What's up dudes!
Silvite Soltis back again to continue reminiscing about the good old days of Vanilla WoW. Last time, I told of how my brother and I created our characters and explored the world that is Northshire Abbey. Well today, I want to continue the journey.
I don't actually remember too much about completing the vineyard quests - only that I died a few times doing them before my turn on the game was finished and my brother took over for a second turn. So, while I waited for him to finish, I played some Super Mario 3 with our friend. I didn't want to spoil anything. Eventually though, I got my 2nd turn on the game and finally got up to the Garrick Padfoot quest that marked the end of Northshire.
That was a fun experience for a noob. The first time I pulled him, I didn't think to take out the two Defias bodyguard guys next to him. 3 tough enemies versus 1 nooby priest - it wasn't pretty. My brother laughed at me, as he'd done the quest with no issues apparently. Still, I learned pretty quick and tried to kill one bodyguard the next time and run from the others. Again, I died like a scrub.
After getting back to my body again, and fighting my way through the enemies that had respawned along the path, I found a group of people standing over by his shack, about to attack him. Luckily, they saw me approach and I was invited to a group. Great success! This time we easily beat the three enemies, with me using lesser heal probably way too much for the damage that was coming out. When we all collected his head, they said "Thanks".
I had no idea how to reply, so I just ran back to the abbey. Turning to my friend, who was playing NES with my brother at this point, I asked how to talk. He laughed at my ignorance, told me how, and BOOM - I had a way to communicate with others.
The world was opening up more and more.
I turned in the quests, checked my trainer for new spells (even though I was only level 5 and the new ones weren't available until level 6), and faced the wall out of the starting zone. Running along the path, I looked at all the surrounding sights - trees of the forest, cows and wolves running around, and a patrolling salesman walking along the road. I was entranced. Before long, I came to a small town, complete with only 2 or 3 buildings, but several people running to and fro. I had reached Goldshire.
Honestly, I don't remember much about exactly what I did in Goldshire at this point, but I know that I didn't know how to change my Hearthstone location, so later I would teleport all the way back to Northshire. One thing I do remember clearly, however, was the fact that there were profession trainers for blacksmithing and mining around one of the buildings. Curious, I asked my friend what these things were, again getting some laughter.
He explained that those were professions trainers and that you could train two of them. He told me that, as a priest, I shouldn't pick up mining or blacksmithing, but go with tailoring and enchanting because I could sew my own equipment and enchant it to be better - or disenchant old or useless items I didn't need. This is what he was doing on his mage, so I figured he knew what he was talking about and trained those two professions right away.
This is where my first day of WoW ended as far as I can remember. Eventually, I would drop enchanting, as I couldn't really figure out what the hell to do to get items to disenchant (in other words, I sucked), but I picked up skinning which remained my second skill for years to come.
Anyway, my journey through Elwynn forest continued for a few weeks - yes weeks. Since I didn't have a computer or a copy of World of Warcraft for myself, I could only level while over at my friend's house. Even then, my brother and I took turns if we were both over, so it took a long time. But it was an adventure all the way. I remember constantly looking forward to the dreaded orchard that my friend had told me about the first time I'd seen him play, but never getting a quest for it. Eventually I found out it was part of a mage class quest, so no wonder I never got the quest!
Again, my memories of Elwynn back in the day are fuzzy at this point, but there's one last memory that's still super-clear (for some reason). No, it's not the infamous Hogger quest or the murloc camp with the guards' corpses over by the Eastvale Logging Camp. I remember those from repetition later on, but not really from my first time. No the last real quest I remember doing before moving on to Westfall was the level 9 quest to kill Princess - the prized pig that was stealing the Stonefields vegetables. After getting the quest, I wandered back and forth between the Stonefield and Maclure farms, scouring the area for the right pig but never finding her. After wasting about 15 minutes, my friend asked me what I was doing running around in circles. When I told him I was looking for Princess, he chuckled and told me that he'd done the same thing. Then he said to read the quest text carefully.
A bit embarrassed at being so thick, I opened the quest log to find that I'd been searching all over the wrong farms all along. I had to go to the Brackwell pumpkin patch on the other side of the zone. Oops.
Well after a good 10 minutes of running around, I finally found the farm that I hadn't discovered yet. And there she was - a level 9 hostile pig with 2 other pigs patrolling the field. I was level 8 or 9 at this point, but I was still total crap when it came to multiple mobs at once. Still, I gave it a shot.
And I died.
So I ran back to my body to rez for what must have been the 10th time by this point, waited for health and mana, then hit /y...
"ANYONE DOING PRINCESS MUST DIE?"
Luckily, someone was nearby and must have noticed my red text because I got a group invite to a group with 3 others in it. As two of them made their way over from Goldshire, I watched Princess as she paced back and forth.
With 4 people, we made quick work of her and her entourage. As I looted her collar, I had a sensational feeling about this game and the comradery that it fostered among the players. Up until then, I'd mostly played single-player RPGs and never had the kinds of experiences I was having in this game. It really felt like a live and vibrant world.
Of Warcraft.
Anyway, that's basically the last memory I have of my first run through Elwynn Forest. I know there were a lot more things that happened, but I really can't tell much in detail. I got a purple robe from my class quest, fought Hogger, and killed some wildlife and Defias dudes around the zone, but it's all a blur at this point.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter of my story. If you did, feel free to leave a comment with your own starter zone stories. I'll be sure to read each one. In the next installment, I'll tell you all a bit about my adventures in Westfall killing boars with no livers, dying in Moonbrook, and my first WoW friend. But until then, take it easy!
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