Tonight in WoW I quickly finished off the couple of remaining quests in Howling Fjord, and then I decided to head off to Borean Tundra, since if I put it off too long it’ll be too low-level and pointless. Going back and forth between the entry zones made it clear just what a huge difference in loading time there is with my new system parts. Before, by the time I finished the loading screen, the zeppelin would already be parked at the destination, but now the loading screen ends much sooner and I see nearly the whole trip in.

I hit level 75 fairly quickly and went back to Org for training, and while I was there I finally picked up a bunch of frostweave bags and a bigger mining bag. It was expensive, costing around 350 gold total, but it was well worth it as I was extremely low on space. That knocks me back down to around 750 gold, but I’ve still got plenty of time until I’ll need the 1000 gold for cold weather flying.

I did some miscellaneous quests around Warsong Hold, which is an annoying place since it’s surrounded by insects that make it annoying to leave or enter. The quests are at least interesting, though; I finally got a couple that involved commandeering vehicles. Controlling vehicles is a bit annoying in that it’s hard to see where you’re going, though — the camera just doesn’t go back or up far enough.

And along the way I hit honored faction with the Horde Expedition and the walrus-guys. But it doesn’t let me buy anything interesting yet…

I resumed finishing up quests in Howling Fjord tonight, mainly concentrating on the NW corner, and according to the achievement stats I’m almost done the vast majority of them. I’m sure there’ll be a few leftovers that need a group or instance, though.

I’m also pretty close to level 75 now, and broke the 1000 gold mark. Only two more levels after that before flying becomes useful again…

After setting World of Warcraft up again on the new drive, I spent a little while working on quests. There’s still more left than I expected in the Howling Fjord area, but it shouldn’t take too much longer to finish them off.

Dunno if I really want to start playing again in earnest, but it killed some time…

Tonight I continued in my quest to help out the poor orphans in WoW, taking a furry little wolvar out with me. The quests were fairly simple, involving taking him to various locations around Northrend, but a few of them were places I hadn’t been to yet, so there was a fair bit of running around, and I even died once when I ran off a ledge that wound up being a bit too high up. It took a couple of hours, but in the end I now have a little wolvar pet of my own. Now get back in the box!

I also popped in to World of Warcraft tonight, just out of curiosity since there was a major patch today. Unfortunately, I then learned that they also added ‘orphans’ you can adopt as pets, but they’re only available for a limited time. Of course, my compulsive side will not let this pass by, so I know what I’ll be working on for the next little while… Damn you, Blizzard!

After a bunch of questing in Howling Fjord today, mainly around the walrus guys and pirates in the south, I hit level 74. Nothing too exciting skill-wise, but it was still a momentous occasion, for it meant that I could finally enter the city of Dalaran.

And damn, it’s a crowded place. Shattrath is a ghost town compared to how busy Dalaran is. I set my hearthstone there, wandered around a bit, and did a couple simple daily quests, but I still have to look into things like what the progression and faction options are.

Anyone got a spare 20,000 gold so I can buy a mammoth?

And not satisfied with my new level in EQ, I popped into WoW and finally pushed through to level 73 there as well. Nothing too exciting skill-wise, but I did finally purchase glyphs for myself, after settling on Devastate and Blocking for the major glyphs and Thunder Clap, Charge, and Battle for the minors. I’m not sure why I put them off for so long, since in the end the choices were fairly clear for my build.

I also polished off a good 30 or so quests in Netherstorm, putting me over the halfway done mark there, and it shouldn’t be too long before I can truly begin the WotLK areas.