Monday 28th June 2021

This week was supposed to be my week off.

The original plan was to have The Accursed complete, be thoroughly drained from the work, and then take a couple of weeks off to recharge.  Admittedly, by the time they announced the first new Warcraft patch in 7 months would be released I knew I’d not make my own deadline, but it could have been so perfect.

Instead I have a novel that needs completing, a project that needs revision, and a bunch of video projects I want to start

To my credit, I am 80,000 words into The Accursed.  It’s already sitting in novel length territory.  I suspect come revisions it might slim down a lot, but at a guess I’m thinking this first draft might come in at around 130,000 words.  Possibly more.

So today I’ve been busy.  I’m catching up from the weekend, trying not to lose momentum whilst juggling all these balls and wondering why I do this to myself.  I’m sure that when I come to reviewing my year, it’ll all look like smooth, focused sailing through all these projects, but down here at the day level, this duck is frantically pedalling.

I’ve also found out I need to do some prep work ahead of the new Warcraft 9.1. patch

When it was announced, I went on the public test realm and played the intro.  I wanted to know how you unlocked the new area.  It was fun, but I did feel like I had some of the story spoiled.  I’d initially thought I was just seeing it early, but in reality, a lot of the cut scenes weren’t done and as such, it felt more like seeing a work in progress than seeing a completed story.  It’s a public test realm, what was I expecting?

As a result, I’ve kinda avoided spoilers other than watching some of the raid testing… but that was for mechanics rather than lore.

As a result, I’m going into 9.1 fairly blind.  I really enjoyed playing Shadowlands on stream slowly, enjoying the story and reading all the quest text.  It took me longer but I felt I engaged with the story more.  It also meant I had no guilt about speeding my alts through leveling.

The plan is to do the same.  I want to get all my alts into the new area.  Content unlocks can be a real pain in Warcraft because once obvious paths disappear as content progresses to later patches and expansions, and finding the right NPC long after you’ve outleveled their exclamation mark makes it like finding a needle in a haystack.

My aim for 9.0 was to get all my characters leveled and get their professions maxed.  I’ve done that.  However, I learnt I was missing some recipes today.

To get to the new area in 9.1 you must have first completed chapter 2 of your covenant campaign.  That’s the bit that sends you back to Torghast.  I kinda like and hate Torghast.  It’s a neat idea and fun to play, but you need to be able to break mid-way through.  Because it takes so long, I took all my alts right up to their first mission in Torghast and stopped.

However, to get into the new zone, they need that done.  Hence I spent some of today, taking my alts through that content.

I still have a few to do, but the important ones are done.  I’d like to be able to get them all into the new area on Wednesday, but I’m not sure if I can.

As part of doing this chapter 2, I’ve discovered that the legendary recipes don’t unlock until you do this, and so I’ve not leveled any legendary recipes ahead of 9.1.  Too late now,  but at least if I pick them up I can start working on getting those professions maxed come 9.2.  I also can pick up some of the items you need for the later stages of crafting and sell them during the first few weeks rather than hold onto them to try and level myself up.

Gold makers are getting excited just how much these resources might go for when the patch hits America tomorrow.  I’ll be watching ready for the European launch of 9.1 on Wednesday.

I’m excited for the new Warcraft content, especially as I made my goal.  Now, to get all these alts through Torgahst and unlocked ready…

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Past Years: 2020 – The Year of Being Fearsome | 2019 – The Year of Soldiering Through | 2018 – The Year of Priorities | 2017 – The Year Of The Offensive