[Screenshots] Class Mounts

I’ve been keeping up with my weekly chores on the alts, so I was able to start working on getting class mounts Tuesday. I haven’t finished them all yet (more about that in a second), but I thought I’d post the ones I have so far. I do like the little cut-scenes you get at the end where you actually get the mount, some of them are pretty cool.

Like the class campaigns, though, they vary widely in difficulty. Most of my alts are around 850 ilevel, so they’re not especially well geared. Monk was really easy, and didn’t even have an elite to kill. The only one that’s really given me trouble so far is Warrior, even at 862 in Prot spec I’ve been unable to kill even the first challenger. I need to wait for a nerf or for him to get more gear, I guess. Warlock had to get an item from a Legion invasion, so I had to wait 7 hours for that. He also had to buy expensive crafted things from the Auction House. But hands down the worst is Rogue. They have to assassinate a target in each of the enemy faction cities. Which would be okay if they were scenarios, but nope, they’re on live. From what I’ve read, the Silvermoon target (the first one for Alliance rogues) also has a super long respawn time. I’m hoping for a nerf, otherwise it’s going to be a very long time before I get the rogue mount, which is disappointing because it’s one of the ones I actually liked.

Druid is very underwhelming, too. Not only do I find it incredibly ugly, it’s not actually a proper mount, it’s just a change to flight form. If you bought the very expensive Glyph of the Sentinel, you have to pay to switch back and forth between them. It also lacks an idle pose, a perch pose, a walking/ground pose, uses the old form sounds, and cannot be used in no-fly areas.

All the mounts (that are proper mounts, not druid form) can be used by other alts of the same class, however. I’ve read that druids can use the new owl if they have flying learned, in Moonglade. I haven’t gone to test it though, because in all honesty I don’t want to use it.

Visually, I think I like the Death Knight one best so far. Their movie was really cool too. (Though the actual quest I didn’t like! You’ll see why if you do it. I corpse ran rather than follow orders.) I also really like the Monk cat because he talks to you!

[Screenshots] Kor’kron Dark Shaman

Got a cool surprise tonight in raid! This Kor’kron Shaman’s Treasure Cache dropped for my panda. It contains an entire cosmetic set of armor — how cool is that? They definitely need to do more stuff like this. I think I was more excited about this than I would have been for loot!

[Story] Tsi Ku’s Reflections

I’m not studying here, but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. That elf really got me annoyed, and Master Cheng suggested that I write about my feelings. He also let me use the steam room, which was really nice. I wonder if Aranae has ever been to it, I bet she has. Anyway, I ought to be used to elves and their rude questions by now, I certainly saw a lot of them on the island. I don’t know how they can be so ignorant when they work with those yaungol-looking Tauren already. No, I don’t have fleas, I keep myself clean just like you do — maybe even more because I go in the water almost every day at home. Yes, I can speak like an elf, and probably better because I can actually say their names, or at least I try. It’s so annoying to have your name pronounced wrong all the time! My name isn’t even difficult, they should see some of the other ones pandaren have. But like I said before, that wasn’t so unusual. Probably half of the elves that came to the island were like that, either they asked rude and inappropriate questions or they just ignored us completely like we were stupid yaks or something.

It was worse because he was bothering Aranae, and I could tell she didn’t want them there. I’d got a letter from her saying that she’d be at the temple, so I made sure to be there when she’d arrive. My parents thought it was pretty strange that I wanted to go meet an elf there, but I explained that she was my friend and I was worried about her coming back from Kalimdor safely. I’d heard stories about some of the pandaren who went there. It scares me when I think about it, because I could have very easily been sent; I know how to speak orcish and I’ve worked with Horde people before. I guess it was for the best that I went back home instead of staying on the island. Aranae didn’t want to talk about it too much, she did say that she injured her foot but it was okay now. I hope she wore boots there, I’ve heard the ground is so hot it can burn the pads of your feet. She came back here to the temple because she wants to keep studying, instead of going back to the elf city. That means we can see each other more often, which is good! I am kind of curious about the elf city though. Maybe someday I’ll go, in a few years when elves have had more of a chance to get used to us and won’t give me a dirty look for getting fur on their clothes or something. I can’t believe he said that! His hair is way longer than mine, he’s probably the one shedding all over! It turns out the elf was her brother, and he’d brought a girl elf with him, he said she was his apprentice. They do magic stuff, like making portals. He said “you people” ought to know about portals, and I know there are some pandaren who do that stuff, but I personally don’t know anything about it. I just thought it was rude the way he said that. But anyway, he said he wanted to apologize for putting itchy leaves into Aranae’s underthings when he was a kid. What a brat! I wouldn’t blame Aranae if she wanted to kick him right then. Oh, he also turned her into a sheep once, but he wasn’t sorry for that. I didn’t really believe Aranae when she said her family was annoying, but now I’m kind of starting to believe her. He kept wanting her to go back with him, which I think is a really bad idea. I know she doesn’t want to, plus they might try to make her stay and then she’d have no way to get back to the temple. Her brother and the apprentice stayed to eat dinner, but then they left afterward, through a portal. That must be weird.

But afterward I talked about how I don’t think she should go, thankfully she agreed with me. It just seems strange that he’d want her to go there so badly, especially when she said she didn’t want to. He ought to listen to what she wants. Oh, she also said that I was her best friend. That was pretty nice. I don’t think I’ve ever been anyone’s best friend before… well maybe once, but not anymore I guess. I don’t know.

[Screenshots] Adventures in Totem Town

Now that RaF is over, I finally got my Horde shaman to 90. Of the available shaman races, I really only like Tauren and I already have like a million of those, so I picked a panda. Reluctantly. Because I really really don’t like pandas, they’re kinda doofy and I really can’t think of a single panda NPC that I like (or can even stand).

But I really wanted to learn resto so I did random dungeons with her from level 15, I’m still really a noob (and forget I have abilities like Stormlash Totem and Ascendance). She hit 90 yesterday so I took her around the Isle and got up to Throne level, I took her to part one and part two tonight. She actually was able to keep up decently well, she was third overall but struggled a lot with mana regen — which figures since she’s just a hair over 4k. By comparison my druid’s over 16k, I guess I really should reforge some of that off 😛

It’s a pleasant surprise that I like her so much, it’ll be nice to have a healer red-side (other than my priest which confuses me). Isn’t she cute?! Yes of course she is.

[Story] Letter from Tsi Ku

Dear Aranae,

I hope that you will get this letter. I heard the news that they had captured the orc in Orgrimmar, so I figured that you would return to the temple. Of course, they said that some people never returned, so I really hope that’s not true in your case. Did you really have to go there? I feel kind of guilty for not going as well, even though I’ve heard some really awful things from pandaren who have returned. I mean, I don’t know if they’re all true or not but I guess I could believe them. Why would they make that up? I worry about those who are still there and I also worry about the people I know who went with the Alliance. They probably all hate us now, even though we didn’t do anything. If I had known then what would happen, I surely wouldn’t have agreed to go with them. But then I guess I would probably not have met you and that would be sad.

Are you starting your training again? What about your friends that were here? Master Cheng will be so pleased to see you again, I bet. He was pretty grumpy about losing so many of his students to the Isle. After you all left, we took the camp down and everyone went their own separate ways. I’m back at my parent’s for the time being, because I’m not really sure where I want to go now. They go out fishing every day and usually I go with them, it’s nice for now, because it’s very quiet and it gives me time to think, but I don’t think I want to do it forever. I think they know that too, they always said that I didn’t like to stay in one place for very long. Maybe I’ll come visit your lands, is it very nice there? Have people ever seen a pandaren before or would they stare? Are all the chairs and beds too small? These are important things to know.

I don’t know if you saw it, but the Vale is so different now. It makes me sad to even think about it. I know some pandaren say we shouldn’t have ever allowed outsiders here, especially the Horde. But I know that you and your friends had nothing to do with that. It’s unfair to hate someone because of something they didn’t even do. Still, I wonder if it might make things difficult for you here now. At least I know they will always accept you at the temple. I’d like to come visit you there, if you are even there. You should write back if you are. Did you ever talk to your family yet? Aren’t they worried about you? I am worried about you, that’s why I wrote.

Your friend,
Tsi Ku

[Screenshots] Alt Week – Shaman

Another pretty short one for me, which will be a good pause before the next two 😉

Mianii the Stormseer

Mia is my oldest shaman, and I played her pretty frequently in Wrath. She’s elemental, and used to do pretty well at it back then. Elemental has since changed and I really don’t know what I’m doing anymore. In character, she’s a young and rather naive draenei who has lived on her own for quite some time. (Her parents didn’t support her meddling with spirits, that’s orc stuff!) She is very close to her grandfather, Daaro, and has appeared in some stories with him. Currently she’s returned to the plains of Nagrand, her favorite place to be.

Ahali Whitefeather

My one and only male Tauren, Ahali is the mentor and guardian of  Makota, the young sunwalker. For a time they were leveling together, but she’s way ahead now. Poor Ahali is still level 47 and I don’t know if he’ll ever get leveled or not. I like him too much to delete but I don’t really know what to do with him either.

Sparkfuse

Half of my Goblin RaF team, I like his name and that’s about it. I made him enhancement in hopes of learning to  play it, but as he was a RaF I really didn’t have time to learn anything. And I’m still really not that  keen on goblins. Sorry little guy.

Tsi Ku

Okay so in general I don’t like pandas, I’m pretty much sick of them at this point and I still don’t feel like they mesh well with WoW. That said, I do like my Tsi Ku. I made her to learn how to be resto, and she’s currently my highest shaman at 86. She is the one who will reach 90 first, where I’m hoping to be able to take her to LFR. Storywise, I’m a little unsure what to do with her — I decided that she’s a mainland Pandaren (rather than an Isle one) so her ties to the Horde aren’t as strong as some others. (That’s another thing that really bugs me, Horde pandaren make absolutely no sense, but I already had an Alliance panda when I made her.) She was helping the blood elves on the Isle of Thunder, but now isn’t doing very much, story-wise. She hopes to see her friend Aranae the monk again, after the Siege is over.

 

[Screenshots] Adventures in Mistweaving

I’ve always liked healing, ever since Vanilla, but I hadn’t tried it out with monk yet. I decided to switch my 60-some Nelf monk to Mistweaver so I could learn — admittedly kind of late to start. But fortunately, BC dungeons have been really easy so far and I haven’t had any problems. I’m totally clueless about the synergy though, I have a lot to learn. But I’m having fun with him, and he looks really cute when he does his hand-wavey mist stuff. His ponytail moves too!

I’m also working on my resto shaman, she’s 82 now. She’s been really fun and easy so far too, save for her last dungeon which was kind of a disaster. I don’t think it was my fault really — the tank had like 33k HP to my 46k, and he was taking huge spikes… AND on top of that one of the dps kept standing in bad. But still it kind of shook my confidence a bit.  I’d like to eventually get her to 90 and LFR ready, because I think chain heal would be super fun there!