Thoughts on Warlords of Draenor, (War)crafts & The Future

Anyone who follows this blog has probably noticed that I kind of dropped off the radar recently, and for various reasons. The first is that my little girl, who was born this past April, is becoming increasingly mobile. That being said, I've been spending a lot less time around the computer. Apparently for me less computer time doesn't necessarily mean less WoW related time though. I've whipped out my clay and art supplies and have been working on some Warcraft themed art!

Then, as much as I love WoW, I hate to admit that I have been a little bored in game over the past few weeks/months, only logging on to level battle pets and finish my weekly Celestial Tournament. I have however, been spending more time playing Hearthstone, and I have to say - for a game I thought I'd have no interest in, it has me hooked!

Blizzcon 2013 & Warlords of Draenor Reaction:

Oh how I wish I could have gone to Blizzcon this year. So many wonderful members of the community meeting in one place, the energy, excitement, all of the eye-popping cosplay - let me tell you, I watched my twitter feed feverishly the whole weekend. Had teleporters existed, and I had a free and trustworthy babysitter fall from the sky, I would have been there in a heartbeat! Ah well, hopefully I'll catch the next one.

I'm sure most people weren't too shocked about the announcement for the next expansion with all of the rumors being tossed around the interwebs beforehand. It was a title that just felt right when I first read it, and I was hoping that it wasn't just a rumor. Personally, I can't wait for it. I haven't been this excited about a new xpac since Wrath of the Lich King. It will be so wonderful to see some new life brought back to this game. Maybe I can even talk the hubby into playing with me again!

On the Instant Level 90:

Neverending Spritewood & Scary Sprites

I'm sure by now that most of this post will probably be old news, but hopefully some of you will find some tips I'll be sharing useful in snagging yourself a Dandelion Frolicker pet sooner rather than later.

Take a look at the screenshot below. This is the tree just east of Old Pi'Jiu with the Nice Sprites frolicking merrily around its base. See those purple crystals in the shot? Those are Neverending Spritewood Crystals. There are four of them - all are pictured in the screenshot below. I am showing you all four in one shot so that you can see exactly where each spawns from one vantage point. They cannot and will not spawn in at the same time. 

 

Spawn Time:

On the ptr, and when patch 5.4 went live, the spawn time on the crystals was about an hour. It has since been stealthily changed to about 15 minutes. Which crystal will spawn in next is completely random.

The Crystal "Daily":

You can only interact with the Neverending Spritewood Crystal once per day, per toon. Once you have completed the event, you can see the crystal when it spawns in again, but you will not be able to interact with it. Those of you with more than one level 90 can farm for this pet on multiple toons. I've been farming it daily on three toons myself.

The Fight:

Moonfang

I don't know about you all, but I've been having a blast so far since patch 5.4 hit. The Timeless Isle is where I've been spending most of my time. Between killing rares for pets, and pet battling for the Celestial Tournament, I have a hard time leaving that place! I've also been driving myself crazy in Proving Grounds on several of my toons trying for the gold. /Shakes fist at waves 9 & 10!

Whatever you've been keeping busy with over the past few weeks -- that's not all of the new content this patch has to offer. This weekend when the Darkmoon Faire floats back from wherever it disappears off to for the rest of the month, we'll have a chance to fight the new boss there - Moonfang!

Now unlike the Darkmoon Rabbit, Moonfang doesn't just spawn in out of the blue. She will only appear after many other (lesser) wolves have been slain throughout the forest. Killing enough non-elite level 89-90 Moonfang Snarlers, will cause a handfull of elite Moonfang Dreadhowls to spawn. The Dreadhowls are more difficult to kill and have a lot more health, but they are soloable. Killing these will eventually lure Moonfang out of her "den". Moonfang spawns right near the "corpse tree" just north of the fairgrounds. I marked the location on the map below. Her spawn timer is roughly an hour.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms Rares - Patch 5.4

It's no secret that the Vale of Eternal Blossoms has become one heck of a mess and quite a bit has changed in patch 5.4. I'm not sure however, if people realize how all of these changes have effected the rares in this zone - and that they've added new rares (sort of).

Rare Champions:

The eight rares required for the Glorious! achievement, Major Nanners, Yorik Sharpeye, etc, have not really been effected. Every one of them (minus Sahn Tidehunter who moved in patch 5.3) are in the exact same locations as they were at the beginning of MoP. The only major difference you'll notice with them, is that their surroundings got uglied up.

"New" Rares in the Vale:

Before the Vale got all funked up, people working on Golden Lotus rep could get credit for killing powerful enemies at the end of a long arduous line of dailies each day. Although there were sixteen of them, only a few were available to kill on any particular day. All of these powerful enemies were (and still are) required for the achievement One Many Army.

All sixteen of these "powerful enemies" still exist within the Vale, but they have changed drastically. First and foremost, they have been made rare! Well, I should say "rare". Like just about everything these days they are on fairly short spawn timers. You no longer have to wait days to see one either, all of them can (and will) show up every day - yay! It is also worth noting that they will all spawn in during a server restart.

Another important little detail is that many (but not all) of them have moved. I marked all sixteen of these fledgling rares with bright pink stars on the map below. Several of them spawn in caves/underground, and I have noted that on the map as well. If you scroll down below the map, I also have screenshots of each of them in their new locations.

What you get from killing them:

Timeless Isle Treasure

Anyone who has spent a bit of time on my blog should know that I love a good treasure hunt. From hunting down treasure chests across Azeroth on my Ironman toons, to looking for Troves of the Thunder King on the Isle of Thunder. I LOVE treasure! Well, I have to say I am in treasure heaven on the Timeless Isle!

Timeless Isle is loaded with so much treasure that there are actually multiple achievements associated with finding different kinds of treasure. Extreme Treasure Hunter, Where There's Pirates, There's Booty and Treasure, Treasure Everywhere are what I'll be covering in this post.

I have marked treasure spawn locations for all three achievements on the map below. Extreme Treasure Hunter chest locations are marked with bright green stars. Where There's Pirates, There's Booty spawns are marked with light blue stars. Treasure, Treasure Everywhere chests are marked with circles - with different colors indicating different types of chests. Skip below the map for more specific information on each achievement.

Timeless Isle Treasure Map (Click to Enlarge)

Treasure, Treasure Everywhere:

Yeah, it really is everywhere on this Island. I think I even stubbed my toe on a few of those Moss-Covered Chests. Seriously, those things are just all over the place.

Actually, there are 34 of them. However you only need to find 17 for the achievement. You will also need to find 4 sturdy chests, 2 Smoldering Chests, 1 Skull-Covered Chest, and the greatest chest of them all: the Blazing Chest.

I marked each of these chests on the map above, coded by color.

Timeless Isle Rares (Timeless Champion)

The Timeless Isle is chock full of rares. There are probably more rares packed onto this little island than anywhere else in the game. It even has all sorts of fun rare events, treasure chests, things to explore, you name it! For the purposes of this post however I will only be covering the elite and non-elite silver dragons.

Achievements:

Thirty-one of these rares are required for the achievement: Timeless Champion. (One of them that I am including in this post is not part of it, but still a silver dragon.) The items that these rares can drop are also a part of the achievement Going To Need A Bigger Bag. They aren't kidding either, we seriously need some new bags with like 50 slots for this place. That, or bottomless bags with no limit.

Loot & Tapping:

As I had mentioned in the Timeless Isle Preview post I did several weeks back, these rares have the same tapping system as the Isle of Thunder rares. You do not need to be grouped with other players to obtain loot when killing these guys. Even faction doesn't matter. As long as you participate by hitting them, you will be able to loot them. Although anyone can tap and loot, actual loot received will vary by person.

Each rare will drop several Timeless Coins. More difficult rares seem to drop more coins. They all have a chance to drop "Timeless" gear such as Timeless Leather Leggings, and also Burden of Eternity (a very nice item that will turn those leather leggings I just linked into an item level 535 item instead of 496.) Each of them also has a small chance to drop different items that the rare Pandarian Champions drop such as Big Bag of Herbs, Battle Horn, etc. Many of these rares have their own unique loot as well. As you scroll down through this post, you can see which items drop from each rare.

Finding Them:

Now as far as finding these rares - you'll probably easily stumble into more than half of them by just running around and exploring the Isle. When one is nearby you will see a small skull marked on your mini-map. I've done my best trying to make a map of where to find them all that wasn't totally funked up and as easy to read as possible. With this many rares that was not an easy task!

So anyway, here is the map below. For a more precise description of where you can find any one of these rares just scroll down through the post for that particular rare. Next to each rare I have written out more specifically where they can be found.

Map of all rares needed for Timeless Champion Achievement (Click to Enlarge)

 

(To see an even larger image of this map you can also right click the image and view it in another tab. From there you should be able to zoom even further.)

I have screenshots of all of these rares below, and because there were just so many of them I decided to group them by location starting off the coast and then moving inland. To the right of many of the rares I have also included screenshots of their special drops. (There were a couple of drops that I was not able to get before running out of time. I will add those pictures to this post when I receive them or when I can bother someone who has those items!)