Children’s Week

Children’s Week is another World Event, running during the first week of May.  I was told there were a few pets available during this event, so barely needed any encouragement to check it out.

My first child was the Orcish Orphan, picked up in Orgrimmar.

He had a couple of quests for me.. he wanted to go and ride the Rocketway in Azshara, go and meet Sylvanas in Undercity, and see the Fallen Chieftain, Cairne Bloodhoof, over at Red Rocks where there was a little ceremony led by Bairne.

After that there was icecream, kite flying, and toy swords bought for the other orphans..

I got a choice of pets and picked up Whiskers the Rat 🙂

Over in Shattrath, my adopted child was a Blood Elf Orphan, who also wanted to travel.. to Sporeggar in Zangarmarsh, to the Throne of Elements in Nagrand, where she got herself burned when she went too near to Incineratus, the Fury of Fire, and off to the impressive-looking Dark Portal in Hellfire Peninsula.

Her next quests had us travel to Silvermoon to see the Elite Tauren Cheiftain, which I had only seen in Blackrock Depths before, and over to the Caverns of Time, where I got her a Toy Dragon.  Nothing for the other orphans back in Shattrath this time, but a second pet for me.

I picked up Sleepy Willy, who is a non-combat pet like the rest, but he can also attack and kill critters..

He is fairly ugly though.. my “pity pet” as another friend dubbed him. 😉

The last Orphan was to be found over in Dalaran, and I picked Roo, the Oracle Orphan, rather than the Wolvar.. next time, puppy-man!

Sightseeing this time took in the Biggest Tree Ever, a massive tree housing furbolgs in Grizzly Hills, the Bronze Dragonshrine in Dragonblight, and off to Winterfin Retreat in the Borean Tundra, where I vaguely remember questing a long time back!  After those, it was over to the Shaper’s Terrace in Un’Goro Crater, where I ended up collecting Dinosaur Meat for my Venomhide Hatchling, before taking my Orphan to meet the massive Etymidian..

..and then on to meet Alexstrasza, and then back to Dalaran for more toy buying at the Wonderworks.

After taking Roo back to the orphanage, I got the Curious Oracle Hatchling in the mail 🙂

Two more pets came along this day: the De-Weaponized Mechanical Companion, from Vorlak..

..and the Panther Cub from the Zandalari missions around Stranglethorn Vale 🙂

Elementals and the last day

This is the last night before the patch that destroys WoW as I’ve known it since starting playing.
This is both good and bad.. good because it brings loads of awesome new stuff.. bad because it’s going to remove stuff I’ve not really played to death yet.

Over the last few days, we’ve been dealing with Elemental Invasions every few hours, where elementals attack the cities.

Eventwise, step one is preparing the area, or evacuating if you were a low-level player.
In Thunder Bluff, preparation involved placing enormous windbreaks around the city, while in Orgrimmar we had large spiky barricades.

Stage two involves freeing trapped villagers and fighting off the elementals.. killing enough allows the rifts to be closed and the invasion to end.. temporarily.  The elementals were harder to kill than I expected, and we turned out to not be quite so immune to being trapped ourselves.

As well as elementals, there were also a series of four bosses to deal with.

Grand Ambassador Flamelash was one of the harder bosses for me, as he kept spawning rather nasty fires which dealt a lot of damage.  Don’t stand in fire!

Representing Earth: Crown Princess Theredras.

I had a few line of sight issues at first, along with the fear of being thrown too far away from the group, but after a few repeats she wasn’t too difficult.. we hit her over and over tonight, until she dropped me some very nice gear: the Earth Bride’s Gown 🙂

I found Kai’ju Gahz’rilla the easiest boss to deal with although there was more damage being taken by the group.  Ice spikes were easily avoidable, and I could still heal on the move.

Fighting here reminded me of levelling a long while ago, when I was frustrated by the enemies polymorphing us into frogs.

Prince Sarusan was the last of the four bosses and well.. “ouch, cyclones” sums things up nicely!  Getting thrown into the air meant lots of damage on landing, and levitate made no difference.. it wasn’t always easy to avoid, either.

So.. the server just shut down, logging us out on the roof of Orgrimmar’s bank.  What will I see tomorrow.. and will I like it?

The Shattering

After the destruction of the World as I knew it, a run around just to take in the sights was in order.  A friend turned up to show off his new trike..

Aren’t you just a li’l big for that trike? 🙂

Orgrimmar looks so different now.. and very much more ‘at war’.

It feels much more like a city with all the additional NPCs, and there are just so many more details laying around too.

After I’d looked around a little, I was taken to Azshara for a Joyride.. an awesome rocket trip around the area.  Gotta love Goblins! 🙂

Taking the rocket for the full tour gives an achievement called Joy Ride too.
Azhara is now much easier to get to.. previously I found it a complete pain and really only visited the second time to clear it for the Explorer title.

We also took a helicopter, the new flightpath, to Bilgewater Harbor for a look around.  This area is just full of cool Goblin things, including a cannon aimed straight at Stormwind!  I can see I’m going to have to explore this whole area properly with a new char..