Wednesday (10 Mar) - Faces of Doom

Wednesday (10 Mar) - Faces of Doom

As I write this it is still a couple of hours before the Wednesday night raid. So perhaps there will be some raiding news later tonight, or maybe not.

Philly got some serious game time earlier in the day, though. I was able to finish assembling the video work I've been doing ahead of schedule, so I gave myself the afternoon off.

Philly has a routine. Her first order of business is to pick up three quests in Dalaran - the JC quest, the cooking quest, and the fishing quest. She checks to see where the JC quest (which changes each day) will take her, and where the day's fishing needs to be done. The cooking daily can always be done in and around Dalaran, so Philly will do that one whenever it was convenient. Philly still can't use her flying mount, so her next stop is the Flight Path Master. Philly heads for Moa'ki in Dragonblight, a short, one hop flight from Dalaran. In Moa'ki Philly picks up a daily quest to save some cubs (by killing their mothers, first. Go figure.) It's on the way and it's an easy 25k xp. If she feels like it, she'll travel to Unu'pe (another one hop flight) and do the daily quest at Kaskala as well.

Philly then gets a flight to wherever the JC quest is, gets that done, and then hearths back to Dalaran. The fishing daily this time is in Sholazar Basin, but Philly doesn't know the flight path there, and isn't about to try to leg it on horseback, because she'd probably get lost, and possibly get herself dead as well. She knows a shortcut, though. For whatever reason, there is an npc up in the flight path area of Dalaran that offers a quest which allows Philly to use a heliocopter (well, that's how I intend to spell it and pronounce it, so get over it) to fly to Nessingway's camp in Sholozar Basin. The heliocopter got shot down, however, before reaching the camp. Don't worry, that's part of the script, and close by the crash zone is another npc hanging from a tree in his parachute. It was easy enough to complete the quest, but that left Philly in the middle of a jungle a good distance from the camp. The Basin is a mid-70s zone with lots of jungle beasties, from 20 foot alligators to rhinos the size of dinosaurs, not to mention the sabre tooth cats and the snakes that sliver at a height above Philly's head.

Philly got her bearings and managed to find the camp, getting only a little bit muddy and bloody from the creatures she shooed out of her way. Philly got her fishing quest done, and even did a couple more quests which were required to get the flight path in working order at the camp. After another stop at Dalaran, Philly ported to Shattrath, and from there ported to the Isle. Philly has her Isle ten quest dailies down to a science, but science is sometimes not enough. Mucking up her routine was a level 70 alliance DK, who insisted on getting in her way. When Philly first encountered him he was near dead, having aggroed a few too many demons. Philly helped him kill the last couple of demons, and then I went on my way. Or tried to. No good deed goes unpunished, or so they say.

Since the allie had killed the demons I usually take out for parts of three quests, Philly had to take a little extra time to round up and kill some more. The second stage moves to the bridge next to the demon area to kill just the right number of hostile pallies, mages, and hunters. This quest requires three hunter kills, and there are only three hunter mobs, all lined up in a little row. The allie DK was already there taking aim at those hunters. Philly managed to tag two of them, but with his head start he managed to grab the third. Philly glowered at the allie, knowing she was going to have to circle back again later to get that third hunter kill.

Philly moved on to the third area, for more kills and to clear a ley line. But Philly was distracted, still grumbling about the allie DK, and forgot to do the ley line part. So she'd have to come back there again, and kill the respawned mobs again, to do that part.

The allie didn't show for the three quests at another area of the Isle, so maybe he didn't know about those dailies. Philly swept through the area, killing quickly and efficiently, and completing the requirements of the quests. The final two quests were the easiest ones, and after redoing the parts she missed the first time through the circuit, Philly started turning in quests. The allie DK was hanging around, obviously done, and Philly grinned at him, knowing he'd missed more than half of the quests that he could have been doing. He could only watch as Philly turned in quest after quest (I turn them all in at once at the end).

Philly made one more trip to Sholazar Basin to complete three more quests she'd picked up there. She took her time, for once enjoying her ground mount, and not minding when she had to dismount to kill something in her way. She knew it was the last time she'd be forced to travel by ground mount in Northrend. When she had completed those quests, Philly DINGED! to level 77. Sis, who is still level 78, should be looking over her shoulder. Phillie is right on her heels.

Philly returned to Dalaran, plunked down 1,000 gold, and purchased Cold Weather Flying from the npc up on the flight line. She immediately hopped on her flying mount and buzzed around the outskirts of Dalaran, revelling in her new freedom. Ahh, so nice to be able to fly in Northrend.

PS - Wondering about the title of the post? After Philly reined in her flying mount, she ported to Orgrimmar to see what new goodies she might be able to buy. The only upgrade offered by the Auction House was the off hand gear [Faces of Doom]. The level 77 piece was a definite upgrade for Philly. They wanted 150 gold for it. Philly got quite a laugh out of that. She was still in a jolly mood when she opened up her Inscription kit and crafted her own [Faces of Doom]. Philly is one of the few toons in the Wild family that have gotten excellent use from gear she's crafted herself. Both Inscription and Jewelcrafting have served her well. She has another three level 78 pieces already crafted and waiting for her to get to that level.

Now, about that guild raid. Well, Wild is starting to believe that he should rant every week about his lack of raiding time. Every time he does it, even when it's only these pages, Wild gets a raid invite. Wild was a standby and a non-invite on Tuesday, but when I logged in before the raid on Wednesday, I quickly learned that Wild was a Confirmed invite. No need to wonder if that raid invite was coming, Wild was in. Two other healers that made the invites this time were not regulars, either, but we were all they had on this night. Coming up in Part 2.