Stars Aligning

Talk about the stars aligning on a tuesday night.

First all-Conquest 25-person raid is slated for the monday following Thanksgiving.

I'm sitting at level 79. And have plans to be with family and friends from wednesday through sunday, thus leaving little option for when to make the push to 80.

Storm Peaks is the place. Fabulous zone, I love the snow. Reminds me of playing Donkey Kong Country on SNES back in the day. My fav zones where always the ones that had the visibility totally obscured by falling snow. The visuals of flying into K3 and seeing the rotating warning lights through the snow. Good job by you, Blizz.

As the hours ticked on by through the evening, I crept ever closer to 80.

Overall, questing in WotLK has been much better than in the past. Very few quests lay around clogging up the quest log, most of the quests that involve travel get completed in tandem with at least one other quest that involves the exact same travel.

One of the Storm Peaks quests has you summon 4 Shammy companions and you get to pretend you're a 5-boxer for a little while, which I thought was a nice touch. Although I found the quest to be a bit frustrating. Long story short, dismiss your pet before you summon the shammies.

At times, the number of active quests would become worrisome, as I was trying to push push push for 80. I'd get down to a single active quest in the zone, but that'd would end up leading to 2 or more, or maybe fly me past a region that'd have a yellow ! on the ground below me. Or for one quest, I'd need to complete a daily quest to push my rep up to friendly and open up a host of other quests. Or, still another where I'd need to remember to summon some dwarf guy who serves as the quest giver/taker.

Lots of variety, adding to some fun while racing through the xp bubbles.

Traveler's Tundra Mammoth helps a ton for emptying your bags on the fly. Plus, at the times when you need to be on the ground, Aspect of the Pack makes you like a Crusader Aura wannabee.

Along the way, I dinged 450 First Aid, which was nice since I can stop burning cloth and start selling/saving for a tailor gf.

Along the way, I dinged 450 Mining, which at this point, painted the picture that the stars were definitely aligning for the evening.

And then, I'm about 7% of the XP away from 80.

And I ding the quest completion achievement for Storm Peaks, indicating that the zone is pretty much used up, XP-wise.

Grr, I'd hate to have to travel to a new zone just to finish off this last bubble.

Look in the quest log.

One single quest left. Turn it it. Sends you to a guy. Turn that quest in. Sends you to get something. Turn that in. 3% away. One quest left.

Take control of an arctic snake, and go fight the massive colossus.

This fight is hysterical. You burrow under the snow to avoid his stomps, you emerge to spit on him, and go back under the snow.

Oh, and by this time, its like 1:30 in the morning, so I'm utterly exhausted, but "No sleep till 80" is the rally cry for the night.

With about 20k health left on the damn Colossus, my snake dies.

And its time for me and Bubbles to kick some ass. Naturally, she gets 2 shot by the mob. But she bought me enough time. With 400 health left on me, the Colossus dies!

Fly back and watch three Dwarven brothers have a reunion. Talk to the guy. DING!

Kinda neat to have the ding occur exactly as I complete the last quest in the zone. Coincidence? Or is Blizzard just that good?


Either way, the stars were aligned, indeed!

Ding, First Aid. Ding, Mining.

1 year and 6 days after hitting 70, Ding 80.

And, most importantly...Ding, sweet sweet slumber.