Previews

Yes, Part 2. There was just too much incredible power contained in this final entry for one post to handle.

To continue reading "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 18: All Good Things...", just click on the button below!

It's been a good run, from the lowbie days of setting evil creatures on fire right outside the Dark Portal to setting evil creatures on fire in the heart of Illidan Stormrage's stomping grounds. A fun run, a difficult run at times, and yes, an AWESOME run. The Mage They Call Jayne(z) finishes up his story with a bang, exploring the depths and recesses of the highest-level Burning Crusade zone: Shadowmoon Valley. And this time, he's not alone!

In "Death's Door," there's one of these portals... except it's open. It's active and glowing all blue, and there's a big-ass Eredar Highlord beside it. This does not bode well for the safety of the world (of Warcraft), now does it! But there are way too many demons infesting the place for me to land and see how hard the Highlord hits, so I take off for greener pastures.

I mean that quite literally, too. To Terokkar! And then, from Terokkar to the recently-opened Shadowmoon Valley!

While flying into Shadowmoon, I pass high into the mountains separating the two zones, and find a large city of the arakkoa birdmen, called Skettis. Hm. Interesting, and as near as I can tell, completely inaccessible if you lack a flying mount. I'd like to spend some more time in Skettis and see what's what, but there's no time! I'm running out of time! And I highly doubt that Blizzard will implement "Caverns of Time: The Impending Deadline" anytime soon.

...that's actually a really cool idea. How about it, Blue?

[I]GW: I think that's called 'Mt. Hyjal'. Anyone want to take a bet on how long it'll take to get the first person attuned?[I]

You know the drill, folks. Click on that little blue b utton below to read the final episode: "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 18: All Good Things..."

At last, the end of a journey! Today we bring the last adventures of Alyxandria, who takes her rightful place at last among the Horde and sheds the newbie title like a very worn out set of armor. (Or just hits level 20 and stops. It can go either way!)

In this second-to-last-but-really-last installment, the Mage They Call Jayne(z) faces the apocalypse. No, really, the apocalypse... it's the End of Beta, and the GMs are having a blast. So is he, come to think of it. Carnage and destruction abound, and it's totally nifty.

Yes, I'm aware that this is chronologically my last journal entry, as the events happen at the end of the beta. However, I feel that as awesome as this is, I've got another one written (that I'm just waiting on a certain something for) that's a much better send-off. So, just this once, we're gonna do this all mix-up-like. You with me? Sweet.

There was a forum post by everyone's favorite Ancient of Something-or-other, Tyren, warning us beta-testers about an impending "event," or somesuch. Anybody who'd heard about the last End of Beta event from the original WoW Beta knew what this meant... the end of the world! (Of Warcraft) As your faithful journalist, I decided to brave this apocalypse in order to bring news and pictures and stuff to you... one last time.

Only, it wasn't the last time, because there's still one more journal entry after this, but it really WAS the last time, because that was written before this one, but really it wasn't...

Okay, I'm done there.

Click that little button below and read "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 17: It's the End of the World As We Know It"!

This morning on Rogue Ramblings, we have the second half of yesterday's extensive report, coming home to Tranquillen, and reaching level 18.

Curious about the rest of the adventures? Try these:
Part 1 - Sunstrider Isle
Part 2 - Fairbreeze, Silvermoon, and Eastern Plaguelands
Part 3 - Ghostlands, mostly Tranquillen
Part 4 - Ghostlands, Eversong Forest
Part 5 - Ghostlands, reaching level 16
Part 6a - All over the map, and then some (the Sylvanas Quest Chain)

Where are we going today? Well, let's take a look into the question pile and see what we've got, first.

First up, pigziggy wants to know "when you ask the guy what the forsaken are doing here what does he say". Also, one of my friends wanted me to post a bit about the rep rewards you get from Tranquillen and where I'm at, rep wise. Here's the answer to those questions behind the link.

Now a proud, uber, level 70... The Mage They Call Jayne(z) puts his flying mount to the test! And then goes and kills lots of Blood Elves in various dungeons, while completely un-mounted. He did need his flying mount to get there, though...

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. Though I was level 70 and certainly had enough coin in my pocket to take to the skies... at the time, the beta build didn't include Shadowmoon Valley. Anyone who entered the Valley (crossing the bridge from Terrokar, or using Flight Form if they were a Drood) was immediately ported out. So, while there was flying mount content available to test, the mount vendors were in Shadowmoon-so no one could get one! The devs patched this by adding temporary vendors to Thrallmar and Honor Hold, although they would despawn after a server crash and had to be manually respawned by a GM.

I opened a ticket asking for them to be spawned, and a GM answered saying he would do so while I was in the middle of a Black Morass run. The GM in question then closed with the standard Blizzard response-except this one was punctuated by dancing Kirbies.

Best GM ever? You decide.

Click the button to read this (and more) in "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 16: Rock the Arcatrazbah"!

JR "Razor" Sutich has been playing Vanguard and delivers us his unique perspective on what he thought of SOE and Sigil's foray into the traditional high-budget MMORPG. Vanguard is made by the same folks who originally put forth EverQuest and entered Open Beta today.

Check out his article here.

Tell me, o muse, of that many-sided hero who traveled far and wide...

Today on Rogue Ramblings, we're headed far and wide as Alyxandria tackles one old quest, finds another one, chills out in the Ghostlands, and reaches level 16.

Today's task: clearing out some old quests, and bringing in some new ones. In the process of picking up a lot of new tasks, it occured to me that I should finish off some of the old ones, get some training, and perhaps find some upgrades to this armor of mine. I looked at my list to see how efficient I could be.

Today's adventures started out with visiting the A(r)mani trolls nearby to teach them something resembling lessons. Elune knows they've got nothing fashionable about them. At this level it is just right in terms of a challenge and should keep a soloing adventurer busy. Since that's not too interesting, head on behind the cut and see what other things everyone's favorite newbie rogue got into!

As he nears the top, The Mage They Call Jayne(z) does.... stuff. Cool stuff, I assure you. There's probably some deceit and trickery and treachery abounding, with a healthy, good old-fashioned dose of "SETTIN' STUFF ON FIRE!" thrown in.

Yeah.

When we last left off, I'd gotten my dungeon-crawl on in the max-level Hellfire Citadel, Coilfang Reservoir, and Auchindoun instances. Tons o' fun, and tons o' XP. When all was said and done, I found myself at a few bubbles into 69. Lots of rested XP, which was pretty damn nice. Still, I couldn't find many groups for dungeons... but thankfully, I had a log full of quests for Netherstorm, and I'd barely gotten started.

There's a fairly long quest line given by a High Elf Mage in Area 52 that I pick up. The High Elf, Ravandwyr, laments that his master-the Archmage Vargoth-had entrusted him with his staff and needed it to break free of his imprisonment in the Violet Tower (at this point in the chain, no information is given about why the master is imprisoned or what the hell the Violet Tower is, so I was just kinda going with the flow)... but because he was a n00b, he let the headpiece get stolen by a big bad demon chick! Silly elf.

So, he asks me to go get the headpiece from these demon-infested ruins. Dammit, I hate demon-infested ruins! I've also got a quest to go to the same ruins and teleport some stolen equipment back to the goblins, though, so I decide its worth my while.

Click the button below to check out "The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 15: Eye of the (Stranglethorn) Tiger"!

When last we left our exploring rogue, she was on the way to boldly trekking where no level eight should go - The Ghostlands.

Why, why would we do this? To see if we can, of course!

On the trek to level 70, our valiant and sarcastic hero decides to hit the dungeons to get him some of that sweet, sweet rested elite XP. Mmm... XP a la mode. Tastes great with sprinkles.

...sorry, where was I? Oh, right.

I was doing my quest thang in Netherstorm when a guildie asked "Hey, we need one more for Steam Vaults, right at the first boss... anyone interested?" I think about it... sure, why the hell not. Good XP, good experience. Maybe some good lewts, too! So I say I'm in, and fly to Zangarmarsh. But then I remember that meeting stones can summon, and so they summon me. Huh, that was pretty efficient. Time to get my Steam Vault on!

It's really not clear what Lady Vashj and the Naga are up to, to tell the truth. In Hellfire Citadel, you see that Kargath Bladefist and the Fel Horde are making more Fel Orcs via the blood of Magtheridon. Each wing of Auchindoun has its own separate story, with the renegade Ethereals to the Sethekk civil war to the evil Draenei Death Priests (and the Shadow Labs, but that's later!) ... even Tempest Keep... well, we know that Kael'thas is siphoning the mana from the Twisting Nether for something-presumably to turn into Magic Crack.

But, unless I've severely missed something, it seems like Lady Vashj and Company are just draining the marshes in Zangarmarsh... uh, just because they can.

Check out the Steam Vaults and more by clicking the button below and reading:

"The Mage They Call Jayne(z), Part 14: Brought to You By the Letter "S""

"Do your dreams change? Mine do not. I have one dream..."

Welcome to adventure two, or "How I stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb." My dream today? Finish a few quests.