This week was much like the last few weeks in terms of gaming for this ole, Hobbit. Quite a bit of Outward and World of Warcraft adventures!
I’ve still been thoroughly enjoying adventures both games have to offer, and in truth, I’m hopeful this week will present much more of the same. While I tend to want a bit of variety, I’ve found both of these games (or any game I play with Qvaid) provide me with quite a good set of things I enjoy.
There is story line in both, albeit I don’t always get to enjoy the story WoW has to offer. We have several in our current group that have already blasted through the majority of the content WoW has to offer, and they are hyper focused on catching the rest of us up.
There have been talks of possible raid scenarios, of which, I’m rather interested in myself. I admit for the first time in a LONG time indeed. Mostly for the experience of getting to run content I normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to do.
The changes in WoW over the years have some pluses, and some minuses of course. I can’t help but feel a bit confused, looking over the changes to the trade skills. I believe the majority of those changes came with Dragonflight, and carried over into TWW. Maybe I’m just getting older, but it seems incredibly confusing, and not very intuitive to me. The flow of it all seems lack luster, although the complexity of it has certainly added quite a bit more to the game. I suspect, I’ll learn it in time, and maybe at that point I’ll understand the grand design (if there is one) behind it.
In any case, as I stated above, I ended the weekend a bit early on Sunday evening (although not quite as early as I originally intended), and I get ready to start the next work week, while I dream of the gaming adventures I had over yet another great week of gaming!
Days played: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Players: Qvaid, Hobbit
Monday: Qvaid and I started our adventure ready to travel to Berg. Unfortunately for us on two accounts, we started pretty late in the evening because of scheduling and we have not been through the Hallowed Marsh from the Enmerkar forest side, and we really didn’t want to go through the ziggurats in a reverse path.
We opted to head to Chersonese and just travel to Enmerkar Forest from there. We managed to arrive in Berg relatively easily. We had options to turn in the evidence to a one of 4 people.
Ultimately we decided to hand the evidence into Mathias. Mostly because it seemed really sketchy to us to turn it into Jager Sullivan, of which whom had committed the heinous crimes. The story doesn’t really allow you to see the outcome as you head back to Monsoon to complete the final part of the quest by speaking to the Cardinal in the Temple of Elatt.
Qvaid and I headed back to Hallowed Marsh to make our way to Monsoon, but on this particular trip, we decided to head there via the Enmerkar Forest path so we could unlock the bridge, thus insuring we can get in and out of the Hallowed Marsh with a bit more ease in the future.
We didn’t complete the ziggurat, this time, progressing just far enough to get the Jade Idol and unlock the bridge path this time around. We can always go back should we decide we want to complete the dungeon though, and it was getting a bit late so we opted to cut that short.
With the bridge open to us, we headed towards Monsoon, met with the Cardinal, and completed the Purifier quest line successfully for the first time. Qvaid (and myself if I’m being honest) was getting tired at this point, so we opted to finish out the night with inventory management, rest, and ready to adventure again on Tuesday evening should everything go as scheduled.
Tuesday: Qvaid and I picked back up on inventory management and rest. We had a few days to wait until Ellinara was ready to bestow us with our next adventure. We opted to just sleep the 3 days, since we are not quite sure how long we have for each set of quests in the Holy Mission. In truth we didn’t want to venture too far out, only to have to scramble back to Monsoon once the quest was ready to pick up.
Ellinara charged us with heading back…to…Berg. It seems there was a catastrophic event in Cladera and the occupants were demanding a rather large sum of land in the Hallowed Marsh to settle. We were too met with the Blue Chamber Collective and assist where we could with a peaceful resolution.
Unfortunately for us, the situation ended in disaster before we arrived. We were to meet with Oliele and Zephyrine. Oliele was still present and said she could make the run back to Monsoon to relay the news to the Holy Mission and leaders of Monsoon in our stead. She asked that we search for Zephyrine, which was seen heading off into the direction of the Hives in Enmerkar Forest.
Qvaid and I rush out into the night, trying to find one of the Holy Mission’s greatest warriors. Alas, we arrived too late, Zephyrine, was found in a very weakened state, and even the power of Elatt could not save him from the corrupted Tsar Stone bullet used to pierce his Candle Armor. The corrupt would take him sooner or later, and in a Warrior fashion, Zephyrine, begged Elatt to just let him go peacefully if he could not be saved. Qvaid and I watched the light dim from Zephyrine’s eyes as he drifted off into the afterlife.
We rushed back to Monsoon, only to find that our childhood friend, Oliele was imprisoned for a possible investigation of murder. Ellinara charged us with going to speak to Lockwell on her behalf. After a bit of prodding, Lockwell agreed to let her go, although I can’t be sure that he’ll find a forgiving heart for any of the three of us from this point forward.
Oliele decided she had to leave for Abrassar to dig further into Elatt’s past. She needed answers for the being she served in the Holy Mission and had decided to dedicate her life too. Understandably considering how things had been panning out so far.
A few more days of rest we were required again, then we got word from Oliele via Ellinara that she was on to some information. Elatt spoke with Qvaid and I and asked that we go to Levant and seek out Oliele to assist her with her quest where we could.
Qvaid and I changed out our gear to prepare for the desert heat, and off we went to the Abrassar Desert, and then to Levant to find Oliele. First Qvaid and I stopped off at the Cabal Wind Totem to active it and make use of our Cabal Hermit abilities in the Desert. From there, we made our way to Levant, and found Oliele. By this time, it was getting a bit late in the evening, and we decided to call it before starting the next portion of that adventure.
Wednesday: Qvaid and I started the adventures with speaking to Oliele in the Levant Slums. She had leads for the Walled Garden, Old Levant, and the Stone Titan Cave.
We figured the Cave was the likely source for the information we needed, however curiosity got the best of us, and so we started with the Walled Garden, headed to Old Levant, and then made our way to the Stone Titan Cave.
After a bit of a struggle in the cave, and effectively several sets of full on corruption, we managed to find Oliele near a Giant. We were defeated on our first attempt, but got revenge on our second go. We freed Oliele, and she let us know she found a stone tablet that she recognized Elatt’s name on, but couldn’t read enough of the tablet to say what else it might hold. She let us know she would meet us back in Monsoon and asked to to see if we could find someone to decipher the tablet for us.
Qvaid and I noted, we could either pay a Soroborean Caravan to read the tablet for us, or there was a possibility that Mofat in Monsoon might be able to help us. We decided it might be best to try and speak with Mofat and headed off from the Abrassar desert toward Monsoon.
Once we spoke with Mofat and had the tablet translated, we spoke with Oliele, and decided it was time to speak with Elatt. In his temple, we went to his altar and asked to speak with him. He appeared, and we found out some of the secrets to his path to ascension.
Now, prior to that Oliele had stirred up a bit of trouble by imposing doubts into several of the Missionary and Priests of Elatt, and now we were tasked with finding those priests and trying to convince them to come back to Monsoon again.
Qvaid and I had a bit of trouble finding them, as we really expected them to be in a Lotus Flower per the description. To be fair, they technically were, but you can only access said flower from a cave on a hill side sound of Monsoon. Once we found the lot of them, the 4 of us managed to convince them to join the fold again.
We ended the night shortly after that, and we have another 3 days to wait for Ellinara to assign us with another task for the Holy Mission. It was a grand adventure, chalked full of story, a LOT of travel, and great fun!
Thursday: Qvaid and I managed to have some truly epic adventures in Outward on Thursday evening. We brought the Holy Mission faction quest to a final close by the end of the night. Once again saving Monsoon from the impeding doom of the dreaded Scourge!
We learned a few things about our journey with the Holy Mission. The number of passive abilities you are granted seems to be far greater than what you are granted from the Blue Chamber Collective (or it certainly seemed to feel that way for us). The amount of traveling you do, seems to also be far greater. Although I will say, near the end of it, at least we were spared from trips back to Monsoon at least twice.
I can’t speak for Qvaid, but thus far, it has been my favorite faction quest to date. I enjoyed the story quite a bit more, although I’m not dissing on the Blue Chamber Collective. It was also a great story, and epic adventure in and of itself. I just enjoyed the Holy Mission faction quest a bit more.
I will say, the insight you are granted from actually running through the Holy Mission is quite a bit more somber. You see and feel the sacrifices made by all to insure the prosperity and continuance for all the good of Aurai.
It looks like Qvaid and I managed the perfect outcomes again, to which we were both surprised and happy with! We were able to convince Yzan that he was not on a good path, and he assisted us in the fight with Cyrene in Levant. We fought off the scourge in the City of Monsoon.
Qvaid and I left off with a clear of the Holy Mission faction, but our journey is not yet at its end. We plan to visit Berg, as the journal states, and I presume we’ll get the mission to carry on to Caldera at this point, and begin work on the rebuild of New Sirroco. By this time, though it was, of course, getting late, and we decided it was best to call it not long after completing the battle with the Scourge and talking to the Cardinal in Elatt’s Temple.
We are both looking forward to the adventures in Caldera, alongside the adventures that might await us in Harmattan and the Antique Plateau!
Days played: Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Players: Aces, Error, Kilen, Hobbit
Friday: Kilen and I hopped into WoW for a bit of adventure on Friday. It mostly consisted of some raids for the WoW 20th Anniversary, a bit of questing, and some trade skill things.
We’ve both been working on the achievements on and off, and I’ve managed to work it down to only something like 3 or 4 remaining (Somewhere in that range, could even be something around 2 – 4). It was fun, and mostly a bit chill and laid back.
Kilen ended up turning in early, and I finished up finding the remainder of the secret crates to finish up some of the achievements for the event. I also managed to finally get enough mounts in Mount Mania to get Mount Master.
In truth, I was starting to wonder if that one might give me a bit of trouble, since it seems rare that I have any of the mounts on hand for the event. I tinkered around for a bit longer after that, but ended up calling it earlier than I normally would for a Friday night as well.
Saturday: Error, Kilen, and myself hopped in and gathered up the weekly quests from the Anniversary event to prepare for the day. We ended up starting off with the Classic Alterac Valley, so we could make sure we managed to finish that. We ran some delves, did some quests, worked on some trade skills, and ran some battle-pet battles.
Later that evening, we were joined by Aces, and we ran some heroics to finish off another 20th Anniversary weekly that we were not really aware of prior to that Saturday evening. We finished up 4 of those runs, and Error decided to turn in a bit early. From that the group fell into a bit of disarray as we were questing, gathering ore & herbs, and more battle-pet battles.
Sunday: A bit more of the same on Sunday for Error, Kilen, and myself. Error was making some pretty good progress in the battle-pets. I think it was mostly because he bought a high level battle-pet in the auction house, and couldn’t make use of it until at least one of his pets catches the level of the pet he bought. Kilen ran enough of TWW quests to catch and pass me a bit on the Isle of Dorn.
Error called it during the earlier part of the evening, and Kilen and I started attempts to run a quest in the Isle of Dorn series called Calling the Stormriders. At the time, we didn’t realize the quest might have to be run solo. Or perhaps it is bugged. It said you could run it from 1 – 3 players, but every attempt we made with it failed while Kilen, Aces (who joined us later), and myself went through.
Kilen called it to get a bit to eat at some point, and I figured out the issue when I attempted it a final time solo. It puts in members of the expedition like in earlier Dragonflight dungeons, that allows the player to experience the content without the need for a group.
I let Kilen know I finally managed to complete the quest, before calling it a night shortly after a run int Alterac Valley to hand in a quest, I had somehow managed to complete, and still had available.
I wanted to hand in all the quests I had before the reset on Tuesday of next week. Generally speaking, I don’t get back on until Friday evening, which is long after reset. I suffered through the PVP content as a Prot warrior with no healer. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your view), the Horde finished the match up for us relatively quickly. I logged off, and started prep for bed, as the work week was quickly approaching!
