Dragonflight had finally arrived, and the most busy week of non-hamster-wheel content had arrived. Arguably the best thing about the expansion is the view however...
Character Summary after Week 1 Launch:
Dominator [Social Dungeon Tank Progress Character]
Human Paladin [Level 70]
Leveled alone, except for one or two dungeons with the sls4 crew; hit 70 on wednesday (launch was midnight monday for later reference). Geared enough to queue for random heroics same night. Did 5/8 heroics on thursday, and 1/8 mythics. Did the last 3 heroics on friday, and the last 7 mythics on saturday. That was it for the character power progress for this launch week.
Did a lot of non-power character stuff here and there throughout the week, having the most varied reset I think I have ever had in World of Warcraft.
Character Status
Guild: House of Small Gods [Status: Lack of active people have been a boon at launch, I could focus on my own stuff and play with the same people as I did last season]
Main spec: Protection [Status: Not changing]
iLevel: 365 [+65] [Status: Did a lot of normals, heroics, the m0s, pvp and world quests for this. But not the Span farm, the key fragment farm in Shores nor dirtfarm]
Talents: BIEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8USaikioEtIJlWTSCRkIBAAAAAAAAAAAAAANRSSI5AIRJlgkUCB [Status: Played this since 70, going to test something else next reset for m0]
Professions: Enchanting 40/100 [+40] - Herbalism 94/100 [+94] - Cooking 50/100 [+50] - Fishing 100/100 [+100]. [Status: Enchanting and Cooking needs reputation gains for more recipes. Not changing Herbalism until I have another herber.]
Just to repeat the goals I made before the expansion launched for the opener, and the weekly goal list:
Opener plan
Play Dominator (as Protection Paladin) only until 2023. (No alts played).
Clear m0s the preseason weeks. (Cleared all this week).
Complete between 1 and 8 keys per reset of season 1 until 2023. (Keys not open yet).
NO BLOODY TRYHARD PUSHING. (Keys not open yet).
Avoid planning out groups that might have role issues. In other words, try to find a consistent healer and not play with other tank mains. (The standard crew still no healer, but do not compete for roles per now)
Goal list for DF week-by-week
M+ score progress every active week. (Not active.)
Pet battle progress every active week. (# pets increased.)
Dragonriding progress every active week (depending on racing system). (Across the board prog.)
Do something with friends at some point every active weekend.
Profession progress every active week. (All of Dom's professions except archeology)
Gear progress every active week. (300 -> 365)
So there. Good start.
Some screenshots and comments about activities following:
Mythic 0s - Ranked by first impression
I - Brackenhide
This dungeon is fairly open, and it's more about choosing what trash to do and sneaking past things than pressing W and using an invis potion. The bosses are kinda fun and interactive, and the trashpulls have a mix of important to kick/cc mobs and mobs you just cleave. Downside is that there simply might be too much trash. And it sucks if you can't dispell diseases.
II - Neltharus
It is less open than Brackenhide, but you can still pick and choose some trash and the bosses are fun. Just like Brackenhide it's downside is that it's too much trash. And not sure I like the enviroment much?
III - Vaults
The Wrath nostalgia is strong in this one. I strongly dislike the trash bits in this dungeon, but the bosses might be my favorites. It was a bit meh on normal and heroic, but the mythic extras made thing more interesting. Without it looking like it might be horrible on tyrannical. More of a mechanics test than a dps race.
IV - Halls
This is an odd one. I kinda like a lot about the place - the bosses are a bit tricky to wrap my brain around, the trash is a good mix of needs attention and can be just cleaved and it looks nice. The bad part is that at some point the camera is horrid, some of the trash seems way out of line compared to the rest of the dungeon trash and during some pulls the sheer amount of effects makes things hard to see.
V - Uldaman
I don't have much of an opinion of this place, as I didn't even bother to take a screenshot of my first DF mythic there. It's not bad, just a bit.... Meh?
VI - Nokhud Offfensive
This one is very open. And uses dragonriding. And yet it feels very bland. You fly around on your drake to next pull, and then prolly want to skip some stuff at end depending on the count you need in m+? It's fine but hardly a place I will prod at for fun.
VII - Academy
Press W and get loot. The healer said the tree boss was horrible as the adds would get out of hand, and had had a lot of issues on it in other groups. We did not, but can see the point on tyrannical weeks that it might get out of hand really fast without good aoe burst and ranged spread all over the area. This one I am the most unsure about of the dungeons, as I feel it would take m+ to see if the bosses would be fun or not.
VIII - Life Pools
Press W. The second and third boss has area denial to create a dps check. Looks really good and is really fast, just a shame the last two bosses are so cheap.
Dragonriding progress
Unlocked all the glyphs so my dragon talent tree looks like this:
Participated in one multiplayer race that ended like this:
I have also completed all the normal races in Waking Shores and one in Ohn'ahran plains.
Dragonriding has been a lot of fun, and when going to Uldaman for the m0 it was just so boring to fly from stormwind to the dungeon...
Pet battle status
Questline: Uknown, need to find out where I am again as I have dropped the quest long ago.
# of pets: 496 [+2]
# of level 25 pets: 3
PvP pet battle win/loss: 0-0
Not easy to go back to the old world to do pet battles right now, so will mostly try to pick up some every week from the new areas and do the actual battling later when there is less other stuff to do in the new zones.
Reputation/Renown/Other World Content
I did not set intentions or goals for this as it's really not something I like to do. Doing side quests a second time as I did them on beta for story does not appeal, nor do world quests do. But I need the renown for profession stuff, so there's no way around it. Current status is this:
PVP
I ended up queueing for some random battlegrounds since there was a weekly quest, and I had some leveling boots I never managed to replace in dungeons. So did 3 BGs to finish the weekly quest and get enough honor to buy the boots and upgrade them to rank 3 (353 iLevel I think?). I kinda wanna pvp some more on top of the other things, but that will have to compete with leveling alts when 2023 hits so eh, might be tough competition.
Some stray weekly thoughts
More than ever I've thought about how much of a snowflake I am when it comes to doing WoW content, with how people have approached the launch. I've sought out things I found fun instead of doing what all the guides and content creators are saying, and the first stream I open was Growl's who was talking about that at right that moment. And said something like "WoW is not about fun, but it can be". That resonated a bit. A lot of people are doing X because they need Y, not doing X because X is fun. Just a bit amusing, and I think a reason why I should stop making groups much if at all.
I also think that's sorta what Blizzard did right this expansion. You don't NEED to do dragonriding stuff, but nearly everyone I've talked with at least think it's amusing if nothing else. There's a lot of things to mess about with, and play in different ways, that has been there since the game launched, instead of just trying to slap on more grind and some side content as an afterthought. I do not think I've had such a good impression of a new expansion since Wrath, really.
As Ruthe posted, the time Blizz released this expansion is so dumb. The most busy month of the year for a lot of people, and having raid/m+ season start just before xmas so the gap between the busy people, the regular playtime people and the people that could take time off work to play is kinda silly. I feel I played a fair amount, but am still 10 iLevels behind someone that took a few days off to play. And 15ish behind the people that don't do anything else... Shadowlands could get away with the release date because covid, this could not.
Favorite questline of the week
A sidequest near Ruby Life Pools. I am a sucker for redemption stories, especially dark fantasy ones. This was a click some things quest and an escort quest without any killing really, but got to know this Dragonmaw orc and his emotional woes. I got a bit engrossed in the dialogue even though the PC doesn't really do anything, and when the whelp lay down next to the orc it was like chef's kiss.
In most crpgs/mmorpgs I play I don't really get excited about the main story stuff, but always some side stuff that I really like. So business as usual :)
Next week
While this was the biggest rush week of the expansion, the next will be the calmest. Could get away with not doing anything at all, but will try to do the m0 pool again, chip away at pet collecting and do some more dragonriding races. Professions needs rep at the moment, so rep will count as my profession progress for the week.
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