Now What?
After way too long, and 3,696 quests, Belmann is The Loremaster.
I know it’s only a game, but this does feel like a real achievement, and I’m particularly glad to have achieved my personal goal to complete it before Cataclysm, to have experienced the Vanilla content as it originally was while it’s still there.
There’s been a certain amount of talk, subsequent to Blizzard (or rather Ghostcrawler) telling us that the achievement will continue to be available, that the achievement will be devalued because players will be able to fly in the old world, making it easier. I don’t think that will be the case – I believe most players will still tend to power through levels and zones, and do only a subset of the quests. Â Grinding through all the quests in Outlands is easier with a flying mount, but that was planned for. The effort is not in travelling to deal with the quests (although I got to read several books while long slow scenic flights took me all over the vanilla content), but just grinding through the mass of the quests.
Mmm. I’ll think more on this later when I’m awake and coherent. Have some pictures.
I grabbed the moment just before he got the achievement, from a suitably shadowy figure in the wilds of Netherstorm. That was the way a lot of the experience seemed to me – lonely corners of the world, pursuing shadowy aims for shadowy individuals. And if I ever see Blizzard padding out zones again with low drop rate quests, I’ll speak very sternly with them.
Of course I also grabbed the moment he got the achievement. And it felt very sweet. 
I took him back to Dalaran to pick up the tabard, emptied out the bags to get rid of all the cruft (and to tuck a few choice items away in the bank), and settled down for a soothing ale. And to ponder the question: what do I do next?
