…you’ll forget about me after I’ve been gone…

/stop singing
/blush

Sorry, got carried away there. I’ve obviously been doing too much Rock Band.

What the title has to do with me is this: Nicora has dinged level 58, the level required to step through the Dark Portal and to the Outlands. However, she won’t be making that journey any time soon. She still has a bundle of quests to do back in Azeroth. Off the top of my head, she still has to do Burning Steppes, both Plaguelands, Azshara, Felwood, Winterspring, and Silithus. She just finished Searing Gorge. She might go through the Portal just to get the flight points but she already has her hearthstone set to Shattrath (which was done about 8 levels ago when she needed to get her Master skinning so she paid a warlock to get her there). Oh, and here’s the wonderful fellow who gave Nicora enough experience to reach level 58:

He’s the quest rewarder for Calm Before the Storm and that was all Nicora needed. Kind of anti-climatic but oh well.

Since on the higher end of her level bracket, Nicora and Blacky have also been fighting in the battlegrounds. The reason: 30 marks each from Warsong, Arathi, and Alterac for the Black War Wolf. I haven’t stepped foot into Alterac simply because I haven’t been there and wouldn’t have a clue as to what’s going on so I have to get up the courage to go in there first. She already has 17 or so marks from Arathi and due to that being my favorite battleground, I’m saving that one for last. That just leaves Warsong. I really don’t like Warsong. Sometimes, it is bearable and I don’t mind being there. Other times, I cannot wait for the bloody game to finish. Every time I log onto Nicora and have enough time, I’ve been forcing myself to go to at least one round. It goes easier if I split it up like that. Luckily none of them have been loses so I believe that Nicora is up to about 15 Warsong marks. Only 5 more to go…assuming Horde wins all of them.

I also made an attempt to take Nicora solo into Blackrock Spire and tame a Bloodaxe Worg. That ended…badly. I lost about 9g on Lesser Invisibility Potions and equipment repairs and didn’t manage to tame the worg. Really, I just gave up after two tries. I tried to follow the directions that everyone gives but it just wasn’t working for me. I’m just going to wait until one of my high level guildies (I’m looking at you, Noko and Moko) logs on and is kind enough to take Nicora in. The only thing that I got out of the whole deal was a Winterspring Screecher that I had been planning to use as a trash pet. After I left Blackrock frustrated, I decided on a whim to name him Serenity (Firefly FTW) and took him into Warsong. It was hard to tell if he was doing better or worse than Blacky, mostly because I kept dying quickly from a level 59 human warrior twink who seemed to seek me out. I’ve been toying with the idea of Nicora having a pet specifically for PvP ever since but I’m not sure if I want Serenity, or maybe a cat or a boar, or maybe none at all.

Ah yes, and Nicora needed to visited the dragonscale leather trainer…you know, the one that lives in middle of the Badlands? On her way, she encountered an old friend of hers: Zaricotl. Yes, he’s that bundle of red and black feathers that appears to be non-aggressive so you turn your back on him to kill other mobs and while you’re fighting, he sneaks up behind you, tears you to pieces, and eats your remains. He had killed Nicora at least twice when she was a lower level and trying to quest there. In this encounter, however, Nicora is level 58 and more than prepared to take him on.

Mmmm….barbecued buzzard wings tonight. Blacky sure enjoys those.