Benie's Games Blog

So much for Thursday maintenance
Looks like we’re back to the same ole thing. All servers are down. battle.net is down. Everything’s down(even stuff not related to WoW). Guess it’s time to recap what has been happening while waiting for everything to come back up at or near 2pm EDT. Four hours to go.

I’m nearly done endgame questing as Beefhunter. Got all quests in Dread Wastes. Was pretty much done there and was about to head back home when I saw a quest giver up in Townlong Steppes. Flew up there and discovered it was a quest to do the Horde side of The Thunder King solo scenario series. Thought “maybe I’ll get more gear this way” and went with it.

All solo scenarios were pretty much the same as I did them as Benie on the Alliance side, except for one major thing; the last to final one which involves killing trolls when in the air, I got that on the first try! I’ve never been able to do that as Benie. Took me several to get it. And Beef got it on the first try. That is quite impressive for a Tauren who’s barely geared for WoD. 🙂 He can out-DPS me. It also feels sad, since Benie is my main.

Friends with Terlarer
Rewinding the clock, I was almost done with all Klaxxi quests in the Dread Wastes. And rewinding even further, I asked Heol if Terlarer still plays. I assume he quit. Says he still does and was on a day ago. So I asked him to let me know when he’s on. And he finally did a few hours later, and I hopped on Benie.
I got his battle.net ID and ‘talked’ to him about what I went through in the Timeless Isle. He said he’s sorry he never told me those chests were a one time only deal. 😛 He said that I should gamble(as in, talking to the hozen in the cave, giving him 500 timeless coins for a key and testing my luck with one of the chests in the cave) and do LFRs if I really want better gear.
I might. But I’m going to try to take the easy road out by having my Monk(once I learn how to play as a Level 90 Monk again) get to the Timeless Isle and see if they can find any Mail pieces that Beef needs. There’s also those Burdens of Eternity that can boost a token up to a 525 item level to make it even more powerful.
If my Monk can find any of those, I’ll get them to use it. Hopefully they can use them and still send them to Beef.

Another birthday present
Fast forward, completed the solo scenario quests to the point I’m told to “muster a small army”.. aka Raid, to take down The Thunder King. Not going to happen. To be honest, I wish it was that easy to “muster a small army”. To be all “Attention! I require a small army to take down The Thunder King! Who’s with me?”, and they will join and won’t pick on my gear and use racist slurs to lower my morale, and actually focus on killing! And I’m talking about AI players. 😛

I pondered what I should do. Started killing random things, then had a Level 90 Elite Devilsaur trying to eat me. It managed to kill me via an acid cone. But I did redeem myself by staying out of it.
As I was killing it, I wondered that when it respawns, if I should tame it and call it ‘Bigbiter’. Decided for it and when I saw it show up again, I dismissed Lilbiter, my raptor, and attempted. Unfortunately, I was unable to.
Checked the Petopia for any hope of getting one this color, and it showed one close to my position, yet I never saw it. Read up and said it’s a random spawn that shows up to attack the Shado-Pan Offensive group, and how one would have to camp for a long time.

I waited for a good 10 minutes, sitting on a rock near where they were fighting. Finally, I saw one and ran over to it as quick as I could. A few seconds as I was taming it, it got attacked by one of the NPCs. And no matter my efforts, I couldn’t tame it.

I then had to wait 45 minutes, constantly seeing other random things spawning. Around 1:12 in the morning, I finally saw the Devilsaur spawn and grabbed it ASAP. Now I have one, and I named it Bigbiter. Another nice early birthday present. Sadly, I cannot use it due to maintenance.

Battle.net downtime
Battle.net was down for me this morning for no reason. I’m not sure if it was a DDoS, but the fact it was only down on my end when all other websites worked… dunno. Did come back up about 30 minutes later.

More wrenches in plans
In the Timeless Isle yesterday, I’ve been farming grinding on Gulp Frogs; the ones that can kill a well-geared 90 in 10 stacks of poison. The reason, to get more Timeless Coins.
By the way, I finally got the bow. The same one Benie currently uses. The one for 20000 coins.
After that, I started to wonder if this is even worth it when I started hitting harder with said bow, and if I should just go back to endgame questing and get leveling gear which would be better than what I couldn’t replace.
Seeing how Hulon was about to respawn again, I went over there and waited for a good 30 minutes, getting bored. Crowd of Alliance and Horde guys growing. Finally, he shows up. After he dies, I check the loot, and…. I saw it. The thing everyone wants: [Reins of the Thundering Onyx Cloud Serpent]!! FUCK YEAH!!!!! 😀 This is one hell of an early birthday present! 🙂

Little did I know, you have to have Cloud Serpent Riding to fly it. I should had remembered this. And the fact it was Soulbound, I couldn’t gift it to Benie. Fortunately, when used, I discovered he can use it now! I assumed a mount so rare would only be bound to one char. But it’s multi-account bound! Very happy for that.

Today unfortunately, there’s something I couldn’t do. It’s related to the Timeless Isle and the tokens I got for my Monk. I thought for sure, I would be able to trade them to my Monk via the Neutral AH. Sadly, I couldn’t. Says they’re Soulbound. They aren’t! They’re battle.net account bound!
I then got an idea to send them to Benie via Mail, who’s on the same account as Beef. That plan worked and Benie got the items… but he can’t trade them to my Monk, with it saying “You cannot trade Soulbound items”. ……. Oy! So he’s stuck with them!

I’m talking to their Customer Support forum in hopes that this is a mistake, or maybe they went “Soulbound” when I sent them from Horde to Alliance. I have a feeling, that I have to have a Monk on the Horde side to trade.

An old threat
I was reading the Customer Service forum. There’s three threads that scared me enough to talk about it. They all have to do what I did in the past, and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened to me as many times as I did it; having their accounts banned for gold buying.
One in particular really scared me. They talk about how they were “hacked in the past”… so was I.
But the reason wasn’t for gold buying, it was gold selling. I still don’t know who hacked me back then. But I’ve been extra vigilant since, changing my password whenever I hear a threat, and keeping an authenticator for extra security.

Does this mean that Blizzard is actively sniffing people’s chat logs for any sign of gold buying? Maybe they have a new thing that lets them know if someone receives a huge sum of gold via trading. Somehow, they’re looking at people like myself. Even though I haven’t bought one piece since then, they still might look into my ‘criminal history’. Especially when I accidentally said in the forum “Yeah, I buy gold” in defense of gold buyers.
For them to ban you for buying gold, not selling… fuck that scares me.
But I’m hoping as long as I keep my nose clean and not say or do anything that would arouse suspicion, I should be ok.

To level my Warlock?
I did what I said I was going to do; get what my Tauren Hunter owes Benie by giving it to Darkcash. I also offered my Warlock a ride.
I also questioned, if I should level him to have my forth 90. Yet I don’t really see a point to do so. You see, I mainly created him to see the Goblin questline. But, he’s also an enchanter and… I forgot his other profession. I guess one would see a point of my history, of having my highest leveled Alliance char back in vanilla who was a Warlock before I switched to a Hunter.
Still, I dunno. It would give me something to do, but it also defeats my playtime schedule. But I think one of the main reasons, I don’t want to go through the Cata questline again since Deathwing is dead. It’s repeating history of that bastard still being alive. Even though he’s dead, the past is locked as if he’s still alive.

Love the Launcher
Moving on, I got Darkcash to Booty Bay and logged off Beefhunter, then got on Benie. A few seconds after I mounted up and headed to the portal, Heol PMs me in surprise. It’s good to see him again. He says he’s done with the whole Heol’s Inn thing in Goldshire; got bored with it.
He then asked me for my battle.net gamertag. Gave him it, and he friended me. And I found out later how freakin’ awesome this thing is. I’m able to PM him outside of WoW! It’s like I’m using Steam, except he can see ingame, what I say from outside of the game. That, is very cool. Kudos to the developers of this launcher.

The chest is a lie
Completed doing what I needed to do. Darkcash flew back to Northrend and logged off where I got him. Beefhunter headed to the Timeless Isle in hopes to get everything geared up for WoD…… unfortunately, RNGs have a funny way to make you cuss. 1/4 of the time, it was something else. But there’s a far worse thing that has fucked up my plans. And that, are the chests that I was promised by Terlarer would contain the gear I need.
I got all the chests I could… and they never respawned. So I’m thinking “maybe they’ll respawn tomorrow. Yeah! That’s it!”, yet I curiously asked General chat, and what they told me, I didn’t like one bit.
The chests, only show up per char. As in, I grab them, they go away forever. There are chests, that spawn once a week. But they’re rare. So, this throws a wrench into my plans.

First, having Valor have no purpose(Valor Gear wise), and now this. I feel like I’ve been tricked. I wish Terlarer told me this! If he had told me, I probably would had never done it. Look, I know the pieces you find can be traded(as long as you don’t use them), but still… the principle.
This means I will possibly have to get my Monk there earlier than I wanted them to, just to get those chests in hopes to find the remaining pieces for my Hunter. Beef did find some pieces that my Monk can wear, so that’ll help them.

A bit later, I get a PM from a random person telling me to look up this guide on Google, and it’ll tell me about the chests. But I explained how this fucks me over, and the person said how I will need to grind on elites and rares to get the remaining pieces… that’s not fun! I wanted to take the fucking easy road out and just get all of those damn chests! Grinding is boring.. especially when I keep getting my ass handed to me by elites!
The bad thing about the Timeless Isle, they don’t really pay you. They give you Timeless Coins. I need actual gold to afford my rising repair bills!

And it just makes me feel there’s no point to getting them if I have to go through hell.
At least with dailies, I get rep. Here, I get coins and more stuff I need to get to Benie, since he’s the chef(even though he won’t really need them when WoD comes). I just don’t have the effort to do that.
If I wanted to grind, I’d do dailies. It burns me out quite fast and makes me depressed, especially when I die trying to kill a lone elite, who manages to pwn me in one fucking hit. And what’s worse, having a random guy standing there laughing at me when I die.

I know what I need, and it’s that bow. Another 20000 Timeless Coins. Yet I remember on Benie, it didn’t make any difference of how fast I take down a guy even with the bow(and I still got it), yet with it, I was able to solo areas I couldn’t before. So… maybe it’ll help Beef more.
There is some hope of when it comes to gear. Having 7500 coins, you can buy a thing which can give you a random powerful gear piece based on your spec(just be sure to pick the correct armor type. I need Mail). So, maybe that’s a reason to grind. Thing is, I don’t know how many Timeless Coins I have until I visit the quartermaster.

Fastest Level 90 ever!
My Tauren Hunter dinged to 90 about 15 minutes ago from the time of this sentence. And he did it in record time. Not only is he my first Level 90 on the Horde side, but he dinged way before Benie and my Monk! He dinged doing the first Shado-Pan questlines in Kun-Lai Summit.
I still don’t see how. The fake Guild he’s in, was only Level 1 when he started. No perks. Then when he got Level 1 in Fast Track, he took off, hitting 89 in Kun-Lai summit and not stopping. Both Benie and my Monk, would still be in Townlong Steeps during that. I still don’t get it!
My Monk, had so many things going for them. They had XP boosts out the ass, yet my Tauren Hunter out-leveled them! The only thing I can think of, is Blizzard decreased the required XP needed to level up to help players get to Level 90 faster for WoD.
Whatever’s the reason, I’m shocked yet happy I was able to get him to Level 90 so quickly. I also got him the training to fly in Pandaria. So, yay for that.
Now, I need to get several things(stuff for The Tillers and cloth for bandages) shipped to Benie via the neutral AH in Booty Bay. Though I have to send it to Darkcash, who’s on my second account to do so. Then, off to the Timeless Isle to get the gear needed for WoD.

After that, I’ll be playing on my birthday. Then I’ll be playing other games ’till September (heard rumors that this is when pre-WoD content shows up). Then play other games ’till the final two weeks before release in November, when it’ll be time to solo all TBC dungeons as Benie.
Then on release, wait a week or two for things to calm down(less people questing and taking quest items that I need), then get in there and stop The Iron Horde!
I might go in on launch day, and after setting up my Garrison, then wait the 1-2 weeks.

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Blizzard pushes for preordering
Next, we talk about how it seems Blizzard is really pushing you to preorder WoD. On the new launcher, they have a “THE IRON HORDE IS COMING” and the release date. And a thing next to it showing “Buy now and get a Level 90 Character Boost!”
May I remind you, November is 2 months away? Yet they act like it’ll come tomorrow. The Dark Portal wasn’t built in a day, you know. So what’s the purpose of preordering it now, when you can wait ’till October or whenever? Yes, I know Blizzard is a money-hungry company. But… meh. Kind of wish they would stop pushing it. The more they push, the longer it’ll take ’till release.

Just completed my RL thing barely, to see the opening of this once in a lifetime event, hosted by Gamestop. I really enjoyed it.
The main highlights of the story. The entire Warcraft series, this marks 20 years since the first Warcraft game, and 10 years since WoW. Also, they talked out the free Level 90 boost for low leveled chars, what you need to expect. They mention how they will “tear down your bars” to learn your class and then unlock more stuff as you advance.
They also mention of a general perspective, that there won’t be as many UI buttons. Some will be morphed to help you.

They also talked about your roll when it comes to Garrisons. How “you need an army on your back” to defeat the Iron Horde. And how the choices you make to customize your Garrison “will pave your way through Draenor”. Quite interesting.

Next, they talk about what you’ll be dealing with once the EP is released. Sounds like you’re going to have one hell of a fight. They mention the ‘suicide mission’ again, but get into a bit more detail. You have to “sabotage and stop it”, but add “you don’t actually die” in spoilers. Sounds awesome. Really awesome.

Later, Chris Metzen shows up who’s a star when it comes to BlizzCon, and he mentions about they will be making five episodes of some of the key Warlords(not all of them, only ones that’ll leave their mark in the expansion), and it’ll be called “Lords of War”. The first video is about ‘Gargath Bladefist’ and how he came to power, and where the ‘Shattered Hand clan’ came from. And it’s quite violent but also well made. Much blood. Many screams. Wow.
The other four episodes will “come in the following weeks”. He also released a teaser video, and it too was pretty good. The reason for the videos, is to show players like me who have never played the original Warcraft games, who these guys are and why they’re a threat to you and all of Azeroth. Mighty nice of them.

After that, they showed a preview of what to expect on your road to Level 100 in the EP. The zones, enemies, and some quest mechanics. And endgame content: dungeons, raids, and the PvP area that will all be a part of the 6.0 release. They also show the redone character models, and the Human Male and (especially) Tauren Male reskins are SICK! 😀 I can’t fucking wait.

Once that’s over, Chris goes on in a ‘Blizzard cares’ speech, saying how he’s so happy people can come together for this game, and how “we’re always listening”. Half of it, I call BS. But..meh.
And then it was time for the main event.. the cinematic of WoD. He goes about how they confused a lot of people with the announcement of WoD back in BlizzCon 2013, with this whole time traveling crap. Yet never really explains the “how” and “why” that I was hoping he would, and that was disappointing.

Thankfully, I did get my answers from people who have read the ‘War Crimes’ book. I now know the “how” and “why”.
The Bronze Dragon that we assisted with the stones on The Timeless Isle, assisted Garrosh to go back in time. He told Grom to not drink the blood. This doesn’t mean the Bronze Dragonflight are betrayers, this dragon is a sub-faction of them.
I hoped that they would show this, without forcing you to read the book. Hopefully, it will be explained.

Finally, the cinematic plays. Starts 35 years ago. 35 years before MoP. Grom, Garrosh’s father, is offered a glass of fel blood by Gul’dan in promise they will be conquers. In Warcraft lore, he’s the first to drink the fel blood. But this time, he questions what he’ll have to give to get this power. When answered to, he dumps it instead of drinking. Mannorth shows up and is all pissed he didn’t accept this ‘gift’. Suddenly, Mannorth is attacked by the Iron Horde, lead by a lone orc who shows up and helps to kill Mannorth and saves Grom from dying like he did at the end of Warcraft 3.
The orc finally reveals himself, as Garrosh. This is when they prepare for war, and build the Dark Portal to invade our world as the Iron Horde.

So the cinematic ends and the official release date shows: November 13th, 2014. So, I was right; October-November. Even though it won’t be early November. This means in October, I’ll preorder it and be ready.
Lastly, they say (yet won’t tell you when), that before the release of WoD, parties of the Iron Horde are going to come out and do bad things to key areas. This also includes, rebuilding UBRS. No more black dragons, just orcs. I did find it funny, that there’s a guy in the video who’s dead, named “Leeroy Jenkins”.
This also does worry me. UBRS won’t be soloable… and the fact they won’t say when it’ll happen is concerning.

So, that’s pretty much it that I haven’t seen already from people playing the beta on YouTube. The event lasted for something like, 45 minutes. Also, we will have BlizzCon 2014. I’ll be paying to watch the live stream for sure.

Another change I forgot to mention while trying to get my accounts back online, Blizzard seems to have moved the day I hate most in WoW: Maintenance Day, from Tuesday to Thursday. Why the change? I’m sure it’s explained somewhere in the patch notes.

Maintenance will still be the same time, except an hour later, but end at the same time. Fortunately, my server isn’t a part of the list of servers scheduled to be worked on.

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Continuing where I logged off for the night, I’m getting some replacement gear from leveling in Cata. This part introduced the Jinyu, and how if The Horde are going to be our allies, we’re going to have to be enemies of this force. I then had to be the one to tell members of our surviving assault force to look around the area, and that’s when they found Alduin(which is completely different on the Alliance side, as he was never captured by the Horde).
I’m starting to dislike the way Blizzard did this. I was hoping it would follow the same plot as the Alliance side, instead of what I feel is.. completely made up to make the Alliance look bad(for example, having the Alliance look like slavers by tricking the Pandarian into helping them establish an air base).
Even in Cata, it was better. Maybe I’m just being an Alliance fanboy here. There was one that did follow the Alliance questline, when they said how the Alliance have the Jinyu outnumbering us, and we have monkeys.

Though finally, there is hope. You’re given a message by Lorewalker Cho to go to Dawn’s Blossom, and then… I’m finally doing the same quests as I did on the Alliance side for the Pandarian. After that, you’re pretty much doing similar Alliance side quests. Even into the Valley of The Four Winds.
Also, I’m now Level 87 and in Karasang Wilds, doing new Horde side quests(some, not all “Kill our enemies!”). It’s a Tauren camp I walked into.
Just hope in the future, it’ll explain (on the Horde side) how Alduin got to Pandaria, and what he’s doing here.

Also, I’ll unfortunately be missing the event tomorrow at 12:30pm. Important RL business to take care of. You know how it goes. At least I’ll be able to see the good stuff later on.

Two hours of unexplained downtime. Finally the servers went back up and General chat was filled with various “I GOT IN YES!!!” responses.
I spent a bit of time in Org to get the same glyphs as Benie has, and trying to have the same button position. Getting the glyphs was painful to say the least, but I knew I would get more money in MoP.

I also Auctioneer scanned the AH, and was shocked I still had ore from when I was trying to get Netherwing rep on the Horde side. Didn’t get much from it, but the vendor trash I had, took care of that.
I then spent 10 minutes flying around, trying to find where the training dummies were. Finally found them, yet was still thinking of Skyrim-type targets(Archery targets)… lol. Anyway, I got to work relearning my old rotation to be ready for MoP questing. I also forgot the correct button to get Hunter tracking to work(forgot to middle click on the map). And as I was doing that, a small group of Alliance decided to invade Org. Thankfully for me(in more ways than one), I didn’t see the carnage and got the quest to get to MoP.

So, on the zeppelin(outside of Org). I’m shocked there wasn’t no speech like on the Alliance side about the ship. They say it’s brand new and we’re on its maiden voyage. When on the Alliance side, they say “This is the ship that took down Deathwing!!”. Did it actually detect if I took down Deathwing or not as my Horde char?

Finally, in MoP. It’s different, but also quite the same. Basically, you do pretty much the same thing on the Alliance side, but also in a different area. My meaning, you’re entering a temple where you would be outside on the Alliance side, and it got somewhat difficult navigating around the Sha.

Another noticable difference, after the zeppelin is blown up and the guy you’re working for goes Sha, there is no cutscene here(unlike the Alliance side), yet Taren Zul does the same animation and saves him. Also, you’re able to see Sha in the temple, before he becomes infected. So, that’s two things different, yet also the same.

There is a major difference later on, where you’re tasked with getting a base of operations(not a Garrison). Don’t think you had to do that on the Alliance side. I think the only thing that may come close, is befriending the Jinu. And this can be somewhat challenging, yet still doable.
Also, there is another major change. The Hozen at the start are also enemies of the Horde. Eventually you whip their tails so hard by killing one of their top dookers, that they fear you..literally. And the name of that hozen, is hilariously named “Dook Ookem”.. oh god, the reference kills me!
And this is when Loremaster Cho pops up to help you out and not have anymore “MUST KILL ALLIANCE!!! FOR THE HORDE!!!!” quests for awhile. Though still, it’s a nice change from Cata, where the Horde cared more about saving their own lives instead of the Alliance.
With this, you’re finally doing your own thing, and showing that not all of the Horde are bloodthirsty monsters who only crave war and power. Thrall didn’t. I don’t.

The Loremaster helps you show the Hozen that you don’t wish to kill them and maybe even join The Horde. And that’s pretty much where I currently am in the questline. Do I like it? Yes. As I said, it’s a nice change compared to Cata. Looking forward to more.
Currently 73% into Level 85(27% from Level 86).
Questing feels balanced, and feels I got a ton of content until the Valley of the Four Winds. Like that. Better than WoTLK on the Horde side.

I wanted to dedicate this day to getting back in WoW after many months, and getting to work on leveling my alts and getting them ready for WoD. Unfortunately, RL had its own plans, giving me a multitude of math-related things that make me want to scream.

One of these, is figuring out how much my WoW subscriptions are going to be(to get my budget balanced). I got the 6 month plan for both accounts, which saves money in the long run, and the next payment is next month. So I had to get ahold of Blizzard.
It wasn’t fun. They also accidentally canceled my subscriptions by mistake! Thankfully, I was able to get them back online. Due to their failure, they gave me 35 days of freeplay. I also had to pay $2.00 to get my accounts reinstated(don’t know why. I guess it’s an activation fee).

Now I’m sitting on the Realm Selection screen with my and 7/8ths of other servers are down. There was a mention about an issue with their authentication servers. So, this could be considered ‘post-maintenance day’. I did manage to get on an hour ago, but had to eat, and got to see the Horde side of the beginning of MoP.
Was quite wild to be flying around Org. I feel like I haven’t played in years. Everything’s new, yet also known.

Mmm… stilllllll waiting. Maybe I should go back to Euro Truck Simulator 2…

Moving on. As I was getting my accounts back online, I discovered that you can pre-order WoD now(probably could in the past, and I just now noticed it).
It costs $50 to get the standard version, and $70 to get the ‘bells and whistles’ version. That’s over $100 for two copies(including tax). But, gotta buy ’em to get into WoD. Usually, EPs are like $40 before release. Why are they tacking on an extra $10? Garrisons? Wish I knew.
Also, when on the “Ohh, you wish to preorder this?” page, there’s a thing that makes me feel a bit.. UGH’y: “Warlords of Draenor is expected to release on or before 12/20/14“.
Wow, four days before Christmas Day? So much for having to wait ’till the 14th to get that info. But, if it does get released on that day, it’ll be a first. It’ll be the longest ever EP of WoW to be announced, developed then released… over a year.

Lastly, the WoW Launcher will soon be replaced by a Battle.net Launcher, but allows you the option to go on and get it right now. This launcher, is so awesome. It can log you into your account, without going into WoW itself! As soon as WoW pops up, you’re being connected to your character list. It’s that easy.
It also offers as a hub to launch other games made by Blizzard, such as Diablo 3, Hearthstone, and StarCraft.
And, it gives you news about server maintenance and other login failure news, other people who use the battle.net launcher that you add them as friends, and special ingame events like bonus Valor(seems they’re trying to give people something to do while waiting for WoD, that don’t know how to play other games).

Seeing how WoD takes us back to somewhat of the first EP of WoW, and having this year being the 10th anniversary of WoW, I felt there’s a few things to discuss;
1. WoD endgame content mounts purchasable back in Patch 5.4’s release.
2. Costs of mount training dropping per EP/major content patch.

Just to note: I’m not a casual. I’m just a player that’s only on for new content. I don’t have a job, or a family. I do..somewhat have a life(things to do IRL, other games). But it still doesn’t make me a casual.
A casual, is a person who comes on because they have nothing better to do, yet has a lot of things to do IRL, and often has a job and a fulltime family to care for.

Let’s go over the first. I got this from a video of someone who’s(a lucky SOB) in the WoD Beta. Back in 5.4, there was a special by Blizzard, that you can help charity by buying a Farie Dragon that can change color. … Apparently, this same mount is in WoD… it was supposed to be endgame content(as in, a rep mount). Yet Blizzard decided to give people a “get out of rep grinding free card” and just buy the mount. Do mind you, WoD(at the time of this blog post) is still being worked on(mostly bug fixes).
To have mounts, that were supposed to be endgame content for an upcoming expansion, be in the Blizzard Store? … That’s not right.

Yet you can look at me and say “But Benie! You complained so much about getting Netherwing Rep in the past!! Would you not mind it if you could had gotten it before the expansion was even announced that introduced them?”, and my answer would be…I wouldn’t be able to give you one.
First off, I would had never known..the first dragon flying mount in WoW, was going to be in TBC, yet they have it on the Blizzard Store for something like… $10 or so. But with me, being the way I was soooo obsessed of dragons back then, yes, I would had bought that damn thing and not even thought about it!

But this, is different. Why? Dragon mounts are too common now. Almost everyone has one, mostly due to the fucking awesome thing Blizzard did in Cata of allowing all your chars have access to your mounts(no more god damn Netherwing rep for me!).
But I’m missing my point here. The point is, if Blizzard makes this the new way EP endgame mount content is handled, that this’ll have dire consequences. Such as, it’s bringing P2W(Pay To Win) into WoW, and that’s really not a smart idea.
Why would people, who go out and work for days…weeks to get rep with a certain faction, just to get their mount.. and if they saw the Blizzard Store and said “Ohh, Blizzard had this exact mount in their store?! WHAT THE HELL?!”, there would be a lot of hatemail and death threats against Blizzard.

The only… only way they can fix this, is offer different, better mounts that you have to get rep for. But the chance of this happening(as of what I’ve seen from videos) seems slim.

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Time for the other discussion. This is about a well known “problem” for elitists and veterans. And that’s the declining price of getting mount training. This has also plagued me in the past(mainly back in TBC and WoTLK), of not having the money for it.
For example, 5,000g for 280% speed(and unlocking) flight training. Back in TBC, this separated the rich from the desperate to be rich(myself), and the poor.
Now, this price has dropped down to 1,000g. Are they tailoring to casuals? Not in my eyes. They’re tailoring to new people who don’t have to deal with what was in the past. They’re also tailoring to alts.
And this is fine, in my book. Which is why, this discussion isn’t something I knew I would have a long time on.

Hot off the YouTube presses, YouTuber Nobbel87 has announced very big news to WoD’s development. The #1 question on a lot of people’s minds is planning to be answered… the official release date for Warlords of Draenor. Will it be late September, or late October-early November? These debating questions will be answered in a Live Stream(available on WorldOfWarcraft.com for free) in three days from now(Thursday, the 14th), at 12:30 PM EDT(for me. The actual time is 9:30am PDT. You can use a time converter to get your local time).
Nobbel believes, we’re going to see a December release(similar as Cata) due to the 10th year anniversary. We shall see.

Also, the possible “why” we’re going to Draenor could be answered, with the official cinematic trailer of WoD. We already know it may or may not involve time travel, and it involves Garrosh trying to stop the orcs from drinking the fel blood of Mannorth, to have orcs be what they should had been in WarCraft 3 and the start of WoW.
If this is related to time travel, I know I won’t be able to see myself from the past, because I never played WarCraft 3.
And to be perfectly honest, it should be obvious by now the real “why” reason. This year, will be the 10th anniversary of WoW. 10 years. From 2004 to 2014(and I joined in 2005). And what better way to celebrate this, then to take us back in time, beyond the first ever EP of WoW?

There’s two other ways Blizzard is celebrating 10 years of WoW, and both..I will not be a part of. The first one, is a new BG called “Southshore VS Tarren Mill”. It’s for PvPers to relive nostalgia, of life as a Level 60. Back when I was trying to group for SM(before they redid it in MoP), I’ve seen my share of battles(mostly after dying and having to run allllll the way back to the dungeon… that wasn’t fun). It was when World PvP first started. And for them to recreate this first of WoW history of it’s 10 year, is a good idea.

The second one, MC(Molten Core) will no longer be soloable by me. It’ll be buffed into a 40 man LFR. This is definitely going to make me want to solo it and soon, before this change happens(I didn’t work my ass off to get attuned for nothing). And from the final boss, has a chance to drop a core hound mount which looks sick. There’s also a mention about a “Core Houndgi”(a Corgi on fire, which looks like it was modeled after a real Corgi..perhaps one of the devs pets) given to people who participate in this(I think).
Currently, it’s unknown if the required level for entry will be 90 or 100, or if it’ll even be released before, during, or after WoD.

And that is pretty much it for now. The rest of his video is a lore Q&A section, which is pretty cool as well.
Given this news, I think I’m going to come back to WoW as early as tomorrow and get to work leveling my Tauren Hunter to Level 90(then get him to the Timeless Isle to get some better gear), so after I get Benie and my Monk(before getting them also to the Timeless Isle to get better gear) to Level 100 in WoD, I’ll be able to check what leveling to 100 on the Horde side will be. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot cooler, seeing Thrall again like I did in TBC, in Nagrand.
Don’t think there’s going to be maintenance. If there is, then..*shrug* so be it, then. Big deal. Servers’ll come back up.
Note that this wouldn’t be my ‘prepare for WoD’ comeback. That one will be either a month or two weeks before the release, and I got that covered, and it’ll be discussed in a future blog post of when the release is set in stone, the EP has gone gold and can be preordered, and is one month away.