Gizelton Caravan Kodo fan club

Recently I realised, to my horror, that my 6 Dragonblight characters were not all as up to date with their professions as they might be. Iolanthe has been at 375/375/375/375/375 for ages, but the others are all behind to various degrees. Mabel and Katisha *did* have almost all the cooking recipes they could reasonably get, because I made sure of that a while ago, but since then they've both lagged a bit, because TBC came out and added a load of new recipes, not all in Outland. And Gianetta, Hebe and Patience have all just been grabbing recipes as they've found them (as, I assume, most normal people do!).

What brought this to my attention? A whole chain of obsessive-type events, which it's just amused me to recall :p Let's see...

1. A guildie said she was bored and asked if I wanted any help with anything low level (she had a headache and couldn't cope with anything that involved thought). And Gianetta and Hebe both needed Deadmines, so I took Gianetta because the quests were already grey for her.

2. When we asked if anyone else wanted to join in, another guildie said he didn't need Deadmines but would be keen to do the Stockade, so we ran that afterwards (Gianetta already had the quests).

3. There was a vague plan to do Deadmines again soon after (this hasn't happened yet, but never mind), so I concentrated on levelling Hebe a bit so that she could collect the Stockade quests too, and do both together (you need to be level 22 to pick up most of them). When she went to Lakeshire to pick up the quest there, she also grabbed the Selling Fish quest. She's not doing Redridge quests in general - I really hate that area, and have only done it once or twice; I avoid it when I can, and I usually can! But I grabbed the fish quest because you can level fishing while doing it, and I do get obsessive about my professions so this has to be done :-)

4. She tried to do the quest there and then by fishing Lake Everstill, but her fishing skill wasn't high enough, even with bait. So she ran off to Elwynn to fish, where the rivers are easier. By the time she'd levelled enough to be able to do the quest, I'd spent long enough fishing that I decided I was going to make it a priority to get all my characters caught up on their fishing. This was helped by the fact that the (UK) football season has just started, and I find that fishing is a good calming thing to do while watching a live game :p

So, that's what started the current profession obsession. Here's what I've done on it since....

Firstly, I realised (while doing the Lakeshire quest) that Hebe didn't even have the Blump family fishing pole, so afterwards I took her to Auberdine to do the three fishing quests (that one plus the two upstairs in the inn). This got her skill level quite high easily, but while I was fishing, I realised that it would be stupid not to level cooking at the same time, and I knew I needed to send Iolanthe shopping as a matter of urgency. I'd done this on Mabel and Katisha's behalf when they were too little to have a mount - it's much quicker for Iolanthe to race round on her epic mount collecting cooking recipes from all the vendors. But at that time, my three youngest characters didn't exist, so another shopping trip was called for.

Before I could do this, I needed to log onto all my characters to double check their cooking lists and compare them to the master list in order to be able to compile the shopping list, so I figured I may as well do a bit of fishing with each one in the process. I started with Patience (my little draenei paladin that I only started a few weeks ago) because I knew her fishing was still at level 1 and she had very few cooking recipes. While I was on Azuremyst I thought I may as well do a few quests - because she runs out of rest XP very quickly, I tend to only do a few at a time. But before long I realised I'd done all the Azuremyst quests, except one - the one with the Draenei Youngling. Well, I spent ages running round looking for this damn mob, but to no avail, so it looks as if I might be there for a while yet.

While Patience was fishing, she caught lots of stuff that she couldn't cook but I knew she should be able to, so I sent her on a brief tour of Auberdine, Darnassus and Dolanaar to collect some low-level recipes (and do the Auberdine fishing quests while she was there). Just by cooking the fish she'd already caught, she levelled her cooking skill to 150 to match the fishing. She couldn't go any further with either until she had the expert books, which I added to Iolanthe's shopping list. (And, before you ask, although you have to be level 20 to use the expert fishing book, there is no level restriction on the expert cookbook (or the expert first aid book either, for that matter).)

While Hebe was in Auberdine, she collected a couple of quests. She went to Ashenvale after Westfall, you see - Redridge would have made more sense, but I hate it there, and Katisha and Gianetta (and possibly Mabel, I'm not sure) had both missed out Ashenvale, so I felt like giving it a go. But Hebe was just slightly too low level, so most of the quests were orange and red, so when she saw some yellow and green quests in Darkshore and remembered that some of them led to Ashenvale anyway, it seemed like a good plan to pick up a couple.

Three hours later, the plan didn't seem so attractive. I'd spent most of that time trying to escort the damn Absent Minded Prospector. I lost count of how many times I tried, but I do know I gained two whole levels in the process (yes, really!) I still haven't done it, and Hebe is now 25 - the quest is labelled 20G2. No way. I can get *almost* all the way through, and then two trolls spawn right at the end (one of them a caster) and they kill him whatever I do. Argh.

Gianetta is in Southshore at the moment, so after fishing for a while off the Eastern Strand, she killed a lot of murlocs, most of whom didn't seem to have heads - typical. She also spent quite a while being killed by Syndicate thugs, before managing to kill enough of them in return to be able to hand in the quest. Such a very long, annoying corpse run!

Katisha went to Zul'Farrak the other day, so she did a bit of fishing off the coast of Tanaris while she was there. She's done all the Tanaris quests, though - she's just starting Searing Gorge, but went on a bit of a detour after the ZF trip, because there are several followup quests (e.g. Saving Sharpbeak and The Ancient Egg). She couldn't do Sharpbeak solo, but the Ancient Egg is fairly easy if you're willing to die a few times (especially if you do it at peak hours when someone else has just killed all the mobs!), and since that leads on to Sunken Temple, it seemed a good plan to collect the other ST quests in case someone wanted to do that soon. The priest class quest meant going to Azshara, so she did the Arcane Runes quest (a.k.a. The One With The Helipad) while she was there. Whee!





That's actually Mabel saving Sharpbeak above - she did ZF and ST a week or two ago, but hadn't been able to do Sharpbeak, so when a guildie offered to do it after Katisha's ZF run, I took Mabel because she'd needed it for longer. Mabel is sitting in Honor Hold at the moment, but she hasn't done anything there yet because I've been concentrating on lower level characters. Her fishing is already quite high, but knowing how long it took Iolanthe to get from 300 to 375 is putting me off doing it again! I'll get to it soon, though.

And, finally, Iolanthe. Poor Iolanthe. She's been stuck on everything on her quest log for months now - she's done all the quests there ARE... at least, all the ones that are soloable. Everything she has left either needs a group of 5 70s - impossible when so many of the guild are on a break at the moment - or could probably be done with just one person to help, but those quests are all in Azeroth and no-one wants to do high-level stuff there. So poor Iolanthe is reduced to being used just to get stuff for my other characters. The highlight of her week last week was being asked to make some swiftness potions so that Gianetta could try to jump onto Thandol Span (she couldn't do it, even with the potion - I decided to leave it till she has a mount). But she had a good run out last night, when she spent several hours riding and flying all over the place collecting recipes and books. The last couple of hours were spent mostly in Desolace, with interruptions while she popped over to Tanaris and back. That's because there are three recipes that are only, as far as I know, available from the Gizelton Caravan Kodo (the caravan has lots of recipes, but several of them are available elsewhere too). Even more helpfully, they're all limited supply, so that you can only buy one, and you then have to wait an hour to buy another... because the caravan, in case you didn't know, only stops to sell stuff at the two ends of its route, and it sells different stuff at each end - and of the three exclusive recipes, one is only available at the southern end and the other two at the northern end. And it takes almost an hour for the caravan to return to the same end (the time varies slightly, presumably depending on whether or not someone starts either of the escort quests en route). And I needed 3 of each recipe!

Why did I have to keep popping to Steamwheedle Port while waiting for the caravan? Because the recipe for Undermine Clam Chowder is only available there, and it's also on limited supply, but at least it respawns every 15 minutes or so. It's just as well I know the route and timing of the Gizelton Caravan Kodo like the back of my hand (how sad is that?!?), so that I was able to ride back to exactly the correct point on the route each time.

Earlier on, Iolanthe had been to Blood Watch to buy several copies of the Crunchy Spider Surprise recipe, and while she was there she did the quest for the Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin recipe. This took about 30 seconds to complete, so in the last hour of her shopping trip, when she'd got all the copies of the Undermine recipe and was just waiting for the caravan to get back to Kormek's Hut, she logged off so that Mabel and Katisha could each go to Azuremyst and do the moongraze quest. Gianetta and Patience both did it while growing up there, obviously, so there's only Hebe to go, but I didn't quite have time to take her last night. That's first on my list for tonight, followed by taking several of them to Auberdine to do the Strider Stew quest. Then I might send Mabel into Razorfen Downs to see how feasible it is for her (and, later, the others) to get to the NPC that teaches the Goldthorn Tea recipe - Iolanthe does have that one, but she got it while actually running the instance with a group, ages ago when groups could still be found to do that one! Other than that, the only recipe Mabel doesn't have (other than Outland ones, but I'll worry about those when everyone's got all the Azeroth ones) is the one for Savory Deviate Delight, but I'm not sure I can face grinding for it in the Barrens, so I'll just keep an eye out on the AH - every so often someone puts it up without realising how much it's worth (that's how Iolanthe got it!)

Right, now you're up to date with all my Dragonblight characters, and I must get back to them in a minute. But in case you're wondering about the others... Madmargaret is at Tarren Mill, dying very frequently and struggling due to lack of funds. Santuzza is at Honor Hold, but her ultimate aim in life is to finish BRD, which she started 18 months ago but never finished because everyone moved servers. Since then she's moved to a different server to play with a friend, who quit the game a few weeks later. She's a bit cursed! Eponine is the character I started at the same time as the aforementioned friend, and she's in Auberdine, but has been sadly neglected due to his absence.

Next post... probably more on professions :-)

Alone in Silithus

Mabel's halfway between 61 and 62 now, and she's finally moved to Outland. Yes, yes, I know she could have gone at 58, but anyone who knows me will understand why she didn't - she hadn't finished Azeroth! I realise I'm in a tiny minority who plays like this, but it makes perfect sense to me. I don't play for gear or loot or gold - I play for the experience of playing. I love questing, and I particularly like visiting areas that I've either never been, or not been for ages. This is quite apart from the fact that I don't like to leave zones with quests undone or unfinished. (I'm OK about missing out whole zones, though - at least the early ones. For example, Gianetta has just finished the Bloodmyst quests, and she's moved straight to Duskwood, omitting places like Darkshore, Ashenvale, Westfall and Redridge. But she'll do all the zones from Duskwood onwards.)

All of the above should help to explain why I spent the whole of last night alone in Silithus, the last of the Azeroth zones (yes, I do have a specific order I have to do them in!) And I do mean "alone" - I kept doing a "/who" to see if anyone else had joined me, and they hadn't. A Horde guy did turn up just as I was about to leave, but that was the first player I'd seen in 12 hours. I felt kind of sad for the mobs, actually! I saw Setis - a rare elite that I've never seen before - and he was just wandering around aimlessly. I suppose you could argue that he (and other mobs) might prefer NOT to be killed, but it seemed so sad that they were just being totally ignored!

I did all the stuff I could do solo. I'm realistic enough to know that the chance of getting even a friend to help me do the other stuff is slim to zero - I can't even persuade any of them to do Plaguelands stuff, let alone Silithus! So I abandoned stuff like Glyph Chasing and Into the Maw of Madness... but I made a note, as I always do, of which quests I haven't done, so that I can go back later when I can solo them. (Iolanthe recently went back at L70 to do Into the Maw of Madness - not easy even then! But although she did die a couple of times, she finished it. Very satisfying!)

Mabel also spent quite a few hours (and gold) doing the Tier 0.5 armour chain. I doubt that many people have done that since the expansion came out, because (as everyone knows) you can get better gear from an hour or two killing trash in Outland. But as I said earlier, I don't play for gear, and that chain is not only great fun, it also has loads of XP! Mabel and Iolanthe are now both stuck on the 45-minute Baron step of it, but I hold out hope that someone else in the guild will want to try that sometime - although, knowing my luck, they'll do it on the spur of the moment on a day when I'm not online!

An alternative to counting sheep

I've been an insomniac all my life, albeit to varying degrees. It's not too bad at the moment, but there was a time, six months ago or so, when I was lying awake for ages every night. That was until I discovered a way which so far has succeeded in getting me to sleep every time...

It has a few variations, but the one I use most often is to try to think of WoW locations starting with each letter of the alphabet in turn. e.g. Auberdine, Booty Bay, Chillwind Camp, Darnassus... This would be much too easy if unmodified, so I usually restrict it to places I've visited that day, or in the last few days (depending on how much I've played). The idea is, you see, for me not to actually get to Z - I need to get stuck on one, because that's when I generally fall asleep. If I made it to Z I'd have to think of something else to try!

Now of course most letters are easy and have many options. But there are a few that aren't. P has been a frequent problem, unless it's one of the days when I've been through the Plaguewood in EPL. I can hardly ever think of anywhere else that starts with a P. J is OK if I've been in STV (Jaguero Isle, Janeiro's Point), Felwood (Jaedenar, Jadefire Run) or the Hinterlands (Jintha'Alor). I can always remember that there's Jerod's Landing in Elwynn Forest, but since I never go there, that's not much use. But there aren't many others. X is only Xavian (NE Ashenvale) as far as I know, but I'm usually asleep before I get to X. Which is just as well, because for Y I can only think of the Yorgen Farmstead and Yojamba Isle, and although there are quite a few for Z, I can only usually remember Zoram Strand (possibly because if I've got to Z, my mind is in Ashenvale anyway after Xavian).

Most of the others are easy enough, although when I spent a few days playing only Madmargaret (my only Horde character) I discovered that the only place I can think of starting with an I is Ironforge, so I got stuck earlier than usual! I did find O and U easier than on Alliance days though, because of Orgrimmar and the Undercity.

(I have spent quite a while searching for a complete listing of WoW locations, but so far I've been unsuccessful - this one is the best I've found, and it has quite a few omissions.)

Variations on this theme... sometimes I am strict with myself and only allow settlement names and not zone names, but then I end up relaxing this when I can't think of an H other than Hinterlands :p (I know there's Honor Hold and Hellfire Citadel, but since Iolanthe's been stuck on everything for ages now, I've hardly spent any time in Outland, so I can't use them.) Sometimes I try to think of NPC or quest names, but that's much too hard. I got quite a long way with herbs once, but I don't think I've tried that since, although I did try the more general version: items I might have in my backpack.

Hopefull all this will help to explain to my guildmates why I sometimes get giddily excited when visiting places like the Jagged Ridge :-)

Niggles

Each of the posts I've made on this blog so far have turned out much longer than intended - this happens to me a lot :p But this will be short, I promise.

There are several things in the game that make me grind my teeth in irritation every time they come up. I know that just about everyone has this reaction to the misspelling of "rogue" as "rouge", but there are others! (And I'm not really counting other examples of misspelling, much as it irritates me, because I realise that some people find spelling really difficult.) For me the two biggest ones are "draenei" and "Outland". With "draenei" it's the pronunciation - it's very clear from the opening voiceover when you CREATE a draenei that it's pronounced DRANN-eye rather than DRAIN-eye. Yet just about everyone gets it wrong. I hadn't realised how much this annoyed me until I started listening to WoW podcasts (I only listen to two, and they're great, but this one thing drives me mad. Although they can't pronounce "shaman" either, most of the time, which is almost as annoying (to be fair, I think it CAN be pronounced either way, but I think SHAR-man is more correct), and one of the presenters on one of the shows can't pronounce - well, anything!)

With "Outland" it's the fact that it's NOT "OUTLANDS". Yet many, many people refer to it in the plural form. I never dare say anything, but it annoys me every single time. Other similar niggles: let's see... Use of "shadow labs" annoys me. I'm fine with "shadow LAB" or "SL" but it's short for LABYRINTH, not labyrinths, as far as I know. Also, Mana-Tombs without the hyphen. This didn't annoy me at all until I read on WoW Wiki that "although the instance itself is called Mana-Tombs, the entrance area outside the portal is called Mana Tombs without the dash". I know it's quite unreasonable of me to get annoyed by this, because the chances of other people having noticed this fact are minimal. So I'd never mention it - but it annoys me!

There are a few abbreviations that annoy me too. DM always annoys me, because it always meant Deadmines to me, until suddenly everyone else started using it for Dire Maul. (If I'd ever DONE the whole of Dire Maul I might have got the hang of this, but as it is I think of Deadmines first if someone says "DM".) SV is a recent one, because although it's obviously "steamvault" (note to those who aren't sure: that's not plural either, plus it's ONE WORD and has a "the"....) my mind always insists on interpreting it as "Shadowmoon Valley". And - this is a silly one - OMW. I *know* it's "on my way", but my mind ALWAYS reads it as "oh my word!" I hate my mind :p

Oh, and while I'm doing niggles, I may as well confess that I also really, really hate: the word "gratz"; people who announce EVERY SINGLE DING; people who use game-specific slang (e.g. "imba") at every possibile opportunity; people who use any of the following: m8, l8r, pls, thx....

If you're a friend of mine and you do any of these things (I mention this because lots of them do!), I can forgive you because I love you, and I know *I'm* far more annoying than any of you, if we're keeping score. But if you're a stranger - PARTICULARLY one who calls me "m8" - you are *not* going to endear yourself to me this way.

This is already longer than I'd intended, but there is one more that's a perennial niggle but is in a different category to the others. It's the rested XP. It says, if you hover over the XP bar, something like "you are rested - 200% of experience gained from killing monsters". Yet every time I kill a monster, I only get 150%! And this is the case even if I've got WEEKS of rest. It does go correctly back to only 100% when I'm NOT rested, but as soon as I am - 150% again. Is this just me? I'm amazed no-one else has made a fuss about this, if not. (To be specific, it's things like "spider dies, you gain 500 XP (+ 250 XP rested bonus)". That's not 200%, it's 150%.)

Next time - I complain about the alphabet :p

Touching bonfires

Well, the Fire Festival's about to end, and if I can get through a few urgent real-life tasks, I plan to reward myself by going and watching the fireworks in Booty Bay - or maybe there'll be some Outland ones too? I think they'd look pretty over Zangarmarsh, but I imagine it'll be Shattrath if it's anywhere.

I seem to have spent most of the last week or two touching bonfires. Santuzza and Iolanthe both did most of the quests last year, including the one where you steal flames from the Horde cities. The one I really wanted to do this year was the one that sends you into high-level instances, because both Santuzza and Iolanthe tried and failed last year, and I *really* wanted a Spirit of Summer. Well, Santuzza is still only level 60, so there didn't seem much point in trying again (because that's what she was last year - long story why she hasn't progressed, which maybe I'll explain sometime). But Iolanthe, at 70, was ready to give it another go - and she succeeded! More of that in a minute, though.

This year I've taken Mabel, Katisha, Gianetta, Hebe and Madmargaret on the Bonfire Tour of Azeroth. This was made much easier by the fact that three of them already had all the flight points, and I combined Gianetta's and Hebe's tours with detours to pick up flight points, so that all my Dragonblight characters now have all the non-Outland flight points. And in doing so I set a new personal record, because Hebe was only 17 when she started \o/

I didn't bother trying to take any of these characters to the in-instance bonfires, based on the fact that I'd already failed with a L60 character who could stealth :p Neither did I try to steal the opposition flames - didn't fancy trying it with Mabel due to her lack of stealth, and none of the others were high enough level to hand in the quest (although they could have got the flames - a bit unfair, but at least I knew about the restriction before I wasted hours trying!) I did try to see how close Madmargaret could get to the Ironforge bonfire, just out of curiosity, and the answer turned out to be that the guards saw right through her stealth as soon as she set foot on the hill up to the city gates, so she gave up.

It actually took Madmargaret a LOT longer to finish the tour than any of the others, but that's because she has no money at all, so she had to either run places despite having the connecting flight points, or do a few quests to make money. But because I'm finding it really difficult to be a rogue, doing quests tended to result in lots of death, and the repair bills used up all the money the quests were making. Very frustrating.

Anyway, a brief guide to the bonfire tour (I'm not going to bother describing exactly where ALL the fires are, because other sources have done that perfectly adequately):

The Festival of Fire (Alliance): Darnassus, Stormwind, Ironforge. I'd forgotten exactly where the Stormwind bonfire was, and spent quite a while riding round looking for it until I remembered - unlike the other two, it's not in a location you're likely to pass anyway. If you're a Horde character trying to steal these flames, I imagine the Darnassus one would be the easiest (being outside the actual city) but I could be wrong - I only tried Ironforge, as I said above.

The Festival of Fire (Horde): Undercity, Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff. I had trouble finding the Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff ones with Madmargaret, despite having seen them last year when I stole them. But I can tell that if you ARE stealing them, the Undercity one is a piece of cake - it's not actually in the city, and there are no guards nearby. Thunder Bluff is stealthable fairly easily (in fact I think I found it more easily when I stealthed to it than when I ran to it normally). But the Orgrimmar one is at the far end of the city and involved a LOT of deaths when I stealthed to it.

Note that although there are now bonfires in Silvermoon City, the Exodar and Shattrath City, and you can pick up and hand in all the festival quests at any of them, and interact with the bonfires, they don't actually feature in any of the quests.

Flickering Flames in Kalimdor: Darkshore, Ashenvale, Stonetalon Mountains, the Barrens. These are all easy enough, just annoyingly far from flight points.

Flickering Flames in the Eastern Kingdoms: Westfall, Wetlands, Hillsbrad, Silverpine. Ditto. I remember thinking these would be harder, mainly because I'd never been in Silverpine Forest until I went there to touch the bonfire for the first time (last year), and I only knew it was a Horde area. But of course it's a very low-level Horde area, and I didn't get attacked. Madmargaret had a bit more trouble getting to the Westfall one, but that's because she'd forgotten it was an Alliance area :p

Wild Fires in Kalimdor: Winterspring, Azshara, Un'Goro, Silithus. Assuming you have all the flight points, the only one of these that's hard is Azshara, and that's a NIGHTMARE. Even Hebe, at level 17, managed Winterspring and Silithus without dying. Un'Goro is a bit harder, but if you already have the Un'Goro flight point you can just run round the edge of the crater, and shouldn't die too many times. (See flight point post 2 for details.) Don't be tempted to run to the Un'Goro bonfire from Gadgetzan, though - it's 10000 times harder. Azshara, though - ARGH. Not only is it miles from the flight point, it's miles from ANYWHERE, with lots of high-level mobs around, so you'll die every few steps as soon as you leave the road. And to make things worse, when you're halfway across the zone you start getting taken to the Southridge Beach graveyard (before then, you go back to Talrendis) and it's a long way round fron there, due to the VERY ANNOYING CLIFFS. It's even longer if you forget which of the many inlets is actually a way up from the beach (most of them aren't, and you don't find out until you run to the end). And just to make your day perfect, when you DO get to the bonfire there's a giant spider that scuttles round it, and it kills you before you can open the flame. Your only chance is to wait there (as a ghost) until some helpful player comes along and kills the spider. (Or, of course, get a friend to go wth you and do so for you - but if you have that option, you won't need to read anything I have to say.)

Wild Fires in the Eastern Kingdoms: Blasted Lands, Searing Gorge, Hinterlands, Plaguelands. Assuming you have all the flight points, Hinterlands is the nightmare one on this list. Blasted Lands is fairly easy - it's right by the road, and even Hebe only died once trying to get to it. It's equally easy for Horde despite them having to run from Stonard - the road is no harder than the one from Nethergarde Keep. Searing Gorge is a bit harder, and I died a lot working my way to it from Thorium Point, but it's not too far. There are lots of spiders etc. nearby, and it took me a few goes before I managed to open the flame without getting eaten. Plaguelands is easy if you approach from Darrowmere Lake - see flight point post 3 for details. You will probably die a couple of times when you get close, but not as much as you might expect. I'd recommend Horde to do this too, despite not having the Chillwind Camp flight point. But the Hinterlands - ARGH. Well, it's not too bad for Horde, but for Alliance it's right at the other end of the zone from Aerie Peak, and there are many deaths lying in wait for you en route. The bit near Aerie Peak is by far the worst, because it's quite a run till you make it to the road, and there are wolves and owlbeasts and trolls all over the place. You'll see a LOT of Aerie Peak graveyard while making your way to the road. Once you're on the road, it's a bit better, and the bonfire is right by the road (albeit a long way down it). When you get closer you'll switch to the Overlook Cliffs graveyard, but don't be tempted to use the spirit healer there, because then you'll have the hassle of getting back to the road again, even though it looks closer.

A Light in Dark Places: Dire Maul, LBRS, Scholomance, Stratholme. I'm very unfamiliar with all of these instances (long story) so this was great fun. It was also really hard to solo, even at 70. But I did it \o/ Dire Maul took ages, but it would have been much quicker if I'd done some research first (I'd never been in the north or west bits EVER), because then I would have realised that I needed to kill the wandering Eyes before they spawned pairs of elite demons. As it was, I had to kill the demons, and they were quite tough, and this wasn't helped by them being inseparable. Also, the dogs didn't see me most of the time, but every so often I lost concentration and walked too close to one, and that meant rapid death. What really helped in the end was that I remembered I had some frost oil and a thorium widget in the bank just in case I ever managed to persuade anyone to go through Dire Maul with me, and I went to get them and hence managed to trap the wandering named ogre, and that made all the difference.

LBRS was quite easy eventually, in that it was possible to stealth to the bonfire - and touch it - without killing anything at all, but I got very, very lost and had to go out and back in again several times. As a bonus, though, I think I know my way round most of it now!

The Scholomance one would have been fairly easy to stealth to if it wasn't for the fact that you can't get to it without a unique key that can only be obtained by killing one of the mini-bosses (Rattlegore). This took me a really, really long time (well, not so much him, but his friends), but I did it in the end. It turned out to be impossible to actually OPEN the locked door without unstealthing and aggroing lots of things, but they were easy enough (with the help of my pet trees).

I knew the Stratholme one would be hard, because just about everything in there can see through stealth. I've tried soloing it many, many times, because I was really keen to finish the quests I had in there, and I can't persuade anyone to go in with me. But I discovered that, although if you stealth you get jumped immediately, you can actually get through lots of it without any of them seeing you, if you DON'T stealth. It took me a few goes to work out which way to walk in order to not die - all the info I found suggested that hugging the left wall was a good plan, but I died every time I tried that, whereas walking diagonally through the zombie crowd and over to the right worked quite well. Then I forgot about the rats under the bridge, so they killed me a bit the first time I got to that point. And then of course when I got to the bit where all the Scarlet/Crimson guys are, I forgot I needed to stealth to walk between the two guards at the entrance, and died again.... At least after all that, when I finally DID make it to the bonfire, I managed to touch it without being attacked. And the Spirit of Summer was mine at last \o/

Anyway. Firework time!

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!)

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!

Concerning flight points

There are an awful lot of WoW-related sites, aren't there? I find new ones all the time, and I'm pretty sure I've only seen a tiny fraction of the total. But it occurred to me a couple of nights ago that I've never seen one that writes about WoW the way I play it - so I thought I'd start one!

I'm in a guild, but it's not a raiding guild, and I don't think any of us wants it to be. It's lovely - made up of real-life friends, probably about 15 in total, not counting the ones who are still in the guild but haven't been online in months. (Needless to say there are a lot more than 15 characters.) So we may eventually make it to Karazhan, but other raids are unlikely. However, for various reasons I do still spend most of my time soloing, and it seems that a lot of this time ends up being spent doing things that most people might find a little odd. Hence the OCD part of the title. (I've never actually been diagnosed with OCD, but one of my best friends regularly accuses me of having it, and he may well be right....)

Anyway, while spending 12 straight hours on Saturday night doing my latest slightly insane thing, it occurred to me that there might be someone, somewhere, who might just find it useful to know what I know. Hence this blog. It's not intended to be authoritative in any way - I'm not a good enough player for that. I just want to share some experiences, and I plan to concentrate on the more unusual ones :-)

So - flight points. I've had a thing about these for ages. I'm a bit of a completist in general, as I'm sure I'll explain another time. With my first character (Santuzza) I collected the early flight points in the usual way, i.e. as I came upon them naturally. But I got unbelievably excited every time I found a new one - it was literally my biggest thrill in the whole game. (I should point out that my very favourite aspect of the game has always been exploring new areas, and finding a flight point was always the highlight of any exploration.) So I went in search of all the later ones at a much earlier level than was wise (I think I was almost level 40 at the time - I'm pretty sure I didn't have a mount). I was determined to be the first person in the guild to get all of them, but I said this to someone else (who's not in the guild any more - he quit the game not long afterwards), and he decided to try to beat me to it. Which, not surprisingly, he did, since he was level 50something at the time, which meant he was mounted and also had far fewer deaths! (I should point out that this was in 2005, so Outland flight points weren't on the list.)

Of course there's no reason why he shouldn't have done what he did, but I was absolutely devastated at the time. Silly, eh? But on all my characters since, I've been obsessed with collecting all the flight points at the earliest possible moment. But when is the earliest possible moment? Well, I'm glad you asked :p Clearly it is of course possible to start going after them at level 1, but even I'm not that insane. (In any case, the exploration would take you up several levels.) And going after them all at level 70, if for some bizarre reason you hadn't picked any up till then, would be extremely easy. I think the earliest possible moment to start is probably about level 15. I haven't tried it myself at that level, but I've tried starting at level 18, and that's what took me 12 hours the other night, with Gianetta. (I levelled to 20 in the process, but not all of that was exploration XP - I was doing the fire festival quests at the same time, and I got lots of XP for handing all those in.) (Iolanthe, Mabel and Katisha all did it at round about level 19-20, but the fire festival inspired me to try it slightly sooner wth Gianetta.) (Iolanthe is of course the only one of these to have all the Outland flight paths too, but she did get them all at level 60 rather than waiting! Madmargaret got all the Horde ones at about level 20 - that was exciting because they were all new to me!)

For those who've never tried this, I should probably explain why it takes so long. For a start, no mount, obviously, so you have to run a LOOOOOONG way. And, depending on where you're running, you're quite likely to get killed a lot, which means either corpse runs or judicious use of spirit healers (these are more use in some places than others, as I'll get to shortly). In some places you can run the whole way without being killed once, if you're lucky, whereas in other zones you literally get killed again as soon as you resurrect, so that it's only the resurrection radius that allows you to make any progress at all. Also, if you're a really good player who seldom dies (not like me!) you may not be aware that if you die repeatedly in a short time, after the first few times the game imposes a time delay (which increases each time - I think my highest ever is about 10 minutes) before you can rez again. I believe that the reason for this is to discourage people from doing exactly what I do :p Also, your armour becomes red REALLY quickly, particularly if you do use a spirit healer, and of course that means you die sooner, so it costs a lot in repair bills because you have to repair it every chance you get. Admittedly we're not talking much money at such low levels, but most of my characters have usually been broke (until, of course, I started making loads of gold in Outland and sending it back to them).

All of the above may seem fairly obvious, but what's probably LESS obvious is that there are some high-level zones that you can actually run straight through without dying at all, and some unexpectedly tricky lower-level ones. And there are some zones that are quite easy once you realise which is the best way for a low-level character to go, but almost impossible if you just try to run in a straight line. (Needless to say I do know exactly where all the flight points are, so it's not a case of searching for them.) For example, I imagine that most people would assume that the most difficult zones for a level 18 character to run through would be Silithus, Winterspring, EPL, WPL and Burning Steppes? Wrong. The hardest - by a LONG way - are Tanaris and Felwood. And this has been the case on all 5 characters I've tried this madness with, so it's not just because of the particular class involved.

I want to write about the strategies involved - plus WHY Tanaris and Felwood are the hardest - but this intro has ended up much longer than I expected, and I need to go out shortly. But I'll post again later, and explain further :-)