It's Another Flying Post - Pre-Legion Edition

I made a disclaimer earlier that I'm purposefully keeping myself ignorant to announced Legion features. If I say a thing or things that have already been discussed, announced, explained, or debunked, that is because I intentionally did not research this topic. My reasoning can be summarized by saying that I don't want to spoil the game before it even comes out. My reasoning can be lengthily explained by this particular blog post. Please excuse me and any accidental uneducated nonsense.

Blizzard decided to enter into Warlords without allowing flying. They nudged at maaaybe adding it later, only to kind of backhandedly "announce" in a random article somewhere that they maybe might not be adding it back to the game ever probably most likely. Of course, throughout the entire debacle, people were very fervently internet-campaigning about it, and this just took the cake. I mean, if you somehow missed the whole thing, you must have left mid-Mists or earlier and just come back to the Warcraft community scene like, yesterday.

actual depiction of pro-flying protest rally

Everyone was writing about flying, so I tried to keep my posts about it to a minimum. My first two posts were before they had announced that flying would be back, where I ended the second stating I was sorry and wouldn't write anymore flying posts. Then I made a third one when they made the decision to add flying, insincerely apologizing for lying about not writing another flying post. Knowing better this time around, I did not, in fact, promise to not write about flying again, so here we are!

Jungles, Shipyards, and Orcs Oh My

So 6.2 came out yesterday. This was me, today, on Wednesday.

zeroed in on the druid changes

Yesterday, I went on a day trip and played MH4U, forgetting there was a huge patch. So, I dove in today.

I updated my addons, - except for Master Plan since it wasn't updated and doesn't work and my life is in shambles - half assed some of my garrison chores, and built a shipyard. I'm killing orcs in Tanaan Jungle, and vaguely remembering that there was something about being able to fly.

pigeons?

I didn't read up a lot on the new patch. Honestly, I haven't been keeping up to date with what's coming in and going out in patches for awhile. This is the biggest patch of Warlords so far, and here is an exhaustive list of what I knew about it before today:

• A meta-achievement to grant flying but apparently not yet or something
• Timewalking and relevant weekends (which I wrote about)
• Tanaan Jungle, supposedly kinda like Timeless Isle
• New raid instance
• Shipyards are a thing

Funnily enough, I've really been looking forward to 6.2. Not for anything in particular really, since I haven't been paying that much attention, but for a dive into some (hopefully) exciting new content.

Flying's Back, Alright

Well, I honestly didn't think they'd do it. I also realize I lied about not doing another flying post, but I feel like this is a monumental decision and there are some words I'd like to put all in a row about it. 

If you're late on the uptake like me, who was very confused to hear people talking about flying in Draenor yesterday, Blizzard has made a concession to bring flying to Draenor. That's right, everybody!

Backstreet's back! wait

The way they have decided to implement flying into Draenor is to award it to you, account wide, after you've accomplished a meta-achievement that requires you do a ton of stuff in Draenor on foot, first.

The way this change has been implemented is getting a wide variety of praise, complaints, death threats, and the rest of the usual - but let me tell you why it's absolutely perfect.

Pucking the Fug Up

While I've been pretty content to show up to some friend's guild raids and do casual stuff while I decide where I am in life and whether it's even a good idea to find a new serious guild right now, my elitist itch came back for awhile when I realized I would be locked out of [Ahead of the Curve: Blackhand's Cruicible] if I didn't down him before 6.2, which is currently in PTR and could come out any second now.

or like in a few months

I had some decent luck with doing pugs before, back when my guild was busy not doing any content, so I didn't think much of it until I realized that this was the final boss of the tier that I had done twice in LFR and never had any legitimate practice with.

I read up on the fight and I was relatively familiar with it, so I figured if I could just sneak into a pug that wasn't already asking for the achievement, I could just stay off the radar by not dying and just doing the dps thing I do until one of the groups I joined was good enough that we downed the boss.

Unfortunately for me, there is a niche mechanic that balance druids are known for being very good at, so I kept getting volunteered by other people who had no idea that I was unfamiliar with the fight. If I said I didn't know the fight or tried to talk them out of it, I'd probably be removed immediately anyway, so I opted to just try my best.

can't we just ask them nicely to stop throwing things

My best wasn't very good. For the first time in my life, I was removed from a pug for under performing.

Rep Grinds - Better With Friends!

I'm kind of into farming reptuations

With Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard wanted to move away from the reputation grinds gated behind dailies. You were only able to raise your reputation with a faction a certain amount per day, as there wasn't anything else you could do. No repeated turn ins, no farmable mobs, just dailies. A few reputations were farmed with mobs of course, like Black Prince rep and Emperor Shaohao (which wasn't added until later). They added a few other things, like championing a faction to give you bonus rep when doing a random dungeon, but for the most part you could only do a little bit a day.

Prove It

During Mists, we saw the introduction of the proving grounds. At the time, it was just a way to show off and get some extra achievement points, as it had no actual purpose. In Warlords, they made passing silver proving grounds required to queue for heroic dungeons.

Before we even had it implemented in action, I saw a lot of praise for this decision.

"Oh, this will keep out bad players!"

Not exactly.

Pet Battling: Getting Started

plus you can name all your pets after pokemon

While there is a little something for everyone in World of Warcraft, pet battling is something most people tend to either love or hate.

Maybe you dislike pet battling or actively avoid it, but would still like to collect pets and earn achievements - for example [Crazy for Cats] for "the Crazy Cat Lady/Man" title.

Maybe you're just at the end of your rope for things to do until Warlords of Draenor releases.

Crazy for Cats

Today is Caturday - but with a twist! I'm featuring [Crazy for Cats] the achievement that gives you the title "the Crazy Cat Lady/Man". Please read the entire guide before starting to plan out which cats you plan on shooting for as they are obtained through a myriad of methods - some of them very cheap and simple, some of them expensive, rare, or very involved.

but is she a crazy cat lady or a crazy cat-lady?

"Murder Ten Billion Beastmen to Earn My Favor" - Emperor Shaohao, basically

I recently became exalted with Emperor Shaohao and earned my Heavenly Golden Cloud Serpent. I wanted this mount because, while it is attainable by everyone, it's still pretty rare. I have only ever seen another player with one once.

It's understandable because it required a lot of patience and repetition, but it was actually one of the most fun things I did this expansion. I highly enjoyed the fact that this mount could become mine with just time and effort.

I didn't have to get lucky on a drop (I actually have had the Thundering Onyx Cloud Serpent drop twice - I still have the other one in my priest's bags), I didn't have to win a roll over my guildmates, and I didn't have to pay 25 dollars. I just had to keep killing Ordon - for seemingly ever. And so that's what I did.