A Week in an MMO Life: Back to Icecrown

Kantro visiting Zul'Drak

It is odd how things hold me back.  I was reading Syl's and Liore's posts about Achievements and even though I am a strong explorer and lean towards Syl's sentiment that it is mainly about the journey, I know that a strong part of me still wants to achieve.  (If you aren't familiar with the Bartle Test, you can read about it on Wikipedia and take the test on GamerDNA.)  I really didn't want to start running through LFRs over and over again (the explorer in me), but I needed some goals anyway (the achiever in me).  

I finally made enough Celestial Cloth to be able to make the White Cloud Belt and that meant I was very close to iLvl 480 on my priest where I could do all the LFRs except for Seige of Orgrimmar.  I spent a little bit of valor to put me over the number and received help from my guildmates getting the enchants I needed so it at least looked like I was trying.  Now, it is not that I actually ran any LFRs, part of me needed to 'achieve' that spot so I could run them if I wanted to.  I even started Pandaria's Legendary Questline and killed some bugs but I haven't done any LFRs, I just needed to know I could (sigh).

So that freed me so I could turn my attention to some new goals.  I am often frustrated because I can't farm ore on my primary two toons.  I went through the process of leveling a warrior before Burning Crusade so I could reforge the Broken Blade of Heroes, which dropped from a chest.  During Burning Crusade, I switched Kantra to Jewelcrafting and I also leveled my warrior so I wouldn't have to buy all the ore.  I hadn't really used him much since then (he was sitting at 71, mainly from mining in Icecrown for Kantra).  Now I had the freedom to level him again in order to be able to mine ore and finally be able to have the Embersilk to level First Aid.  As I bonus, I discovered that the two main thing I needed in order to be able to get Vial of Sands would be items from mining and to level Archeology.

I had a purpose where I could accomplish three things at once.  Efficiency is a big motivator for me.  Yes, I'm sure it would be faster to farm gold and buy what I needed, but this is where the Explorer in me comes out.  I want to be able to do it myself.  Complicated crafting tasks like Vial of Sands or the Broken Blade of Heroes seem like fun, unlike the steps in the Legendary Questline which look extremely repetitive.

So I dusted off my warrior with his Blacksmith made gear and started questing in Northrend.  I went from level 71 to 72 in Howling Fjord, but it seemed slow.  I then remembered that there were three Heirlooms that I bought for my mage and decided to do the same for my warrior.  The levels from 72 to 75 went much quicker and I was able to finish the I've Toured the Fyord achievement at the same time.  Nothing like being a slacker in other expansions to give you plenty of things to do.  I already had the Dragonblight and Grizzly Hills Achievements, so I figured I'd focus on Zul'Drak.

Now I was used to the relatively easy fighting and leveling with my heirlooms when I ran into the Gymer, King of the Storm Giants series of quests.  When you are riding on the back of a giant, your heirlooms don't help and when you can easily get caught in the middle of a tree (happened to me three times) it is even worse.  I kept having Gymer just barely die and eventually on the last quest I found the hint to right click on who he is fighting so he is using his auto-attack in addition to the special attacks. I don't mind dying too much, but when only playing once a week and I'm dying because of the mechanics of a giant I have to ride, I did get frustrated.

Fortunately, once that was done everything went smoothly, I was able to complete the Empire of Zul'Drak achievement (with some help from some level 90s at the Ampitheater of Anguish, thanks!), reach level 80 and level my Blacksmithing to 425 at almost the same time.  Now on to the Cataclysm quests and finally having the cloth for First Aid.  Not that I really need the bandages with all the food I've accumulated, but I feel like I should have it (sigh).