Level 16 - Secondary Zones, Travel Forms and Dungeons

 I apologise for the late updates. It's been a busy week. Things will be back off the ground by next week, when updates will become more regular.

First Impressions: Darkshore

The ruins of Auberdine.

Ah, Darkshore. I've already spoken about my love for Night Elf zones in the past, but nothing beats Darkshore. I was a HUGE fan of the old Darkshore. I loved the atmosphere and the quests, I was familiar with most of the NPCs in Auberdine, as well as the general layout of the land. Whenever I tried to level an Alliance toon I would avoid Westfall and Bloodmyst and head straight to Darkshore.

In Cataclysm it becomes very apparent right away that shit hit Darkshore and shit hit Darkshore good. The quests I've done so far involve helping and saving survivors. These quests are very well designed and play upon equal parts emotion and nostalgia, as most of the survivors and victims are NPCs that used to hands out quests, sell goods or repair items, pre-Cata.

The tornado that rips it's way through Darkshore.

I've not progressed very far into this massive zone (90 quests to get loremaster, and if you've done any loremaster achievements you know that there are ALWAYS more than required), but so far I love what I see. As fond as I was of the old Darkshore, it did need a revamp - it was a big zone and running only gets you places so fast. Now you've got access to a sentinel's kitty mount and each quests is new and exciting.

First Impressions: Northern Barrens

I hated the Barrens. Now my hate is more of a lukewarm dislike.

It's rather pretty, though.

Darkshore throws you into the action right away. The Northern Barrens puts around, sending you out of your way to kill quillboar. Don't get me wrong - the zone has changed, A LOT. The quests have a better flow and once you get to the Crossroads you aren't being sent too far away without an escort, but many of the quests are still "kill x, collect y".

I'm hoping that the zone improves as I make my way through it, because what I've seen so far isn't very spectacular.

Ragefire Chasm -

Fucking troggs, man.

At level 15, Errol and Hypo got access to the dungeon finder. I was unable to run a dungeon with Errol, but I got into Ragefire Chasm with Hypo.

Ragefire Chasm got a bit of a revamp with Cataclysm. There are now more bosses, and the quests at the beginning lead you to kill the bosses that are a little out of the way. My only problem with this "follow-the-quest" system is that the quests are Horde-specific, and I'm not sure how this will be handled when I run through it on Errol.

RFC remains a good starter-dungeon. The atmosphere is good, the bosses are a bit of challenge if you're group isn't in all heirloom gear and there's a decent amount of trash.


Druidism - 

Playing Balance solo is a bit of challenge, but nothing I can't handle. At this point I'm having next to no downtime, and if things get sticky I cat form and melee my way out. I just got bear form at level 15, so I didn't have a lot of time to mess around with it. At level 16 you also receive the rest of your non-talent tree specific forms (besides flight form, of course), which really is a godsend while leveling.

Although I've only had the chance to play Balance in one dungeon, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cast times are sort of slow at this level, but I still managed to perform alright. I can see this posing a problem at higher levels (when things die REALLY REALLY FAST. I'm talking Dire Maul/Stratholme), but I understand that by then I will have some AoEs and more DoTs.

Future -

It's summer now, and I have more time to play WoW. I'm thinking about designating days of the week to play these toons. I'm thinking Monday for Errol and Tuesday for Hypo.