Tiger's Travels: Ahn'Qiraj - Part One

One of my favorite things to do in Azeroth (and the Outland) is explore. Sure I like the shiny loot and the joy of downing that difficult boss, but there is something amazing about experiencing a new place for the first time. Tiger's Travels will document some of the cooler areas in the World of Warcraft with some fun screenshots as well. If you want to see something let me know and I'll do my best to get there and take some great screenshots. As you will see here... that will probably include me dying.

Like I've said before, my guild is very VERY casual - some of the coolest people ever. I wonder if we ever do start raiding, will we stay chill? That's why some of us don't even want to start raiding. We'll see.

Anyway, the reason I brought up my Guild's raid status, is that because we DON'T raid, I have been unable to see a few areas in the game. So when my good hunter friend and Guild Officer (and Crazy Aussie!) asked me if I wanted to go check out Ahn'Qiraj - I jumped at the chance (literally jumped off my Nether Ray and almost plummeted to my death but Druids have instant flight form, so I was saved!) and hopped on a flight and a boat and a flight to Silithus.

Now for those of you who don't know, (and I was one of those people who didn't know just the other day) there are two raid instances in Ahn'Qiraj. The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20 person raid) and The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40 person raid). Neither of them get a lot of lovin, since the Burning Crusade came out before people could really delve into the content. At least that's the way it seems to me.

The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj

What little I saw of this reminded me a lot of a variation on Zul'Farrak but with lots of bugs instead of trolls. Please keep in mind that those two big mean looking baddies are pretty much as far as we saw. Two 70's (a Hunter and a Feral Druid) aren't much of a match against 62 Elites that hit for 2700 non-crits (3500 when unarmored). Sidenote here - I don't quite get how I can solo a lvl 70 elite Dragon in Netherstorm (that guy was cake) and a lvl 72 elite Tree Ancient in Skettis (too easy) but 2 70s go down pretty quickly against 2 of these guys... That's why it's a RAID right?

Still... we weren't satisfied with our little piece of the ruins that we saw, so we decided to do a mad dash in our skivvies to see a bit more. The pictures: (click to expand)

Charge!!

Woohoo I passed 'em!

And almost immediately died... You can see that Stajker made it a bit further...

Oh look! There's the entrance...
Wait a minute...

*Sigh* Well it was interesting to see what to expect from the Ruins.

I kind of like my parting screenshot...

Death... It's only part of life, right? At least I didn't have a huge repair bill! :)

Next time... Part Two: The Temple

Holy Cow!

Actually, Tauren can't be Paladins or Priests... is that even possible? Had I said "Holey Cow" then that is definitely possible, I know because I put a bunch of holes in plenty of them last night in AB! (Daily BG - otherwise I don't go in there unless I have to anymore!)

Anyway, the reason for bringing to mind such a saintly bovine term is because Phaelia over at Resto4Life has actually included Tigersoul's Teeth on her "Blogroll Possibilities" list! Woohoo! Thanks! Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade from the "Possibilities" list to actually on the blogroll. I'm not holding my breath right now because there is still so much room for me to grow until I'm worthy of that honor.

It really is true that Druids must have a rabbit form, with all these blogs popping up like mad. I must warn you however, that there are even more druids than that - so be careful what you say in front of wildlife. Bugs, Trees, birds, housepets - even some of the more advanced tree-types can even turn into processed woods, like your desk! Or your door! So - be aware. Big Bear is watching...

Why Do I Enjoy Playing Feral Druid?

First off, I want to say that Blog Azeroth is an amazing resource for WoW Bloggers, and I may say Bloggers in general. To be honest... I signed up for an account there before I had even set up this WoW blog!! So if you blog, go sign up and check it out! It's amazing!

Siha of the Banana Shoulders made a "Shared Topic Challenge" to answer the following:

"Q: What do you enjoy about the class you play the most?"

So why do I enjoy the Feral Druid class?

Big Cats are amazing powerful beasts. Very cool. I like them. Especially tigers. Hence the name.

Initially Tigersoul was a Hunter, because he could tame one of those cute little tigers in Darnassus, but then I thought to myself, "Why TAME a tiger when you can BE one!" So I typed DELETE in that little box and started over. After playing the character for almost a year, spending a lot more time exploring than leveling, I discovered more and more reasons to LOVE playing a Druid. The number one reason is the forms. Talk about (almost)ultimate survivability! Especially once I got it through my thick fur-covered skull that the Bear was my friend and not just slow and dumb! If I don't kill it fast enough as the dark kitty, I can change into a big bad bear (oh how I LOVE insta-shift from recent patches!!) and Tank the snot out of those mobs until they die of exhaustion, OR if my shift into Night Elf while casting Barkskin and healing like crazy isn't enough, I can turn into a cheetah to the point where I leave combat and fly into the sky in a flurry of dark feathers! Too much fun! I like the "Hybrid" classes to be able to do a bit of everything - but the cat, bear, travel, aquatic and flight forms are what make it SO enjoyable for me.

So that is the simple version of why I like Druids.

I do however, wish that feral druids were a bit more viable in the Arenas... Somehow even though when in World PVP or BGs I kick butt - in the Arenas I'm often at the bottom. :(

Netherwing

Now that I have Artisan Flight and can zip around on my Silver Riding Nether Ray, I made my way down into Shadowmoon Valley to the Dragonmaw area to do the Netherwing Dailies. I have a feeling this is going to take me quite a long time to get my rep high enough for a Dragon...

But in the end, I will be MORE than pleased with Swift Flight Form! I'm on the final leg of the quest, the hardest part, killing Anzu the Raven God. LONG quest up to this one. I was fortunate to have Chalen my mage friend with me which made killing the bird spirits a lot faster. I definitely wouldn't have been able to handle that last bird - and he was happy to see 7k crits against him!

New Goals:
- Swift Flight Form - Finish the final quest. Finding a group will be quite fun I'm sure.
- Kara Attunement - Even though we are not a raiding guild, I want to get this done.
- Consortium Rep - I want Haramad's Bargain sooner than later for DPS gear.
- Cenarion Expedition Rep - I lust after the Earthwarden.
- Silverthorne to 40 - That guy needs a horse - and the ability to level up Enchanting more (although I need to get him to 55 or so to be a really useful enchanter I guess!)

And I also want to improve my blog by adding all the amazing blogs I've been reading to my blogroll and allow the wowhead tooltips to show up here on blogspot. One step at a time I guess!

Epic Flight - Artisan Riding Skill

Joy of Joys after a LONG time farming and grinding and doing Skettis and Ogri'la dailies... I finally trained Artisan Riding. Thanks to those who put up with me and helped me out in my obsessive endeavor. Now to finish the Swift Flight Form Quest(s) - which means getting the final 200 Lower City rep I need to get the Heroic Auchindoun key...

Then I'm going after a dragon!

I think I need to write a post about the Swift Flight Form Quest. Good idea.

A Feral Druid on Dragonmaw with lots of Cousins

Greetings World! (of Warcraft)
















With so many excellent World of Warcraft blogs out there (especially Druid blogs wow! I mean WoW!!) I'm surprised that I am actually starting this blog this late in the game. But I need to write - basically make myself write - and like many, why not write about something that I enjoy like World of Warcraft?

I started playing about a year ago on a PvE server (Thrall - Tauren Shaman: Bullfist) and levelled up to lvl 43 (yeah haven't played him in a LONG time). A friend in my Guild there convinced me to reroll on a PvP server, and that's how we ended up on Dragonmaw in April of 2007.

I didn't think I'd like PvP because I'm really a nice person, and "Ganking" bothers me... But it sucked me in and now there is no way I can go back. Revenge is pointless in real life - it really doesn't do much good for anybody... but Boy, OH BOY, is revenge SWEET in World of Warcraft! Maybe this game ISN'T that good for me...