World of Warcraft

It amazes me how neglecting Blizzard has been to its subscribers this weekend. It looks like all European realms (servers) is unavailable and there have been hours with only one minor announcement on the Realm Status page.

Receipe for customer satisfaction
Address your community/customers whenever there is a problem of any kind. It does not matter how big or minor that problem might be, providing negative information is far better than (almost) no information at all.

Redeem the trust by rewarding your customers for their patience during the troublesome period (the downtime). In this case, how about handing out 1-80 gold (one coin per level ingame)? Or even better, prolong the subscription periods with a day or two..

One month since the last log. Well, it has been days and nights of sheer fun so when server downtime is in effect I went to the pillow instead of this blog.

Here is a summary of last couple of weeks events in World of Warcraft:
I have leveled (surprise) and is now on level 65. With the Burning Crusade expansion I got to slay beasts far better than the usual around the worlds of Azeroth. Hard-to-kill mobs equals higher XP gain (recommended for you still on classic installs of WoW).

I can fly! I worked hard and saved gold in order to buy myself a flying mount (Blue Wind Rider). With this new mount I can let my dino rest and I can fly to spots I want to visit. Actually I spent nearly six hours just flying around Outland, getting XP and taking screenshots.

Dungeons! I have played a handfull of them on random Burning Crusade dungeons as DPS (damage dealer or Damage per Second). No way I could pull of a level 62-67 Elite enemy by myself so I rely on Blizzard (Frost damage over a larger area) from a distance. Also, the Arcane Blast (received at level 65 (rank 1)) is pretty impressive. I think I am gonna go for Arcane spec even though I have had lots of help from my fire spells while soloing through level 57 to 65.

The Omen quest call for a raid with at least 10 to 15 high level players. The Omen beast is killable and is a ?? Boss with 5,578,000 in health. The Omen Boss is located on the eastern shore of Lake Elune’ara, Moonglade.

In order to travel to Moonglade you need a Lunar Festival Invitation. Get one at any major city (I got mine in Orgrimmar just outside Thrall’s place), go to the moonlite and right-click the item in your backpack.

Among the threats by this beast is the Starfall that deals up to 1,800 damage in a circle surrounding the Omen (dual-headed wolf). That kind of damage struck me twice but the graveyard is only 10 seconds away, so if you die, simply run back up to the fight and try to avoid another death.

To complete the Omen quest you do not need to fight the beast yourself. Just wait for a group of high levels to show up and wait for them to slay the beast. Once the Omen boss is dead a pillar of light will emerge. Step into the light and you have completed the quest. Well, you have to run back to Nighthaven first to get your XP and gifts.

After seeing some hefty combat going on just above Undercity, me and the dino took a trip to the Scarlet Monastery in the north-eastern corner of Tirisfal Glades.

Undercity is under attack!

Being level 50 it could seem easy to fight the level 33 and 34 elite guards in the Scarlet Monastery. But it took half my health and mana to fight two of them, so when three guards attacked at the same time I blinked out of the dungeon.

Instead I took the dino east, into Western Plaguelands, and further into Eastern Plaguelands. There is a flight master at the eastern end of Western Plaguelands and I began searching for the flight master in the Eastern Plaguelands.

The beasts around here are level 50+ up to around level 56, so staying on the road is recommended unless you can master such ebil creatures. Travel east and take a detour around Corin’s Crossing. Continue east until you see the gates of Tyr’s Hand, the fortified human city. Attack only if high level or suicidal.

To find the flight master in Eastern Plaguelands you turn north into the open landscape just before the mountain ridge close to the gates of Tyr’s Hand. The beasts will probably attack if you are level 50 or below but one death is all it takes before your reach the Light’s Hope Chapel.

Desolace on the western tip of Kalimdor is a devasted place. Beasts around here are level 30+ to 40 and fairly easy to beat if they do not attack in large numbers.

After flying to Stonetalon from Orgrimmar I took my dino southwest, through The Charred Vale, into Desolace. Last time I was here I was about to capture souls on the Ghost-o-plasm quest. I came back here only to discover I left the much needed quest box item in the bank..

So instead of just standing there I took the dino west and discovered Ethel Rethor where a fellow soldier was giving out low level quests. I continued along the shoreline to the south and ended up in a dead end. Back up north, east and south again with the mountains on my right I fought some kolkar riders in Valley of Spears.

In that valley I soon realised that level 38 kolkars does not attack level 47 players. So I took routes around the kolkars and ended up in front of a stone door. Once inside Maraudon I fought some level 40+ kolkars and “elite” warriors. Even further into the dungeon I came across some serious elite beasts. The first one was easy to blink away from in order to get to a portal (yes, a portal inside a dungeon).

The portal took me to Earth Song Falls (Inner Maraudon) and some nice looking waterfalls. Unfortunately the Inner Maraudon area was populated with Elite level 47 beasts and my attempt to kill one of them resulted in death, resurrection and 10 minutes of logging prior to riding over to Shadowprey Village where I discovered yet another flight path (find the flight master down by the water on the pier).

After seeing hefty combat all night long I ventured to Undercity for some well needed rest. Today I went back to Tarren Mill for some restocking prior to riding up north into the Uplands.

Baron Vardus was hard to find. The map said he was in one of the tent camps but he was nowhere to be found. So I took my swift dino south into Strahnbrad and yep, there he was, hiding in the basement of the old Inn (western part of this small city).

WoW Quest: Baron Vardus

Beating a level 40 is easy but I had to deal with one mage and spy prior to killing the baron.

An attack on Orgrimmar took place on January 28 approx around 9:30 pm (CET). Thrall was the target.

Horde put up a dedicated force of level 80 defenders but Thrall died anyway(?).