Real Life Called

This week, a wedding has called me away from my play time. In most cases, I would have played last weekend and caught myself up, but real life duties called me away last weekend as well.

I also just got a new job, so Sneeky will have to wait until my free time frees itself up. This week, on Hiatus, next week, maybe back, depending on Real Life. Read more!

We're Not in Kansas Anymore

This week I've been a bit under the weather, so I decided to have an easy week, do my mage training, do some sight seeing, and just generally not work to hard.  Hey, everyone needs a break some times, right?

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Congratulations and Achievements to me, finally hitting level 20 means I get my game changer, teleport.  Though, again, this was a bit of a let down.  Simply learning from the trainer was a little too easy.  I guess the trial is the need to visit Ironforge, Stormwind and The exodar in order to learn the spell. On the good side, I can now travel back and forth for my jewel crafting.  

I also get to learn a new level of conjure water, and polymorph, as well as 4 other new spells.  Focus Magic, good for party groups, Mana Shield, good in emergencies, and Blink, good for a quick get away.  My personal favorite, Evocation, which will, while channeling, give me back mana without a drink break.

Hard to see, 

but my little tree frog is beside me.

This weekend also was the beginning of the Darkmoon Faire in Elwynn Forest. It's the only place the Faire comes that is safe for me until I hit level 60, so I decided to take some time and go have a look.  In Ironforge, I picked up a quest to turn in a voucher for free tickets, but I didn't find much to do with my tickets, so I traded for a pretty flower (you can't see it, it's one of those off hand items) and caught the running boy to buy a tree frog pet.  I always wanted one, but the only place to get them is the faire.  Cost me 1 gold, but I think he's cute. 

Then I decided to take some time to explore.  Started with Elwynn Forest, the level 1-10 area, before heading east to pick up a flight path in Redridge Mountain.  Then back west to Westfall to pick up the flight path and get the achievement for the zone.

Westfall looks like Kansas. Farms everywhere.

Doesn't sound like much, but now I have enough flight paths that I never have to visit Elwynn Forest again. Until, of course, I decide to come back for the Loremaster Achievement. Right now though, it's a good thing.

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A little help in Loch Modan

This week in my continuing travels through Loch Modan, I set out to tackle the remaining lag of "in defense of King's land".  Along the way I met a new friend and got some much needed help on some of the trickery quests.  I also picked up a couple of great upgrades. 

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Entering the tunnel for "In defense of King's land" was not the hard part.  Staying alive once there, however, a little harder.  The Toggs seemed to agro in groups.  Groups that hit hard.  When I resurrected, I got a whisper from "Tickle*" (name masked) asking if I was on the quest.  Two heads are better than one.  Especially when the other one is a warrior who can hold agro while I shoot off fireballs from range.  

Love it.  This is exactly how a mage should be playing.  

We killed off the boss and his minions and set out to collect our reward.  I cannot remember what my original pair were like, but my new Lucky Trousers were an upgrade.  If not in armor, for sure in spell power, which I like.  Plus, completing the quest bumped me up to level 18.  

In Ironforge, I was trained in a new level of Fireballs and two brand new spells.  Amplify Magic and Remove curse.  Neither of my two new spells will help much in solo battle, but removing a curse might keep me alive and amplify magic will help when I finally join a group for an instance.  Talent wise, I accidently clicked World in Flames instead of incineration.  OH Well. (I did chose Incineration on my level 19 talent, just to save time later)

Next, Tickle and I went off to tackle "Gathering Idols" at the dig site.  This fairly easy quest provided me with my first wand.  I am still not too sure about its usefulness. It hits harder than my staff, but it has a cool down.  Maybe after some time, I'll figure it out. ;-) At the moment though, these monsters were too high a level to even hit.  Every attack missed.

One more task to complete while we had each others help, Ogre-side. We were hired to kill a set number.   Again, with the help, it was a fairly easy quest which netted some good experience. - Time for a break.

After a break, I travelled back to Ironforge.  I knew of a corner in the subway station where rats regenerate so quickly, you can skill up in no time.  I used this tactic for my wand.  Rats dropping like flies.  Level 5-90 in no time.

Then, back to the Loch to pick up the last quest line of the zone. I don't know why they called this a level 18 quest, but the zone transition between the Loch and the wetlands was populated by level 20 and 21 orcs.  I made it though.  Woot.  The rest of the run was pretty painless. The experience from turning in the quests, discovering areas in the wetlands and a few kills on the second step bumped me up to level 19.

The Loch Dam. 

But, this quest is tricky and it's time to call it a day.

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The order of things (in Loch Modan)

Last weekend, I posted about my grind to hit level 16, and commented on the lack of level readily available quests.  I would have shouted a similar sentiment this week if my exploration did not give me an unexpected surprise, two or three properly leveled quests, giving me the experience points I need to hit level 17 and continue.

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When I returned from Stormwind after my level 15 mage quest, my next step was simple and already laid out before me - Complete "In defense of Kings Lands" and "Find Bringle's supplies", re-asses my level and train if required.   

As I expected, the two quests gave me the experience points I needed to hit level 16; for a standard upgrade of Arcane Missiles and a new A.O.E called Flamestrike.  I also had some talent points to use up.  Talent points are highly customisable, and so will have the possibility of being unique to every player, but for those who are interested, I used my first 5 points in improved fireball, and my next two points in improved frostbolt.   As you can tell, I seem to be leaning towards spells that make my casting quicker.  My opinion, faster spell means less time a mob can hit me.  I'm still a little bit soft for hand to hand combats.

Training done, talents used, I was once again in the familiar position of not having any quests.  I attempted the last leg of "in defense of kings lands" but failed miserably.  Instead of grinding, this week I wanted to work on my "explore Loch Modan" achievement.  (Which, innocently, I got!)

I made my way cautiously around the lower edge of the loch (which is empty except for a few level 13's and an easily avoidable Level 21 Elite group - wish I knew that earlier) towards the excavation site and picked up a quest.   Went around a corner mountain to clear a dark spot and found a little refuge.  There, I spoke with Daryl the Youngling, who gave a timed quest, and then another.  The rewards, for a mage, suck; seriously, a bow, a gun, a knife-but the experience was worth it.

I wasn't quite to 17 for the second timed quest, but these two, along with the turn in quests that sent me to ironforge and back, were enough to push me to 17.  I wasn't expecting an escort quest, but that was the end of the chain.  My first attempt, I got in the path of that Elite Patrol group I mentioned earlier, but my second attempt passed no problem.  

Now most quests are available to me.  They always were, but I'm less likely to be made into mage pancakes now.

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