataclysm-races-leaked/

So apparently Alliance are getting the Worgen, and the Horde are getting their own 'tiny' race - Goblins.

Oh and apparently the next expansion is indeed called: World of Warcraft : Cataclysm.

Ok. I've always been a fan of spoilers and rumors. So I've heard about this stuff for weeks on end now, but to have it confirmed is nice too. With BlizzCon just over a week away, I guess it's time for this kind of stuff to come out.

What I want to know is:

1 - Are we getting new professions?

2 - Are we getting new Hero Classes to balance out the OP'ness of the Death Knights?

3 - Are they overhauling Azeroth? (I.E fixing, changing the old-world zones. Allowing flying mounts etc)

We'll find out soon enough.

Level 66 - Underbog and Slave Pens in the bag!

Level 65 took me all damn day just about. I haven't the slightest what it is about those mid-levels. It's like your so close but so far away still. I am more a glass half empty kind of guy, no optimism whatsoever so thats why it seems like this leveling process is taking forever. While in Underbog I managed to finish of level 65. And what a great run it was. Once again I ran with Revelt and Zavaria. Big fun was had by all. Special shout-outs to: Wicket (Mage), Love (Deathknight), and Darkbrew (Deathknight). Love stuck with us throughout the whole thing. Much thanks to you! She Ding'd 68 while running with us. I wish her tons of luck in her trip to Northrend!! I'll be there soon!

Good Morning Level 65.

Starting the morning off right. Level 65. I made a comment to Zavaria and Revelt last night that I thought Outlands was moving right along. In only three more levels I'll be able to get the ball rolling in Northrend. The changes to the amount of experience and the recent mount changes in patch 3.2 obviously make leveling in Outlands a breeze. Which is great because I can't stand Outlands.

I got a chance to play in the Beta of Wrath of the Lich King and took one toon to level 80 there. During the Beta I only took my old Troll Rogue to level 72, and a Deathknight to 58. When the expansion went live, I decided to take my Priest to level 80. I did every single quest in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord and Dragonblight..earning the quest achievements for those zones. I was only in the Grizzly Hills for a few quests before I hit 80. So there is a ton of Northrend content that I have not gotten to experience yet. Especially raid content like Naxxramas and others.

Well another step towards Northrend. Let's see if I can hit 66 today as well.

The WoW-Athon.

Just wanted to make a quick post about the wonderful things going on over at http://wowathon.com/ I've been watching them since they were level 30. So far they have raised over 6,300 dollars for Child's Play Charity. ((http://www.childsplaycharity.org/))

Get over there and Donate!

Ding 64 and the Revenge of the Hellfire Instances!

After joining Portent I've had much success. I've upgraded almost every item in slot with an instance Blue. Going back into Ramparts and Blood Furnace and not dying a single time thanks to a decent group for a change. Special thanks goes out to the Druid Fatoneoh and some serious tanking skills of the Death Knight Zabuza.

Oh and I'm now level 64. About ready to hit up Terrokar forest and hopefully get around to running some of the Coilfang Resevoir Instances. Oh and none of this would have been possible without my new guild - Portent!! Special thanks again to Revelt and Zavaria!!!

One of these days I'm going to figure out how to link armory items into this blog. :P

And into Blood Furnace!!

Blood Furnace turned out to be a good run. I got to run with some new friends Zavaria and Revelt of PORTENT, as well as the Shadow Priest from the previous Ramparts run.

Although I only died once or twice from the technicians bombs and a rather bad pull from Severre, it was a great run!. I didn't get any upgrades but I did complete a quest.

Oh and let me get around to talking about Severre. Another one of those know-it-all elites. Real jerk. I'd advise to never group with this guy if you can help it. It was funny that I got into an argument with this guy (In General Chat) as to whether an lvl 63 elite was solo-able or not (I guess it is for a Prot Pally) and then wound up grouping with him in Blood Furnace.

Anyway something better than loot came out of this run. I was invited into the guild . Things are starting to look up!

Left Dead at the Foot of Every Boss!

So I was in Ironforge scanning the auction house to get rid of some items that were clogging my bags when I was invited to run Ramparts. I said yes because I had a couple quests that I needed to finish in there. The group was composed of an AFK Hunter, a Paladin, Shaman and a Shadow Priest. Much to my frustration the group was terrible at keeping me on my feet. Not to mention the Priest wand-pulling mobs and the Shaman dispursing the mobs all over the place. If I did any damage during this run I'd be surprised.

Every single boss I was left dead at the foot of. I guess I pulled threat from the Prot Pally, but you'd think with three possible healers I'd get at least a flash of light or something.. but no. I died using a dodge trinket and evasion in hopes that eventually I'd get a heal or two. Nope. I did come out of this run with two blue upgrades. Boots and a Belt. But it was the most frustrating run I've done to date.

Did I fail or was it my healers? I'm going with the latter. Idiots.

Outlands Sucks!

The reason I say this is because everyone who is anyone is already in Northrend. This problem is common even in Azeroth. Most of the players you meet are either brand new at the game or alts at this point. It is impossible to get a group for an instance. And believe me I've tried. It's just a race to get to Northrend and I guess that's what I'm going to try to do. One of the things I love about this game is running instances. You get the best gear for your level out of them, and they are a lot of fun. Outlands is full of great instances. But unless you want a PUG full of NooBs or Deathknights.. Your best bet is to level yourself like crazy until you make it to Northrend. I've only got 5 more levels to go until I can hit up Northrend easily. So I guess I'll finish up the Zangarmarsh quests that I can solo and start heading into Terrokar forest. Most people make it to 68 by the time they enter Blade's Edge mountains. Maybe I'll make it before then. That'd be nice. But yeah.. Outlands sucks anymore.

Welcome to my Fail-Blog!

Hello! I play a human Rogue named Damere on the Exodar server. This blog is going to be my attempt to chronicle my adventures through the World of Warcraft. I figured since I love to write, I might as well write about something I love doing. And well, lately that's been playing this game.

Just a little background information about myself and my history of playing this game. I have been playing video games since 1980 with the Intellivision and everything since then. Games are my passion. I've always been semi-competitive with them once they started adding scores to games. I try to 'beat' every game in my collection, but then along comes the MMO genre where the game is ever-expanding and truly 'un-beatable'. I first got into MMO's with Ultima Online shortly after its release and played it well into the second expansion 'The Lost Lands'. Soon after that I went back to consoles while still dabbling a bit into PC games with another of Blizzards titles - Diablo.

I was into console gaming hard-core for a while. I did try EverQuest but something about it turned me off. I dunno if it was the first person view, or perhaps my PC at the time and the graphics? No idea. I truly thought for a while that I would never get back into PC gaming and that nothing could match what I loved about Ultima Online. In 2004 I would be proven wrong.

Sure it was hard to not hear about World of Warcraft from the gaming community. We all saw the commercials. I wasn't sure if I wanted to invest the time into another MMO. A couple of my friends at my old job were playing it and telling me how much they were loving it. I kept it at bay for almost a year. Then in October of 2005 I couldn't wait anymore. I went to EB Games with some friends, picked up the game and the rest is history. Been playing ever since.

My very first toon was a Night Elf Warrior. Raided with him in Molten Core and BWL. Even did a couple runs in AQ40. After the release of World of Warcraft's second expansion 'The Burning Crusade', I wanted a change and went over to Horde. There I played another Warrior, this time Undead. I also tried my hand at Healing and rolled an Undead Priest. Here I would stay for almost 2 years. Now mind you.. I've always had alts.. I've played every single class this game has to offer but deep down inside I've had a secret crush on the Rogue class. And now I've left the Horde again for the Alliance and rolled a new main.

Damere - Level 63 Rogue.

A lot has changed since I've raided last. Burning Crusade has come and gone with Wrath of the Lich King adding many new features to the game. I've leveled solo through old-world content and am now blasting my way through Outlands with the help of Patch 3.2's change to the restrictions on mounts. I'm still guild-less and trying to pickup my way through dungeons. Will I succeed in my goal of becoming a raiding Rogue, or will I fail as this blog is titled?

We'll find out.