Welcome to .... Thunder Bluff

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Location: Thunder Bluff
Level: 11
Latest Achievements: "Journeyman Cook"
Total Quests Completed: 35

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Our first capital city of the game is Thunder Bluff, Home to our brother and sister Tauren and a resting place for any other Horde race in the game. This is the first place in the game to find almost anything you could need.

More experienced players, notice this is a *New to WoW?*: heavy post. In fact, it's a first timer's visit and guided tour.

Thunder Bluff is divided into several different areas. You have 'lower rise', 'middle rise' and 'higher rise' (I believe) which are all found in the center and accessible via the round totem stair case at the center of town or by ramped paths that circle the entire area. Around the outsides you have 'Hunter's Rise', 'Spirit's Rise' and 'Elder Rise', accessible via bridge from the main area.

I'll be giving a guided tour ;) so hand or pick up any quests you see along the way.

When you first arrive in Thunder Bluff as level 10, you are standing in Lower Rise. On this level you will find the Guild Master (not something you need to worry about at the moment), as well as different vendors, trainers and the bank and auction house.

If you are planning to be a blacksmith or miner your trainer is here on this level. The weapons master is also on this level if, in the future, you wish to train in using something other than your staff and Mace.

While standing at the elevator, you will see an inn to your distant right. Inside is the inn keeper. I've set my home point here. I don't anticipate the need to return to Bloodhoof Village and, if I do, I'll walk from here.

The bridge to hunter's rise is inside this inn. Hunter's Rise is where all the battle masters are located. This is far from our minds right now... Battles are for end game players, not level 10's, but it's nice to know where to find it if you need. There are other class trainers here, but not ours, and no craft trainer, so I don't believe we'll be seeing a lot of Hunter's Rise.

From the Bridge we arrived on, follow the left path to the next. Once across, we find ourselves in Upper Rise. Upper Rise has more vendors, and a Cooking Trainer. There is also a Fishing Trainer. Fishing is one of the open skills you can learn. If you're interested, pick up your first training and then speak to the Fishing Supply vendor to buy a fishing rod.... you need one if you want to fish.

From the Inn Building that brought us into Upper Rise, We see the Totem Stairs to our distant Left and another Inn Building to our right. After you've taken a look around take the Inn Bridge into Elder Rise.

Elder Rise is Druid Home! Our trainer is located inside the round building to our distant right. I am going to look around some more before I set off on that adventure. Take the last bridge into Middle Rise.

Have you found the pattern yet? Most Capital Cities have a very well laid out patter.

Middle Rise has a back entrance to Thunder Bluff to your close right, the bridge to Spirit Rise to your far right and the Totem Stairs to your far left. We also find the trainer for herbalism, alchemy, enchanting, skinning, tailoring and leather work as well as independent vendors and vendors devoted to the crafts. You might have noticed that most trainers have their vendors nearby for simplicity.

Take the bridge over to Spirit Rise but stop half way across the bridge and look down to your left. Tunnel! You would not believe how long it took me to find that tunnel. Just thought I'd point that out. My first time here I did not have a good look around.... it ended up costing me lots of time.

Spirit Rise, the top part, has a first aid trainer and a shaman trainer. If we take the path down to the tunnels into what they call the "Pools of Vision" we find the Inscription trainer, priest trainer and Mage trainer. Aside from the First Aid, we will not be spending a lot of time in Spirit Rise either.

Exit the tunnel and take the bridge, which brings you right back into Lower rise.

There is one last thing we need to see before we've completed the tour, so find the totem stairs and climb as high as you can. The man standing at the top is your Thunder Bluff Flight Master. To Orcs, Trolls, Blood Elves and Undead, this NPC would have a '!' above his head. For Tauren, because he is our capital's Flight Master, we already have this flight path location. In many of the villages you visit you will see a fellow with the '!' and speaking to them will unlock another flight location. At the moment we only have one, but should we speak to another NPC flight master elsewhere, we could then fly to know locations. It's not free, but it's a heck of a lot better than walking.

Thus concludes our guided tour of Thunder Bluff. Now go explore!

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Current Statistics:

Stave, Mace and Defence skill: 55 each (max)
Unarmed skill: 54 (that elusive last point was killing me)
Cooking: 59/150
First Aid: 39/75

Strength: 31
Agility: 20
Stamina: 28
Intellect: 26
Spirit: 35
Armor: 214

Read more!

Continue to Thunder Bluff - Level 5-10

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Location: Thunder Bluff
Level: 10
Latest Achievements: "Journeyman Cook" + "Achievement Level 10"
Total Quests Completed: 35

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On the way to the next village, Bloodhoof Village, you should find someone on the road giving a quest. Conveniently, it is to deliver something to the inn keeper ofBloodhoof Village. When you get there, don't forget to set your hearthstone.

*New to WoW?*: A hearthstone is an item you start out with. If you speak to inn keepers and set your home at their inn, when you trigger your stone you automatically transport to that inn. Its important also, that you log out of the game while inside the inn or in a major city. You'll know you're in the right place because your level number will turn to 'zzz'. This will give you 'rested experience' and each kill you make while in this state will give you more experience points than normal.

Want to hear something funny. I had no idea about how to tell I was in rested experience mode until about level 60. My friend, and experienced leveling buddy, just always had me log out in the inn. Not until level 60 when I started to play alone did I notice my experience bar change from Blue to Purple. If you're blue, your rested, if you're Purple you're not.

This area is much the same as the opening stage, but the quests start to get harder. Pick up all your quests and take a moment to look around.

*My Notes*: Haven't thought about what profession you want? Haven't considered picking up the secondary professions of Cooking, First Aid and Fishing? You Should! I cannot tell you how much time I lost on 'hunter' having to go backwards to kill mobs 20 levels below me in order to skill up my skinning and leather. This is especially true of Cooking, First Aid and, if you choose, Leather Working and Skinning. You can train for all of those professions, and others, here in Bloodhoof Village and, in the case of Leather and Skinning, much of the low level skinning you'll be required to do to start off, can be completed just by skinning the mobs you are required to kill for your quests. I cannot speak for blacksmith or mining, but I feel confident in saying starting early is a good rule of thumb.

Which profession you choose is totally up to you, but train early. I cannot stress that enough. For information's sake, I have a Grand Master Skinner and a Master Leather Worker in 'hunter' so I chose herbalism and Inscription for Milyssa. Leather and Skinning would also work for a Druid. So would Alchemy. Do a bit of reading on Blizzard's WoW Professions Pages to find out what you are most interested in. Also note that Tauren get a natural Herbalism boost as part of their given abilities, so that might be something to consider.

Nothing too informative to tell you about the quests that come up at Bloodhoof Village. Watch the level of the beast you are trying to attack and continue completing the quests you are given. Some are easy (follow a spirit dog) some are more tricky (kill a level 12 humanoid). They WILL have you running all over Mulgore

At levels 4, 6, and 8, you can visit your Druid trainer (in the large circular tent) for more spells and talents.

*My Notes*: Don't worry about buying food, but do buy drink! As a Druid, if you have enough mana you can easily heal yourself to full life, but if you're out of mana, you could be toast. If you choose to skill up cooking, you can easily turn the wolf meat you pick up into food... for free! You could then sell that food, or keep it for yourself. Before I hit level 10 I hit the achievement "Journeyman Cook" just by picking up meat and eggs off of kills I had to make anyways.

Also, don't worry about buying armor at this stage in the game. You will be given better clothes and weapons through the quests you do. At this stage also you wont have to worry about the added bonus' given with some pieces of armor, so I'll explain that when it first comes up for me.

*New to WoW?*: Many quests are given in a chain. You need to complete the first in a chain before you are given the second. You will find several chains that have 4 or more quests linked. Often times, the 'prize a the end' is better than a normal drop.

At some point you will be given a quest that takes you into Thunder Bluff. It is very important that you reach level 10 and speak to your Druid Trainer before considering the travel to Thunder Bluff. My suggestion: Finish all the quests set to return to Bloodhoof Village before you head off to Thunder Bluff.

Especially complete the 'Rite of Vision', 'Rite of Wisdom' trek. The NPC 'Ancestral Spirit' gives you a continuation of the quest 'Journey to Thunder Bluff' which continues on in a chain with a level 14 quest you are given when you arrive.

The well cleansing quests, ending with Wildmane Cleansing is also worth completing. I know its a long run. Wildmane is located north of Thunder Bluff and you have to return the quest to Bloodhoof Village in the south. Hearthstone can be your best friend. Either way you do it, completing Wildmane Cleansing gives you a 'dreamwatch staff', which is far superior to any weapon you currently carry.

*New to WoW?*: Completing quests in any province will also give your Reputation a boost with the capital city. Example: by completing all of the quests in Red Cloud Mesa and Bloodhoof Village I reached the Honored status in my Thunder Bluff Reputation. Higher Reputation status receive discounts at the vendors. To see your reputations, click the reputation tab in your character screen.

Once I completed all of my Bloodhoof Village quests, I continued to Thunder Bluff and was ready to call it a day (yes, I did all that in one day, but it was a marathon 8 hour day). Remember to watch for the ZZZ in the corner to make sure you're getting your rested experience before logging out.

Next time: We begin to explore Thunder Bluff and embark on our first *BIG* druid training experience.

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Current Statistics:

Stave, Mace and Defence skill: 55 each (max)

Unarmed skill: 54 (that elusive last point was killing me)

Cooking: 59/150

First Aid: 39/75

Observant among the experienced players will note this article is called level 5-10 but my skill level max at what would be level 11. Correct! Point for you, but it's easier to blog in round numbers, and since 10 is where you get your first major Druid training, that's where I'd like to start.

Strength: 31

Agility: 20

Stamina: 28

Intellect: 26

Spirit: 35

Armor: 214

Read more!