Flying in Battle for Azeroth

I haven’t stopped playing WoW Classic as my main MMO, but I have been taking a little bit of a break over the last week or so.  My alts are sitting in that late 30s to mid 40s zone that can be tiring to cross.

The game that supplanted it for a while has been World of Warcraft and the Battle for Azeroth expansion.  I logged in to do the Darkmoon Faire trade skill quests with my main and noticed that there was a 50% boost to reputation earned from doing world quests in the expansion.  As it stood, I only needed to attain revered faction status with the Rustbolt Resistance and the Waveblade Ankoan in order to finish Part Two of the Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder achievement.  I was already honored with both factions, but needed about 10K more for each to get to revered.

The Rustbolt Resistance was pretty easy.  There is a daily world quest for the Mechagon zone where they live that rewards a good chunk of faction.  With the 50% boost on top of the usual human boost to rep gains, I was able to knock that out in just a few days.  Also it is a zone that is pretty fun for somebody with the engineering profession.  It is an engineering focused zone, so I piled on a little bit extra every day there.

The Waveblade Ankoan on the other hand, they were more of a chore.  Nazjatar is not my favorite zone, even though you get a helper when you’re there.

Farseer Ori and Fish Head Vikund

Nazjatar is also on the same world quest rotation as other major zones, which means it gets an emissary quest every few days.  That is where you get the big faction boost.  On off days though, world quests are kind of chintzy, handing out around 80 faction.

I lucked out a bit though.  The day I logged in to do Darkmoon Faire the Nazjatar emissary quest was on its last day, so I was able to do it knowing it would be back fairly soon in  the rotation.  I logged in to do a couple of world quests every day, just to move things forward ever so slowly, hoping that the next emissary quest would push me over the edge.  Instead, it showed up after the bonus time ended.  It got me close, but not quite there.

So close with the Waveblade Ankoan

There are also only so many world quests running at any given time, and of those only a few I wanted to run out and do.  So that 605 point gap took a couple of days to close.  I ended up getting it on a pet battle world quest, one I had not done before.  The first time you win one of those you get a bonus quest to turn in that gives you a bit more faction.  Back at the main camp I turned that in and hit the mark.

The Pathfinder Achievement and a new mount

My goal for Battle for Azeroth had been reached.  I immediately mounted up and flew around the zone to scout it from the air.

Nazjatar is pretty from the air

Things look much nicer when you’re not down on the ground.  That let me start a flying tour of the expansion to see all that ground I trekked over.

Heading out from Boralus

I have said before that Battle for Azeroth is a pretty expansion on the ground.  It is also such from the air.

So I have accomplished that baseline goal that comes with every expansion, to unlock flying, which always makes me consider the dichotomy of the whole thing.  I get why Blizz makes you earn it every expansion.  Once you get it you can bypass everything on the ground, swoop down to your destination, and generally avoid what one might describe as the game.  I definitely feel more of a sense of accomplishment when I have to walk or ride down in the mud.

On the other hand, once I have flying I never walk anywhere ever again if I don’t have to.  And with the pathfinder achievements done there will be no walking for any of my characters.

The achievements done

I don’t know what else I ought to do in Battle for Azeroth at this point.  I have, in the end, not done that much.  I haven’t touched an instance or done any of the other new items they added with the expansion.  But I don’t feel a need to go do anything else either.