Posts Tagged ‘loremaster’

When Simply Leveling Isn’t Enough

13 April 2011 | 1 Comment » | pixiestixy

I thought my attempts at Loremaster were hard enough — how about the anti-Loremaster? Recently, I’ve been coming across a bunch of stories of patient and creative WoW players who have set crazy goals for themselves and reached them, against all odds.

Take Everbloom, for example, who posted her story on the official WoW forums of how she leveled to 85 without killing anything (mob, monster, critter, PvP or otherwise) and without (intentionally) completing any quests. After reaching level cap five days ago, her story has garnered her congratulations and even a little in-game fame. Here’s what she said of the experience:

Well I did it lol, it was certainly a different way of leveling, requires lots of patience, but I did get to see the whole game in a new light.

Being on the ground and sneaking around mining and herbing and eventually archaeology, going everywhere to get every single point of discovery xp that you can, really gives you a chance to see an amazing world up close and personal. I spent hours swimming around reefs and flying to the farthest reaches of the maps.

If you like to explore, and enjoy a challenge I really REALLY recommend this, I have been playing since day 1 on other characters and I even have an original Loremaster (you know, back when it was hard) and I saw so MANY new things with Everbloom that it really made it worthwhile for me to continue on with this character, and each level was a major achievement! Continue Reading

Vashj’ir Rewind: The Water Zone in Words and Pictures

8 April 2011 | 6 Comments » | pixiestixy

BE WARNED – The following descriptions and gallery may contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t completed questing in Vashj’ir.

Dizzyness aside, the depths of Vashj’ir and its sub-zones left a lasting impression on my idea of questing in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.The 3-D zone packed a punch with some great stories, fun quests and different gameplay experiences. Oh, and a new breed of murlocs. That can’t be left unsaid, either.

Though mysteries still abound regarding Queen Azshara herself, the reappearance of the Naga as central lore keepers of the zone played a huge role in keeping me involved in the story. Not only do you fight against the Naga, but you also get to experience, in several different series of quests, what it is that the Naga are and have been fighting against (other than you). And I have to admit that playing as a Naga made me appreciate some of their quirks.

Sea monsters are, of course, also a hugely fun part of this zone. From the giant tentacles that first bring down your ship and her crew; a shark that you have to harpoon down like the menace he is; to a new water mount in the form of a huge seahorse; to another shark who helps you chomp up some Naga chum while you ride on his back; to finding a way to communicate with the demigod Nespirah (who, sidenote, reminds me of Ohmu in Hayao Miyazaki’s classic manga and anime film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind); to even seeing the Elemental Lord Neptulon himself from the comfort of one of many beautifully crafted cut scenes.

Not to mention a huge boss-of-a-whale shark that awards its own achievement just for being brave enough to strike against him — and win.

Plus, nothing could go wrong from putting something called a “merciless one” on top of your head. Right? RIGHT?! (Who else had to put their character through that crazyness more than once to get the cut scene again?)

If all that wasn’t enough, the scenery is gorgeous. From the bright colors of corals and fishies to the blues that deepened as you ventured deeper, it certainly wasn’t a drab or lifeless zone, as the gallery below shows. It also wasn’t lacking in things to do — with three sub-zones within Vashj’ir, plus a fair number of quests to complete, I was able to take the time to get my fill before moving on.

Looking back, what was your favorite part of the zone?

Click through for a screenshot gallery of more blues and greens than I realized Azeroth could hold.

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Loremaster Revelations: Quest Tracking Glitch Puts Seeker Title Within Grasp

19 January 2011 | No Comments » | pixiestixy

The addition of a whole new horde of Cataclysm requirements to the Loremaster achievement may have put a delay on my acquisition of that title, but an ongoing glitch (or at least, what I assume to be one) makes the related Seeker title easily within grasp for anyone who has not yet earned it.

I found out via fluke. Throughout my Loremaster-seeking adventures, you see, I had also been tracking the Seeker achievement. I knew that at some point on that journey as I worked my way through Outland, I would hit the 3,000 quests mark. So, I thought it’d be nice to see the number slowly creep toward the goal.

I was only a couple hundred quests away from that goal when the Shattering hit. I already had earned my Loremaster of Kalimdor and Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms achievements, so thankfully I didn’t have to worry about those getting sidetracked by the hundreds of quests removed in that patch. But my Seeker questing record, on the other hand, plummeted by about 1,000 quests. Ouch.

But the pain was temporary. As I checked out the Shattered world and reveled in the new questing opportunities, an interesting thing happened. I happened to glance at the tracking sidebar, and noticed that it had gone back to its previous number, and was correctly increasing as I completed new quests.

The next time I logged in, the number had dropped again to the total that did not include quests removed from the game. But sure enough, as soon as I turned in a single quest, the number hiked back up again. Continue Reading

Uldum: My New Favorite Zone in Cataclysm

8 December 2010 | 7 Comments » | Mordil

Where's my statue? I thought I was cool...

I don’t know what it is, but my entire life I have had two specific things in history that intrigued me the most. Medieval Warfare, and Egyptian Mythology. That heavily explains my biased opinion on why Uldum is the best zone in the game to date.

Blizzard has learned an enormous amount of information on how people like to quest and have Lore explained to them. Culminating everything together into one badass zone, we have Uldum. Upon entering the zone, you’ll see an in-game cinematic where you’re riding in a caravan that gets ambushed. You are then imprisoned in The Lost City of Tol’vir. From there, you’ll just have to see the specifics on your own.

Even if you just don’t care as much about the Egyptian cultural influence on the zone’s architecture as I do, this area has something for you. Continue Reading

Major Changes Coming to Loremaster: Finish While the Finishing’s Good

22 November 2010 | 5 Comments » | pixiestixy

With the amount of attention I’ve been giving to my super Loremaster adventure over the past couple of months, one thing I’ve been hugely interested in is how the achievement would change in the Post-Cataclysm world. We knew that the achievement would still be available, but we also knew that the complete overhaul of all the Old World content would likely mean the complete overhaul of the achievement as well.

Now we have some clarity from Zarhym: if you’re mid-way through completing either Loremaster of Kalimdor or Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms and want the majority of your quest efforts you’ve put in thus far to still count… well, you have not very long to make it so.

Zarhym on Loremaster in Cataclysm

In the wake of Deathwing’s devastation, adventurers will be summoned to embark on new quests from levels 1 to 60 in these transformed territories — and with so much new content to be found on these original two continents, many original quests will no longer be available after the shattering occurs. These quests will automatically be removed from your quest log, while any quests you’ve accepted that still exist in Azeroth will remain in your log.

You may be wondering how the shattering will affect the Loremaster achievements. If you’ve already completed Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms or Loremaster of Kalimdor, you will not lose your achievements. However, if you’ve made progress toward these achievements without yet completing them, be aware that any quests that are removed from the game will no longer count toward your progress, so you may see your achievement quest counter drop. If you’re close to earning either of these achievements, we strongly suggest you finish them with great haste, as Deathwing’s return is imminent. Continue Reading

Loremaster Revelations: Back to Kalimdor, with a Fresh Set of Eyes

2 November 2010 | 8 Comments » | pixiestixy

Sometimes, a little break is all you need to see things more clearly.

While questing toward the Loremaster title, you all may remember I had encountered some serious trouble with completing Kalimdor. I ran into quest lines that were no longer available, other quest lines that had many diverted paths into Eastern Kingdoms, and a bunch of seemingly unconnected prerequisites that for some reason were unavailable to me.

I decided that a change of plans was in order: I went ahead to the other continent and had a fun time finishing up Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms. Several hundred quests went by in a snap, (even a few that counted toward the other continent) and it was time to transition back to Kalimdor with only about 20 quests remaining to complete questing in the old world.

Refreshed and confident that I would find my missing quests, I started out by re-checking off zones for quests that I could have missed, especially ones that start from an item drop. Zone after zone, I scanned for anything that could up my quest count, and zone after zone I grew more and more worried by my lack of findings. I still needed about 12 quests when I finally looked at Azshara.

What’s that? An entire zone I had somehow skipped over in my initial attempt?! It seemed too good to be true.

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Loremaster Revelations: The Ease of Eastern Kingdoms

28 September 2010 | 9 Comments » | pixiestixy

Some things in life are simply easier than others. Such was the case for finishing up Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms, at least compared to my plight on the other continent.

After several weeks of questing in Kalimdor and finally reaching a point of pause, I decided it was time for a change of pace. I was questioning whether to continue onward in Kalimdor or switch it up. I chose the latter. And it’s a good thing I did.

In Kalimdor, I had been desperate for even a single quest that wasn’t tied to the Scepter of the Shifting Sands lines, which require some heavy Brood of Nozdormu reputation grinding, at least initially (which I’ll save for another time, hoping I can get to it before the Cataclysm). Eastern Kingdoms was the opposite — A questing motherload.

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Loremaster Revelations: A Change of Plans.

11 September 2010 | 12 Comments » | pixiestixy

I was trucking away at my questing in Kalimdor and making great progress toward the Loremaster title. Moving from zone to zone, from dungeon to dungeon, The number of quests I had remaining for the continent slowly shrank from 300 to 200 to 100 to 50. I was getting SO close, and really, really hoping that I could finish up Kalimdor and get a shiny achievement for that continent as motivation to move on to the Eastern Kingdoms.

Then I hit the dreaded point that I knew was coming, but I still hoped against.

At 41 quests remaining for Kalimdor, I hit the wall. Everywhere I look, there are no quests to be found. The ones that remain in my EveryQuest log as incomplete have either been removed from the game, are impossible to complete without some help from dedicated guildies, or are part of a chain that starts in Eastern Kingdoms.

Well, no one said it would be easy.

So I took some time debating how to proceed, and came up with a couple of options.

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