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Archive for the ‘Raiding’ Category

You guys. I had such a hard time today focusing on adulting things like grading papers and doing the dishes knowing that the Story Mode for the March on Quel’Danas raid was open with this week’s reset and I could finish the 12.0 Campaign. We knew coming into Midnight that part of the story of this expansion would involve gathering the elven tribes, so I hope it won’t be too spoilery to post a few (okay, maybe more than a few) dialogue-less pictures of Kaelinda observing the Grand Council of the Elves.

Thalyssra, Lor’themar, Arator, Vereesa, Shandris, Umbric, Rommath, Halduron, Liadrin, Aethas

Both the story itself and the way it was told worked for me. It may be merely adequate, not outstanding, storytelling, and perhaps I will read a critique of the story and the storytelling and even agree with some of the points that writer makes, but I liked them well enough for what they were.

This expansion is called “Midnight” and it’s in the Empire Strikes Back position in the trilogy. I would have been rather disappointed in the storytelling, I think, if we didn’t lose, and lose hard, in the first raid of the expansion. We definitely lost at the end of Voidspire. And despite the hopeful glow of the War of Light and Shadow finale, there are anvil-sized hints that we have still lost, and lost hard. I’m intrigued to see where the story will go next… hopefully more coherently than the War Within story progression.

Okay, so, now that Eversong Woods and Ghostlands have gotten a glow-up treatment and allow flying, will one of the later Patches of this expansion do the same thing for Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles, combining them into a single enhanced zone with flying enabled, for parity for the Draenei?

I am pleased that between my crafted gear, upgrades from World Quests, and the gear from the Endgame Campaign questline itself, Kaelinda now has enough item level to do the Voidspire/Dreamrift/March on Quel’Danas LFR and begin collecting that Tier set. That and doing Saltheril’s Soiree will be her main objectives. Kaelyla will work on Sojourner quests in Voidstorm, Ianestin will work on Sojourner quests in Harandar, and Ishaleron will work on Sojourner quests in Zul’Aman. I’ll probably try to do Legends of the Haranir every week; I may or may not try to do Abundance every week; I’ll probably ignore Stormarion Citadel and end up with Singularity Renown being the last to cap.

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Manaforge Omega was the third raid of The War Within. I like this Mage Tier set a lot! I particularly like the hat as a different take on the hat with a glowing plume than the Firehawk Hood.

I have a goal to collect at least the shoulders and chestpiece of every Mage Tier set, even for sets I don’t particularly like. To be included in this meta collection, an outfit must feature the chestpiece, the shoulders, or the leggings of the set.
~*~*~

Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage



Blue: Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage (LFR) with Ebonchill (default, tint 1)

Violet: Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage (N) with High Scholar’s Grand Staff

Ice Cold

Crown of the Frost Lord, Augur’s Ephemeral Orbs of Power (LFR), Immaculate Cloak, Aspectral Emissary’s Primal Robes (H), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (N), Freezing Footguards, Ebonchill (Hidden, tint 4)
Upgrading the Champion-quality gear available from the Nightfall event in Hallowfall gave me the opportunity to get a few pieces of the Heroic version of the Liberation of Undermine set. Its deep blue colors just begged to be mixed-and-matched with the deep blues of the LFR version of the Manaforge Omega set.

Ice Cold II

Crown of the Frost Lord, Aspectral Emissary’s Arcane Vents (H), Immaculate Cloak, Augur’s Ephemeral Habiliments (LFR), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (N), Sigil of Violet Rebirth (N), Starlight Dagger, Frigid Conservator’s Implement
With pieces from Nerub-ar Palace, Liberation of Undermine, and Manaforge Omega, this ensemble is something of a synthesis of all of the War Within raid sets.

Augur’s Pure Sight

Augur’s Ephemeral Wide-Brim (LFR), Augur’s Ephemeral Orbs of Power (LFR), Pure Sight Vestments, Purple Snugglefin Murloc Mittens, Augur’s Ephemeral Quillsash (LFR), Augur’s Ephemeral Trousers (LFR), Banded Azure War Wraps, Jaded Crystal Dagger, Spirit of Aquementas

Scholar of Augury

High Scholar’s Arcana with Augur’s Ephemeral Wide-Brim (N), Augur’s Ephemeral Habiliments (N), and High Scholar’s Grand Staff
The colors of the Normal version of the Manaforge Omega set seem to have been designed to play mix-and-match with the High Scholar’s Arcana set!

Scholar of Augury II

Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage (N) with High Scholar’s Gown and Kirin Tor Adept’s Stave

Tazaveshi Doodle Dandy

Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage (N) with Dreadlord’s Shadowsbane Tunic and Aluneth (upgraded, tint 1)

Augur of the Void

Augur’s Ephemeral Plumage (H) with Ren’dorei Mantle, Ren’dorei Gloves, Ren’dorei Boots, Voidsong

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Of course I need to play a Mage through Legion Remix to get any Mage-specific rewards. I’d been thinking I’d do a Nightborne, since that would fit thematically with the Suramar storyline, and I didn’t yet have the Heritage Armor for that Allied Race. Then I got my Nightborne character in the regular game to level 50, so I thought I’d do a Lightforged Draenei for Legion Remix, because that is now the only one of the original four Allied Races from Legion that I don’t yet have the Heritage Armor for.

Some of the more recent Heritage Armor sets have come with two color variations. With the recent PTR news that there will be race-exclusive alternate tints for the Nightborne and Lightforged Draenei Heritage Armors available in Legion Remix, I’m thinking that I’d better do a Nightborne, not a Lightforged Draenei, for Legion Remix after all. Sartorially, I am much more interested in the alternate tint for the Shal’dorei Heritage Armor than I am in any of the tints of the Lightforged Draenei Heritage Armor. I wonder if Legion Remix will have alternate tints for the other Allied Races introduced in Legion — Void Elves and Highmountain Tauren — as well?

I’d already been thinking about leveling a male Highmountain Tauren Enhancement Shaman — Mr Kamalia — in Legion Remix. Because this event will happen during the busy middle of Fall semester, however, that would be an “only if I have the time and energy after the Mage is done” kind of thing. If there’s a race-exclusive alternate tint of the Highmountain Tauren Heritage Armor to be had, though, that will become a higher priority. And if there’s a race-exclusive alternate tint of the Void Elf Heritage Armor to be had, well, then, I’ll have to level a Void Elf character in Legion Remix, too.

Speaking of alternate tints of Heritage Armor, the news that there will be Story Modes for the final bosses of the Dragonflight raids has me thinking that I should do the Patch 10.2 Emerald Dream Campaign with Keriluna to get the blue tint of the Night Elf Heritage Armor sometime during Midnight. Getting that Heritage Armor tint would have been quite out of reach otherwise, since I generally don’t feel comfortable soloing old raids until at least two expansions later.

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When you’re tooling around Undermine in your DRIVE kart, if you crash into something (which happens frequently), instead of coming to an abrupt stop, the kart makes a bumper car bounce backward and gently rolls to a stop a short distance away from the object that you collided with.

Although I could have done the Story Mode version of the Gallywix fight, I figured that because I’d want to do each LFR wing at least once to experience the fights and get whatever loot I could, I might as well do the wings one by one as they came out. After doing the Gallywix fight with Kaelinda and doing one each of the other three wings with each of the other three Eversong Elf Mages, I haven’t been back to the raid since. After all, I’d already obtained all the pieces I wanted from the Mage Tier set by Catalyzing items obtained from open-world activities.

Doing a job streak for Many Jobs, Handle It! at the same time as Urge to Surge easily knocks out two open-world activities to unlock the first open-world slot in the Great Vault. With Nanny’s Surge Dividends, that’s two chances at an upgrade item each week. On some weeks, I get that done with all four Eversong Elf Mages on Tuesday night — catching surge pricing at 8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 or at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30 — and on other weeks it gets spread over multiple nights. I’ll probably continue doing that for the rest of the lifetime of the patch, because upgrades is upgrades and I do want to be in good shape for Patch 11.2.

Once I’ve done those two weeklies, though, I don’t do much else in Undermine for the rest of the week. I only do WQs when I feel like it, which has been infrequently. After checking out the Side Jobs quests at Kaja’Coast and Writhing Fields once or twice, I generally ignore them.

I’ve gotten a little over halfway through the Cartels of Undermine Renown track. I’m almost to Revered with Blackwater and have chosen Bilgewater this week to get to Honored with them. I think I’ll pick Steamwheedle and Venture Company after that just enough to get to Honored with them, too, then go back to Blackwater. Why Honored? Because that’s the reputation level where each cartel offers a new horn for the DRIVE kart. Maybe I’ll give each of the four Eversong Elf Mages their own horn for their kart. If I get to Exalted with Blackwater and can paint my kart blue before Patch 11.2 arrives, great, but if not, I probably won’t bother to keep going with it.

While I’ve been not grinding reputation in Undermine, I’ve knocked out all the Sojourner quests in Azj-Kahet. I still have a lot of Sojourning to do in Ringing Deeps before I can get the Freywold Spring campsite for my Warband. Although they aren’t part of All That Khaz, I’ll do all the Sojourner quests in Undermine, too — find out what there is to find out about Goblin culture, get myself a nice Big Damn Hero dustcoat, and not leave them as loose ends pulling me back there after the patch cycle has moved on. Maybe I should try to get those things done before Patch 11.1.5 arrives in a couple of weeks? But it’s also getting to be end-of-semester crunch time, so maybe not…

I’ve felt no desire at all to bring Kamalia or Kasheena down to Undermine.

Undermine just isn’t my vibe. From what I’ve read about it, I’m feeling like Patch 11.1.5 won’t really be all that engaging for me either, but that’s fine, because I’m going to need to be doing more work and less WoW this summer anyway. My department chair has asked me to put together a brand new GE chemistry class for the coming Fall semester, and now that we’ve got the course proposal through curriculum committee so that we could get it on the schedule, I’ve got to spend the summer figuring out what I’m actually going to teach and how I’m going to teach it.

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From its name, its overall styling, the “Primal” component of the name for the robe, and its colors (the LFR coloration seems to fit “Air”; the Normal coloration fits “Fire”; the Heroic coloration fits “Water/Frost”; and the Mythic coloration could fit “Earth”), it seems to me like the Mage Tier Set for the second War Within raid might have been originally designed for Vault of the Incarnates, passed over in favor of another design, then recycled for this raid when they couldn’t think of anything really awesome for a Mage to fit the “Las Vegas but make it Goblin” theme of the Gallagio.

I have a goal to collect at least the shoulders and chestpiece of every Mage Tier set, even for sets I don’t particularly like. To be included in this meta collection, an outfit must feature the chestpiece, the shoulders, or the leggings of the set.
~*~*~

Aspectral Emissary’s Flames

Jewel of the Firelord, Aspectral Emissary’s Arcane Vents (N), Aspectral Emissary’s Chosen Drape (N), Aspectral Emissary’s Primal Robes (N), Maple Tender Wristbands, Aspectral Emissary’s Cummerbund (N), Slippers of the Nerubian Twins, Wild Combatant’s Energy Staff (H)

Aspectral Emissary’s Gale

Bartered Vrykul Hood, Aspectral Emissary’s Arcane Vents (LFR), Aspectral Emissary’s Chosen Drape (LFR), Aspectral Emissary’s Primal Robes (LFR), Frigid Conservator’s Bands, Aspectral Emissary’s Cummerbund (LFR), Cosmic-Tinged Treads (N), Hailstorm, Tornado-Summoning Censer
Although the colors of this Mantid-themed off-hand from Pandaria don’t quite coordinate with the rest of the set, the name and whirling winds animation fit my overall theme for the ensemble too perfectly to not use it.

Ice Cold

Crown of the Frost Lord, Augur’s Ephemeral Orbs of Power (LFR), Immaculate Cloak, Aspectral Emissary’s Primal Robes (H), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (N), Freezing Footguards, Ebonchill (Hidden, tint 4)
Upgrading the Champion-quality gear available from the Nightfall event in Hallowfall gave me the opportunity to get a few pieces of the Heroic version of the Liberation of Undermine set. Its deep blue colors just begged to be mixed-and-matched with the deep blues of the LFR version of the Manaforge Omega set.

Ice Cold II

Crown of the Frost Lord, Aspectral Emissary’s Arcane Vents (H), Immaculate Cloak, Augur’s Ephemeral Habiliments (LFR), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (N), Sigil of Violet Rebirth (N), Starlight Dagger, Frigid Conservator’s Implement
With pieces from Nerub-ar Palace, Liberation of Undermine, and Manaforge Omega, this ensemble is something of a synthesis of all of the War Within raid sets.

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Even with four Mages on the job, I still got lucky to have each of them get a different Season 2 Veteran-level item during the first week of Undermine. These items, of course, could be Catalysted into the corresponding LFR-level Liberation of Undermine Tier set item, then upgraded into the Normal-level Tier set item. Even luckier, the items I managed to get included robes, shoulders, and belt — the three pieces from the Liberation of Undermine Mage Tier set that I was most interested in acquiring.

So, with no particular interest in farming the raid after I do the story-mode version of the Gallywix fight next week, it’s time to go clean up all those Sojourner quests I have thus far been ignoring. Including, ugh, the bug ones in Azj-Kahet. There’s a cool duster coat to be had from one of the Undermine Sojourner questlines, and I’ll need to finish up all of the 11.0 Sojourner achievements as part of the meta achievement to get the Freywold Spring campsite for my Warband (I also need to do some lore object and Skyriding glyph hunting for that one).
Will I ever get around to capping out Cartels of Undermine rep/renown? Eh, yeah, probably, if only for the valorstones and crests for upgrading my stuff so that I’ll be able to get into Patch 11.2/Season 3 LFR without too much extra effort when the time comes. It might also depend on how long it takes me to get through the Sojourner questing and how interested I end up being in the Patch 11.1.5 stuff.

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Some of the Dornogal weeklies are available to leveling characters; the guys had three of those in their logs — do three Delves, do six world quests, get 100 Titan Disc fragments (which could be easily accomplished by doing three Delves). That was more than sufficient to get from 78 to 80! With those Pinnacle Caches, along with some Bronze Celebration Caches from Codex of Chromie and Blackrock Depths, they were almost able to get into Nerub-ar Palace LFR. A little bit of gear upgrading and/or buying Renown gear got them over the threshold.
With four Mages having done the first wing of Nerub-ar Palace LFR this week, hopefully one of their Great Vaults will have the Warlock-lookalike robe in it next week!

Now I’m all ready for Patch 11.0.7 next week — ready to follow up with the Kirin Tor about the destruction of Dalaran, ready to look for some clues to where Xal’atath scarpered off to after Alleria shattered the McGuffin she got from Iridikron, ready to sail to the Siren Isle and get to work on collecting some sweet new Mogs!

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Several years ago, I spent rather a lot of time farming Blackwing Lair and Molten Core. I never quite got around to wearing most of the items I acquired, though, and occasionally I wondered why I’d spent all that time collecting them.
When the 20th Anniversary Celebration arrived, at first, there were only a few of the HD T2 sets that I was sure I wanted to get. Since they could be purchased, and getting the tokens to do so turned out to be relatively easy to do, I eventually acquired all of them. Because, why not? And this time, I was going to wear them!

Eternal Ten Storms


The Eternal Ten Storms Armor with Empyrean Demolisher and Zom’s Crackling Bulwark

Eternal Stormrage


Eternal Stormrage Armor with Ela’lothen’s Crescent of Rebirth

Eternal Dragonstalker


Dragonstalker’s Eternal Armor with Thas’dorah (upgraded, tint 4)

Eternal Wrath


Eternal Battlegear of Wrath with Draconic Avenger and Drake Talon Cleaver

Eternal Judgment


Eternal Judgment Armor with Ferocious Gladiator’s Scaled Helm (H), Saber of the Gold Hoarder, and Kite of the Holy Avenger

Eternal Transcendence


Eternal Vestments of Transcendence with Light’s Wrath (default, tint 1)

Eternal Netherwind


Eternal Netherwind Regalia with Aluneth (upgraded, tint 2)

Eternal Bloodfang


Eternal Bloodfang Armor with Red Defias Mask and Dragonfang Blade

Eternal Nemesis


Eternal Nemesis Raiment with Horns of the Left Hand Path and Inferna Rod

Eternal Pale Rider

Pale Rider’s Eternal Armor with Circle’s Stalwart Helmet and Blades of the Fallen Prince (upgraded, tint 4)

Eternal August Acolyte

Eternal Battlegear of the August Acolyte with Possessed Watcher Fan

Eternal Netherwalker

Netherwalker’s Eternal Armor with Sinfall Edgemaster’s Blade

Eternal Earth-Warder


Earth-Warder’s Eternal Armor with Crown of Destruction and Valdrakken Bladewing Staff; Dracthyr Body Armor Color 7

~*~*~
This series of posts began because I set myself a goal to document new Transmogrification outfits in a more timely fashion. As soon as I create a new outfit, I write it up in a draft post. As the weekend approaches, I start working on taking fashion screenshots, processing them, and updating “Things my [Class] Wears” posts. On Sunday — though not every Sunday — I publish the collection of my recent efforts. Then I begin the next “Sunday on the Promenade” draft post.

Occasionally, I have ideas for themed Transmogrification collections that take several months to completely assemble. Thus, some of these outfits might get re-posted at a later date as part of such a themed Transmogrification collection.

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Both thematically and in the available color schemes, this set, from the first War Within raid, is highly compatible with the Antorus set from Legion.

I have a goal to collect at least the shoulders and chestpiece of every Mage Tier set, even for sets I don’t particularly like. To be included in this meta collection, an outfit must feature the chestpiece, the shoulders, or the leggings of the set.
~*~*~

Aquamarine, Octarine

Anachronistic Hood, Beacons of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Shawl of Flowing Magic, Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Runebound Gloves (LFR), Enhanced Worldscorcher Cinch (LFR), Runebound Leggings (LFR), Whisperstep Runners (LFR), Staff of the Arcane Path
“Octarine” is the eponymous Colour of Magic from Terry Pratchett’s first Discworld book; it is described as being sort of like “fluorescent greenish-yellow purple”. Although this outfit doesn’t quite get to purple, it does have some greenish-yellow edges.

Octarine Rebirth

Anachronistic Hood, Beacons of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Enhanced Worldscorcher Cinch (LFR), Coattails of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Assimilated Eggshell Slippers (LFR), Flawless Phase Blade (LFR) + Inscribed Jade Fan

Spell Splinters

Augural Shroud, Beacons of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Mana-Etched Gloves, Deckhand’s Rope Belt (N), Coattails of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Sigil-Laced Boots, Grand Magister’s Staff of Torrents

Sorcerer’s Rebirth


Replica Sorcerer’s Regalia with Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (H), Voidspoken Sarong (H), and Shifting Sliver

Wizard of Azj

Cowl of Sina’s Stalwarts, Beacons of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (LFR), The Taskmaster’s Wristwraps, Belt of False Promises, Trader’s Aquatic Sarong, Suspicious Slippers, Handmaiden’s Longstaff
This outfit takes its name from the similarities I see between Queen Azshara and her Eternal Palace in the depths of Nazjatar and Queen Ansurek and her Nerub-ar Palace in the depths of Azj-Kahet.

Kaheti Posey




Spring Reveler’s Lavender Sun Hat, Waterfall Drape, Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (LFR), Memory of Ysera, Belt of Arcane Storms (N), Trader’s Aquatic Sarong, Kurkenstoks, Shomi’s Shanker, Shomi’s Fan

Wayward Spell Slinger

Wayward Chronomancer’s Chronocap (LFR), Wayward Chronomancer’s Metronomes (LFR), Ward of Violet Rebirth (N), Runecoat of Violet Rebirth (N), Jeweled Gauntlets of Violet Rebirth (N), Sigil of Violet Rebirth (N), Wayward Chronomancer’s Pantaloons (LFR), Assimilated Eggshell Slippers (N), Dalaran Defender’s Dagger, Battle Magister’s Scepter

Runebound Revival

Cowl of the Burning Scroll (H), Amice of the Burning Scroll (H), Gambeson of Sargeras’ Corruption (N), Runebound Gloves (N), Enhanced Worldscorcher Cinch (N), Voidspoken Sarong (H), Whisperstep Runners (N), Anima-Siphoning Sword, Ephial’s Grimoire
Lady RNG smiled upon me: when I opened the cache for completing the “do four Heroic dungeons” weekly, it contained the violet (Heroic) version of the Nerub-ar Palace Mage Tier pants. Naturally, I immediately needed to make an outfit with it and the violet (Normal) recolor of the Antorus Mage Tier set.

Runebound Revival II


Firehawk Hood (H), Underlight Conjurer’s Aurora (LFR), Gambeson of Sargeras’ Corruption (N), Runebound Gloves (N), Enhanced Worldscorcher Cinch (N), Voidspoken Sarong (H), Whisperstep Runners (N), Felo’melorn + Heart of the Phoenix (Hidden, tint 2)
As often happens, there was another combination of accessory pieces that I really quite liked with the major pieces of this ensemble.

Queen’s Song of Victory


Kaldorei Queen’s Royal Vestments with Beacons of Violet Rebirth (H)/High Scholar’s Mantle, Iridescent Warcloak, and Harmonious Watcher’s Vesperstaff

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I had thought that it would be another week or two until the Story Mode for the Queen Ansurek encounter opened up. But no, it was this week! So that was what I did last night.
My raid party of ten was filled out by the Follower dungeon characters, a mixed group of Alliance and Horde. That was rather nice to see!
I could tell that the mechanics were simplified even from what they will probably be like on LFR. There were a few things that I was sure ought to have hurt me way more for not avoiding than they actually did.
Anyhow, down she went, and there was a cinematic.
Thinking about the cinematic, Ansurek’s many-eyed face reminds me strongly of Azshara’s many-eyed face — and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they are so similar. And the Black Blade was involved in the Eternal Palace plot. I suddenly find myself wondering, Where is Queen Azshara? What is she up to? To what extent is she entangled in Xal’atath’s ongoing schemes, and is she knowingly or unknowingly involved? Azshara has thus far escaped with her life, but when we see her again, will she, too, ultimately end up crushed on the floor?

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