Today I set out in Hyjal again to try to get my rep up a bit.  On the way over there I noticed this giant tornado, and you can see trees, and I swear I saw a cow or two, swirling around in it.

And I know I already did this quest, but rogues are funny, I love it!

Later on in the chain I become neutral to the cult ogre things here when an image of me comes out of the torches thingies and declares me master.

When I head back to Royce Duskwhisper I note a classic line of “Good work, very good, I supposed that’s a valuable lesson:  Never to take orders from a big purple ball.” LOL

The “Save the Wee Animals” and their wee little friends quest was funny too.  You scoop up the woodland critters out of the burning forest then lead a deer back to safety. Well, deers.

Then this guy, he’s just trouble.

After the quest chain ends, as far as I can tell, with freeing an evil satyr looking thing, I head out to Twilight Highlands on the advice of Janusz on getting more exp.  I some how let a dwarf convince me to be shot in a cannon up to a ship, amoung other things.   Then I head out to a boat where the crew are taken in by some kind of Siren coming out of the water.

and almost all of the crew suffer poor side effects from that.

A few more quests in and I’m at around 60% to 85.

I decide to queue for WG, and get in with 4 other people.  For the first 10 minutes, NOTHING happens.  I don’t see any other players, horde or alliance.   It makes me quite sick to see this place so empty.  We end up  beating back the few horde that did show up, and take down the towers and win.  Still, I miss mass pvp here a lot.

I continue with my questing in Twilight Highlands and queue for a dungeon and get VP.  It is a guild group run and we do pretty ok, but they post recount stats constantly and analyze it Leroy Jenkins-like after each pull.

After that it’s back to questing and I help put out the fires at Firebeard’s Patrol.

and pick some mementos out of the fire.

I then run a very very slow Stonecore, and two people die at the giant boss, because they weren’t avoiding the slam, but slowly we finish it.  I end at 76% and I’m too tired to finish tonight.

I figured I may as well level the mage a LITTLE bit, so I head out to Hyjal just to look around but get hooked into several quests right away.

I kill some cultists, fire elementals, nearly get destroyed by a level 83 elite in a forest, etc.  I end up taking this night elf captive, and bringing him through the emerald dream (I believe that’s what the haze is) to a dragon who brings him to a safer place.

A few more quests in I get to ride the Spirit of Goldrinn, which is explained as an animals hunt instrict, also called “Lo’gosh” (which Varian was called by the dirty horde)

I also run into this fellow, who turns out to be a rogue.  Only a rogue, would get himself into such a situation XD

Of course he stealths and tells me to fight the ogres and he will not, and just follow me.  Well, I always did say I wanted to be flanked by a stealthed rogue but that was more about my protection than providing theirs.  What can you do?

The cave I was in at that point kept spawning Obsidium on a somewhat regular basis, and I got at least 4 nodes in there.  They are not nice nodes like Saronite was though, you normally get nothing but ore and only 2-3 at a time.  Sometimes you’ll get Volatile Earth but rarely.

As I was out questing I picked up a total of 3 stacks of this ore, but had to break out many of my old tricks to get it.  Such as, going invisible to get past aggro and mining, blinking and running like hell, or popping mirrors which focuses the mobs aggro, going invisible to drop my aggro, then mining and running like hell.  People were getting nodes almost as soon as they spawned, so flying around looking for it didn’t work as well as just questing in an area and being close to it when it spawns.

I also fly to Uldum and pick up nearly a stack of Elementium and yes again, you must pick it up nearly soon as it spawns or someone else will get it.  In fact if you just stand there after you mine something, you’ll have 2-3 people drop on you shortly after. It’s just as bad as herbing.

I hit 81, and get access to the new fire orb spell.  I may switch my arcane spec, which is still boring, to fire I think.

I FINALLY get that blasted naga quest done.  None of the comments on wowhead, helped at all.  The problem was, they tell you to defend the bridge, and there is only one doorway, so naturally one would assume you need to go out that door and defend THAT bridge.  No, you have to go out that door, travel completely around to the side of the thing where there is no door, and fight with the naga there.  Maybe I’m just stupid, but it makes little sense to direct a players attention to the open door where attackers are streaming in, then expect them to head away from that to another area.

Maice helped me with that one.  A lot of people you ask are fond of saying “read the quest” but good pointers involve catching and explaining things that may be overlooked.

After that I get to take my trip on the submarine, after being briefly on the surface…

and witnesss a CRAZY battle with a freakishly large octopus thing which I gape at and hit print screen far too late.  It was amazing in full motion.

and this well, this is just an extremely rare sighting of a FEMALE DWARF.

and going along those lines, this is just a funny dwarf displaying usual humorous dwarven dialog. Which, yes, I didn’t save but I’m sure it’s on [url=http://www.wowhead.com/npc=41910#comments]wowhead[/url].

This morning I log back into the cave, then head out to get my quests.  I find Budd, from yesterday, in a diving suit with a quest available.  Apparently he is still looking for “Shinies”!

The quests I am working on today involve more salvaging and helping people survive underwater.

This was a good one though, baiting explosives into food and blowing up a GIANT SHARK.

Apparently seeing how the bomb didn’t kill the shark is not putting off this guy though and he wants me to risk myself to get whatever he’s going after. The quest name is DUN-dun-DUN-dun-DUN-dun.. lol  I run out with a chain and catch the shark, then fire a giant harpoon at it.

Unfortunately now Budd is a bit… thinner.

but we break the item he had while he “looks the other way” and he’s back to normal.  Apparently it was cursed.

Then it’s off to use a scrying thing to find Private Pollard and you get a preview of how to get where he is, only it’s quite a distances from where you are.

After that I get to ride  SHARK to eat naga, wonderful!

Later on I rescue the soldiers bubbled by the naga…

fight the naga warden….

and get to see an awesome vision with a (damn) troll

and fight off swarms of naga

also once in a while a giant wave washes over the cave I am in, and the effect in motion is AWESOME. It also blows everyone BACK.

Then I get to mow down fleeding naga with a spear!  I tried to get a good picture of that but it didn’t work out.  But it was massively fun!

This quest involved running around to air sources, which bubbled up from various places, and filling this balloon up.

This one is just me killing a bunch of cool eel things.  My priest, oddly enough, does better at surviving melee damage than my mage.  Of course I am running around in my more defensive “pvp” disc spec too.

The rest of these, were just beautiful, absolutely amazing.

and this last one is me using Mind Vision on Kolorath, a giant boss that floats around randomly.  Level 85 elite.

A funny quest I did later, involved setting down a whirlwind and the swarming serpents get caught up in it, twirled around then die. I like that, creative.

Oh, and this item, it’s just funny.

So ! I got my Cata box, licensed up and logged in to play.

AWWWWW!

I get in then chill out at the docks waiting for a boat, listening to the Stormwind Soldiers talking, with real voices, about the visit Deathwing made to the area.

And the NPC Budd, hilarious, dude, really. Love it!  And Mack Fearson, really, omg.  Fun already and I haven’t even done anything!  Bud leaps off the ship after a “shiny” LOL

Then some tentacles pop out of the water, grab me, throw me around and I sink unconcious into the water.  One of those earthen defenders show up and bubble me to safety.

and I go out and do the same thing for the drowning people.

The first armor quest I get, doesn’t have a single reward I can use.  Mail, Leather, and an axe. Bogus.

After a few quests we do one where we try to defend the ship, and a gol DANG naga takes me captive.

When I get dropped off I’m tasked with riding a sea turtle, only shortly after I get it, a Shark eats it out from underneath me. DAMN.

The Giblin (yes, like that) Collectors say funny things too like “What’s it got in its pockets? Hmm?” which is vaguely from The Hobbit. This whole area feels quite a bit like a new launch of a game, with people swiping every herb I see pop up, every quest item, before I can even get there.

Then I subdue an angry sea horse and receive it as a mount.

I take a quest where I find out if a smugglers cove is safe for someone, signal them to come in then finish the quest.

I also rescue the funny guy from earlier, Mack Fearson,  and the captain. I really, really hate to pry myself away from the game though, and go to bed XD