I call shenanigans

I feel slightly nit picky about this but I’m disappointed in both Operation Free Gnomeregan and Zalazane’s Fall. Yes, I had fun and I love the flavour items you receive but…

Rawr

Firstly it’s all over in about twenty minutes. Now maybe I’ve just got high expectations but there is nothing epic about that. Taking the Alliance chain for example, we spent time checking how a spider tank work and then we attack Gnomeregan on foot… why not have dailies which involve taking spidertanks for test drives? I’m not the greatest fan of dailies but I feel this is one instance where they should have been used. A proper build up to the main event in which vehicles have to be tested, recruits have to be found, planes have to be built all over a period of time, say a week or two. Then and only then should we be attacking. Instead we get twenty minutes of new content and that’s it. You do it once per character and then forget all about it. This is the first new content since December and we breezed through it. If we hadn’t had to wait for the High Tinker to reappear, it would have taken even less time. I realise that they are working on an expansion which is quite possibly late but I was expecting more.

Then there is the fact that if your character is level 74 or below, you can’t take part in the fun stuff. Especially for little Trolls and Gnomes that doesn’t seem very fair. Since you get buffs to your health pool in all these types of events (the Battle for Undercity and the Battle for Light’s Hope being examples) why can’t low levels take part? Everyone’s health could be set to the same healthpool, say 100k regardless of level when they pick up the quest. Yes, lower levels would do less damage but mobs were falling over dead as soon as someone breathed on them today. Having a few low levels along for the ride would make zero different to anyone.

I’m also slightly grumpy about the  fact that you can’t use your Gnomeregan pride or Darkspear pride in battlegrounds. I can’t see the harm in being  a Infantry gnome whilst in Strand of the Ancients. People will be able to figure out very fast what class I am when they get a frostbolt in the face. I could be hidden behind a tree so they can’t see my character but they still know that they are being attacked by a mage so what harm can costumes possibly do? I pvp all the time as a Bloodelf using an Orb of Sin’dorei and yet I can’t use my gnome suit. Mr Harpy on the other hand is pleased that hordes of trolls wearing masks can’t pursue him across the field of Strife. He doesn’t like people using noggenfogger, deviate fish or any other disguises whilst in PvP. Actually I don’t think he likes people using them at all, regardless of location.

Having got Gnomeregan pride on two druids today and planning on getting Darkpear pride on another tomorrow, I’m also bad-tempered about the fact that you lose the debuff on shapeshifting. Ghostcrawler said the other day that they don’t balance around duels yet that was basically why druids lost the ability to shapeshift with things like noggenfogger in the first place. Surely at this point in the game, they could reverse that decision.

All in all, I preferred the Horde event. That may have had something to do with the amazing tropical storm taking place over the Echo Isles when I was doing the quests though. Took me back to watching lightning flash down over purple skies in the Bahamas.

The ending possibly played a part too. Narrowly escaping being blown up was hardly the conclusion I wanted for my little gnome. Where is the triumphal procession into the lost city of the Gnomes, where is the standing on that evil Mekgineer Thermaplugg’s corpse (again) and most importantly where is my brag bot?

For Gnomeregan!

Although keeping a semi brainwashed army of gnomes for yourself is tempting. Also, why can’t we have an icecream pink, blue and yellow mechanostrider?

To join the fight, report to High Tinker  Mekkatorque  in Tinkertown, Ironforge. In your mailbox you should have received a letter from him asking you to come and fight the good fight which is well worth reading.

The first thing you have to do is bolster the Gnome forces by persuading the inhabitants of TinkerTown to fight for their old home. (I have to admit, I felt marginally guilty riding off to war like the Pied Piper with a bunch of “motivated” gnomes all asking questions like “Will it hurt? trailing behind me”.)

Once you have motivated your five recruits, take them down to Steelgrill’s Depot and hand them in to Captain Tread Sparknozzle. If your server is anything like mine, he’s the guy stood under all the mammoths and bits of machinery.

Next you have to learn how to follow a few basic orders and so the Captain tells to you follow Drill Sergeant Steamcrank’s instructions. You just have to target the Drill Instructor and emote when he tells you to.

Then you get to test some machinery… yay for spider tanks. For “In and Out”, you learn how the Ejector seat works and unlike most Gnomish technology it never seems to backfire. To complete “One Step Forward”, you have to try out the leg servos and the evasive manoeuvres and  for “Press Fire”, you shoot the target dummies. Much to everyone’s surprise, nothing blows up.

Next up, you get to go on a short flight over to Gnomeregan where you have to help monitor radiation levels in the city by throwing a gizmo down the radiation shafts. As you get close the shafts are marked with big green arrows and even if you’re slightly off target, it counts.

Now it’s time to test out the High Tinker’s speech. You’re tasked with playing the speech back to three different gnomes and gauging their response to it.

• Gnome number 1 is Milli Featherwhistle, Mechanostrider Merchant who is found at Steelgrill’s depot next to all the mechanostriders.
• Gnome number 2 is Tog Rustsprocket, he’s located in Kharanos next to the Warlock Trainers, (next to the Inn but slightly back from the road).
• Gnome number 3 is Ozzie Togglevolt. He can be found in the little gnomish house on the outskirts of Kharanos.

Once you’ve done this, you return to Captain Tread Sparknozzle and get your first reward of the day. Gnomeregan Pride, which transforms you into Gnomeregan Infantry for thirty minutes on a four hour cooldown. Of course Shapeshifting breaks the disguise but it’s still awesome and cute. If your level 74 or below, unfortunately your part in Operation Gnomeregan ends here.

If you’re level 75 or higher, you can continue onwards to try and retake the city. The Captain gives you a quest to take a flight to the High Tinker and return his speech to him. Now you take the same plane you used for Vent Horizons and just like the final quest in the Death Knight start chain, if the Battle is in progress, the High Tinker won’t be there and you’ll have to wait.

Once he reappears, hand in your quest (shift V or whatever your keybind for friendly targets will come in useful here to target him through all the mounts), pick up to the one to retake Gnomeregan and follow his lead.

Good Hunting.

At lv 80, for completing the entire chain you get close to a 100g and a Gnomeregan cloak as well as an achievement.

Who needs Bag space anyway?

The shared topic over at Blog Azeroth this week is

Shared Topic Idea: Mementos – What mementos have you kept and why?

This topic is asking: What items or mementos have you kept (in your toon’s pack or bank) and why? Whether it be keepsakes, quest rewards, special items, random drops, whatever! – why did you decide to hang on to it? What’s its significance to you?

Suggested by Feraltree.

I have to say it made my heart beat faster with excitement, I’m a hoarder by nature both in-game and out. Over the last five years I’ve picked up all sorts of junk which will have to be prised from my character’s cold dead hands.

Starting at the beginning, since that’s the logical place to begin, I have darkspear troll mojo and forsaken hearts from the good old days of Alterac Valley. When killing the opposing faction wasn’t enough, you had to butcher their corpses on the battlefield too. Anyone else find it odd that Undead rogues had a heart to hack out in the first place?

Then there is my tier 1 and my beautiful Benediction.

Whilst I’ve never been overly keen on the looks of Priest tier 1, I keep it because it’s a memento of my first foray into raiding. At the time I was so proud of each piece as I picked them up, replacing my devout and bits and pieces of mp5 gear from Dire Maul. Then there is the staff, I keep that because not only was I the second Alliance priest on my then server to get one, but as a memory of the awesome guildmates and fellow priests who stayed up half the night helping me to farm the Eye of Shadow from the demons in Winterspring.

The next weapon I fell for was corn on the cob, otherwise known as  the Staff of Rampant Growth.

Seen here with Don Rigoburto’s lost hat and the Robes of the Guardian Saint.  I keep the hat because one day, who knows I might meet Don Rigoburto himself and then I can return it in person. Although since his hat was in a giant worm, I suppose meeting him alive is unlikely. The robes I keep because they cost me a fortune in dkp and I love the colour of them. The first time I saw them was on a male nightelf so imagine my surprise when I put them on. I think they were the first item of clothing that I had noticed which looked completely different on a female to a male character.

My Staff of Balzaphon I keep because I love it’s dark swirl at the end and because it’s no longer obtainable in-game. It might look like something you would sweep chimneys with, but I’m sure it will come in handy for something, one day.

I’ve kept my Proxy of Nozdormu and the Agent of Nozdormu as a reminder of the grindfest which lead to the opening of the AQ gates.

I’m not sure why I keep my Haunted Memento. It lives in the bank because every time I venture into the world with it in my bags, I get paranoid whenever I catch sight of it out of the corner of my eye. In it’s shadow, I keep seeing rogues who don’t exist.

Whilst I do have a bit of a weapon thing going on, I’ve kept my Impossible Dream because I love the song of the same name.

This is my quest, to follow that star …
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far …
To fight for the right, without question or pause …
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause …

Besides the lyrics do suit WoW and playing a Nightelf Priest a bit.

Then I have clothes and lots of them. Bags full of festival dresses in multiple colours as well as accessories like the romantic picnic basket and the Archmage Vargoth’s Staff, oh and Elune Stones because throwing them away would surely upset the Goddess.

Screenshot Saturday – Crystalsong Forest

It might be a bit of a filler zone, but in terms of sheer beauty, Crystalsong is hard to match. The trees look like ice crystals twisting across glass on a frosty morning and I love how the dryad looks as if she too is made of crystal and would shatter if you hit her.

A panicky realisation

A couple of recent blue posts have thrown my sense of timing completely, leaving me slightly panicked. I thought that we would have until Cataclysm ships to farm any and all of the bits and pieces from the current world but it seems as if I was wrong.

Then there was the bombshell that Zul’Gurub is vanishing as a raid instance. Now I realise that Valnoth didn’t mention the rare drops,

Zul’Gurub is gone as a raid instance come Cataclysm.

and that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be a 5 man or be reused in some sort of fashion. However as someone who has been farming those two mounts since the instance was introduced and never ever seen them drop, I’m now officially frightened. Luckily I managed to grab my Polymorph: Turtle off the auction house for 81g a few days before they announced that Zul’Gurub was disappearing. The price has now sky-rocketed.

So in the next month or so, I want to try and complete ZG every reset so I can have the best chance possible at getting at least the raptor mount and the little red dino hatchling.

A red sky in the morning...

Finish up my Hydraxian Waterlord Rep on my Priest. Three more Molten Core runs should do it.

Level my Shaman to 80, that way I’ve got all four healing classes sitting at the level cap ready for Cataclysm.

Get my Undead Priest to 80, or at least beyond Dragonblight so I can see the Wrathgate chain from the Horde perspective before they remove that.

In a sense I’m a little bit sad by all the things going missing with Cataclysm. I always thought an Expansion should build on what was already there, not remove things completely (class abilities etc apart).

I’d love it if they used the Caverns of Time a bit more, so that you could see the world as it currently is even in the midst of the Cataclysm. For example, I’d like to be able to journey into the past to visit the Azshara I see now, with it’s long beaches and ruined temples once the Goblins have wrecked havoc upon it, even if it was NPC free. I know that they are introducing lots of new, shiny and cool stuff, but on the odd day when nostalgia hits, it would still be good to see the old world again.