Dragonflight Season 1 Week 2

If a late november release and a december season start didn't seem dumb a few weeks ago, having week 2 during actual xmas was a good reminder. Blizzard in their wisdom didn't have a weekly even and put the worst m+ week in the rotation for this week, so they seem to know they goofed the release.

The affix set is Tyrannical - Bursting - Grievous - Thundering. Once upon a time they stopped doing Tyra - Grievous for good reason, and now it's bursting too. Don't care for it, would care even less for it if I were the healer :)

Personal Progress

Keystones

Wutteät only rushed through a full set of 2s again. Marginal score increase due to that, but progress is progress. Had my first leaver, a healer that asked for people to kind and polite at the start of the run (Nokhud Offensive), then promptly randomly left on first boss without anyone having said a word to anyone since the start of the run, with no deaths...

Esmënet did every key on a +2 in pugs, then did a couple of keys with what I will not refer to as "windgroups", groups with windhoek tanking. Having score in every dungeon is something I really want, as it makes reaching the score requirements a bit easier, so will do the baseline score again next reset. And then only do 1 a week for a backup vault option to the pvp stuff, unless I get into windgroups or other premades.

Gearing

Dom got a neck with correct stats. Chose that over the trinket I don't like much and boots with lots of crit. Have better statted boots with a bit lower ilevel, but worth the extra valor to upgrade.

Wutteät was strongly considering picking this trinket, but since the set item creation is so far away picked the set gloves instead.

Which was fortunate since a trinket dropped from the world boss!

Esmënet picked up pvp boots from the vault, there is no way in hell I am picking any pve loot over the pvp loot as long as it's anything I would equip for pvp. Shaving 1+ week off the conquest grind is just too good.

Dragonriding

Slowly chipping away at race times... My biggest struggle are the ones that has high speed while also hiding the dots to next circle. My reaction time from seeing to doing really is not what it was :)

Pet Battles

Questline: On the quests "Tamers: Eastern Kingdom" & "Tamers: Kalimdor". [Advanced one step]

# of pets: 500 [+3]

# of level 25 pets: 3

PvP pet battle win/loss: 0-0

Got new pets, advanced the questline and leveled up some pets a bit. There is a pet battle bonus event early january, so the goal is to get some overview over what I need leveled and stuff before that and spend more time on that bit that week.

Ended up with a good round number of pets, the leveling ones did not get far...

Professions

A bunch of stuff I wanted behind renown requirements I managed to get to after doing a bunch of sidequests this week. So I have all the enchanting stuff I wanted and got a fish cooking recipe from the tuskarr that increased those skills some. I need the other fish cooking recipes somehow, either from drops, from ah or do the tuskarr quest on more characters. I also need to learn the alchemy trinket from Valdrakken renown 14, but that will come naturally by the reset stuff I always do. Once that rep is done, I can go back to using small pockets of spare time for actually doing professions and not farm rep.

PvP

If someone had told me I would enjoy solo shuffle a lot, and actually return to rated pvp I would have laughed even if said only a month ago. I have tried to return to pvp in two expansions now, and failed. Not sure why it's working this time... Matches like the one in the screenshot is why I enjoy pvp a lot; an equal footing game with marginal wins, and a rush the times I win and rage when I lose. Most bgs, especially epic bgs, are very onesided and the only feeling you get from them is apathy. It's like most competitive nerd stuff, like warhammer and magic: the gathering there.

Reached combatant I and got two vault options. Considered going for a third option and seeing if I could reach combatant II, but ended up sorting a bunch of pve stuff instead since that was more pressing.

Raid

Did the first raid in LFR. The "new old" loot system can stuff it. The loot was pretty much the only reason I did LFR, some gear for alts, but without personal loot I can't be bothered I think. Other than that, the raid was lfr-ish so assume proper raids would have more punishing mechanics. Ill go through the other wings as they get released, but it doesn't seem like a place to go back to given current systems.

Social Progress

Casual Playmates

I thought holidays, people are busy. But I was wrong. We did get at least a couple of lower keys done!

As "casual" can mean a lot these days, I am using this in the term about people that play the game but are not on the hamster wheel. And renamed the endgame playmates to match what I mean.

Hamsterwheel Playmates

My usual hamsterwheel playmates were off for the holidays, so I just ran through a set of 5s for valor on Dom, a tiny bit of score and 3 vault options for more set item chances. So 1-1 on social weeks happening so far. But other hamsterwheel playmates appeared...

The groups have been a bit all over the place when it comes to gear and experience. But they were fun enough, and we just barely missed the timer on the +10. Trying to just voice my opinion when others make the group and ask for it, but not push the issue and give doing things I would not normally do at least one chance. Will see if it lasts.

Character Summaries

Dominator [Social Dungeon Tank Progress Character]

Human Paladin [Level 70]

The most telling thing Dominator had this week, was having a dry spell with loot. Got the neck from the vault, a 3 ilevel shoulder upgrade from a Citadel quest and sidegrade glove upgrade from doing... 15 keys, accord weekly, dragonspear, community cooking and a bunch of world quests. Just one of those weeks that happens sometimes...

My usual group the last few months didn't happen due to vacation, but got to be social with unlikely groups I would never have imagined a week ago. Had a lot of fun with that, even though the results wasn't what some people expected I think, and I didnt really play well.

I did however manage to get some recipes unlocked due to reaching some renown levels and getting profession knowledge in enchanting. And did the tuskarr renown questline and the first valdrakken renown questline, which were kinda interesting.

Character Stats

Guild: House of Small Gods

Main spec: Protection

Talents: BIEAwtJ2KpR8WbGzhz/jy2AP8USaikiodAtIJlWTSiERiEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA0EJJpJQSUSRkElDoEA

Professions: Enchanting 48/100 [+8] - Alchemy 36/100 [+6] - Cooking 55/100 [+5] - Fishing 100/100.

iLevel: 380 [+4]

m+ Score: 1350 [+315]

Valor spent/earned: 0/2250 [+750]

Wutteät [Personal Dungeon Tank Progress Character]

Night Elf Demon Hunter [Level 70]

Wutteät has become the only character I am doing what I planned to do on. Did accord, dragonspear, community cooking, some citadel quests and completed every m+ on a +2. And didn't do professions much since the focus is on completing Dom's stuff for now.

Made up for not doing much by being plain lucky, and reduced Dom's lead on gear despite doing lower keys and doing less of them. Still have two blue items, if those gets swapped out they the gear would be equal, which is kinda silly.

Enjoying the spec a lot, thought obviously not comparable in having utility stuff compared to Dom.

Character Stats

Guild: House of Small Gods

Main spec: Vengeance

Talents: BUkACnvaHJn8GSPD6tpaeczPTBAgIIJRSAEJCQDQ0iEJJJJJJtkISSSokkEAAAAA

Professions: Skinning 100/100 - Leatherworking 51/100 [-]

iLevel: 374 [+7]

m+ Score: 717 [+185]

Valor spent/earned: 0/2250 [+750]

Esmënet [Dungeon/PVP DPS Progress Character]

Dark Iron Dwarf Hunter [Level 70]

Esmënet has become the multicontent character, somehow. Doing solo shuffle pvp, lfr raid and low keys at the moment, and mining/herbing on the side. It's just easy being a hunter for a lot of these things. Been enjoying the variation a lot.

Got some solo shuffle score bringing me to combatant I, capped out the vault with low keys and getting 1 lfr chest. Played with some friends, played some alone and progressed everything I could.

From all the keys I did, I got a chest, a neck and a ring for loot - while pvp gave me a weapon and the boots from the vault. So a chunky gear week, and gained a lot of ground on the other characters.

Character Stats

Guild: House of Small Gods

Main spec: Beast Mastery

Talents: B0PAIlFMjeNhnEouGfV8Ij2uS5ACaJAIEAAAAAAAAAAAaEpIhWEJSiE5AhWCRIJEJJhGJRA

Professions: Herbalism 74/100 [+5] - Mining 70/100 [+2].

iLevel/PVP iLevel: 367 [+17] / 413 [+2]

m+ Score: 572. [+522]

Valor spent/earned: 0/2200 [+2200].

Conquest spent/earned: 1800/1900 [+550]

Solo Shuffle rating: 1073 [+504]

Raid Progress: 3/8 LFR Vault.

Rank log

Esmënet still seems to be playing the most popular class on Emerald Dream/Terenas.

With my very slow progress plan there is no wonder I dropped a lot on Wutteät. Demon Hunter tanks seems to like playing during holidays?

Unlike protection paladins who seem to observe the holidays, since I only dropped a spot even though I didn't do anything remotely hard besides the 10 Temple.

Random weekly thoughts

The guild situation has become a bit bizarre, and having reheard the word "cascade" in The Expanse I think the word covers it. It was literally just one guy not behaving and refusing to correct himself, but for some reason the GM decided it was everyone elses thing to deal with which lead to people leaving. Which made other people leave. And then it was so empty people left because nobody was online. And this is what new recruits saw, and just leave within days. One poor choice... The irony is that the guy causing all of this haven't even played since expansion release......

Now approaching the time in the last two expansions where things went wrong for me when it came to time spent. I will most likely start leveling more alts, to do profession stuff with and faff around with. What has gone wrong the previous expanions has been that I play alts as main; they all do the endgamestuff, rep and professions at the same time as I do main stuff. This I hope to avoid this time, so the test is whenever new alts hits 80 in the coming weeks.