Better late then Never

The Plaguelands I Knew You When...

I hope everyone enjoyed my guest post as much as I did, Grimm is not only a good friend but I feel one of the most entertaining bloggers working today. I waited until now to let his post sit at the top so as many people as possible could read it and because you all know by now I am a lazy lazy blogger and deep in the waiting for Cataclysm to drop already.

So let's get started!

The runners up

I have not been playing as long as my friend Grimm as I started right as Burning Crusade started. I was willing to include lands from both continents because I have grown quite fond of the old world. I am a leveler at heart and have spent quite a lot of time there. I have a few in my mind that really stick out though

- Azuremyst Isle. Having leveled a toon to 80 with every alliance race and all the horde ones at least through the starting area, I have got to give Blizzard a hand. They saw what worked and what didn't and made their newest starting areas an amazingly more concise and enjoyable ride getting you out into the world. I was so fond of Azuremyst I actually take any new alliance toon I start there
- Dun Morogh. This is probably mostly because I started my first toon there but I always remember how I felt the first time I came up to Ironforge a castle in the mountain just seemed so amazing and all the dwarves are so much more engaging as NPC's to me, but that just might be the laugh.
- Feralas. If I had not leveled a horde toon through there this might not have been close because its awfully skimpy for alliance but its such an amazing zone to go through and the contrast from thousand needles on one end and the giants on the coast on the other end really got me.

But the winner is


The Plaguelands are going to be lumped together in this case because they are so intertwined and have so many crossing paths and quests that you can't really separate them fairly. My first toon was my pally and I leveled him up as ret when ret was still mostly a joke. I ran a few dungeons with my small guild of friends but as they were all used to the old game I was stuck healing all the time. I actually didn't mind but that's another story, my whole opinion of what my toon could do changed when I got to the Plaguelands, I had a fear I could use I had exorcism and holy wrath I all of the sudden was a one man wrecking machine killing undead at a pace I never imagined possible. I probably leveled 50 to 53 strictly killing undead in the Eastern Plaguelands I was enthralled and will always remember how much fun that was.
Secondly I will always remember my first trip to Eastern Plaguelands my friend and I who played together a lot while we were leveling were exploring in the Hinterlands at level 45 and we found the hidden trail to the plaguelands and saw a lake so we figured we better swim across see whats on the other side. We ran into a 55 Spider ( a skull to us though) and what basically became our first raid boss he was a shaman and me on my pally we took turns healing each other and beating on the thing and he used his ankh and I ran back from the graveyard from across the pond but we slayed the spider we didn't know its level and we bragged about it for a long time that might be my favorite accomplishment of all time in game since neither of us really knew what we were doing .
Undead, can I even say enough about that I love to kill me some zombies :)

Chromie, Even if I didn't know she was a dragon I was drawn to her time paradox ideas

Araj the Summoner, How many times have you killed him. I would stop by at 70 and help people kill him I enjoyed it so much. He was such a challenge surrounded by so much mess. I always found particular joy in being able to pick off stuff around him until I cleared a path.

Capturing the last tower in the Western Plaguelands and flying back on the ghostly gryphon's, always had a fun time with the towers on our old PVP server

The outdoor raid in Darrowshire was amazing, I don't know if its still there or not I doubt it but I had so much fun even outleveling it as the massive groups of horde came down and tried to take us out. It was just me and one other guy but you could rez and come back into the fight so we just got back in the fight after the couple times we died.

So there you have it my favorite zone which as of today is no longer the same any more. I will miss it but I always have my fond memories :)

K Out!

Extra Special Guest Post

Remembering Westfall
By way of introductions

Hiya! My name's Grimmtooth; I have a blog, which is how I first met Mr. K. It's a long story, but the upshot is that, through that blog, my guild found a tank (and friends), and K found a new home. From the moment he first ripped off his shirt and hollered IT'S CLOBBERING TIME, BISHES as he flung his Captain America at Marrowgar, we knew we had found a soulmate.

So what ya doing over here, Grimm?

Glad you asked, odd voice in my head!

This blog post marks K's 200th, and he did me the very great honor of asking me to contribute a guest piece to help commemorate that occasion. When asked what kind of post he had in mind, he thought about it and then replied that he thought that it would be good to consider our favorite zones, the two of us, here in the twilight before the Cataclysm changes everything. I thought that was a great idea.

So let's get started!

The runners up

There are actually so many lovely zones to choose from, but right off the bat I'm going to rule out anything on Kalimdor proper, because my stars and garters, they hate us over there. Ferelas gets extra points for the fail that is the ferry to Feathermoon.
Outland and Northrend are ruled out for now since they're not going to get the whammy, though if they were, Nagrand and Zul'drak would be in the running.
Looking at what is called the Eastern Kingdoms, here are the contenders and why they didn't make it.

• Plaguelands (both) – I love the lore. I have less love for the FP placement, though WPL improved moderately a couple of patches ago, in that respect.

• Loch Modan – if not for the unfortunate placement of the lone flight point, this would have won, hands down. The Valley of Kings was my blog header for years.

• Duskwood – another favorite, yet again the flight point just makes it a pain for everyone. And that big empty subzone in the middle means you go around for just about anything. Still, it was close.

• Stranglethorn – even with all the annoyances that this zone produces, it will live forever in story and song. Honestly, it would have made the cut if it wasn't for the fact that we're all sick of looking at it after around 20 or so levels.

And the winner is

Westfall comes perilously close to being knocked off the list due to the location of its sole flight point, but only if you fail to realize that Sentinel Hill really isn't in the southern end of the zone – it actually is kinda central to the zone.This is the first serious zone you hit as a newbie human, and eventually I ensured all my toons hit this zone up when appropriate. So much to see and do and so many rewards! Here are a few of the high points for me.

• Practically serves as a second flight point for Duskwood – a lot easier to fly there and hike over to Raven Hill than it is to go overland from Darkshire.

• No serious travel obstacles. You don't have to go around things like lakes or big empty subzones with elite green dragons in them. Going from quest hub to quest hub is pretty much a straight line.

• Central to the theme unifying the four southern Alliance zones (the Defias).

• This is likely where your caster's first wand will drop.

• Great for skilling herbalism, fishing, cooking, tailoring, and mining!

• The first instance (by design) that Alliance toons will see, Deadmines sets the bar high and holds up well against stiff competition.

• Murlocs! Lots and lots of murlocs! I swear, by the time you finish this zone, "Mrrrrrglgrlgrlglrgl!" will set you right off.

• Just about a perfect fit for the target level, though some quests are a little antiquated now.

• The chicken!

• The Messenger – one of the few times you see your fellow players playing cooperatively and calling him out when they see him.

• Escorting the Traitor
  – one of the few escort quests I appreciate – once you start the quest, just call out that you're inbound and you'll likely find nothing alive in Moonbrook by the time you get there. I imagine this would be different on a PvP server since Horde can probably grief you.

Looking forward to after the Cataclysm, I know this zone gets some love. I think they finally finished putting that roof on, and possibly they ran out of Murloc eyes. The Twilight guys also appear to have blown it big-time in the mines. But, otherwise, this zone looks to remain a central part of Alliance questing.

Hopefully, changes to Loch Modan will make that zone as central to the Dwarven story as this zone is to the Human.
PS. Next post will be my follow up - K