Concerning flight points, part 3

I meant to finish this sooner, but the Fire Festival has meant that I'm on a deadline to get various things done in-game. (I'll post about the Fire Festival at some point, but probably not in time to be of use to anyone who still wants to do it this year. You never know, though!)

Hopefully this won't take as long as part 2, because on the whole the Eastern Kingdoms flight points aren't as hard to reach as the Kalimdor ones. (I'll write about the Outland ones when I've done them more than once.) So, still bearing in mind that all the following is written from a level 18 perspective, here goes...

ALLIANCE FLIGHT POINT LIST

Eastern Kingdoms, south to north ish:

Booty Bay, Stranglethorn Vale
The difficulty of this depends on where you're approaching from. If you've already got Ratchet, you can just get the boat. Failing that, the nearest others are Darkshire and Sentinel Hill. Running from either of them is very unpleasant at low levels, because although Duskwood and Westfall may result in a few deaths, as soon as you're in Stranglethorn Vale you're going to die very often, and it's a LONG, awkward corpse run (from that northern graveyard over the river from Nesingway's Expedition - at least until you make it halfway down the zone, when the graveyard shifts to the one just outside the Booty Bay entrance, which is an excellent place to make friends with the spirit healer.) The best solution is to get to Sentinel Hill and then run to the coast, and swim round. You don't even need to hug the coast - you can swim right across the sea in a straight line from one end of the zone to the other, and you don't hit deep water. Be careful, when you do go near the coast, not to go too near, because the mobs (mainly the pirates) will come off the beaches to get you. (I remember, the first time I swam to Booty Bay, being baffled by the problem of how to get out of the water. There's only one place you can do so, as far as I know - a plank near the end where the bank and inn are.)

Sentinel Hill, Westfall
Various ways to get here. The most common is to run from Stormwind, and if you do it this way it's fairly safe, as the mobs will be lower level than you in most cases, even if you leave the road. You can also go to Booty Bay and swim up (see above). Running west from Darkshire is possible but a bit silly - if for some reason you do have the Darkshire flight point before going to Westfall, you'll die a lot less frequently if you run back up north to Redridge, then west through Elwynn Forest. It's a much longer route but will be quicker.

Darkshire, Duskwood
You'll approach Darkshire either from the west (Sentinel Hill) or the north (Stormwind or Lakeshire). (It's possible to come from the east, of course, but that's very unlikely the first time.) I've done it both ways, and probably the northern one is SLIGHTLY easier. Make sure you stick to the road in both cases, and you should be able to make it with only a few deaths. (The reason why the northern route is easier is that if approaching from Westfall, a larger proportion of your route is the road through Duskwood, and that's where you'll die.)

Nethergarde Keep, Blasted Lands
The problem here is actually not Blasted Lands, it's Swamp of Sorrows, which on paper is a much lower-level area. You'll run east from Darkshire, then through Deadwind Pass (the thought of which terrified me the first time I tried it, but as long as you go the right way, i.e. avoid the southern bit, there are no mobs at all). As soon as you hit the Swamp, you'll have two problems - the wildlife and the Horde guards. Even if you stick to the road, one or other of these will kill you pretty soon (usually the guards in my case). However, the good news is that you get taken to Stonard graveyard. It appears at first as if it's not worth using the spirit healer there, because on the map it looks just as far from the graveyard to the Blasted Lands road as it is from your corpse. But it doesn't feel anywhere near as far, trust me. Of course, there are even more Horde guards near the graveyard - it is right behind the Horde town, you see - so you'll die a couple more times before you make it to the road. But even if you die the instant you rez (which I usually do), the resurrection radius means you'll make enough progress that you'll reach the Blasted Lands road pretty soon. And once you're properly on that road, you're safe. Run just over the border to be sure, then stop and rest to get back to full health before doing the last bit. Your armour will be totally red, but don't worry - you can repair at Nethergarde Keep! To get there, hug the left wall and keep hugging it as much as you can. It looks from the map as if there isn't a path, but there is - if you're going the right way, you'll run through a camp of (friendly) miners. You may still die once or twice, but mostly the mobs are helpfully distant. If you do die, there's no real advantage to using the spirit healer - you get taken to Dreadmaul Hold, which is probably further away from the keep than your corpse is.

Stormwind, Elwynn Forest
Shouldn't be a problem for anyone. It's the first one humans are likely to get; gnomes and dwarves can get the tram from Ironforge. It's a bit harder for night elves and draenei, but the chances are they'll get Menethil and then Ironforge first, so there's no problem. If, unusually, they go to Booty Bay before Menethil, their easiest way to get to Stormwind is to go via Westfall (see above) and then run north.

Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains
From Stormwind/Goldshire: fairly easy. From Westfall: still easy, just don't be tempted to go via Darkshire. From Darkshire: a fairly short run, and if you stick to the road you shouldn't die more than once or twice (on the Duskwood road). You could approach from Burning Steppes, but it seems very unlikely, and if you're doing that you won't need any further advice from me!

Morgan’s Vigil, Burning Steppes
Only two ways to get here: south from Searing Gorge (through Blackrock Mountain) or north from Lakeshire. At level 18, the only thing that would make me do it the first way would be if I hadn't already been to Lakeshire. (I did do it this way once, but I can't remember why!) From Lakeshire, run north. You will die, unsurprisingly, when you enter Burning Steppes, but not quite as much in some other places, and the hardest bit is right near the entrance. Just be sure to go to the right as soon as you're over the bridges and in the zone proper. Then hug the cliff on your right, and the dragonwhelps etc. may not even notice you. The path up to Morgan's Vigil is not at all obvious if you've never seen it before - I remember it took me ages to find it the first time - but it is helpfully marked with torches. (If you die, you go to the Flame Crest graveyard, which is unhelpful. Don't use the spirit healer there.) Once you're on the path, you should be OK.

Thorium Point, Searing Gorge
This used to be one of the easiest ones, but now it's probably the most annoying one in the Eastern Kingdoms. The reason? Blizzard added an extra Badlands graveyard in one of the patches. Now I know that adding extra graveyards is usually a good thing, but this is the exception. See, the chances are you'll be approaching Searing Gorge from Loch Modan, via Badlands. Here's what USED to happen: run down from Thelsamar to the border - no problem. Enter Badlands near Uldaman - fairly prompt death. Get taken to graveyard on far west side of Badlands (Apocryphan's Rest). Use spirit healer. Run very short distance from this graveyard to Searing Gorge path. Enter Searing Gorge. Die almost immediately. Get taken to graveyard AT THORIUM POINT. Use spirit healer. Pick up flight point - job done. However, they added a new graveyard in the north-east of Badlands! Argh! Very handy for Uldaman, I admit - but not for flight point collectors :-( It means that you can no longer just cross Badlands in one go - you have to spend a really, really long time crossing the first part of the northern edge of the zone, and it's as bad as Tanaris - a death every step. You have to get a fair bit to the west of the Angor Fortress before your next death takes you to the western graveyard. And as if that's not enough, they've added an extra coyote or something that patrols between the graveyard and the exit path, so that you're likely to die one more time while making your escape. Argh.

Thelsamar, Loch Modan
Loch Modan is easy enough to reach from Ironforge, so gnomes, dwarves and humans can get this one easily. But night elves and draenei - well, the first time I found how hard it is to get here from Menethil was when I first did the druid aquatic form quest, which requires you to get to Westfall at a level far lower than is usually wise. And this is the hardest bit. It's an awfully long way from Menethil, and there are many things that will kill you on the way, even if you stick to the road. For most of the Menethil bit, you'll get taken to the graveyard that's near the southern end of the Dun Modr road - using the spirit healer there won't help your progress unless you're nowhere near that point yet. Annoyingly you still get taken there if you die in Dun Algaz, and it's a long way. But once you're actually in Loch Modan you should be OK. (If you do manage to get killed again, you get taken to the Thelsamar graveyard, where you can use the spirit healer if you like, but you may as well just run back - it's not that far.)

Ironforge, Dun Morogh
Probably the first flight point that gnomes and dwarves will get, and easy for humans, who can of course pop up from Stormwind on the tram. Seems initially hard for night elves and draenei, but (as I explained above) the hard bit there is getting to Loch Modan, and from there to Ironforge is easy. And of course they may have come over via Ratchet and Booty Bay, in which case they'll be approaching here from Stormwind too.

Menethil Harbour, Wetlands
Easy for night elves and draenei, who can get the boat from Auberdine (or Theramore, I suppose, but that's much less likely). The other three races are most likely to approach from Loch Modan. See notes above under Thelsamar - the same problems apply, but I should note in addition that if you die in the western part of the zone you go to the Baradin Bay graveyard, which may well save you some time if you're still a fair way away and you're dying a lot.

Refuge Pointe, Arathi Highlands
You'll approach this one from Loch Modan or Menethil, and there's not much difference between them. in either case the worst bit is likely to be the run through Wetlands rather than the last stretch. Be sure to stick to the road - it's tempting to run diagonally cross-country to get to Dun Modr, but you'll die a lot more if you do that. And actually the road up to Dun Modr is nowhere near as dangerous as the east-west road across the zone. Once you reach Dun Modr, you're safe for a while, and there are no mobs on the bridge at all (well, there are inside, but they don't come out). And when you cross into Arathi, the mobs are surprisingly sparse. You might make it all the way to Refuge Pointe without dying, but the good news is that if you DO die, the graveyard is at... Refuge Pointe :-)

Southshore, Hillsbrad Foothills
Not too bad. You'll probably approach from Wetlands via Arathi Highlands (if you haven't been to Refuge Pointe, it's well worth taking the slight detour there first). Stick to the road and keep your fingers crossed - you MIGHT get there without dying. If you do die, you go back to Refuge Pointe if you're still in Arathi Highlands, which is not helpful, but if you've crossed over into Hillsbrad, I'm fairly sure you get taken to Southshore, which is rather handy. I was about to say "if you see the Forsaken Courier, RUN" - but there's no point... if he's close enough for you to see him, you're probably about to die whichever way you run!

Aerie Peak, The Hinterlands
You can get to Aerie Peak via a non-obvious path just north of Durnholde Keep in the Hillsbrad Foothills. Getting to this path is much harder than going along it, because you have to leave the road. It's probably easiest to approach it by swimming up the river that's just to the west of the Keep. Leave the water at the last possible moment, and hug the southern edge of the mountains. You'll still die a few times going that way (and get taken back to Southshore each time) but not as much as if you go across the land from the road. Once you're on the path, you're probably safe, and when you emerge into the Hinterlands there aren't usually any mobs nearby, so you should be able to make it to Aerie Peak (which is very near the exit from the path) without even being attacked.

Chillwind Point, Western Plaguelands
This is quite hard to find, even if you already know roughly where it is. There are three methods of approach - either swim up the river from Hillsbrad (same river mentioned above), go north up the road from the snowy bit of the Alterac Mountains, or go north from the Hinterlands along a path near Aerie Peak. I have to admit that although I've tried all three, I got hopelessly lost when I tried to get there from Hillsbrad or Alterac, so I always go from the Hinterlands, even though I suspect it means more death than the other routes. Mind you, if I'm going round collecting flight points, I'm likely to be at Aerie Peak anyway, so it seems quicker, and it's not THAT bad a route. If you don't know the path, it's quite hard to find (and doesn't appear on your map until you're already on it), but basically you need to head directly east from Aerie Peak and search the woods. If you know where Shindigger's Camp is (where there's a drunk dwarf who has a Sunken Temple pre-quest), the start of the path is very near there. There are no mobs on the path (unlike the bit just before it!) and once you arrive in the Western Plaguelands, Chillwind Camp is just a bit to the west. Don't try to run directly to it, though, as that will take you through Sorrow Hill with its level 50+ skeletons etc. Swim round instead, and you'll be perfectly safe. And if you do die, the graveyard is at Chillwind Camp anyway.

Light’s Hope Chapel, Eastern Plaguelands
You'd think this would be by far the hardest flight point on this continent, wouldn't you? But no. Here's why. First, from Chillwind Camp you get back in the water and swim to Darrowmere Lake. Number of deaths: 0. You swim into the river leading north out of Darrowmere Lake (it looks on the map as if you can't, but you can). Number of deaths: 0. You swim north up the Thondroril River, as far as the bridge. When you reach the bridge, you climb out of the water on the eastern bank. Now you're in the Eastern Plaguelands, and you haven't even been attacked! Unfortunately this state of affairs does not continue, but it's not too bad. Run eastwards along the road. You'll die pretty soon, but you'll get taken to the Darrowshire graveyard, which is a lot further to the east. Use the spirit healer, and wait out your rez sickness - that's a surprisingly safe graveyard. When you set off again, you'll get a surprisingly long way before you die again - you'll certainly make it to the main road, and probably a little way further to the east. (Don't be tempted to cut across the countryside, obviously.) Now, you'll die a lot along this bit of road. At first you'll still go back to Darrowshire, and then after a short time you'll get taken to Blackwood Lake graveyard (which is to the north of the road, near the Plaguewood). Neither of these spirit healers is any use, so you have to keep running back. But as soon as you pass the exact centre of the crossroads at Corin's Crossing (and you may as well follow the road - you die just as much if you try to go round), your next death takes you to... Light's Hope Chapel. Win!

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Right, I need to get back to Madmargaret's bonfire tour. Future things I want to write about, though (apart from the aforementioned Outland flight points):

• The fire festival, and obsessive behaviour it promotes
• The lack of places in WoW starting with the letter P
• Killing a fel reaver on your own, and similar deeds
• Pronunciation niggles (this is a recent bugbear, that was caused by my starting to listen to WoW podcasts)
• Going back to Silithus when you really don't have to
• Advanced flight point obsessions (a.k.a. flight timer mods)
• Obsessive levelling of professions
• Which grey quests have to be kept, and why
• The non-obvious problems with raising gold from scratch
• Fireflies!

(If any of my guild ever read this - and I assume they will eventually, although I haven't mentioned it to anyone yet - most of the above won't surprise them too much, although they'll still shake their heads in disbelief!)