5.2 has arrived!

and wow what a patch it is!

Hey everyone,

5.2 is finally here! Woohoo! Been waiting a while for some new things to do, and there is plenty to keep you occupied with the addition of the Isle of Thunder and the Isle of Giants.

Lets start with the Isle of Thunder, which is the daily quest hub to begin gathering your rep with the Kirin Tor Offensive. They are back and definately mean business! You start by receiving a quest when you are in shrine of the stars or moon, depending on your faction of course, to meet with Veressa Windrunner in Townlong near the Shado Pan daily npcs are. It's basically a meet this npc and they will take you to the Isle of Thunder and they drop in some Thunder King/Mogu history along the way, which is nice to hear, and get reminded of the impact and importance of this enemy.  You arrive quite quickly and you pick up your dailies, which send you across the island to get many more dailies, theres alot of them, but I found them quite enjoyable, some variation in the objectives.

Whilst wandering around, you notice the nice new models of the trolls and the dinosaurs, which are just stunning, but also the new wild pets! The Swamp Croaker and Elder Python are lovely models, a massive leap from the old style frogs and snakes, so a big thumbs up there Blizz. Naturally I stopped for a little pet battling when I could, and managed to capture a rare quality Swamp Croaker - woohoo! Will go back for my rare quality python asap. I imagine the further you progress with the Kirin Tor rep, the island will open up further so looking forward to that!

Looks quite dull here, but is such a step up from the old snake models!

His throat inflates/deflates!

The second island, is the Isle of Giants, which is directly north from Kun Lai Summit, its pretty well hidden, I had to ask for directions of where it is, as you can't see it on your map. As you fly up close to it, you get dismounted, and have to travel via land mount, as you do on the Isle of Thunder. The isle is pretty much a grinding playground, filled with huge dinosaurs and trolls, ranging from 2million to 15million HP each - eek! I managed to kill a Direhorn and a Troll by myself, but would much prefer a grinding party to gather up the bones they drop. They can be traded with a Troll npc called Ku'ma on the west side of the island. You can trade from 1 bone up to 9999 bones for various items, including pets which includes 4 new raptors pets, a Spectral Porcupine and a mount, which of course is the 9999 costing one.The pets cost 999 bones each, so happy grinding! :D

My friend Noktharos, who I have mentioned in previous blog posts has been grinding all day, and is at approx 4k bones, good luck with the rest of the grind! He was also extremely kind to me, as whilst grinding these mobs, he has come across some of the new raptor pets, and kindly gave me 4 new pets to add to my collection. Yippeeeeee! They are adorable! Thankyou very very much <3 These pets are cage-able, so will no doubt be on your auction house very soon if you cannot grind them!

Zandalari Anklerender

Zandalari Toenibbler

Zandalari Kneebiter

Zandalari Footslasher

On top of these 4 little babies, I managed to complete the new achievement/quest, Beasts of Fable, to get my own Red Panda pet! You start the quest from your Pet Trainer outside your respective factions Shrine hub in Vale, and you have to defeat many legendary pets in order to get this little fella. Personally I didn't find it difficult, as I luckily had in my team, the pets which are strongest against the certain family groups the legendary ones seem to be in, which were Beasts, Critters and Aquatic. It's your team of 3 vs 1 also, which is nice. Once completing the Beasts of Fable quest, it then becomes a daily to, you guessed it, beat them all again! You have the chance from the new bag to get more panda pets though, so well worth it!
My pet total stands at 511 now! Woohoo!

<3

Other new additions/upgrades in 5.2 which I have experienced include the massive increase to Galleon's spawn rate, he is approximately up every 1-2 hours, so fantastic for those who never got to kill him before 5.2 hit, and the addition of the shared tag is always a welcome one, when the raid is full, the abuse in /1 was always nasty to see.

Another fantastic addition is the buff to Valor points from Heroics, depending onthe heroic you can get up to 120 points for your first one, which in itself makes you want to do a heroic a day again, but the added bonus of being able to pick a faction to gain a chunk of rep for doing that heroic, what a lovely addition! This includes The Tilers, The Klaxxi, Shado Pan, August Celestials, The Lorewalkers, The Anglers, Operation Shieldwall and even the Kirin Tor Offensive also. A nice variety for those who need to catch up, like me, but also available for those who had them all to exalted already.


For day one, that is a hell of a lot of things to have done, but thankfully plenty more to do and will keep you updated of any new 5.2 related business I get up to!

Kaitz~