Here is the final installment of the Azeroth and Outland Journey of 2007 Recap. If you read the previous parts, then I thank you for coming this far. I really had alot of fun playing the Warlock class. Now that it’s 2008, I would like to focus on what I couldn’t do in 2007. Blizzard made it easier for late bloomers to get the Season One Arena Set, and Heroics can now be done sooner being Honored, rather than being Revered. Leveling is faster than before, since Patch 2.3. I will have another Level 70 very soon and I would like to play other classes to the limit before Wrath of the Lich King.

Without further ado, I present the final chapters of my journey in Outland.

The Aftermath

After hitting level 70, I didn’t do much updating as I attempted to get attuned for Karazhan and the lack of party members to run the instance. Many players we asked only wanted to do Heroic and gave the cold shoulder to the normal instance. There was no one who were willing to use their spare time from doing Heroics to help other players join them in their quest for purple gear for Raids and Arena. With this problem, I started to lose a bit interest playing the game. Perhaps doing activities on the side would help.

I haven’t been able to play World of Warcraft for a few nights. Since I’m 70 now, there’s not much to do anymore. There are a few more areas to explore, especially after I get my flying mount. The only thing I can do is PvP until I get enough points to get a few more pieces of gear, then I can protect myself in the field without getting camped by some Gnome player.

I took my iPod mini and filled it up with alot of music, mostly J-Pop, and played away. It made the game very much enjoyable – until I started using Ventrilo. I’m not good at listening to music that’s “away” from me, like listening to iTunes on my Laptop. Although, I enjoy talking to the people who helped me get through the game.

A couple of weeks after getting level 70, I did many Battlegrounds with my friends. After a few days, I had enough Honor Points to get the High Warlord’s Dreadweave Gloves. Getting my first piece of 70 PvP gear was a milestone for me, but some players didn’t agree:

I am in desperate need for some new armor. The High Warlord’s Gloves aren’t enough, and PvPing will take a while, which is no problem since I can stomach it (rather than in the field). This came a week after a Warsong Gulch bout, where a Holy Priest bashed me for having 6k health points. I did not respond to him. I thought it was rude of him to question my limits.

Remember what I said in part two about my Unstable Affliction spec? The reason I didn’t feel like I was at par with my enemies was because Unstable Affliction turned out to be weak for a level 70, especially in a PvP spec. UA was the best build for a Warlock back before Burning Crusade, or so it seemed. Now, it’s been nerfed to a point to make the player respec, or choose a new job altogether. Not me – I chose to respec:

Evolution

In my desperate need for new armor, a close friend of mine helped me get the Imbued Netherweave set with an enchant on the pants. The thought of the Holy Priest bashing me about my 6k health is gone! Along with the Imbued Netherweave set, it was time to say good bye to my 43/7/11 build. So long, Unstable Affliction. So long, Shadowburn. I will miss you dearly… Now I have 8k health, and some spell damage to boot with Soul Link and other bells and whistles with the demonology tree.

Hmmm. I wonder…When the level cap is raised to 80, could get a Felguard? The only thing good about the 43/7/11 build was that it was good for PvE situations. I received alot of praise in dungeons when I used Unstable Affliction. However, after changing to the Soul Link build, I found myself slacking off on DPS, since I have to use Shadow Bolt more often than I used to with UA. Some people say that the UA build is good for Arena, but I like the this new build. Soul Link + Drain Life makes a difference.

The True Defenition of Bullying

There were many other things to do, being at the maximum level. First, I needed to get a flying mount. I didn’t get my Epic Mount until 64. Fortunately, a Mage friend offered to lend me some gold, provided I pay him back. With many thanks to him, I was able to get a Swift Purple Hawkstrider, and payed him back three days later. After getting my mount, my gold supply replenished faster than before. At 70, it took longer than expected to get my flying mount. To get it, I had to either farm for gold, or do all the quests in Shadowmoon Valley and Blade’s Edge Mountains. I did both methods to get the gold for the mount, but I regret having to go with my friends to farm elementals in Netherstorm and Blade’s Edge. In Netherstorm, I can never forget the problem we had farming elementals. There were three Alliance players farming in the same area. There was my friend – the Mage who helped me get my Epic Mount – with a Epic Flying Mount – and me – the mountless 70 Warlock. Whenever we went back to our bodies, the Alliance would chase after us – especially me…without a mount. This happened not once, but twice by different players when we would farm in the area. It was very unfair of them to do that. They are the Alliance, and it is a PvP realm, after all….

The Alliance does not like the Horde farming elementals, because they are a bunch of greedy, elitest, lifeless, twelve year olds. I guess that it was the server I was playing on (Stormreaver) since the Alliance has a 5% population advantage over Horde. Well, not all Alliance are bad…During one of our farming expeditions, we came across a Human Mage. [I went on the offensive] and used DoT spells on him–until my friend told me not to hurt him. I said /sorry to the Mage and he accepted my apology with a /smile. Fortunately that day, there was alot of Horde players farming, so it gave us a little advantage. I got a chance to get some Mote of Fire to put up on auction, but I said “screw that” to farming for the time being – and did quests I had left in Shadowmoon Valley. Time went by very fast doing quests, that I did not realize I had already accumulated 900G…enough for a Blue Windrider! After getting my mount, I started the quest line for getting attuned for Karazhan.

During the whole time of my attunement quest, I was invited into a Gruul’s Lair raid from the guild and spent a few hours in the dungeon. After a few wipes, we downed the Dragonkiller. I didn’t get anything out of there, but sometimes I wondered if I could have gotten the Leggings of the Fallen Hero for a pair of Voidheart Leggings, if the guild wasn’t so…Corrupt?

An Unholy Alliance (Part Two)

So a month passed by and I found myself attuned for Karazhan after bringing down the last boss in Black Morass, getting The Master’s Key from Khadgar in Shattrath City! Also, I was lucky to get Spalders of Oblivion from Murmur when I went to get my First Key Fragment.

It was Karazhan time–or so I thought.

I attempted to run Karazhan with this guild who does it every week. After an “interview” with the raid coordinator, he said that with my 350+ spell damage (yeah, that’s low), I could get better gear from normal, (non) heroic instances. However, I could get still enter KZ if there were no “key raiders” online. I waited for 45 minutes outside Karazhan in the “heavily contested” Deadwind Pass.

I got fed up with waiting, so I logged off for a few hours, only to return later to find that they were still running it. I asked the raid coordinator if there is still a chance for me to finish it with them. As luck would have it, they were near the last boss. I still had a chance to get in the raid. I waited, and waited, and waited – until they announced the final drops in guild chat. It was all over. I was a bit disappointed, especially since they chose another Warlock with better gear and similar stats than me. To be honest, I am overwhelmed; being level 70 for three days of playtime, I could not put my “hard work” to the test. Perhaps I do need to run more dungeons, but what’s the point in doing (non-heroic) them when I could get a few pieces of epic equips to make things better…

…if there is no one to run it with me?

This was the worse guild I have been with. It turns out they do “favors” for hardcore players and turn thier nose up at casual players, such as me. I wasted my time with this guild. I had bad feelings about this guild from the beginning, and the fact that I was ignored when I asked if I could join them for instances and when I asked for help. I should have /gquit when I still had the chance. We all regrouped and rejoined the small, “friends-only” guild I joined when I started playing WoW full-time in January 2007. As of now, we have transfered off of Stormreaver, to another realm, which I’ll keep underwraps for a while until we get settled–[at least me--for Karazhan.] I’m not being selfish, it’s just that I want to play a game of a genre that I had trouble getting ahead of for five years. I want to be able to accompish a task that would take months to complete in a certain other MMORPG. I am paying $15 a month for this..I want it to be worth it, once and for all.

---

That’s how my first full year of playing World of Warcraft was like. As of now, I am leveling a Paladin, who is now in Outland and two levels close until I can get an Epic Mount.

There were things I didn’t cover, such as running the Scarlet Monastery dungeon line and getting lots of Phat Loot, such as Whitemane’s Chapeau and the Robes of Arugal, Jumanza Grips from Zul’Farrak, Kentic Amice, Kindling Stave, and Chief Architect’s Monocle from Blackrock Depths, thanks to a few awesome friends! There were also many battlegrounds I participated in, but I cannot recall every single round from my lower levels. I had fun playing World of Warcraft in 2007. I hope to get through Karazhan before the Lich King arrives, and–hopefully another guild doesn’t become “god-like” and horde (no pun intended) all of the loot themselves–get nice gear from the early stages of the new expansion pack.

Arigatou Gozaimasu!

The End.