Level 11 - Cats, Talents and Beauty

 In this post there are comparisons between levels 5-11, as well as notes about being a low-level Druid.

Teldrassil

"Elune be with you."

Ah, Teldrassil. Let me tell you a story.

When I first started playing, I rolled a Forsaken Warlock, died, got lost in spirit form and deleted her. My second toon was a Night Elf Priest by the name of Saellia (how do I still remember that?). Like many other new players, I was absolutely in love with Teldrassil, for all sorts of reasons. The trees, for one,  reaching up forever and fading into the purple canopy, and the architecture, the way it bended and twisted around ancient branches. I loved the glowing wisps that floated about the gigantic forest protectors who lumbered through Dolannar, oh, and the music. "Song of Elune" is my favorite piece of music from World of Warcraft. I thought this was where the world ended (even though I had already ran around Deathknell and had seen my brother stomping through the grass in Mulgore). That's why I'm glad the Cataclysm brought hardly any changes.

What the Cataclysm did bring was improvements, all of which were greatly needed. The questing was much as I remembered it - kill some furbolgs, there's a satyr that needs your help and then you turn him into a frog, you head out and kill Oakenscowl to stop the corruption of the forest, etc.,etc., although the reasons behind the quest objectives were updated.

The biggest (well, maybe not biggest, but the one that excited me the most) change was to a quest named "The Relics of Awakening". The objective of the quest stayed the same: you have to venture through a furbolg infested barrow den and find four objects, then return to the quest giver. Pre-Cata, this quest was a nightmare.

The dens were crowded with furbolgs (what's the plural of furbolg, I wonder?), you had to guess where the relics were and it was incredibly easy to get lost. Post-Cata, this quest is much less... stressful. The game supplies you with a Sentinel who tells you the general idea of where the relics are and helps you kill things. Some may argue it makes it easymode, but the "unnerfed" version of the quest was hard as hell and I'm glad to see it changed.

Overall, lovely zone with a great atmosphere that was changed only as much as it needed to be.

Durotar

I shit my pants when I was Tednug and Scratchfever, tbh.

Before I begin, let me say that Pre-Cata I never leveled a Troll or an Orc past level 6.

Much like Teldrassil, Durotar didn't really need a complete overhaul, but it did need improvements. Like Teldrassil, it got what it needed.

After doing a few quests that I vaguely recognized in Sen'jin, I was ushered off to Razor Hill. In Razor Hill I was sent to kill some Kul Tiras soldiers, which only made me lament how forgotten Kul Tiras is in the eyes of the lore department at the moment. After a few lack luster quests, I was sent to do a chain of quests involving the Southfury Watershed.

The Southfury Watershed

I really enjoyed these quests. You're sent by an orc in Razor Hill to help some civillians who were displaced when the Cataclysm made the Southfury river flood a good chunk of western Durotar. Since I never quested in Durotar pre-Cata, I have no idea if these NPCs were originally quest givers (although something tells me this is the case), but I do admit to being touched by a few of them. Among the NPCs were an elderly Shaman who needs to be escorted to her son (who is full of rage towards quillboar and asks you to kill a couple), an old woman who seeks revenge against crocolisks for killing her son and a Troll who is more worried about the wildlife than his own well-being.

After the Southfury Watershed quests were a batch of more bland ones, akin to the improved-but-not-spectacular quests in Teldrassil. Once I dinged level 11, I left the zone because I was bored of the story and the bright orange hurt my eyes.

Overall it was a blandish zone (with the exception of one batch of good quests) that I didn't mind doing, but won't be excited to do again if I have to.

Druidism

Errol, with her old braid.

Both of them are now level eleven and are waiting to journey forth: Errol to Darkshore and Hypo to the Northern Barrens.

At level 8 they both received Cat form and that was truly a godsend. Although I prefer ranged combat, lowbie Druids don't really have enough fire power to make it through until they can claw shit up. I love the new cat forms ("new" haha), especially the Troll one. They look badass as hell, and it's the kind of badass that you can't really appreciate unless you're the one tearing things up.

Hypo in Razor Hill.

Now that they've got their first few talents though, that's going to come to an end unless I'm in a really bad situation or I decide to live the cat-life. Although many would disagree (including me, to some extent, I enjoyed mixing and matching talent tress at low levels) I love the new talent trees. Especially as a druid, I like being able to play what I plan on being at higher levels at low levels so I can get the hang of it. And boy, do I need to get the hang of balance. As easy as it sounds on paper, it's much more difficult to get the hang of the eclipse system live.


ONWARDS! :D

Level 5 - Starting Zones, Moonfire and ZUNI! NOOO!

 First real post now. Let's get down to business!

Creation

Both toons were created Friday night. Errol is female and is currently sporting an incredibly ugly braid (I'll hope to have screenshots of them a little later). I think I'll have to make a special trip over to Stormwind and back in order to change her hairstyle. A little off course, but I don't think I can stare at green braids until she gets some sort of prime-time (aka Boomkin) shapeshift ability.

Hypocritic (or Hyp, if you're lazy like me) is looking pretty snazzy himself. I'm not really sure about which hair color matches with which pelt-color for Trolls, so I'm going to have to experiment when I get to Orgrimmar.

I'm really quite excited. I've played female Night Elves before (Vespor, a priest who I regret deleting and Probability, a mage who I'm probably not going to regret deleting in the near future), but I've never played a Troll, despite always wanting to. Also, I've never had a male toon at a decent level.

Levels 1-5

 Night Elves start out in Shadowglen, like they always have. Tbh, the leveling here is sort of bland. You don't get pitted against anything super big and fantastic and nothing huge happens.

The few things of note are very small, including two conversations between NPCs (one expressing suspicion about Malfurion's return and Staghelm's disappearance, and one making it clear that your character is needed on the frontlines) and the fact that you get a Dryad to help you out in the cave with all the spiders. Some may say that it made things to "easy", but for me it was a pleasant surprise.

 If this was a competition, the Troll starting zone would win, hands down. As a young troll you start out by being ushered off to your trainer immediately. I enjoyed being trained by Zen'Tabra, the kickass Troll lady we met during Zalazane's Fall. After your short training, you're sent to do menial work and then you meet Vol'jin!

Oh, Vol'jin. How I love you. <3

Anyway, you get to see a small cutscene of sorts where Vol'jin and Garrosh are arguing. I'm sure you've all seen it, and I had too at this point, but it still didn't make things any less epic. You get sent to kill some Naga, and then you join Vol'jin and some other lady in facing the Sea Witch herself!

Throughout the zone there is warrior/shaman type NPC by the name of Zuni. Zuni treats your toon like their very good friends. He pops up every once in awhile to tease you, heal you when you accidentally pull eight naga and help you kill the extras after you're topped off. He's even fully voice acted! Zuni is also there when you face the Sea Witch. After a long and rather epic battle, Zuni dies.

ZUNI! NOOOOO! D: WHY MUST I GET SO ATTACHED TO NPCS?

With the Sea Witch defeated, you get to see another cut scene of Vol'jin and Thrall talking, and then you get sent rather unceremoniously to Sen'jin Village. If I have one complaint about the Echo Isles, it's that it ends rather abruptly, imo. Overall it was a fun and epic zone that really shows the quality of questing in Cataclysm in my limited experience.


Looking Ahead

I plan on leveling these two during the summer for the most part, but it doesn't hurt getting everything off the ground now. My main goal is getting both to 85 before I return to school on September 7th. With the speed of leveling these days, this shouldn't be a problem in theory but social events, etc. do come before WoW for me and I've got two other toons I'm working on.

My goals for the rest of May (I have sixteen days) include continuing to gear up my main (she's ilvl 344 because I'm a lazy asshole, I get bored and I had WoW burnout for the better part of early 2011) and getting my Hunter to level 55. For my dueling alts, I'm hoping to have them both at 15 before May 31st.

I'm off to work on them right now. I'll try to get some screenshots, etc.

It Begins

I first had the idea for this blog on Wednesday.

By Thursday, the blog was created.

Last night, Friday night, I created the toons.

This morning they both hit level 5. Errol is chilling in Dolanaar and Hypo is in Sen'jin Village.

Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to format these posts and updates along the way. This is a very impromptu post. In the future I'd like to compare the questing from both sides, any character development and any interesting stories, etc.