My next round of raid hopping is over, and here’s what we see in Vanilla to Cataclysm division:

Icecrown is now history until I’m deciding to farm the Undroppable horse from Arthas. Even the mage belt from Legion’s Assault on the Violet Hold is done!

Trial of Crusader is history as well. All I need is mage slippers, and they come in July as soon as the Timewalking Wrath vendor is up. By the way, did you know that transmog sets are different here for Alliance and Horde?Yes, you earn most pieces for both versions at once, yet my vulpera fire mage Jakatti has it all collected, but Micromantica still wants those slippers!

Cataclysm, Vanilla and Burning Crusade sets require feeble 1-2 drops for the empty slots.

The biggest endeavor are still Naxxramas and Ulduar, but even they started to cave in. Mimiron’s Head is still a goal, so I’m clearing Ulduar in full with every toon that arrives there – whether they need any transmog from Yogg-Saron or not. By the time Mimiron, Thorim and Freya are killed for token drops it’s just 3 more minutes anyway.

Turns out I found myself in the The More You Know… situation with the latter. Even if item source description may clearly state “Archavon/Emalon”, period – you can actually skip the Vault of Archavon raid, because for every Naxx/Ulduar item from Archavon/Emalon there is a corresponding token from Naxx/Ulduar/Obsidian Sanctum. I’m not skipping it though – it is an extra chance for drops, it’s quick and enjoyable.

Same thing happens with Baradin Hold – even if it indicates you can get Dragon Soul Normal pants only from Alizabal; Dragon Soul offers an easy extra Morchok -> Yor’Sahj token option.

Dragon Soul is a place to go for my rogue now – I occasionally discovered the legendary blades questline, Wrathion hatching and all:

At a current stage I need 333 whatsits from the raid, currently sitting at 120. Also this means that I clear the raid in full to maximize quest drops, and it can’t hurt at all because Dragon Soul still owes me all 3 mounts :)

With Vanilla -> Cata runs now over by Friday, I’m free to go and finally earn some cash and sets in Pandaria and Draenor raids.

Turns out some of the Pandaria transmog oprions are not acquired in corresponding raids. My biggest advice is: if you see “world drop”-only description there, go straight to Wowhead and check. You can clear Throne of Thunder’s trash for eternity, and never learn the item you want really comes from… Oondasta (while it’s not even in its loot table), or Nalak, or… BfA’s island expeditions! Isn’t it sweet?

Speaking of Island Expeditions – I may actually run them in the coming days of boredom, and I did yesterday. Not that I need any azerite at the very least, but it’s a source of transmogs, both current and older ones. All it takes now is 40 minutes per 4 heroic runs a week for a weekly quest (queues and runs included), and your alt is good. It’s still the shittiest content in BfA – back when I tried them, they were too hard, now they’re just boring one-shot grinds. Any of my toons in heroic version solo can just AoE everything, kill a “boss” or dispatch the whole Horde team nowadays, other players contribute, so it’s a non-exciting, 5 minute grind.

I’ve been looking at the Shadowlands covenant set previews recently, and it hit me that I may want a specific Covenant set option for my characters. But then again, I need to see and collect all of them. For example, it struck me that both of my hunters, night elf and draenei, really feel like Night Fae is their best option. My orc warrior Gorgul and gnome death knight Mindebad also asked they both walk with Maldraxxus.

That leaves me with the only option – thank gods it’s a lull – to have an extra armor type toon for Shadowlands, so that I could cover all Covenant armors and at the same time attune them to the character’s needs and desires. For this cause, I needed an extra plate and an extra chainmail, so I reanimated the deleted leveling lightforged paladin Oluu in her 42, the deleted kul tiran druid Backston turned into night elf Maylune (I’ve seen this face and name before…), and also made a triumphant return of the goblin hunter Lizgun (albeit from level one, but she’s now 45).

My transmog/alts plan now is this:

Plate Armor Covenants

• Anibell the Human Paladin – Bastion
• Oluu the Lightforged Paladin – Night Fae
• Mindebad the Gnome Death Knight – Maldraxxus
• Gorgul the Orc Warrior – Maldraxxus
• Rikkit the Goblin Warrior – Venthir

Mail Armor Covenants

• Jagda the Dwarf Shaman – Bastion
• Myde the Night Elf Hunter – Night Fae
• Kalaari the Draenei Hunter – Night Fae
• Schlitzchen the Goblin Shaman – Maldraxxus
• Lizgun the Goblin Hunter – Venthir

Leather Armor Covenants

• Paitsu the Gnome Monk – Bastion
• Maylune the Night Elf Druid – Night Fae
• Jammu the Highmountain Druid – Night Fae
• Melaris the Blood Elf Demon Hunter – Maldraxxus
• Pins the Gnome Rogue – Venthir

Cloth Armor Covenants

• Micromantica the Gnome Mage – Bastion
• Jellica the Gnome Priest – Bastion
• Jakatti the Vulpera Mage – Night Fae
• Myrki the Gnome Warlock – Maldraxxus
• Fearella the Goblin Warlock – Venthir

Mind you, the list of alts to level and experience in Shadowlands looks intimidating even to me. Yet I plan to be wise this time and not exhaust myself with repetitive leveling/raiding/Torghast runs in short periods of time for all alts. I plan to start and keep up with Micromantica, my main, and pick up toons to level and catch up in spare time/lulls. With Covenant stories and armors, every new alt will feel quite a bit new and engaging, and effectively fuel my interest throughout expansion.

That’ll be it for tonight!