Cataclysm: The First Week

(note: I typed this up yesterday - Wednesday - but was waiting on a photo and completely forgot to post it!)

So as of yesterday, Cataclysm has been out for a full week now.

Sadly, I don't have a whole lot to report since last week's post, as I've been a bit busy with real life and stuff, and being in my 3rd trimester I've been finding myself a bit more tired than usual as well, plus I've been trying to play at night when hubby is at work as he works a lot and I'd prefer to spend time with him rather than the computer when he is home. If it weren't for all that though, I'm sure I'd easily be level 85 by now as I'm finding leveling/questing to be VERY simple during this expansion - no need for cartographer or Zygor's guides, Blizz has made questing easy-mode now!

I am almost to level 84 though, within 40% of it.

Since my post last week, I finished all the quests in Hyjal and moved on to Deepholm.

Therazane the Stonemother

Deepholm is kind of in a crater. The way to get there was pretty neat though - they have you jump through a portal where Thrall is doing his shaman thing, holding open a whirlpool through the Maelstrom that you ride through to get to Deepholm. Basically the point of Deepholm, like Hyjal, is to gather various "leaders" in the area by doing quests for them however at the end there's an all out battle in the zone's central Temple against an evil sorceress that you have to take down. It was a pretty fun battle and way to end a zone, if you ask me! Don't mess with Therazane, the Stonemother and main leader in Deepholm (whom you meet near the end of questing there). I honestly couldn't tell at first if she was just a really fat dude with man-boobs or a hideously fat looking stone woman - either way, she needs more clothes!

I also did The Stonecore instance which is located in Deepholm. It was okay, nothing special really just an instance with a bit of earth elementals in it and other similar mobs you would expect to see in an instance call Stonecore. Our tank was level 75 so it wasn't too bad, although he seemed to be the only one that had been in the instance prior yet couldn't remember how the fights went so we just kinda went with it and figured it out. Didn't wipe at all though!

Once I finished Deepholm I was about halfway through level 83 and decided to go back and quest in Vashj'ir since I skipped it and did Hyjal instead. The beginning is kind of neat as you're taking a military escort boat from Stormwind to some island off the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms when a giant pussy-monster, er thing with tentacles that looks like the Kracken from the Pirates movies attacks your ship and you all start drowning. I was disappointed to learn that Vashj'ir is pretty much ALL underwater questing as I normally *hate* underwater zones in games. Fortunately though, I'm leveling my Druid right now so I had my aquatic walrus form to use in the beginning before you're granted "sea legs" which gives you increased swim speed as well as underwater breathing. I also did a quest that gave me a fun little seahorse mount that gave me a good laugh as it made me think of the season 4 premiere episode of The Guild where they're all working towards earning items in an Under the Sea in-game themed event.

Harrison Jones

I think I'm going to quest here until I "discover" the entrance to the zone's instance - Throne of Tides - and then go quest in Uldum. Like I said, I'm not fond of water levels in games and while this one isn't too bad, it's not my favorite and I'm pretty much 2-shotting the mobs as everything is level 80-81 and I'm almost 84.

Speaking of Uldum... I was given the quest to go there by one Dr. Harrison Jones! As you may remember from Burning Crusade, Harrison Jones was our guide in the forgotten Zul'Aman raid zone, and then in Wrath we met him again in Grizzly Hills as he was scouring some ruins for artifacts and need our help to escape and fight a giant serpent mob. In Cataclysm, he resides in the Stormwind Keep's library, wearing a nice outfit, and he "teaches" you archeology! How fitting! Reading on WoWiki (where I got the photo on the right), he apparently is also a questgiver in Uldum - can't wait to run into him again!

And here's an updated photo of my gear, at level 83:

I got the staff as an end quest reward (it's a blue) and the robe I've had for a full level now, but since everything seems to have either mastery on it or haste/crit or hit (rarely a combo with all 4 or 2 of the 4 on it) I've been rotating out gear to balance things out as mastery is important, but being a Boomkin (caster druid) I need to keep my haste and crit up as well as my hit. I prefer having a robe though as it makes me look more caster-like! I'm also wearing a combination of cloth and leather gear too as some stats on cloth I've gotten are better than leather pieces I had.

How's your leveling going? Have you hit 85 yet? 

Had any interesting/fun/terrible encounters yet?