PuG Tales - Thrallmar Revered

Was back again to The Shattered Halls in a PuG group with some friends, just about knew everyone in the group. Was myself Protec Paladin, Warlock, Priest (Shadow), Mage, Shaman (Resto). Nice group setup for a Tanking Paladin. Group was doing run mostly for rep points with Thrallmar. So in two back to back smooth runs reached Revered with Thrallmar and went and picked up my Heroic Key for Hellfire Citadel.

Once on the run we ended up pulling all the mob group in front of us, both groups to either side of hallway and was one big fight. Was fun for sure! Was me and Shammy left and didn't look good and was first time ever I had to use Devine Intervention. Since I've never used it before took my mind a while to even find the button. Stuck it on the Shammy since he can rezz and it worked! He rezzed us all when things cleared up. Was fun run and group had fun and that made it all the better. The Figurine of Colossus did drop once again on that run but fortunately I picked it up the day before.

Did a run through Mechanar with some other friends from a guild I often group with to tank and was a fun run there as well. The waves of adds on hallway to last boss was fun as usual, we ended up running back to the elevator for that trick so it worked fine. The chest piece did not drop but at some point I'm sure. We didn't get to do a second Mech run but later maybe. I'm already Exalted with The Sha'tar so just doing it for the fun and hope the chest piece drops.

Faction Reps Update

Faction Reputation Update:
Thrallmar - Honored - Need Exaulted for...... no reason at all. (Seems for a Heroic Key)
Scryers - Revered - 09/16/07 - Need Exaulted.
The Shat'ar - Honored - 09/16/07 - Need Exaulted stuff.
Lower City - Friendly - Need Exaulted for Alchemy.
Keepers of Time - Neutral - 09/16/07 - Exaulted: Continuum Blade & Alchemy.
Ogri'la - Neutral - 09/16/07 - Need that Shield at Revered.
Cenarion Expidition - Honored - Need Exaulted for Necklace.
The Consortium - Honored - Nothing to gain, doing it for the free Gems.
The Mag'har - Revered - Maybe a Epic Talbuk someday.
Sporeggar - Honored - Nothing else to gain here.
Sha'tari Skyguard - Neutral - Daily Quests gold fund and just for Reps or whatever.

Edited

69 and Countdown to 70!

A Summary Post.

I've been a bit busy on the Safari Hunts in Nagrand and all the other quests so in between I've leveled from 67 to 69 and with 75% more XP to go to 70. Its too bad I've finally used up all my usual rest bonus as I often had over 100-150% rest bonus and made leveling much faster.

A Ramparts PUG.
Bad news first! Answered a call to tank a weekend PUG for a group that need a tank for Ramparts Me (Protec Paladin) a Mage, Warlock, Priest and a Rogue. The Rogue loved to sneak up and start fights before anyone was ready and often when I was drinking for mana. The Priest was getting mad because I was AoEing some of the Mobs and and kept going "OMG we gona die Noo he's consecrating" and I'm having to keep aggro from the Rogue and everyone else. A blue sword dropped, everyone passed on it except the Warlock which got the sword and someone cried ninja on the Warlock, the priest immediately quit over it being mad and everyone else quit the group over the ninja thing. So I was like What the Hell!


I can tell I also need more tanking practice to refine my skill in a Instance which comes with lots of practice, been more focusing on leveling to 70 primarily. Soloing I'm fine and damn good at it. I always solo everything and can solo to no end and pick fight with Elites and win. But in a group setting as a Paladin there is a lot of situational dynamics that I'm not all too good at yet. If I take things slow in such cases I'm fine. What's tough is for me I find is this: Managing my mana to generate and keep threat and tanking mob while watching and managing my Judgement & Blessing cool down, Seal cooldown, Holy Shield and its cool down, while eyeing my health. All while tanking mob and having to watch out for anything strange that happens like loosing agro or stray mob. Barely have time to even eye what's happening in Combat log as things happen. Tanking is Fun, but it aren't easy. Its damn Multi-tasking as a tank and as a Paladin to me its even more Multi-tasking with our Seals and cooldowns. Will get better in time with practice.

Nagrand
Its a lot of fun to questing in this zone. So far I can tell only have 3 group quest remaining unless they have a chain quest to them and maybe another quest in the Blood Ring which was fun first time there.

The Nesingwary Safari quests were fun all Hunter Quests involving hunting wild beasts all over the zones and a Elite quest on each at the end. AoE all those when I could to speed up those quests except the large woolly beasts. All the Elites you really need a group for as they have lots of HP and do hit very hard. All quests were fun and lasted a while. Often I just explored the zones (love to do) while doing those quests to find other things of interests and herb farmed all the way. Lots of Felweed, Dreaming Glory picked up.

Rest of Quests from the Horde camp and Elemental Throne involve storming camps, downing, freeing captives in camps, killing raiders in camps, swimming underwater to collect quest items, storming camps and burning down camps, killing bosses in a camp, collecting X number of Y from a mob. Rest was killing elites at end of chain quests. Storming a Mountain camp to kill a King Ogres (fun). Bombing Missions in PVP zone. Regaining control of PVP town (Halaa). Other things I did in between all those was indiscriminate killing of any random mob or elite if I could to find out what would drop and see what loot they had. Picked fights with Elites that had more HP than I think I could win, was still fun to test skill limits. Also Stormed every cave I came across usually was a Orge infested cave of some kind. All in all was all fun!

Made 2 new friends on quests a Hunter and a Warlock while storming a western zone Ogre camp to kill the King Ogres. They were good to group with. A Stonescale Potion I had came in handy tanking that ogre as our group completed all the quest including a round in the Blood Ring. A Devine Shield Bandage macro came in handy here.

Deadly Mobs!
Most mobs in Nagrand are pretty much ok to fight. Only mob I found really rough to fight and not the usual enemy caster like usual is the water elemental in the lake around Halaa. Can't remember their names but they drop a poison of some kind on you constantly that's really tough on your health. I had to constantly cleanse all the time to fight those things for quest items worst mobs I fought here in zone or for a while also. Have to watch out for those mobs.

Other Stuff
Picked up lots of Felweed/Motes of Life/Fel Lotus all together & Dreaming glory all over the zone where ever I spotted them. Picked up a nice Alchemy Potion in Halaa with my reward token, Elixir of Ironskin nice potion. Figured out where Primals now come from, motes of whatever elements you collect in batched of ten and transform to a Primal of that element. So not I got lots of Primals from all the motes I collected. Some the elemental mobs drop their corresponding mote also and figured out which one does which. So lots of motes and Primals in the bank, so much I had to send to one of my alts with a empty bank reserve. I feel like I'm in the big time now with primals. Just no primal fire yet.

Often collected lots of green gear, got a few blue drops however most the time looking at the green gear some not that great in stats often resist gear of some kind dropping from mobs or with spirit stats and so just straight vendor all those. I can sometime see what some gear is hard to find from things sold straight to vendor. Collected drops on lots of nice green weapons and AH all those. So far i've over 1100g on Galo now as reserve so that fix my gold problem for getting the flying mount at 70. Having a damn hard time finding someone to make me a Thorium Shield Spike on this server and been trying for days to no end for my shield.

Life on a young server needless to say selling for Alchemy is not all that great either and its been taking a lot of work. As a Alchemist I haven't made high end potions in some time, I do find some markets in low to mid level areas and tap those for side change. One of the things I've been working on on a young server is slowly average leveling out and raising the prices of certain potions to what my experience have shown me in over the thousands of potions I've made to a good average price. Doing it by slowly putting stuff on AH at what I know is fine and if it does not sell, rinse and repeat it over and over as the cost to list it is not that great. I can soak up the minor loss in order to raise the server prices of certain goods.

With just a few group quests left in Nagrand I headed back to work on some green quests in my log I had back in Terokkar Forest. Collecting lots of Signets and other rep items and saving them up for turning in for Scryer reps. Trying to get the reps from item turn in first. Now Honored with Mag'har, no reason really to go beyond that as nothing to gain for reps so saving rep items to use for Consortium reps though nothing to gain from them either. Not a single thing to gain from doing Consortium rep grind. However will do them for the fun and see what becomes for it. As a Alchemist don't seem like a lot of faction that friendly to me for reps. So far I've avoided directly doing most of the reps for Shattrath and others until I can turn in the items for free reps first then do the quests later to make it a bit easier

Trash Collection
Funny thing about trash, I see a lot of people leave stuff and only pick up white or better item. I'm always on auto loot to make picking up thing efficient. If my bag gets full or when I look as I often do will know bag inventory state. However always seem to find if grinding on a specific mob a while a lot of that trash item adds up to a whole bunch of gold when turn in to vendor. All that gold add up to pay for my repair bill. Good money in Trash Collection.

Screenshots - Central & Southern Nagrand

Central Nagrand. Smack in the middle of this zone is a PVP Zone and a Neutral town called Halaa which is heavily guarded and can not so easily be captured by either Horde or Alliance. Sometimes have to turn in Quest items here when its in your faction control for NPC items. Saving up to redeem to get my 18 slots bags here. Somehow Halaa always seen to be in Alliance control. This one of those moments its actually in Horde control as you can see the flag. So I had to snap a pic of it too. Nice shot I think too.


Southern Nagrand. Overall Nagrand is really beautiful for the scenery as its a really nice zone to quest in one of the best one so far that I have enjoyed questing in. Took this screenshot among the many that I always take while just sitting on the mount looking around and at that humongous rock when a Elite came into view passing by. That rock I found out is Oshu'gun and is one Epic large diamond I would have to say. Made a nice photo shot. Hmm, I have a group quest still to down that guy right there too. I have to say Nagrand to me is probably the Best Outland zone in scenery and Questing. Blizzard did a really nice job on this zone.

Netherstorm - A View from my UI Window

Should have made this post yesterday, was too busy. The thing about playing WoW is that you still have to live and work in real life, well for some people that is in WoW. Life still goes on though your spending time playing WoW.

Been working all night, a day at work for me is 12 hours long with a 2.5 hrs commute total. So after a long night at work I'm all pumped up with coffee that's so I can do my commute home and only reason I'm still awake writing this entry.

Pic above is my UI, somewhat what I settled on yet tinkering with it at times its mostly all Ace Addons. Removed some addons also. Was just slowing down things too much. I have a wide screen Mac so its roomy on screen plus I can even enlarge it more since it dosen't take up the full screen either which allows me to have safari pages open to look things up. Screen even looks better when I maximize it. Using Omen threat meter and most the other on screen bars are hidden and show on mouse over. My bags are at the top of screen but they are hidden too.

Well I'm 67 now and inching closer to Kindergarden. Life at 70 where your real education begins. Dinged over the weekend on Sunday. Feels good to just make progress even if its baby steps. So knocked out 2 levels over the weekend and did some exploring in between to new zones and decided to go and pickup some new Flight Paths to Blade's Edge Mountain (3), Shadowmoon Valley (1) and (2) in Netherstorm. Then went looking for some herb Netherbloom only found 1 herb and had 2 snatched from right in front of me while fighting higher level mobs some of those stone Elites actually. Yeah Airborne Herb Farmers.

Explored Netherstorm just for fun. Found Area 51 and Stormspire where the Consortium city is. Seem the Consortium favors Enchanters and Jewelcrafters in their goods. Headed off and tried my steel at killing lvl 69 demons. Was fun for a while, lots of greens dropped but no plate. Demons fell easily and was nice XP considering I'm running on max double XP the whole way.

Got Honored with Sporeggar. Killed enough Naga's in a few hours to last a lifetime and picked up the faction rewards for the effort. Explored Blade's Edge Mountain a bit and found the eastern horde camp at Mok'Nathal Village to the far east of the zone. Picked up a quest at the Inn keeper for 2 new cooking recipes. So had to go and AoE kill some raptors and flying serpents which took a while to gather meat from both. Raptors drop seem much better for their meat vs the flying serpents. The recipes are nothing new if you picked up the 4 new ones at the vendor at Stonebreaker Hold (Horde) in Terokkar Forest. However the new recipes will bump your cooking up from green at 359 to yellow and it got me to 371. A few more meat and I guess I can squeeze out 375 on cooking since no one ever sells Furious Crawdads on AH to make Spicy Crawdads. Might be a moneymaker to fill that void on AH since I'm sure I'm not the only one looking for those things on AH.


Flew off to Nagrand after picking up those new recipes, at least had lots of new food buffs. Did some Hunter kill quest killing Talbucks, Clefhoofs, Owls and various others at the Elemental Throne. Storm a Orge camp for reps with the Mag'harAoE for a while. Lots more to work on there. Somehow through all that I dinged 67 as a result of the rest bonus XP.

Alchemy
Discovered 2 new Flasks also. Discovered Flask of Relentless Assault while making several Elixir of Major Agility. Then also Discovered Flask of Mighty Restoration while making a few Volatile Healing Potions. Not sure what the secret is to discovering new Alchemy Flasks, but maybe just making high end potions or elixirs in enough quantity may be the secret I guess.

Screenshots - Netherstorm

Part of my fun and enjoyment of playing WoW is always taking lots of screenshots of my adventure, things I do to capture the moments, places I visit or things that capture the imagination. A beautiful screenshot of one of my very first view of the zone "Netherstorm". Simple things in WoW can just amaze you sometime.

Screenshots - Blade's Edge Mountains

View of Blade's Edge Mountain on the way to Horde camp at Thunderlord Stronghold. Its always funny the name Blizzard gives to places or zones. When you think about it they seem to have fitting names for the places they seem to describe.

Exploring Zangarmarsh & More

I'm still enjoying Outland. Galo seem to be inching closer to lvl 70 everyday and while Galo will soon hit the level cap, he's not in a hurry to get there either. Galo just like to explore while questing and leveling and thats what he likes to do most. So have been doing some of the quests in Zangarmarsh at various places away from doing some the ones in the Terokkar Forest just for variety in questing.

Zangarmarsh I found interesting and likable. Some people find it not to their liking. However Galo hasn't done that many quest here, but so far I like the zone still. Maybe because Galo is also a Herbalist that's why and the zone appeals to me more. I saw some caves also that needs exploring. Often when Galo is questing he zig zagging the zone all the way often on foot, just easier to me always picking herbs. Any herb that's on the radar I head to pick the herb for my inventory stash. So I have picked up lots of Dreaming Glory, Blindweed, Felweed, Ragveil, Dreamfoil all in Zangarmarsh to and from quests from the various camps.

Sent all the herb valuables to my Alt for keeping. Did also picked up lots of "Unidentified Plant Parts" from killing the Fungal Giants the various kinds and skinning them with Herbalism for even more herbs of random kind (Reminds me of Morrowgrain Quest), Motes and such around the zone. So will make back my money from AH on these. Adamantite ore you can find in nodes but i'm no miner, i just notice it around.

I found the Addon Mobhealth helps if only to remember which mob drops what if you ever mouse over it in inventory or mouse over the mob if you fought mob before it tells you what it dropped before. Picked up a quest from one a sporeling creature next to "Spawning Glen" to gather items in the area (Faction Reps here) and from the Fungal Giants and gathered enough to get Friendly though not quite Honored as yet. But I find skinning the Fungal Giants quite valuable for herbs and motes. Which lead me to the conclusion that gold is everywhere in Outland. Its on the ground, its on the mobs in loot and even trash loot is quite valuable in gold to vendor. If you look you even notice what the valuables are.

While in zone Galo was off using his other weapons and sometime 2H weapon to level up his other weapon skills. Since in Outland have been mostly using the usual 1H and Shield. I loose more of health on 2H, yet its mainly due to lower than normal weapon skill so lots of misses also. I never even realized how great my new Polearm looked since I had yet to equipt it and haven't used one in so long but just had it for versality use. I even found that at Sporaggar for faction reputation if you get Honored or Exhaulted you get a nice Blue Polearm just checking the vendor guy there. So will be working to even out my weapon skills.

I found if your questing in Zangarmarsh that every 5 min or so it helps to kill a "Young Spore Bat" which also gives you on kill in range a nice buff of +30 to all stat attributes for 5 min.......great. Kinda like getting a Paladin buff. I happened to notice this when I kept getting a strange buff whenever I did. After noticing the buff, which was nice, every 5 min when one was close I buffed up on a kill of one of these Bats. These things are all over the zone it seems. This would make a nice Paladin buff if it ever could, won't hold my breath waiting though.

In fights I'm using SOC & SOR mostly with Rank 2 consecration and Rank 1 Holy Shield (Easier on Mana in winnable fights). If I have to I can use full rank spells. Especially since the 2 trinkets I have gives me more spell damage with both or on judged seals and often I only judge the mobs once. It took me forever to figure out I had to pop the trinket to get it to work....duh! But when I did, was like almost 300 spell damage.....yikes! I could see the difference there big time on increase spell damage on all the spells. Spell damage is much understood now. Other times its often SOW & SOR with BoSantuary and switch to wisdom if I'm at half mana on bar and that always work well and seem to be my usual.

Galo don't seem to loose health as fast while keeping up JOW up unless its fighting those "Nether Ray" things which sucks your mana from you, something to watch out for with these mobs. BE "Arcane Torrent" helps allot to silence the mob along with a stun if its up. This got me thinking these things must make nice hunter pets to fight casters, draining their mana.

Picked up another card for the Darkmoon Card collection. Picked up Eight of Furies for 50g, haven't seen that card before compared to the others so snapped it up. I often see 2, 3, 4 so I'll wait with those a bit before I buy. My Alt Banker hit 1000g in gold saving even while I buy things here and there. Latest buying have been the Darkmoon Cards. I can't say otherwise I spend money on much. Hell if i liquidate my entire Herb Bank I can get over 500g alone I think. If I do buy things its really things Galo needs, Rare Herbs, Low priced Herbs, Rare Alch Recipe, Special Weapon or Armor for Galo or a Libram if I can ever find any on AH.

Money making is easy I learned it by my own boot straps along the way, I've had 64 levels to learn how to make money effectively and daily. I find Green drops still sell good, never had to vendor much I have seen, spirit geared stuff I sell at lower price but still avg 10-16g on most items. Its amazing as a Alch Paladin I haven't made any high level pots in a long time due to the time it takes spending time in AH for hours seeing whats needed in demand. However the bank of herbs I have is unbelievable! I make most of my Alch money believe it, NOT selling Transmutes or Primal Might but low or mid level pots, imagine that. Sometimes its a quest item pot. Can make 20-30g daily selling pots to lower level people or twinks I think they are and its often pots that sell for 50-1.5g, NOT pots I can usually sell for 2-5g for high end pots.

There is always a market if you look for one I think. Overall I only make 2 usual Alchemy pots on a daily basis for side income, that sells well and mid level pots where its for armor and the other is for underwater both sells extremely well. This also require me on log in to scan AH and often buy out the entire stock of certain items I need at bottom pricing for stocking. Remember the harder stuff is to find the better for AH pricing on your goods.

Picked up the other few quests from Sporeggar to work on for getting Exalted. After I went roaming and exploring and found the path to Nagrand.

Darkmoon Card

Started to acquire cards for the "Darkmoon Card" Set to eventually obtain the Vengeance trinket. Was in AH and saw the "Ace of Furies" which seem to be a rare one to get in the whole set. Have seen it before up to 400g. I remember passing on some of these cards before some time ago. So picked up this one for 160g to start off collecting for my set. Not a bad price I guess, but if I ever see it cheaper......I may decide to buy and trade it for some profit. Having lots of disposable gold on hand helps I guess.

Right now I'm running around Zangarmarsh a bit to see what the quests are like, so far just a few quests and i don't find it that bad as yet. Most the mobs lower level than Galo anyway. So with my standby weapons, have been switching weapons a bit to level up weapons skill while questing mobs to level up my weapons skills. I hate to see my weapons skill lag.

Alchemy Tip of the Day: Gift of Arthas
Not sure how many people really understand this one pot or ever have used leveling. Recipe can be rare. This is a very nice pot for a melee class or a fast hitter if your level 38-60 and grinding on mobs or doing a instance run. Minimum level to use it is 38. Gives you +10 Shadow resistance for 30min, 30% chance a disease for 3 min while debuffing the mob for +8 damage increase. The disease to mob can refresh as long as any mob is hitting you. A dream pot for a Paladin or Rogue, real nice for a Paladin in AOE or any of melee class or a Main tank.

I used this leveling and works totally great. Only problem is Arthas Tears as one of the ingredients can be hard to find. However works nice on a tank in a instance using one of these pots, since it debuff the mobs or boss and everyone doing damage to the mob been tanked does +8 increase damage, not as sure on casters but works on the melee class. Don't seem like a lot but 8 damage combined adds up allot with lots of melee or fast weapons in use. That's as good as +7 enchant to weapon and much better. Effects only last 30 min, Guardian Elixir. One of the best pot I ever used leveling.

Dinged 64

A bit busy. However was questing a bit in Terrokkar Forest and doing a lower city quest for Shattrath. Dinged 64 last night also doing some quest with a new Hunter friend. Still have 3 HellFire Peninsular quests to do, but since they require a group effort its taking much longer than I had thought it would be to get them done. Also became Honored with Cenarion Expedition by turning in over 300+ "Unidentified Plant Parts" all in one pop. Bought out the entire AH stock listed to do so for reputation points. I have some extra plants left over so will sell them back on AH for a good profit.

Have to head to work tonight so not much time to do a good post.

Dinged 62

Galo continue rolling through the quests in HellFire Peninsular. As result dinged 62 barely can remember what I was doing when I did. I often take screenshots of lots of stuff to remind of of where Galo was or what was doing then. Often a lot to have to remember. Just looking at the shots I can remember what happened. Anyway Galo is now half way to 63. I haven't been to Paladin Trainer as yet so not sue what i will pick up next in spells.

Attacked several camps, blew up more cannons, killed more stuff in the area. Warlock minions are a joke to kill, they nice for a good few mana taps. Galo sometimes get out of mana so having a few mana taps on charge are nice to release in Arcane Torrent to get some mana back to maybe also recharge Blessing of Wisdom. So always good to mana tap mobs often when can. PVP for stadiums was kinda fun. However I totally suck at PVP. I'm not a player that studies PVP tactics to use and other classes what they do and know how to counter moves and spells. So I suck at it. Got ganked twice buy rogues once from stealth and other time from above a lvl 70 dropped out of sky from a flying mount and got ganked, easy to see that green tag. Just what's the dam deal with lvl 70 ganking people doing lvl 61-62 quests on flying mounts? On last run I did it with a 69 rogue and another player and found out to regain stadium all you have to do is stay close to the outside wall of stadium to regain control. Cool mission accomplished.

Fighting most the mobs in the area I fight one on one at first then after I prefer to AOE fight mobs if can and just faster to me if they more physical mobs. So often usually 2 at a time since Galo run to the other mob to draw them in. 1 vs 1 paladin is real slow.

Did a few quests as a group helping out a priest and they all went well, we also had a hunter along. Did the "Foot of the Citadel" I think thats the quest went well. Was a rush of mobs all after each other to kill a guy in charge of training Fel orc's and then to do a challenge to get to another commander guy in charge next to HellFire Citadel. I tanked the mobs the priest heal and the hunter DPS. Was lots of fun. After that we ran off did some more quests togather easily. Some I had aleady did my self solo, but the priest needed to do them, So was ok. Left after to go Solo my own quests. Some groups move so fast you barely get time to read the actual quest what its asking you to do and thus you barely know what you need to do when you get there not properly reading the quest in groups. Just another day in the Peninsular.

Outland Progression Summary So Far.

Really enjoying questing in HellFire Peninsular and been in Outland. Only thing I head back to Azeroth for is either Paladin Training, a quest leg to complete or to help out a guildie or a friend.

There is just more reason to stay in Outland really. I've also decided as a result to drop every non Outland quest I had in my Quest log to complete as much as I would have like to do those quests. Time is just better spent in Outland to me.

I may at somepoint may return to Winterspring to complete a few quest though. I'm not entirely sure if I ever will grind out those Timbermaw reps, I'm still only neutral. But as much as I like to hunt down and kill stuff for the heck of it I just might do it for the challenge to get Exaulted.

There are allot of nice quests in HellFire area and its a nice zone to me and all the quests seem to be centered in the area. Not like back in Azeroth you have to fly all over the place to just complete a quest. So nice it is. I can remember all the quests I've done, the name of things hard to remember or name of things I had to collect all Solo of course. So questing goes like this in HellFire so far:

• Head to camp over yonder and kill X number of mobs.
• Kill X number of X mobs and X number of these other other mobs for quest.
• Head over yonder and use touch and light fire to tanks. Fun!
• Head south and collect X number of pieces of material in area.
  
• Find particular person at camp and kill him or bring head.
• Collect X number of lost material for goblins.
• Kill X number of Buzzards for material.
  
• Take this item to area and attune it to HellFire Citadel. Kill mobs while attunement in progress.
• Attempt PVP control of stadium for faction control.
• Locate missing person. Report on missing person.
  
• Kill X number of mobs for blood sample.
• Take item to people in area and restore their health.
• Recover lost item from mobs in pool.
• Obtain X number of special items.
• Drop bombs on Patrols. Fun! Should be the first thing you do getting to Outland. Gear rewards are nice.
• Perform messenger duty and head to Orgrimmar to talk to Thrall. Nice reward for Quest.

Most quests go something like that. Most not very difficult to do. I find if you really read the quests and the message in it you can easily find or locate where you need to go. However the rewards are usually very nice on the Quests and the XP is outrageously nice. 10k XP seems average on quests. I also find its easy to pick up multiple quests all at same time and complete on the way to other quests. Some people are using leveling guides in Outland to level faster. Good for them. For me I like to smell the roses while I'm leveling so i do it the slower route and that's just completing the quests I have with no help from any guides. To me its fun since its my first time in Outland and it allows me to see all the world content and find hidden stuff around just poking around or wandering into a cave to investigate what mobs are in there.

So I'm all over HellFire Peninsula. The other reason is that as a Alchemist and Herbalism skilled but for Herbalism i like to collect herbs for my craft and so wondering around allows me to collect lots of herbs in the basins, on side of hill, on hilly area, in pools etc. Using Cartographer Addon it also marks the herbs for future reference on map with a nice icon. Great. However even without the Addon by my nature I like to wonder around to and from quest and find stuff and kill stuff. Also good for the XP often 1k or so or more.

Herbalism

My Herbalism skill is now 375, when I got to Outland it was already 369. So it was pretty leveled up getting here. So not long to the level cap gathering herbs. Anyway happy! My effort always picking herbs in Azeroth whenever i say them in zones pays off in leveling the skill. The way I collect herbs is simple when in zone collect everything I need. Collect it even if I not need it. Yes it takes time to stop and collect, but for me I LOVE MY CRAFTS, Alchemy & Herbalism.
I never usually sell any herbs I collect either, its all for stock and bank reserve. So other gathers are the ones driving up herb prices not real Alchs i think. Pots I make and sell or use. In HellFire area herbs you can find are"

• Dreamfoil
• Golden Sansum
• Mountain Silversage (Always on a hill side or mountain)
  
• Felweed. (Valuable)

I use Felweed to make many pots I use. I haven't sold much or made any pots to sell since been in Outland with all the herbs i have gathered. Its all stuffed in the my Herb bag, Bank, Alt#1 bank, Alt# 2 bank. I'm a herb banker. When I feel like brewing it all up I do so.

I find that even taking quests that just gives gold reward initially as only reward on followup leads to a quest that gives you a weapon or armor upgrade later. So when deciding if worth doing initially the back end of it could be a nice reward later. Also the XP is nice for the quest irregardless.

Alchemy
As said haven't made anything much to sell since in Outland. But since my DPS is seem poor and I haven't found a really nice 1H I really like I also supplement it with making and using Arcane Elixirs for +35 Spell damage when I'm grinding out kills. Adept Elixirs can be nice too but i use the other.

I've never chosen to do Alchemy because i though it was easy or cute or a money maker. Why choose Alchemy in WoW is simple. I went to school for Biochemistry. I work in Chemistry. I work in Biotech, I like Chemistry. Hence i choose Alchemy, its something i already understand well and how it work well having herbalism as a gathering skill.

Only pots I make as just continuous off income while for AH since I'm not really focus on selling anything right now is mainly 2 things.

• Underwater Breathing Elixirs (I've made these for 5 months straight and on my server I'm almost only one that makes these. Decent side income)
• StoneShield Potion - Gives 2000 Armor for 2 min. This stiff is damm nice, but most people not seen to see its value. However its a expensive pot, I know I make it and sell it. Takes allot of Stonescale Eel fish to make. Raiders love to buy these. Tanking a rough mob for a kill I'm more prone to use these for the armor value.

Armor & Weapons
I don't buy much armor on AH anymore usually. Its hard to find a good pieces and I think I get better ones just questing or I get much in quest rewards anyway or on loot drop. So I do fine with what I get from quests. A fast 1H sword still eludes me and well and a very nice shield. Those the 2 things I really invest in allot. 1H weapon, Shield, Chest & Leg piece. I may have to start my faction reputation grind to get some good ones. However I'm always replacing armor piece from quests. So i have lots in my bag so far.

Faction
I'm friendly with Thrallmar still. I just got Revered with Undercity. I have yet to pick up a quest from Shatt City. Did the library thing visiting a guy there in Shatt for the Scryers but no quest I can see. Hadn't checked lower city as yet either for any quests there.

Fel Reavers
I've got a personal grudge with Fel Reavers. They continue to stomp on me sneaking up on me when beating on other mobs. Get stomped with the flying foot. They reminds me of Devilsaurs in Un'Goro always walking around to make your life miserable. So when i get to 70, retribution will be to kill every last one of them I find anywhere and everywhere always. Been killed by Fel Reaver over 5 times now.

Bits & Bits
Caves are nice to explore in HellFire area. On one trip exploring I got like 6 greens but all 58 gear the joke was that it was all casters gear. Somehow i don't think loot is completely random. Seem i always get gear that belongs to other classes. I've never got a Plate drop period let alone one anything i could use. I did fish one up fishing one time a nice piece of plate though.


One other cave I went into as noticed a item I had to look for was there and I run into a elite 63 I think it was and for fun I said why not and attacked it. Always testing my limits of been a daring paladin. Mob had like 27K XP, well no change to win here, got him down to about 25% but lost. Well was a good effort. Its fun to at least try though dying is not. Later turns out the Elite mob I attacked is a wanted mob special quest to kill. Will get him later.


Stormed a demon camp with demons at a ruin like camp in the west of Hellfire area and all the demons. Always get good use of Exorcism spells here. Kill the blue demons first then their minion helper vanishes after. Rescued some 3 prisoners here and got lots of XP for the whole chain quest from a guy in the camp and then to kill the Elite 63 Demon roaming the area. I rocked him for the challenge.

Often I'm around mounted on my mount and watching other people kill stuff or TRY to. Its can be fun watching other classes try to kill stuff. Often its plain funny to watch. Sometimes I intervene to save their health. Often I'm helping a alliance finish a mob, I can see their health. Other times as I run and roam around, I go out of my way to bless everyone with a blessing they can use to their advantage. Too bad i can only cast then a 5 min blessing. Paladin blessings should be 15 min I think and greater blessings at 30 min. I notice I also can't cast greater blessing on other people randomly. Sucks!

So far that sums up Outland so far in HellFire Peninsular. I'm in no hurry to get to 70, its just cruising getting there but beyond been casual play. Another thing I can't say I have any friends at my level in Outland either at lest not as yet either.

New Addon's & UI's

Galo has been back in Outland and just resting up since getting the new Epic Mount. So haven't been up to much. I'm in no hurry to get to 70 other than daily progression. However been a bit preoccupied at looking at some new Addon's or UI mods usefull for Outland.

Been discovering the world of Addons, mods, UI's and so been looking around at some sites and some Addons that could and would be use full and found a few. So mostly been getting acquainted with installing and loading UI and see how they look, work and such and messing around. So taking awhile and a bit getting used to.

Been a Paladin in Outland

So far I'm enjoying Outland, as its really fun and interesting place to be. Best i can think of is been in Outland is like starting the game all over again. Its like been in school in Kindergarden again to me.

Most the quest so far seem relatively easy, more difficult stuff ahead I'm sure. But so far quest it seems to me is to get you somewhat re geared for Outland questing. Quest goes like this: Bomb X number of target on bombing missions or on fly over, Kill X number of demons, Gather X number of plants, Obtain X number of items, obtain from specific mob X number of this or that, Find X number pieces of a ship. For rewards you get improved armor with very nice stats (stuff i really need) and +Spell/Healing, +5 mana per 5 sec, all stuff i never had before in Azeroth. I've replaced half my gear so far in Armor and I'm glad for that to get new improved Plate Armor and Spell/Healing/MP5 gear. What i need though as a Paladin is a superior shield, with armor rating, lots of blocking and good stats.

Other quests you also receive some nice trinkets as choices. I even got one for improved blocking i think it was. I now have 4 or 5 trinkets i can think of. I'm still working for Argent Dawn but i been missing in action for him a bit with that trinket though. But the quest rewards are nice starting at lvl 58. So my advice at lvl 58 head for the Dark Portal. If anything you can head back to Azeroth with nice gear for further quest stuff need be.

The new Plate Armor makes a tremendous difference in fighting now. I also have a few Plate Armor rewards back to back on same piece item that I'm almost not sure which to wear. For odd reasons now i got more mana than health, odd as this never happened before. One armor set peice has much higher stamina, the other less stamina, but intelligence to balance it. So for now i keep both and maybe rotate them for solo or tanking if need until i get a better set with balance of strength, intelligence, stamina and spell/healing and MP5's (mana per 5 sec). Almost all the new gear has MP5. This is really a boost to my man pool on regen. Before sometimes i be completely out of mana on some fights, so this helps a bit and had to use a mana pot then, at least better than before without it. However i do find wherever you can mana tap (BloodElf) a mob always build up mana charges. As if your out of mana as a BloodElf you can release it in Arcane Torrent to silence a caster but it also gives you some mana back based on charge built up if even a little to maybe recharge a blessing maybe.

So far my I'm starting to look at my Plate Armor gear more. Looking at it i realize i have like 300+ defence but i have almost 0 block rating on stats like that. Something i need to fix in time. No wonder i get hit so damm much. One trinket i got gave me more dodge rating but its only for like 10sec. So not sure how much help that is. But as a Protection Spec i guess i need stuff with lots of Block rating, Block value and Dodge rating or +Defence is i can find any of those type of gear. I can say it gets a bit confusing sometimes when analyzing picking up new gear. Since as a Protection Spec i seem to need so many different type of stats to make my Talent Skills work efficiently. Needless to say I'm in need of a very good 1H fast weapon as its a must have. All in all the new gear makes a big difference. Before from 0-58 i mostly had just warriors plate stats on my armor been high stamina ans strength and some intelligence. Good gear was just hard to find 0-58. So as a Alchemist it backed up been a Paladin greatly as i often made +25 intelligence pots to use as a buffer for not been able to find good intelligence stats on plate armor.

As a result of my new armor i also realize in how much difference it makes in having +healing/spell gear is that now sometimes when i heal with Holy/Flash of light my heals sometimes go critical. Never happened before. So i'm now getting more crits with just minor armor gear improvement. Great when you never really crit as much before. Most of the time i have combat log open to see what i'm been hit for as it makes a difference to me. At least i don't get to see all the spam messages. Seem the most thing you see in chat text log is mostly anyone located a Fel reaver walking around the thing that stomped me before. Or anyone want to group for Rampart Instance.

So far toughest things to fight so far in Outland so far has been the spider critter looking Razorfang Ravagers. I has a quest in their area to gather eggs. These things are vicious to fight, but all the same nice to fight also, as a paladin or warrior maybe. Funny thing my Hunter Krovon has one of these things as a pet. I like them because they are vicious. But they hit you with something called "Ravage" and its like they claw you in a swipe in the graphics and looking at combat log they block and return damage all at same time. Hmm, I'm wondering if this is a actual learn able skill since my hunter has one of these. If some can let me know that be great. But i constantly got knock back from these things when they did that, makes me think i really need more defence or block rating to armor and stats.

I found a nice place to grind in HellFire area and that was on the Buzzard Birds. They don't have anything special in attacking you and i did some AOE grinding on these things. The Buzzard meat is needed anyway as it makes nice buff food for +20 stamina if i remember. The Ravagers i grinded on some but not as much as it was tougher to AOE grind on then with that damm knock me on my feet thing they did with "Ravage" skill and not good when I'm procing Reckoning for extra hits. With the Ravagers you get ravager meat another meat source for buff food. I always carry one full stack as much as possible of +Stamina/Spirit buff food as Spirit stats usually comes with most food i can make. My spirit stats is the lowest anyway also so it helps in regening health and mana. Helboars are nice to grind on as i can handle multiple of them easily as a paladin.

I'm also having to use Adept Elixirs and Onslaught Elixirs i can make easily to supplement my low DPS pool when on some harder quests or just fighting more mobs at same time. I'm in need of a much better 1H so still working with Hanzo a lvl 50 sword enchanted with Crusader on lvl 61 mobs. So be looking for a good one. I find in Hellfire area if you find "Dreaming Glory" plant they lit up like a light bulb if you see one pick if if can and it gives you a 15 buff to regen health at +30 every 5 sec, helps allot.

Outland Day 2, Ding lvl 60

Reached another milestone in getting to 60 on day 2 of getting to Outland. Outland continue to be fun and a very interesting place as well are the quests. What wasn't fun was a 11g Plate Armor repair bill. That's the down side of wearing plate, repair are expensive the more expensive the plate when its taken a beating on. Only Warriors & Paladin wear Plate Armor. Died 2 times today though, all due to adds. Time to go get my Epic Mount.

Outland Day 1

I'm still a bit gaga about been in Outland, I keep looking at everything, checking things out, studying the place and everything and oh yeah always watching over my back when outside the gates of Thrallmar. Why! Outland for some wired reason has Galo feeling almost a bit paranoid that something is going to get me when i'm not paying attention. Dunno why, but its just the feeling and the hellish look of the place or feel of HellFire Peninsula.

So i Galo decided to wonder outside the gates of Thrallmar again. I re-read the quest i was given, looked at the map and decided a making on the map seem like the general area where I'm suppose to go and the marking on map of a camp of sort seem like it and general direction. Turns out approaching a camp there that it was indeed the Horde outpost i was suppose to go to and meet some forward posted war commander of sort. Funny thing was the previous night i was just down the hill where the demons were and i looked at the camp and though it was a enemy camp or something like that. Anyway it was like reporting to a new place or military unit. Reminds me of when i was in the military. Yeah served 8 years in navy and 3 tours of combat duty so felt familiar of sorts. So i got my first orders to do 2 bombing missions.

Bombing Missions? Now i though this was a cool idea of a quest, never had these back on Azeroth. Headed off to find these portals. I located the first demon portal as it had a name on it just over the hill one of two i had to bomb and destroy. Took me a while deciding exactly how i was gonna get that close to the portal to bomb it. So pondered a while then decided best go down there and start making headway. Took me a while fighting and testing out the demons and fought quite a bit of them before i actually got to the portal just making a path straight to it and actually detonated a bomb and ran back up the hill, didn't know if they were gonna chase me or what. However succeeded.


Locating second portal took me a while to find as i wondered all around the peninsula got into lots of trouble fights in the area and could not locate portal. So re-read the quest and it said it be due east. So went straight east and there it was in the distance and heavily guarded by 58-60's demons. Did a bit of fighting and actually got to use my exorcism spells quite a bit. I dare say i use that spell more in 1 hour here than all the time 0-58. Exorcism is a pretty power full spell as i can see the effect when i cast it. I wondered how much more power full it would be with increase spell damage. Anyway made a straight path to the demon portal, bombed it and ran away. This is fun stuff. Fought demon again as they were all around and back to the camp. I'm noticing i really need a good 1H weapon here. Hanzo still works but not well enough and taking a while to slug it out with demons. So i'm improvising a bit by using Onslaught pot for more attack power and and Elixir for more spell damage. Do have to love Alchemy for its tricks.

I'm noticing I'm having to consecrate on almost every fight at beginning of fight to wear down health of mob quicker, something i only previously did with multiple mobs on me or adds. I'm also firing holy shield more as I'm getting beat on and it blocking hits for effect then redoubt procs and holy shield is already up so it ticks off, i recast it as long as i have the mana. I'm also burning mana like a thirsty traveler. due to consecrate, exorcism and holy shield been up more, spells eat mana. My normal play style is usually to conserve mana and no dramatic end moves, since my armor gear is warriors gear and not much intelligence gear. Its just what i have, solo gear.


Completed quest and the rewards was some impressive looking green armor with major stats increase, +spell dmg/healing. Dang!! Great stuff. I has just upgraded some my gear for 58 before heading to Outland and now I'm getting good gear i need. I could have not bought the gear and saved myself some gold. Then again i may not have fared Outland as well so far maybe. So far i haven't died in Outland since getting here, which is good as i detest dying. Death in plate armor is rough on the wallet. EXPENSIVE to repair. Back in Un'Goro my tumble with Blazerunner for 4 times was costly to repair and also because i carry multiple weapons in bags also in death penalty. So hate death and so far so good. Next two mission were again bombing mission on the wing rider. Flew over 2 more portals and dropped bombs on them and blew them up. Click on bomb, select area and drop. Very cool this was. Next mission was to drop bombs on a range of sort with various mobs and cannons below. It was a blast. Engineers should be able to make bombs like this in game. Would be heavy duty bombs for AOE if could use.


On quest turn in got even more impressive green gear with more great stats and spell dmg and +healing and + mana regen. Seem for every class there were equivalent armor sets pieces available. On all completed quests i basically got replacement armor set for what would have been my old armor. Seems to me on getting to Outland Blizzard want you to replace your gear or get you a quick upgrade to your old armor gear. Mines were crap anyway mostly, these were much better pieces. Galo got word to report back to Thrallmar to see the man in charge and got a quest to kill 10 bad guys south of Thrallmar at a camp. Headed off to do so, reward was some impressive looking shield choices. I already had a lvl 58 upgraded shield from AH a nice one i have in the pics. But the reward was nice if you come to Outland with a sub par shield, i guess they want you to replace it too.


Found camp and started fighting and realized some the bad guys were casters and was eating up health with fire damage, so Aura switching was in order. I end up pulling in one guy look like a orc riding a wolf as a add so was a 3 way fight. I got the casters out first then the orc guy for physical combat last and just as i pwned the melee wielding orc i heard some big horns blow and then i was dead. Duhh! Death by Flying Foot. Stomped silly into ground by Elite (???) Felreaver that roam the area. Suspissions confirmed in Outland. Stuff will get you when your not watching your back. So did my first corpse run, luckily it was not too far away. Went back to the camp, killed x number of bad guys as i surveyed the area and completed quest, always watching out for the flying foot from above. Did see him a few times walking close by and stayed away.

Got a nice shield for completing the quest. Right now I'm trying to decide just which set of gear to wear. The replacement gear i upgraded to from Ah or the ones i got for the quests? Both are impressive in stats, though the quest rewards give me more boost in needed areas like spell dmg and healing stats. Quests completion give a whopping 10k XP and killing bad guys and demons can net 1k XP. So I'm almost lvl 59 in a short time questing, seem easy to quickly lvl up here so far.

Screenshots - Hellfire Peninsula

Outland is very exciting. All content new and thrilling here. Shots of Hellfire Peninsula with Demons everywhere. As a Paladin with all those Holy Spells, you get to finally use your Exorcism spells and unleash them on Demons here. Lots of fun here.

Goodbye Azeroth, Hello Outland!

Dinged 58 in Winterspring questing for Everlook inside the Yeti Cave. At lvl 58 I can now go through the Dark Portal to get to Outland and leave world of Azeroth. Went to Orgrimmar to vendor stuff and Ah stuff. Removed all my new lvl 58 armor I had sitting mail a while and upgraded some gear for new lvl and to survive outland till get better gear. I got a much better Shield so its nice also. So headed to Swamp of Sorrows and then south through the Blasted Lands and to the Dark Portal. Almost seem Hellish getting here. For 58 lvls I quested and Soloed countless quests all over the map so I could earn my right full place to head to Outland through the Dark Portal. Feel relieved been able to now head through the Portal.

/played time 29 days from 0-58 to get to the Dark Portal. I sat here and stared at the portal a moment. I would of though this thing be guarded with elites or something like that.
Got through the portal and you report to your faction here in Hellfire Peninsula so that would be the Horde. Its actually a quest and get Xp just for going through the portal and reporting here. Seem after a bit getting to other side of portal, I would have though Thrall of Orgrimmar would send a lightning bolt and strike me with a special blessing or a buff for like a hour or something for getting to Outland. Didn't happen but it would have been a fitting welcome in getting here.

Traveling on the Wing Rider to report in to Thrallmar on getting to Outland as the follow up Quest. Seem pretty exciting. I earned my way to Outland on my own steel, my efforts and just proud to get here finally.

The sky is really beautiful here.

Reporting to my very first actual Outland Quest.
Outland seem pretty dramatic and engaging just waiting around by the NPC's. Demons show up and its dramatic. The Horde NPC's just rip them apart in style. I'm just dumb struck watching all this happen. Very cool. I couldn't help but constantly watching my back here thinking something going to get me from behind or sneak up on me. Like this Giant Elite walking by that shakes the ground under you. It seem like a very wild place here. I completed my first quest and i got a nice 1H sword. Its got more DPS than Hanzo Sword, but not ready to give up Hanzo Sword just as yet, need a superior weapon still. I got a follow up quest to head off to some other place and report to some other person, basically I got lost. Can't figure out where its at, i have no bearings here where things are and everywhere they stuff that want to kill you here. No place to be lost here. Well I made it to Outland....Finally. Its Kindergaden all over again.

Specing Galo & Setting Goals.

Since leveled up to 54 and receiving all training at trainer, placed another point in Retribution tree so i'm now 0/38/7. Goal ahead is to drop 11 more points in retribution to get Imp Retribution Aura picking up Parry, Seal of Command along the way. Soloing is my play style so that build will fit me well. I will drop 5 more points in Protection to solidify all damage mitigation and tanking abilities.

However that may change up as soon as patch 2.1 takes place and having to get the Imp Holy Shield, so will have to see point spread then or how the new tree looks. Don't know as yet if we will get a free respec on that when it happens. So far i've never had to respec my core talent tree, always been protection spec.

Looking ahead its 4 more levels to Outland. I can feel getting closer to the goad of earning my place to finally head to Outland. I can just about grind it to 58 and get it done in a day or two if i really wanted to but it would be no fun. As soon as i hit 58 i'm booking my flight to Outland. I've set some goals for Galo in Outland.

• Get to level 70. Its why i started the journey. Finish it! I'm no Alt-a-holic!!
  
• Earn faction reputation points as needed and for Alchemy Mastery.
• Level up Alchemy and specialize. Yet undetermined.
• Continue to save up for the Flying mount. (Over 1200g already)
  
• Properly gear up Galo with good gear weapons and amour.
  
• Find a few good people to group with or good players.
  
• Do all 5 man Heroics as my main focus for Outland Instances.
  
• When bored, Solo run lower level Instances and twink up the priest in Blues & Epics.
  
• Don't care much for Raiding & not planning on much.

Not everyone goals are the same, some people don't have any playing this game. These are just my goals and from my perspective of my own time and enjoyment. Hopefully this will be my guide for continuing play and i can stick to these goals with flexibility.

After finishing last few quests in Un'Goro i need to clean up my Quest bank and finish those i feel like doing. Do the Sunken Temple Paladin Quest i have yet to do for 50. Head to Western Plagueland to finally purge undead souls. I have yet to quest in the Burning Steeps, Searing Gorge, or Azshara zones and unsure how much i will be able to right now. For every zone you quest i, it reduce the chances of questing in another area equally. However the goal is Outland however it takes to get there and escape Azeroth!

Screenshots - Shattrath City in Outland

Screenshot of inside chamber of Shattrath City in Outland. People tend to gather here or around the area and many portals here in this area leads back to all major cities in Azeroth.