At the end of the Brewfest

I flattened Coren Direbrew on at least three characters every single day and this is what I received. It seems that the drunken gods of Brewfest favour me far more than the frosty gods of Midsummer but I wouldn’t have said no to a ram.

• Kodos: 2
• Rams: 0
• Dire Remotes: 4
• Barman’s Bloody Shanker: 4
• Tankard of Terror: 3

I’m also now a Brewmaster on three characters.

My longest tussle with Mr Direbrew was 53 seconds. Although that was a pretty weak group including a lv 78 rogue who died somehow. The best was around 14 seconds which really was a blink and you’ll miss it feeling.

Out of all the bits and pieces I picked up, my favourite has to be the Dire Remote. At the moment I’m farming the last little bit of rep I need to for exalted with the Hydraxian Waterlords and being able to port to the Bar and then run through the last little bit of the instance into Molten Core makes it so much quicker and easier. Plus being able to grab a dwarf disguise whenever I feel like it, without having to trek all the way to Blackrock Mountain is awesome (yes I’m lazy).

Over all, Brewfest is still one of my favourite festivals. Sure Coren could have a done with a few ICC runs to boost his gear but this close to the expansion, I admit I’d rather they were working on new shiny stuff rather than upgrading a two week holiday.

Raptor Raising

Way way back in the spring that I started to play WoW, I decided that I wanted a Winterspring Saber on my Priest. In-between UBRS, Stratholme and Scholomance runs I spent hours in Winterspring, running around on my non-epic mount grinding bits of chimera and bear. It was horribly painful, smiting things down slowly. Then I started raiding properly and my Winterspring saber time became herb picking in Felwood time instead.

By the time Wrath rolled around, I’d just tipped myself over into friendly. Unfortunately the addition of achievements meant that everyone had the same idea and that poor furbolg village was once again full of adventurers. I think I made it to honoured before again getting distracted by something marginally less grindy.

Fast forward to now, we faction transferred to the Horde 20 days ago and I already have my Venomhide Ravasaur.

Whilst I loathe the concept of daily quests, it seems in this particular case, spending five minutes a day taking care of a stolen baby ravasaur suited me far better than the opportunity to go as fast or as slow as I wanted. I think this also highlights the huge difference between the original Winterspring chain, in game since launch and the much more recent Un’goro addition. With the Horde version you bond with your soon to be mount, he’s got personality and a rather large appetite. You take him places and he watches you slaughter breakfast for him, the little guy even thinks you’re his mother. Perhaps most importantly, you watch him grown from a tiny little creature into a mount over a period of time. Compare that to the Alliance, the main bulk of the questing you do is the slaughter of furbolgs and giants, neither of which provide food for your kitty. The first you see of your mount is when you hit exalted and the guy hands it over.

In terms of a role play experience, the ravasaur chain does it so much better. I can’t help feeling that Blizzard missed a trick when they added the Horde version without altering the Alliance version. A slight revamp would have been all the Winterspring saber quests needed. Even just the addition of a baby cat who you could summon to hand in the furbolg/giant killing quests to without having to ride back and forth would have made the reputation gather a bit more pleasurable. I realise I’m advocating the dumbing down of the game and yes, some things should be harder to gain than others, but the rewards from these quests are the mirror of each other. It doesn’t make sense that one side should have track miles barefoot through the snow whilst the other merely takes a brief vacation of sun and sand for a few days.

I’m afflicted

Every one deals with the pre-expansion blues in different ways. For some they throw themselves into reading every morsel they can about the expansion, others stop playing all together and me, well, I’m levelling yet another alt. I always intended doing the Horde 1-60 quests again before Cataclysm hit, I just wasn’t sure when I could fit in it. So when my old guild decided to reform and more importantly go Horde, it felt as if all the pieces were falling into place.

This is Teasel (two). My third warlock and the second called Teasel. My original warlock is currently demonology, Teasel the first is destruction so it followed that this time I’d level as affliction. So far my strategy of  running around dotting everything with curse of agony and corruption is doing wonders but I hope it’s going to get a little more tricky at some point.

Whilst I’ve levelled Horde characters before, the last time was at the twilight of the previous expansion so it feels a little less on autopilot than levelling on the other side. I love the Forsaken quests which really have no equal on the Alliance. They are permanently up to no good, whether it’s poisoning people, pets or generally causing mayhem. There is an almost gleeful malice about them, especially the Apothecary Society which makes them fun to quest for.

The plan is to try and hit 80 before Cataclysm but we’re doing lots of semi premade battlegrounds at the moment to practice for the rated version, so making time is proving hard.