Nick's Turtle WoW journey 🐢

Aidrian finished up his journey in Dun Morogh by killing trogs and exploring the cave in Gol'bolar Quarry.

After this Aidrian decided to leave his home of Dun Morogh and venture to the human lands, specifically Elwynn forest via the tram that connects the two cities of Iron Forge and Stormwind.

When he arrived he went to to the SI:7 in old town to discuss plans with his fellow rogues. Upon his arrival he was informed that he needed to steal a shipping schedule from the a band of Defias just outside of the human town of Goldshire

So, he made his way to Jerod's Landing and found the dockmaster, a goblin, typical, goblins will do anything for a quick buck. Aidrian thinks to himself: "Fortunately, for him, I won't be slaying him today; I simply need what's in his pocket".

Swiftly, Aidrian grabs the shipping schedule and slips out unnoticed.

When he makes his way back to SI:7 Aidrian is rewarded with a new dagger. The blade of Cunning! it is much sharper and nimble than his previous blades. It'll be a welcomed addition to cut the throats of his enemies.

He equips it in his main hand

After achieving the respect of the rogue operatives in Stormwind city. Aidrian heads back to the dwarven district in Stormwind. He was told to make a delivery to Loch Modan.

So, he heads back onto the Tram and makes his way through the snowy fields of Dun Morogh to the much temperate climate of Loch Modan. After taking some brief respite in Thelsmar he makes his way south to the watch tower.

Upon the arrival to the tower he's told to go back to stormwind and make another delivery so the guard can get a new shield.

"I don't particularly like being an errand boy, but I did want to stay longer in the human lands to fight off the gnolls and defias bandits" Aidrian said aloud. So, he started to make his way back. On his route back, he was asked just on the other side of the tunnels in Dun Morgh to discover the fate of a dwarf that has gone missing. Using his expertise he discovers the grim fate of his fellow dwarf.

It was an infamous ice claw bear, Mangeclaw, that did him in. After reading his journal Aidrian vowed to avenge him. After tracking the bear down he does exactly that and is rewarded with yet another dagger, this one he puts in his off-hand.

Aidrian finishes making it back to the human lands he heard of an expert weapon's master that could teach him the basics of learning swords. Aidrian pays his fee of 10 silver and learns how to use swords. Aidrian thinks that this investment will certainly pay off later.

He leaves the safety of the grand city of Stormwind and heads on out to Elwynn Forest. Aidrian discovers a wanted poster for a gnoll named "Hogger" who has been terrorizing the area as of late and has overpowered all attempts to capture. "This is the perfect opportunity to try out my new blades" Aidrian thinks. Despite the reward being less than substantial, Aidrian wants to prove himself to the humans of this land that he is a worthy rogue to be hired and relied on.

So, he tracks down Hogger and slays him.

After reporting his demise and get his reward he grows stronger, he learns that he can move even stealthier and faster while being undetected.

I have gotten everyone to at least level 14! individual character blogs to come!

Level 20 has been achieved!

Good news everyone! I got Holyendowed to level 20! The quest that brought me over the top had me killing murlocs to get their fins. The quest reward is one of my favorite items in the game (which I can't use) but I think it is funny nonetheless:

Spells:

Now that I'm level 20 that means I finally get the coveted Blessing of Kings!

For those that don't know, every 2 levels you get new spells to purchase from your trainer and every level after 10 you get to distribute talent points. As I stated in my first post I was going with the retribution spec. If you don't put any points into any other spec by level 20 you usually get a defining spell/talent that really separates you from the other specializations. Turtle WoW switched up things from the original classic WoW. In OG WoW Blessing of kings was the big level 20 thing you got for the protection spec. However, in Turtle WoW it is now the big thing for the ret spec. Blessing of kings is probably the best singular buff in the game. Everybody wants 10% more stats across the board, it's great! As stated before, every even level you get additional spells and usually at the big milestones of 10, 20, 30, etc. you tend to get more spells and more class defining spells. Unfortunately, I haven't been "working the auction house" that well and I'm a bit low on funds. So, I wasn't able to train all the spells However, I got the 2 most useful (in my opinion) spells right away:

A new spell that does great AOE damage; it used to be a spell dedicated to the holy spec in original classic but has since been moved to a general paladin spell (a move I definitely agree with) consecration:

2. It's not a new spell but it is a rank up of the bread and butter spell for the Turtle WoW ret paladin and will nearly double my damage output. The top portion is the old "Rank 1" whereas the bottom is the upgraded "Rank 2" spell. It is a significant increase in damage.

This left me with a decision on what to train next because I didn't have enough money for all of it. But depending how my time in Stormwind city ended up going I may be able to get one maybe two spells:

Exorcism is a solid spell. It's an instant cast damaging spell that hurts undead or demons. Great for pulling and increasing your DPS and I'm just about to head into a questing zone that's full of undead.

Flash of light, is the second healing spell you get (third if you count lay on hands); it is more mana efficient it takes less mana and less cast time but heals less per cast. Holy light heals (Rank 3) 167 - 196 whereas Flash of Light (Rank 1) heals 62 - 72

Holy Strike is a neat little spell, this would be a rank up, I have rank 2 right now. It deals holy damage on a short cool down and heals you and your allies for both health and mana. However, the catch here is that it shares the same cool down timer as crusader strike. So, I'll probably be getting this one last. It's great for tanking and niche scenarios but I will mostly be spamming crusader strike instead of holy strike:

Lastly, is Devotion Aura Rank 3. For those that don't know. Paladins get a variety of auras. A paladin may only have one aura active at any given time. At the moment I only have 2 auras (level 22 I get my third). So at the moment, when I'm out and about questing it is a decision between Devotion Aura or Retribution Aura. Now, usually I have Retribution Aura active but there are times I switch devotion aura if I need the extra survivability. My current level gives 160 armor and this rank 3 gives 275 which is a nice upgrade but not game changing. At any rate, I'll get this one eventually but it is not a high priority.

So order of priority is flash of light, exorcism, devotion aura, and holy strike. I only have enough money for 1 or two. So, let's switch gears to upgrading my equipment because we have a lot to do.

Equipment:

We're finally able to upgrade from the Heavy Copper Broadsword to the Bronze Warhammer, it'll be a little bummer to lose the extra hit points but it's a 2.6 DPS increase! We've been stuck with that sword for 6 levels, it served us well but it is time to ascend. We won't be with the Bronze Warhammer for long though. We'll be able to upgrade to new weaponry for level 21 and 22!:

Both of these will be marginally increases in DPS but every little bit counts! We didn't only get to upgrade our weapon but also we got to get new armor! New bracers:

New Pauldrons:

For the shoulder upgrade I had to scour the Auction House for that recipe but it was worth it. With all these new upgrades I am losing some defense and hit points but gaining damage and a bit of armor. I hope the new Blessing of Kings buff will compensate for the lost defense/hit points.

I had to spend some money to learn these new recipes but also while leveling up my blacksmithing I had to create some stuff. So, between vendoring my old equipment and the new creations for leveling I was able to squeak away and get two new spells. Both Exorcism and flash of light!

Class quest:

So with my newfound spells and upgraded equipment I was off to do my level 20 paladin quest! The quest was to go to some lady in Westfall named Daphne Stilwell and to defend her from mobs of Defias bandits. I couldn't do it on my own. As luck would have it though, I ran into another paladin who was doing the same quest. We were able to help each other out and get the quest done together! When all was said and done I got a new spell. Sense Undead and a nice shield; which I can't use, because I didn't make it but it did sell for a pretty penny! Sense undead can be useful once I make it to duskwood and start killing some undead. It allows me to see undead mobs on my minimap:

I've been meaning to write a blog about my turtle WoW journey for if not only myself but whoever cares to read it. A little bit about me, I have been playing WoW off and on since I was like 10 years old. I've played through vanilla, TBC, and wrath. I felt like devs lost their way with the vision of the game sometime after that. Turtle WoW and the devs that support it, I feel like have a great vision for what the game should've been, what the game is and what it should become. I did play a bit of mists of pandaria and warlords of dreneor but I never got to max level on those expansions, at that point I felt like the game had changed too much for my taste. I eventually came back for the re-release of vanilla; played that for a bit. Got a druid to 60. Then, I played a bit of SoD; but I felt like that lacked the inspiration of what I wanted in a "classic plus". However, I trust in the turtle WoW devs and they have done great things with the game while still keeping it in the same inspiration of what classic WoW truly is while also: improving performance, QOL, and social aspects without overly gamifying or simply the game in the name of "accessibility". Anyway, my goal is to get every class to 60 at roughly the same time. However, to spice things up I've added various challenges to each character. All of my characters have made it to at least level 10 (except for Shaman more on him later) and all have various professions that I'll be leveling up alongside the characters themselves. As a result of all the professions and various classes being leveled up I will be sharing materials, equipment, etc. among them as long as it doesn't violate the individual character's challenges. I'm not sure how much I'll be updating this and if in future posts I'll focus on individual characters or not. In addition to all the challenges I will not be utilizing a quest-helper addon as I feel that ruins a lot of the discovery and enjoyment of the leveling experience; if I feel I am truly stuck on a quest I will scour the internet for hints. Without further ado Let's meet the characters!

First up we have my first character I made on turtle WoW she sort of violates the trend I was going for as she has no leveling challenge, Evelian my High Elf warrior. Originally, when I started on Turtle WoW I thought it was pretty cool there was unique races from classic on the alliance and horde (goblins on horde and high elves on alliance). I wanted to dive right in and try the high elf starting zone and I didn't even know there were leveling challenges. You used to have to go to your "glyph" guy in the starting zone to get the leveling challenge. However, they've since moved those challenges to start on the character creation screen as seen here:

I'll be doing most of these challenges with the exception of Level One Lunatic and Boaring adventure. Mostly, because they both seem tedious and not very fun to me.

Anyway, I digress, let me speak about my first character Evelian. She is my protection warrior who will be the only character I'm leveling without a challenge. Which in a way is a "challenge" in itself; at the very least it'll give me a baseline of what leveling in turtle WoW is like without any sort of weights. Besides, leveling a warrior in classic WoW is enough of a challenge on its own. She is one of the couple characters that duplicates professions, she and Holyendowed both have bs/mining. Most every other character has their own unique profession. As for the reasoning for that it is two-fold. Firstly, I created this character and chose her profession before I decided I was going to level all classes to 60. Secondly, Holyendowed's challenge pretty much requires him to have bs/mining. I am debating whether I want to simply unlearn blacksmithing in favor of engineering though, we'll see. As engineering has more utility that a warrior lacks.

Next up we have Stanmoot. He is my only hardcore character:

Meaning, he's likely to be a temporary character unless I miraculously get him to 60 without dying on my first try. Him and the Evelian are the only two characters that I am not leveling with the "Slow & Steady" challenge. Evelian because I didn't know challenges existed, Stanmoot because I thought Hardcore would be hard enough on its own. He's also the other character that duplicates a profession. He has LW/Skinning just like Naturalgift. Unlike Naturalgift though, due to the requirements of the hardcore challenge he cannot send armor kits to other characters nor can he receive leftover MATS from my other alts. He's truly on his own. I currently have a boar tamed mostly because they eat anything, so I can feed them whatever garbage I have in my inventory. To be honest playing him gives me anxiety. I enjoy playing a hunter but I also don't want to lose all my hard work. He will be someone I play when I can focus completely. If I do die on him I will have to debate whether I remake a new hardcore character or if I remake another hunter that isn't hardcore, I suppose I will cross that bridge when/if I get there.

Next up, Ckarlos:

Him and Airdrian are the only two in the remaining list that have only 1 challenge. Both of them will be leveling to 60 with the "slow and steady" challenge. Despite playing this game off and on for multiple decades. I don't think I have ever leveled a warlock beyond level 15 or so. So, this character will be a new experience for me in more than one way. He has the jewelcrafting/mining profession. I haven't quite decided which talents I will specialize in, more to come on him!

Now, onto Aidrian:

Rant INCOMING

Now, rogue was my first class in WoW I ever played and my first class I ever got to max level, so I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for this class and if I had to choose a class that would be my "favorite" I would say it is the rogue. Back in my heyday in WoW I used to raid on that character, I ran a guild on that character, I was top of the DPS charts on that character; it was the class that I experienced much of the endgame content in vanilla, TBC, and WOTLK. I had made a human, night elf, and gnome rogue. My gnome, was the one that I got to max level and accomplished a lot of the end game content, because I had already experienced rogue on the other 3 races on the alliance I decided to roll a dwarf rogue, as I can't remember ever having a dwarf rogue. Also, I think stone form could be useful for removing, bleed, poisons, and diseases which tend to apply DOTS that make it difficult to go into stealth. As I was leveling him I was reminded why I love this class. Something about sneaking around, picking pockets, stabbing people in the back. As retail WoW grew, part of the reason I felt like it lost its way was because of the rogue. There was something satisfying crafting your poisons, making sure you had blind powder to blind your enemies, having vanishing powder to use vanish, picking locks with your thieves tools, and a unique thing to turtle WoW is being able to make disguises:

All these sort of little things really make you feel like a thief. I love the satisfaction of making sure I have enough materials to accomplish my tasks. Applying my poisons to my weapons and adjusting them depending the situation, resupplying from the "shady dealers" dotted around Azeroth, sneaking about and pick pocketing humanoids to get some additional materials or a lockbox that I must pick to open for some extra goodies, sapping a target to take on two guys at once but only one at a time. It is truly the most satisfying way to play World Of Warcraft in my opinion. But, as I eluded to retail really lost its way, simplifying a lot of the aspects that I loved about it. You no longer needed materials to vanish or blind; you could make any poison you want without needing any materials, even thieves tools were gone. All for convenience. Also, due to botting and inflation of the game and the fact they didn't make pick pocketing scale well; pick pocketing became useless. It was truly a sad development. However, all that has changed with Turtle WoW and I am back to loving rogues again and I am excited to see what this new disguise aspect has to offer. Being able to turn into a Orc is so fun! As I love the sneaking aspect of rogue I will be specializing in the subtlety talent tree. Aidrian is an engineer/miner for some added utility, I am excited to play him more and get him 60 using my wits and thievery.

Benedictal is the next character on my list and he has two challenges. The first is like most everyone else, Slow & Steady. On top of that though he has Vagrant's Endeavor:

Vagrant's Endeavor is going to be a tough one. When I was deciding who to do this challenge on I was debating between doing it on a caster or a physical damage dealer. I ended up deciding on a mage. I felt like it would be inconvenient but not impossible. Mages aren't super equipment dependent like a rogue, warrior, etc. and as long as I can freeze them in place and blink around I should be able to take out mobs, no problem despite the lack of armor/stats. In order to supplement the lack of stats I decided to go alchemy/herbalism, as I'm sure I'll have less int/spirit than a regular mage and therefore less ways to recover mana. So, being able to have mana pots and potion buffs on me at all times will at least be able to compensate for some of this loss, I hope. I haven't quite decided which specialization I'll be going with yet. Hierophanton has tailoring and will be feeding Benedictal any whites that he makes throughout his tailoring journey in order to give Benedictal at least some semblance of armor. One of the hardest things about this challenge will be the lack of wands. There are only a few wands that are poor/common quality. The first one being (as far as I know) is the "Smoldering Wand". However, I won't be able to use that one until level 15, so I am wandless until then. I think the highest I ever got a mage was like level 29. I think it'll be fun to see what the later levels of this class offer!

Next up, is my odd man out, Shambewlance:

He is my only horde character and as such I am giving him an additional personal challenge. He cannot get any assistance from my alliance characters. Turtle WoW allows some cross-faction teamwork. I haven't looked too much into it but you can get a "diplomacy" skill, you can use neutral auction houses, I think you can mail between characters in different factions. But, I won't be doing any of that on him. I haven't decided the specialization or the professions on him. Oh, and he also has the Slow & Steady challenge.

Onward to my current highest level character, Holyendowed:

Much like most of the characters he has the Slow & Steady challenge, on top of that he has in my opinion one of the most fun and interesting challenges "Traveling Craftmaster":

Honestly, playing with this challenge enabled has been some of the most fun I have ever had in WoW. Similarly to what I was ranting about with my rogue there's something extremely satisfying about being self-sufficient, and requiring your own materials and equipment to be successful. Only being able to equip things that you are able to craft gives a whole 'nother level of "self-made" aspect to the game and is extremely rewarding. At times, it can be painful to have to vendor that blue or green you get from a drop or quest but it is truly something different to craft your own green or blue and know that you are doing it all by yourself. This does mean I need to keep my professions in check and make sure I am leveling it properly as I level my character. In fact the materials that I currently can craft I can't even equip because I'm below the level requirement of the items. I am looking forward to upgrading my Heavy Copper Broadsword for a Bronze Warhammer:

Losing the 6 stamina will suck but the increased DPS will be worth it. Also, if I feel like I am lacking the stats I can always start enchanting some gear. Naturalgift, in fact, feeds Holyendowed armor kits anytime he makes an upgrade. As a result of the craftmaster challenge I am almost forced to go Holy or Ret (shields you can craft are hard to come by). I have played both holy and prot paladins in the past but never ret, so I've decided to go retribution.

About my experience on a paladin; I used to play WoW with my dad, a lot. My father was not very good at the game but he loved fishing, farming, and as he would put it "working the auction house" and to be fair he was very good at it. He was a great money maker. He would play his own and also my characters just to level up their professions and to earn money. So, he got to do what I thought as the "bitch work" while I got to play the "fun part" of the game. As I have gotten older I find doing professions a lot more relaxing and enjoyable than I did as a teenager. Anyway, he got his paladin up to the high 50s or so. I helped him a lot and played his character quite a bit, so it is a class I am quite familiar with even if I didn't play it on my own.

Second to last is Naturalgift:

Druid is the only other character that I have gotten to max level in classic. I did it when classic was re-released back in 2019. I have always leveled a resto druid so I decided to go feral since I am already leveling multiple casters and didn't want to go balance because of that. I think leveling up as a cat/bear will be quite fun. Besides Slow & Steady I have the exhaustion challenge, so Naturalgift will be probably be the slowest leveling character (besides the hunter):

and as I have mentioned before she is LW/skinning. She has been feeding Aidrian armor and Holyendowed armor kits. More to come with her

Lastly, is my priest Hierphanton:

Hierphanton will be my shadow priest. He has enchanting and tailoring so any greens/blues the other characters don't want/can't use will be sent to him. He will be providing bags for everyone and will be upgrading armor as necessary for the other cloth users. I have never gotten a priest beyond level 20, so this'll be a new experience for me. On top of the slow & steady challenge, he will have warmode on. Which means I'll probably die a lot (I've already died a few times from hordies).