Another WoW-version? Surely I don't have time....

A More as a month ago, in the middle of my vacation, I think I was in the Republic of Ireland at that time, Innovation killed Sarkareth HC. Well done. Last week 4 weeks ago, I also got my AotC, still needed a good 6 pulls for the kill. And at this moment Innovation is on a break till next Raid, something with the Emerald Dream,

I did play some WoW during vacation. Mostly leveling, getting pets from the Fyrakk-thingie, but nothing that would keep me glued to the PC for along time. And then, something happened during my last week in Wales. Stories started to creep in of something new... well new.. I heard of it before, but now it was Blizzard-sanctioned. World of Warcraft: Classic :  Hardcore had started. And I was like... naah, don't have time for that...  

I posted this on the last day of August on the Innovation-Discord:

And this is now:

Of those original 16, only Mardah the Hunter has died, I was stupid enough to try the Cave just above Dolanaar.. didn't made it out, I learned 2 lessons there.

1. If it feels unsafe, it is unsafe.

2. Don't keep stacks of stuff on a char while questing. Mardah had about 100 Light Leather on her when she died. So I am definitely using a bank alt now (the 2 new chars on the list).

And Ealfreda, Forsaken Priest died due to Undercity-lift glitch. I actually waited till it was up again , walked in, but between arriving and going down, there was like 1 second delay, not enough to fully be on it.. so.. yeah.. lesson learned, never use lift on higher chars. Not much was lost.

Aelfreda falls to her death in the glitching Undercity Elevators

Mardah started over again, Aelfreda was replaced by Wemko, Troll Priest.

As you can see, some chars seem to be pulling ahead of the pack. On Alliance, not surprisingly, it is Gowron the human paladin. Three weeks ago on the Horde, it was surprisingly, Ynyrs, Troll Warrior, who also already had some very close calls. But now Lurge and Luaran caught up. This is mostly because last weekend, the EU server Stitches went awry.

Luckily I had some pre-warning, the night before, Gowron was getting the FP's in Feralas and Tanaris, and I had a worldlag just before I stepped on the lift down... I also had some long disembarking-times from the flightpaths. So, the next morning I decided to level some lower level alts to 10 when the server completely died, an estimated 800 characters also died. My Deathlog suddenly went mad and within 10 seconds I got 40 messages, and it continued for a while.

The Purge on Stitches-EU

On gearing, my mentality is a little bit different on HC, especially about leveling and weapons. As example Gowron, although he did have a 2H mace from the lvl12 yeti-kill quest in Dun Morogh, but at level 17 I was able to buy a lvl17 2H-axe of the boar (Stam/Strength) for about 30s with a sell value of 20s. Most of paladins damage come from auto-attack. I don't remember buying much on the AH for lower levels back in the day, but now... well death is death.

And for the leveling.. Gowron actually leveled to 10 in Elwyn Forest. But the rest of my alts have become more cautious. Doing 2 lvl 1-6 starterzones first, and after that going back and forth between zones to do... 'easier' quests, like 2 levels below own level most of the time.

Gowron going for some Candle... also note the deathlog

As mentioned before, my Horde characters are getting some playtime now, I am not trusting Stitches at the moment. So this weekend I played mage and hunter mostly. The Classic HC Hunter Guide on Wowhead has a funny bit. It recommends getting an Owl or Vulture as pet because of Screech. This ability does some ST damage and lowers the melee-damage for up to 4 mobs, so it has a high aggro ability, that seems helpfull, BUT... the guide fails to mention that the first bird that actually has that ability, and the only one with Rank1, is the Greater Fleshripper, lvl 16/17 in Westfall....

So, as Alliance, for the first few levels, you'd better get a boar, mostly because it eats everything, the birds only eat meat. For the Horde it gets more interesting. Getting to Westfall at that level is, well, difficult and not recommended for Hard Core I would say, so your first option for the bird is at level 32 in the Thousand Needles where the Salt Flats Vulture has Screech R2. So.. yeah... again, get a Boar, eats everything.

Luaran with her new Pet Boar, Stan.