Concerning flight points, part 2

I promised to explain why Tanaris and Felwood are the hardest zones for low level characters to cross, and mention strategies for crossing some of the others. In order to do this, I need to comment on every flight point. (If you don't understand why I need to do this, you've missed the point of the title on this blog!)

I did consider what order to list them in, and at first it seemed sensible to go in the order that I have usually picked them up. But that doesn't really work, because in reality you're not going to pick up ALL the flight points in one long run. It's likely that there'll be a few that you'll get at lower levels, and they'll be different according to which race you are - e.g. Gianetta got The Exodar first, and Blood Watch not long after, and then Auberdine... whereas Hebe's first one was Ironforge and Katisha's was Stormwind. So I'll just list them in a rough order of location. Also, I'm only going to comment on Alliance flight points, because I've only done the Horde ones once, although of course the higher level ones are the same anyway. (Full list of both sets of flight points, including Outland, are here.) So, without further ado - and bearing in mind I'm writing the following comments assuming you're about level 18 or so....

ALLIANCE FLIGHT POINT LIST

Kalimdor, north to south ish:

Rut’theran Village, Teldrassil
Easy - first one the night elves get, of course, and for others it's a short boat ride from Auberdine. No mobs involved.

Auberdine, Darkshore
Similarly, easy for night elves (boat from Teldrassil, if you like, although I'm pretty sure the flightmaster sends you across to Auberdine even if you've never been there - odd, because this doesn't happen anywhere else!) Not much harder for other races - draenei can get there by boat from Azuremist, and others by boat from Menethil.

The Exodar
The most annoying thing about this one and Blood Watch is that they're not connected to anywhere else, so that even when you've got all the flight points, you still have to faff around with boats from/to Auberdine. Argh! Other than the hassle, though, it's easy. First one the draenei get, and it's close to the dock for anyone else getting there by boat.

Blood Watch, Bloodmyst Isle
This is a bit more hassle for everyone except draenei (who'll find it at an early stage). It's a short distance to the north of the Exodar (on the other island), but the mobs in between are very low level.

Astranaar, Ashenvale
Starting to get a bit harder now. Most people will run down here from Auberdine. It's usually fine if you stick to the road, but you might be very unlucky and aggro something (I usually do, because my exploration bug means I tend to go slightly off the road in order to open up bits of the map as I pass them!)

Moonglade (south of lake)
How hard this is depends entirely on the time of year you're doing your run, and what class you are. If it's during the Lunar Festival, even a level 1 character can get there (at least I think so - both Gianetta and Hebe got there this year, anyway, and they hadn't been created long at the time). Otherwise, it's a major pain, unless of course you're a druid. (I haven't included the Moonglade druid-only flight point in this list, because it's easy if you're a druid and you can't get it anyway if you're not!) The only way to get there is to run through the tunnel from either Winterspring or (more likely) Felwood. I'll explain later about the problems of getting to the start of the tunnel, but getting THROUGH it is a pain. The furbolg kill you every few steps, especially in the middle, and the main problem with this is that you get sent to the Felwood graveyard every time, even if you're only a step away from Moonglade or Winterspring. And it's a HORRIBLE corpse run. Oh, and what doesn't help is that the bridge at the junction in the middle of the tunnel means that the arrangement of passages is not at all how it looks on the minimap, so you're trying to work out which way to go in addition to being killed by 25 furbolgs. (Even though I've been this way many, many times, I always get muddled in the panic of the moment.) Once you're out of the tunnel, though, it's easy - there are no mobs in Moonglade most of the time.

Everlook, Winterspring
This is a pain for the same reasons as above - whether you're coming from Moonglade or Felwood, you still have to go through the tunnel, and it's just as much of a hassle. However, once you're even one step out of the tunnel, you won't believe how easy it is. If you stick to the road, it's entirely likely that you'll get all the way to Everlook without being attacked. The only mobs you're likely to see are the Winterfall runners, and they've just ignored me when I've met them at low level. (I can't remember whether or not this is the case at higher levels, it's a while since I've played there.) You might be unlikely and aggro a chimera or a bear, but I've found that if I just keep running they don't hit me very much, and eventually they give up and go away. The only time I died here was when I lost concentration and left the road - and you get taken to Everlook graveyard anyway!

Talonbranch Glade, Felwood
ARGH. I think this is probably the worst one of all. There are only two ways to get to it - through the tunnel from Moonglade (see above for hassle with that) or up the road from the south of the zone. It's hard to say which is worse. The tunnel is short but packed with lots of mobs. The road is REALLY long but the mobs are slightly further apart. Unfortunately this is NOT one of the roads (like the Winterspring one) where you're safe if you stick to it. Expect to die a LOT. However, once you're about halfway up the road, your next death will bring you to the Irontree Woods graveyard, and this is an example of a time when using the spirit healer may well be a good idea. It saves you a long section of death-filled run. The only problem is that it's unfortunately not a graveyard where you can stand there and recover in peace. It's quite likely that you'll be attacked if you wait there for a while (although not immediately), and since your armour will be probably red by this point, you'll die REALLY fast. And this is when the resurrection timer will start to kick in, because you'll die so frequently that they'll start delaying you before you can rez again. Oh, and the corpse runs are not helped by the terrain - there are rocks you have to go round, rivers to cross, and trees to get stuck in. Fun fun fun.

Emerald Sanctuary, Felwood
This one was only added in the last patch (very belatedly!) so it's quite likely that most non-obsessive high level types won't have it. It's not too bad to get, as it's quite close to Ashenvale. The mobs at the northern end of Ashenvale are slightly higher level than those in some other parts of the zone, but not so high that they're likely to kill you. However, once you cross the border into Felwood, you won't get far before you die. You'll be taken to the graveyard at Morlos'Aran, which isn't too far from the Emerald Sanctuary, but it's a tossup whether to use the spirit healer or not. It saves a bit of distance, but the rez sickness will cause you to die quicker between the graveyard and the flight point. On balance, having tried it both ways, I think I'd be tempted to not use the spirit healer in this case, but it's a close call.

Forest Song, Ashenvale
Another new one from the last patch, and another one that should have been in the game from the start. Ashenvale is a long place to run through for low levels! Anyway, this one isn't too bad to get. You might die, but you might be lucky. What usually kills me is the Horde guards at Splintertree Post, so stay to the right of the road there. Other than the Horde guards, there are some spiders and bears etc. that might get you when you leave the road, but I can usually just run past those (except the spider that's right by the flight point, which is just MEAN). The flight point is actually quite hard to find, even when you already know where it is - it's up a little hill above (and to the north of, I think) Kayneth Stillwind.

Talrendis Point, Azshara
This is much easier than it has any right to be - it's only just inside the zone, so you can easily just run in from the Ashenvale bridge and grab it without even being attacked. It's also in a nice safe place where you can repair etc. without dying. Note that this does NOT go for the rest of the zone - in particular, the bonfire in Azshara that you touch for the Fire Festival is one of the hardest to get. Many, many deaths, plus annoying cliffs that mean you have to go an incredibly long way round every time you die.

Ratchet, The Barrens
Pretty easy if you know what you're doing. If you've already got to Booty Bay, it's trivial, because you can just pop across on the boat. Otherwise you're likely to be approaching from Ashenvale. (I suppose it's possible that you might have gone on the boat to Theramore first and be running from there, but I've never done that.) The path down to the rampart at the south of Ashenvale is fairly safe - if you get attacked, just keep running and you'll probably be OK. Where you WON'T be OK is at the actual gate, where the Horde guards will kill you pretty quickly if you approach the gate normally. However, there's a gap in the fence to the left of the gate (with smoke blowing through it, which makes it a bit easier to spot) and if you cross there you'll be fine. (If you've never seen it before, just go to the left of the road as soon as the zone changes, and keep over there till you see it.) After you're past the gate, the mobs are very low level, and you should be able to easily get to Ratchet without being hurt.

Stonetalon Peak, Stonetalon Mountains
Bit of a pain but not as bad as some. You have to leave the road to get to the Talondeep Path from Ashenvale, and I usually die at least once before getting to the tunnel (those damn bears!) Once you're in the tunnel it's fine, there are no mobs - but as soon as you're out the other end, the mobs are slightly higher level (on average) than in Ashenvale, and although in theory you should be fine, I always seem to get killed! If you do die, you'll be taken to the graveyard at the Webwinder path, and I definitely recommend using the spirit healer here - it means you've moved a long way closer to your destination, plus you're on the road, and if you stick to it you can probably get all the way to Stonetalon Peak without dying again. Even if you're unlucky, you won't get attacked that much.

Nijel’s Point, Desolace
Every time I've tried this flight point collection thing, I've done Desolace after Stonetalon after Ashenvale, and left Felwood and Winterspring till later. Because of this, Nijel's Point has been the first really hard one I've gone after. The Stonetalon part of the run is actually the worst part - you have to go through the Charred Vale, which results in much death. You get sent to the Webwinder Path graveyard every time, and it's handy to know that you don't have to go all the way round to get back to your corpse - as a ghost you can go through Sun Rock Retreat and go up a path to the side, then jump down. Much quicker. Also, if you stick to the EDGE of the Charred Vale, you'll die slightly less. As soon as you're on the path at the southern end, you're probably safe. Once in Desolace, be sure to stick to the road. You'll still probably get killed by dread swoops, but not as much as if you leave the road. The most annoying part is that you get sent to Kodo Graveyard, and it's a LONG corpse run. Definitely not a case where you want to be using the spirit healer, though.

Feathermoon Stronghold, Feralas
Once you've got Nijel's Point, and rested and repaired, this one is next. You COULD run west to the coast and then swim down, but I don't recommend it (apart from anything else, you'd have to swim past the Horde guards at Shadowprey Village). No, this is definitely a time to make friends with your spirit healer. As mentioned above, if you die anywhere in Desolace you go to Kodo Graveyard, and when running from Nijel's Point to the south-west of the zone, this saves a huge amount of time. You might even be able to wait there till your sickness has passed, but don't bank on it - I've been attacked there at times. However, once you leave the graveyard, it's fairly easy. Try to get to the road as soon as possible - it's the scorpids etc. that will kill you until you do. Oddly enough the demons at the Mannoroc Coven tend to leave me alone, but the centaurs are less friendly, so I'd veer towards the Coven to be on the safe side. Once you're on the road, stick to it - don't be tempted to cut across rather than going to the T junction. Surprisingly, it's entirely likely that you'll be able to run right to Feathermoon without being attacked. Be VERY careful to stay on the road in Feralas, though - you will die fast if you don't. Also, when you have to cross the sea to get to the island, get the boat, don't be tempted to swim (even though it's not far). You're safe on the pier or the boat, but there are elite giants etc. in the water nearby.

Thalanaar, Feralas
This is another nasty one, whichever way you approach from. First choice is: from the east or from the west? From the east means running down through the Barrens then across Thousand Needles (I suppose you could come up from Tanaris but it's very unlikely). From the west means running across Feralas. Both ways have their problems, and having tried both, I don't think there's much in it. Unless you're Horde, in which case you'd definitely go through Feralas - the hardest bit there is getting past Camp Mojache, and Horde are obviously fine there - if it wasn't for the fact that you couldn't get the Thalanaar flight point anyway! If you're Alliance approaching from the west, the road across the zone from Feathermoon eastwards is much harder than the one northwards from Feathermoon to Desolace, but you'll die less if you stick to it than if you don't. When you die on the first part of the road, you get taken to Dire Maul graveyard. Whether or not you use the spirit healer depends on how far you got, I guess - it's probably better NOT to use her, because you'll probably get attacked while in the graveyard, so you won't have a chance to recover. Plus, the graveyard is off the road, so you'll die several times before you even get back to the road. Once you get closer to Camp Mojache, you get taken to the graveyard there. DEFINITELY don't use the spirit healer here - I tried this once and found it was almost impossible to get away from the place. Camp Mojache is a hard place to get past, though - on no account should you try to run straight through it, as the guards will kill you very fast and then kill you again as soon as you rez, and the rez timer will kick in. But of course whichever side you choose to run round, you have to leave the road, and that brings different types of death! On the whole I think I'd try to pass it to the south, because there's a lake you can be fairly safe in (not always easy to find a place to climb out of it though) and Thalanaar is to the south anyway. Once you're past Camp Mojache, you will still get attacked by bears and wolves etc., but if you keep running in a straight line towards Thalanaar you may well get there without dying.

If you decide to approach from the east, it's not much easier. Running through the Barrens is easy enough until you get to the Great Lift, where I invariably get killed by the guards. The graveyard is at the bottom and a bit to the west, so you could use the spirit healer, but if possible it's better to rez in the lift itself, if you got close enough to it before dying. Timing is crucial here, obviously, if you want to avoid being killed by the same guard. Whichever option you go for, expect to die a lot more times when running across Thousand Needles. Again, stick to the road as much as possible, it avoids a lot of death.

Theramore, Dustwallow Marsh
Phew! An easy one. You could run from Ratchet, but you're insane if you do - the mobs in Dustwallow Marsh will kill you a lot. Those crocolisks do NOT want to stay in the water! The proper solution is to get the boat from Menethil, obviously (if you haven't been there yet, you can sail from Auberdine).

Gadgetzan, Tanaris
When I said Tanaris was the worst zone to run across, no doubt you thought "but Gadgetzan is easy to get to!" Well, it is - it's running across the REST of Tanaris to get to Un'Goro that's the nightmare :-) There are two ways to get to Gadgetzan (well, three, but it's unlikely you'll go to Un'Goro BEFORE Gadgetzan). You can run from either Thalanaar or the Barrens, via Thousand Needles - or you can swim from Theramore. Guess which is easier! That's right, swimming! If you do it the first way, you have to deal with all the aforementioned troubles in Thousand Needles. (Once you're over the border into Tanaris, though, it's surprisingly easy and you can probably run straight to Gadgetzan without being attacked.) If you choose the sea route, you might get killed by a threshadon or something in the sea just outside Theramore, but you only have to get a bit further south before the sea is clear (there are sharks, but if you hug the shore you should avoid them), and you can swim all the way down to Steamwheedle Port in safety. There are big turtles on the beach there, but they're yellow and won't aggro. Just be careful to stick close to land in order to avoid dying from fatigue. Once on land again, just follow the road and you should be fine - and if you do die, you get taken to Gadgetzan anyway, so say hello to the spirit healer and then go in and repair!

Marshal’s Refuge, Un’Goro Crater
*shudder* After Felwood, this is the worst one to get, and it's not the Un'Goro bit that's a nightmare, it's the run across Tanaris. The ONLY positive aspect is that at least it's more or less a straight route - there are hardly any terrain features in your way. But you will die every step - the mobs there seem to have developed a very acute sense of smell, because they all run over to you from miles away. Someone should make a road there! (Not that I can understand why a road makes you less likely to die, but that's the way the game works.) It won't be long before the rez delay kicks in, and your armour will be red (and that's without even using the spirit healer, who - as previously mentioned - is in Gadgetzan, so is no help), and you'll get REALLY fed up. Particularly when you're ONE STEP from the path to Un'Goro and you get killed by ANOTHER hyena and have to do the corpse run AGAIN. Once you're on that path, though, you're fine - there are no mobs on it. And the Crater itself is surprisingly easy. It would be even easier if your armour was anything other than totally red, but unfortunately you're stuck with that till you get to Marshal's Refuge. The trick is to go round the edge of the crater - don't try to run straight towards the refuge. If you stick to the edge, you'll probably get halfway up the eastern edge before you get killed. The graveyard is in more or less exactly that position, so the spirit healer is no help. But you'll get to Marshal's Refuge with only a few more deaths, if you stick to the edge (come away from it slightly in the Fungal Rock area though, to avoid the gorillas). Just be sure to repair when you get there!

Cenarion Hold, Silithus
Very recently I read somewhere that you can get here by swimming south from Feralas and then drowning yourself, because you get taken to the Cenarion Hold graveyard. I have to admit that it's never occurred to me to try that, and I guess it's one way to avoid the Tanaris death run to get to Un'goro... but maybe the reason it's never occurred to me to get to Silithus any other way is that the obvious way is actually surprisingly easy. When leaving Marshal's Refuge, you still need to stick to the edge of the crater, but for some reason that north-west edge area is fairly mob-free, and you may even get to the Silithus entrance without dying at all. (If you do die, it's a long corpse run back from the eastern edge, sadly.) And once you're in Silithus, the road very helpfully goes straight to Cenarion Hold, and if you stick to it you'll be fairly safe. There's just one spot in the middle of it where I always seem to get killed by a scorpid or something. But the graveyard (at Valor's Rest) isn't too far, and after you get back to your corpse you'll probably make it to Cenarion Hold without being attacked again.

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So, there you have it. Notes on all the Kalimdor flight points. That turned out to be a lot longer than I thought, so I think I'll do the Eastern Kingdoms ones later!