Legendary axe

It’s been a while since the last gaming update. Dragonflight is entering the “fated raid” period of the expansion, the final phase of an expansion in the World of Warcraft. I’ll probably still write my “final thoughts” before the launch of The War Within, but this post may contain some of my thoughts and grievances.

The concept of “fated raids” began last expansion with Shadowlands. I think the term “fated” is used because it’s a character’s fate to die and go to the Shadowlands. Dragonflight does not take place in the afterlife, so they are called “awakened” raids for this expansion.

I know, you probably already figured that out on your own. Be that as it may, let’s get on with it.

Ahead of the Curve

This expansion started bleak when we did not obtain Ahead of the Curve for Vault of the Incarnates. However, something clicked during the Aberrus raid and we did get Ahead of the Curve for 10.1. Our synergy continued into Amirdrassil and we achieved AOTC again with a couple weeks to spare.

Now we have our sights set on the Awakened raid mount achievement. I’m not sure how long this will tide us over. Blizzard provided a means for players to continue upgrading their gear but I’m not sure why. What do we need to “gear up” for? The next major content release is the next expansion when all of our gear will be upgraded within the first five levels.

Infinite Armoredon
Infinite Armoredon – KSM Season 4 mount

I surmise that the folks who want to gear up are those running high-level Mythic+ keys for Season Four. I’m not sure why the rest of us really need to do that. If I get my Keystone Master achievement for Season Four, then that’s as far as I’m going to push any Mythic+ keys. Honestly, I won’t be disappointed if I don’t get the achievement, the mount is only OK.

What To Do For the Rest of the Expansion

As usual, I will diligently farm my usual list of mounts. However, I might hold off on the Pandaria World Bosses because there will be an opportunity to purchase those mounts during the Mists of Pandaria Remix event. It might depend on how easily I can farm the currency that I need to buy them.

All my alts are leveled so I will do the various activities to see how far I can level up their gear before the expansion. I’m curious how close I can get to my main. At the time of this post, the average gear score of my alts is about 48 item levels below the gear score of my main.

I will also, attempt, to finish leveling professions. As I’ve said before, I loathe some of the changes to professions in this expansion. Some of the profession leveling guides have said that Work Orders are supposedly the intended method of maxing your professions and that’s absurd. Rarely have I found a public work order that awarded crafting points. I hope Warbands makes it a little easier to max out professions. The changes to the profession system is the biggest disappointment of the expansion.

Let the farming begin.


If zombies attack the world, everyone will run and hide. Except for us gamers, of course. We’ve been waiting for this all our lives!