I had sent my enchanter a crapton of vellums that I created while leveling Ahami's inscription, and promptly forgot about them.
Well, yesterday I was a bit too sick to do anything worthwhile on Ideale, so I hopped on the warlock and the mage to test them out in PVP and see which was more fun, but two level 18 clothies in quest gear in the most notorious twink bracket in WoW was ... not a smart idea.
So I hopped on my bank alt and grabbed them some AH greens to wear, then filled in the rest with their tailoring — nothing too fancy, just some basic, level-appropriate stuff. Then I hopped on Daj and scrolled a few minor enchants (again, not the standard twink enchants, just some +stam to bracers and stuff).
And then I hopped back on. I can't compete with the rogues with 3.2K health, but 800+ is better than 200+, so I can actually survive long enough to do some damage.
The warlock is a bit more fun at this level, but I think the mage will be more fun for soloing — it's starting to get boring with the 'lock. So I'll keep playing to 30 with both of them, but the mage might be the one who goes all the way, and the 'lock might end up semi-twinked at 39 until I have the cash and time to make her a full-out twink at 59 (like the druid). That's based on first impressions, though — it could still change.
Really, it's amazing how much more fun this bracket can be if it you're not getting one-shotted every time. And if you have an enchanter and some vellums, it's pretty damn cheap to do the enchants, too.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The alt thing
For a long time, I didn't get the alt thing. I could understand having more than one 70, but the idea of working on leveling more than one toon at a time just eluded me. I leveled my hunter to 70, and then, after I'd earned her a few pieces of PVP gear, explored Outland, done most of the quests to get her exalted with the five Horde factions, and maxed her mining and gotten close with her jewelcrafting, I returned to my shaman and leveled her up to 80 (basically, since Wrath came out just before I dinged 69).
And now that her herbalism is maxed, she's got gear just barely decent enough to heal heroics, and I've gotten bored with dailies, I should be leveling my hunter. And I am, a little here and there, veryvery slowly. And I am also leveling my mage and warlock and playing (but not really leveling) my death knight. I do want to sit down and focus on Ideale, and I really need to work on rep with Ahami, but I needed a break after the grind to 80, especially because I needed some time for the quests to freshen up, and having alt ADD has been a bit fun. It's getting old, though — I don't feel like I'm making any progress with any of my toons this way.
I will definitely focus on Ideale, but I kind of want to pick one other character to level to 80, to play when I'm just not feeling like spending another minute in Grizzly Hills or Strand of the Ancients. I only play my death knight with my priesty roommate, and that suits me fine; same with my survival hunter and my BFF. I want a healer in the 50-59 bracket, so the druid is out.
That leaves the mage or the warlock. The mage would be more logical — I'd be able to port people around for cash and so on, AOE farming would be kind of awesome, I could wait with Drek'thar until the Alliance attacked and then run around in circles spamming Arcane Explosion, etc.
But while I have not liked warlocks in the past, I am really taken with my current attempt, an undead 'lock. I tried the orc thing, then got a great character idea. Malisya's ... well, really crazy. As in not actually in touch with reality. And not really in a good way. I mean, she gets that the Forsaken have broken away from the Scourge and that they are supposedly working with the Horde, but she doesn't really care as long as she gets to kill stuff. And laugh about it. If I get her to Northrend, I don't know how she's going to do Wrathgate, because she'd totally just sit back and watch the whole thing, clapping gleefully, and not care who won.
I've always loved playing the chaotic evil types (even when I creep myself out with them sometimes), and I just keep coming back to play her, even though the DoT thing gets kind of frustrating sometimes. It's a really, really fun change from my other toons — Ideale is totally driven, but has a moral code and sticks to it even if it throws a wrench in her plans; Ahami is a healer first and foremost, who will kill when it is necessary without remorse, but really prefers to keep other people alive and let them do the killing; even Silang, who has no problem with doing what needs to be done even if it is technically evil (for example, the quest "A Special Surprise"), has regrets about it and prefers to act for the greater good when she can. Silang is my only red=dead character — the others mostly keep the PVP to the battlegrounds or defending Horde cities.
My original plan was to level both to 30 and then choose, but I'm getting back to my "I don't get the alt thing" mindset. I'd like to focus on one character at a time, and save the twink projects for breaks now and then. So while I level Ideale, I will be weighing warlock vs. mage.
And now that her herbalism is maxed, she's got gear just barely decent enough to heal heroics, and I've gotten bored with dailies, I should be leveling my hunter. And I am, a little here and there, veryvery slowly. And I am also leveling my mage and warlock and playing (but not really leveling) my death knight. I do want to sit down and focus on Ideale, and I really need to work on rep with Ahami, but I needed a break after the grind to 80, especially because I needed some time for the quests to freshen up, and having alt ADD has been a bit fun. It's getting old, though — I don't feel like I'm making any progress with any of my toons this way.
I will definitely focus on Ideale, but I kind of want to pick one other character to level to 80, to play when I'm just not feeling like spending another minute in Grizzly Hills or Strand of the Ancients. I only play my death knight with my priesty roommate, and that suits me fine; same with my survival hunter and my BFF. I want a healer in the 50-59 bracket, so the druid is out.
That leaves the mage or the warlock. The mage would be more logical — I'd be able to port people around for cash and so on, AOE farming would be kind of awesome, I could wait with Drek'thar until the Alliance attacked and then run around in circles spamming Arcane Explosion, etc.
But while I have not liked warlocks in the past, I am really taken with my current attempt, an undead 'lock. I tried the orc thing, then got a great character idea. Malisya's ... well, really crazy. As in not actually in touch with reality. And not really in a good way. I mean, she gets that the Forsaken have broken away from the Scourge and that they are supposedly working with the Horde, but she doesn't really care as long as she gets to kill stuff. And laugh about it. If I get her to Northrend, I don't know how she's going to do Wrathgate, because she'd totally just sit back and watch the whole thing, clapping gleefully, and not care who won.
I've always loved playing the chaotic evil types (even when I creep myself out with them sometimes), and I just keep coming back to play her, even though the DoT thing gets kind of frustrating sometimes. It's a really, really fun change from my other toons — Ideale is totally driven, but has a moral code and sticks to it even if it throws a wrench in her plans; Ahami is a healer first and foremost, who will kill when it is necessary without remorse, but really prefers to keep other people alive and let them do the killing; even Silang, who has no problem with doing what needs to be done even if it is technically evil (for example, the quest "A Special Surprise"), has regrets about it and prefers to act for the greater good when she can. Silang is my only red=dead character — the others mostly keep the PVP to the battlegrounds or defending Horde cities.
My original plan was to level both to 30 and then choose, but I'm getting back to my "I don't get the alt thing" mindset. I'd like to focus on one character at a time, and save the twink projects for breaks now and then. So while I level Ideale, I will be weighing warlock vs. mage.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Percula is amazing
No, really. I have no idea who Percula is, but I do know that this machinima is probably the best one I've ever seen. I think I've watched it about six times since someone posted it on the VeCo forums yesterday.
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.
Makes me wish I had played my rogue to 80.
The Craft of War: BLIND from percula on Vimeo.
Makes me wish I had played my rogue to 80.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Death Knight PVP: First impressions
I ventured into Warsong Gulch on Silang last night. I've been pretty focused on getting Ahami to 80, then on getting her geared up enough to heal heroics first and maybe survive for a reasonable amount of time in the battlegrounds second (I lack resilience ... a lot), raising her rep with various factions, and then on playing Ideale (don't let the Armory fool you - she's one bubble from 72!). So really, the only time I've been playing my death knight was when I was rolling with my shadow priesty friend (we're trying to catch her up).
Last night, though, I was bored and really didn't feel like running dailies. Huntering sounded fun, but I really wanted to run some battlegrounds as DPS, and with Ide still 71, that just didn't seem like a fun idea.
And then I remembered that I have a 58 death knight. Now, I suck at melee (though apparently less than I thought), but I figured it would be fun. So I did three runs of Warsong Gulch (would have done more, but the second and third took roughly 45 minutes apiece, and I stayed because we had a really good group on both sides; it was the same group both times).
First off, death knights in PVP are a total blast. I did have some trouble with ranged classes — one pretty good frost mage kept tricking me into blowing Death Grip with Ice Nova, and then kiting me around. Icy Touch is about the only ranged thing you get that doesn't cost runic power, so staying in melee is important. Death Grip and Chains of Ice help with this.
Second, Death Grip is an incredible, incredible ability. Why? You are the ultimate flag runner protector (well, other than a priest or pally). Run along about 20 yards behind the flag runner, and when someone gets right on his ass, Death Grip, Chains of Ice, and either take him down or keep following the flag runner, depending on which seems more helpful at the time.
Defense is also awesome — just wait for someone to grab the flag, then Death Grip and melee them down.
Other things I noticed: Pestilence + Blood Boil = yay. I really ought to have used Mind Freeze on that mage, now that I'm thinking about it. Unholy is super fun for PVP, mostly because when you die, you self-rez for a short time as a ghoul. If you target someone in a group of Alliance (or Horde, if you roll with the other side), do the leapy thing into the middle, and explode yourself, it's really, really satisfying. Especially when a hunter on your side has dropped frost trap and is volleying the group already. I think we took out five people at once one time. (Of course, this is not so good when the three offense who ran into their flag room suddenly have to deal with the five folks running from the graveyard. *facepalm*)
I can already see how some of these would be applied in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm. (Death Grip is seriously one of the coolest PVP talents ever; it interrupts, it slows people down/removes their progress, etc. The Gargoyle is pretty handy, too.) I think I'm going to have to actually run Alterac Valley to get a feel for DK PVP there — it just plays so differently.
Still, for WSG I think I did okay — I topped or came close on the damage meters, protected the flag runner on a few runs, and killed the other side's flag carrier several times (although I am so slow on clicking the flag back — I play defense almost always in WSG and I think I've had a total of, like, four flag returns across all my characters because I'm just too slow). Also got the Not So Fast achievement! I must not have done too bad, because it got where every time I was on defense, they would run in and all unload on me first. So either they thought I was dangerous enough to deal with ASAP, or I'm an easy mark (the latter is probably more likely, since I really am bad at melee).
It's also nice to see AFKers forced to play. This orc shaman was standing at the graveyard for most of the first battle, and kept getting reported. Finally he got booted from the round. When we all got in the second round, he was there again, and we were like, "Oh, great, 9-man again." And then he had a flag carry and three defends, and came in third on the damage meter, and was like, "Hey, that was an awesome match!." Isn't it way more fun when you actually participate? You get more honor that way, too.
Last night, though, I was bored and really didn't feel like running dailies. Huntering sounded fun, but I really wanted to run some battlegrounds as DPS, and with Ide still 71, that just didn't seem like a fun idea.
And then I remembered that I have a 58 death knight. Now, I suck at melee (though apparently less than I thought), but I figured it would be fun. So I did three runs of Warsong Gulch (would have done more, but the second and third took roughly 45 minutes apiece, and I stayed because we had a really good group on both sides; it was the same group both times).
First off, death knights in PVP are a total blast. I did have some trouble with ranged classes — one pretty good frost mage kept tricking me into blowing Death Grip with Ice Nova, and then kiting me around. Icy Touch is about the only ranged thing you get that doesn't cost runic power, so staying in melee is important. Death Grip and Chains of Ice help with this.
Second, Death Grip is an incredible, incredible ability. Why? You are the ultimate flag runner protector (well, other than a priest or pally). Run along about 20 yards behind the flag runner, and when someone gets right on his ass, Death Grip, Chains of Ice, and either take him down or keep following the flag runner, depending on which seems more helpful at the time.
Defense is also awesome — just wait for someone to grab the flag, then Death Grip and melee them down.
Other things I noticed: Pestilence + Blood Boil = yay. I really ought to have used Mind Freeze on that mage, now that I'm thinking about it. Unholy is super fun for PVP, mostly because when you die, you self-rez for a short time as a ghoul. If you target someone in a group of Alliance (or Horde, if you roll with the other side), do the leapy thing into the middle, and explode yourself, it's really, really satisfying. Especially when a hunter on your side has dropped frost trap and is volleying the group already. I think we took out five people at once one time. (Of course, this is not so good when the three offense who ran into their flag room suddenly have to deal with the five folks running from the graveyard. *facepalm*)
I can already see how some of these would be applied in Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm. (Death Grip is seriously one of the coolest PVP talents ever; it interrupts, it slows people down/removes their progress, etc. The Gargoyle is pretty handy, too.) I think I'm going to have to actually run Alterac Valley to get a feel for DK PVP there — it just plays so differently.
Still, for WSG I think I did okay — I topped or came close on the damage meters, protected the flag runner on a few runs, and killed the other side's flag carrier several times (although I am so slow on clicking the flag back — I play defense almost always in WSG and I think I've had a total of, like, four flag returns across all my characters because I'm just too slow). Also got the Not So Fast achievement! I must not have done too bad, because it got where every time I was on defense, they would run in and all unload on me first. So either they thought I was dangerous enough to deal with ASAP, or I'm an easy mark (the latter is probably more likely, since I really am bad at melee).
It's also nice to see AFKers forced to play. This orc shaman was standing at the graveyard for most of the first battle, and kept getting reported. Finally he got booted from the round. When we all got in the second round, he was there again, and we were like, "Oh, great, 9-man again." And then he had a flag carry and three defends, and came in third on the damage meter, and was like, "Hey, that was an awesome match!." Isn't it way more fun when you actually participate? You get more honor that way, too.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Rethinking blogging!
When I started this blog, I was pretty much a total noob. I hated every class but hunter and maybe shaman, the only pets I liked were cats and owls, and I thought Arathi Basin was the absolute best thing ever. About the only thing that hasn't changed since May is my adoration of battleground PVP.
It's about time I found a niche with blogging, so I sat down and brainstormed some ideas for future blog entries, and noticed a theme:
- Battleground PVP; how have the changes with the expansion changed this? Gear changes/siege weapons/does Wintergrasp count as world or battleground PVP? New strategies.
- Pet reviews; would need an open pet slot. Instead of ranking pets, focus on what each pet is good for (PVP, PVE, soloing)/how to maximize pet skills/pros and cons of each class/etc.
- World PVP; strats for city bosses, organizing events, using old world PVP objectives to start trouble (EPL, Silithus)
- Strengths of each class for PVP, cons; what are tricks to beat each class? What are must-know skills you should have if you want to PVP as X? (i.e., hunters should know how to kite, when to use traps/big red pet/whatever, etc.)
- Roleplaying; name choices? success in organizing RP events lies in server's interests
- Twinking; gear changes (bind to account/heirloom gear), stat changes. How has inscription changed twinking (vellums make enchants easier)? Profession choices for twinks; Sidenote: ethics of twinking, why to twink, why low-level twinking sucks
- More on gear without arenas; what pieces to look for, how to make up for hit to resilience/stam
And so on. Note the common theme there? It's not hunters or kitties (although the kitties are still my favorite).
Do I refocus this blog to be more large-scale PVP oriented? (I still don't really intend to do arena.) Do I start fresh* with a new blog? And most importantly, what should my new name be!?
*I do think I'll be moving to Wordpress either way; I am less and less fond of Blogger as time goes on. Wordpress has cooler themes, blog stats tools, and I just like it better anyway. Plus I keep ending up at Blogspit.com by accident.
It's about time I found a niche with blogging, so I sat down and brainstormed some ideas for future blog entries, and noticed a theme:
- Battleground PVP; how have the changes with the expansion changed this? Gear changes/siege weapons/does Wintergrasp count as world or battleground PVP? New strategies.
- Pet reviews; would need an open pet slot. Instead of ranking pets, focus on what each pet is good for (PVP, PVE, soloing)/how to maximize pet skills/pros and cons of each class/etc.
- World PVP; strats for city bosses, organizing events, using old world PVP objectives to start trouble (EPL, Silithus)
- Strengths of each class for PVP, cons; what are tricks to beat each class? What are must-know skills you should have if you want to PVP as X? (i.e., hunters should know how to kite, when to use traps/big red pet/whatever, etc.)
- Roleplaying; name choices? success in organizing RP events lies in server's interests
- Twinking; gear changes (bind to account/heirloom gear), stat changes. How has inscription changed twinking (vellums make enchants easier)? Profession choices for twinks; Sidenote: ethics of twinking, why to twink, why low-level twinking sucks
- More on gear without arenas; what pieces to look for, how to make up for hit to resilience/stam
And so on. Note the common theme there? It's not hunters or kitties (although the kitties are still my favorite).
Do I refocus this blog to be more large-scale PVP oriented? (I still don't really intend to do arena.) Do I start fresh* with a new blog? And most importantly, what should my new name be!?
*I do think I'll be moving to Wordpress either way; I am less and less fond of Blogger as time goes on. Wordpress has cooler themes, blog stats tools, and I just like it better anyway. Plus I keep ending up at Blogspit.com by accident.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
WTB dual specs please
I think too much like a PVPer.
My 13/0/58 spec? Well, the resto part is PVE — I sort of copied from a couple of other shamans on VeCo to get an idea of where points should go. But I finally went to see where most PVE'rs were putting their points in enhancement, and a lightbulb went off — they're aiming for more mana and more mana regen. *facepalm* Seriously, I'm very new to this PVE thing.
I've been thinking like a PVPer. My points in Enhancement, when Ahami was 0/13/58, were aiming for survivability (and instant ghost wolf for flag carrying purposes!). I had also spent points in resto to cut down healing pushbacks, reduce stun/fear durations, and so on. In PVP, if you run out of mana, you can just run back from the brawl, drink, and run back in (in AV), or fights generally end before you go out of mana everywhere else (either because you killed the other players or you got killed yourself, in which case you rez with full health and mana anyway).
I still do a lot of soloing, so I don't think I will be switching my spec just yet unless I notice a problem with my mana pool in heroics, but when dual speccing comes out, I think I will be switching to a cookie cutter resto/enh PVE spec and doing a 20/0/51 PVP spec.
On that note, I healed my first heroic yesterday. We had one partial wipe (the tank and I died, but held on long enough that the DPS could finish the boss off), but it went pretty well, and I really didn't have many mana issues. I do really need to look at healer addons again (I HATE Healbot), because my healing was a little too slow. There were a couple of scary moments where I almost lost the tank because I was trying to heal one of the DPSers, and a couple moments where I did lose a DPSer because the tank was taking enough damage that I knew I wouldn't be able to heal the mage and then switch back to her in time. Definitely harder to shaman-heal when there are only two melee folks.
But I think it went well, and I think it will go a little better next time. And I got Limb Regeneration Bracers! Finally something with haste on it! Just need to get the spellpower enchant for them now.
My 13/0/58 spec? Well, the resto part is PVE — I sort of copied from a couple of other shamans on VeCo to get an idea of where points should go. But I finally went to see where most PVE'rs were putting their points in enhancement, and a lightbulb went off — they're aiming for more mana and more mana regen. *facepalm* Seriously, I'm very new to this PVE thing.
I've been thinking like a PVPer. My points in Enhancement, when Ahami was 0/13/58, were aiming for survivability (and instant ghost wolf for flag carrying purposes!). I had also spent points in resto to cut down healing pushbacks, reduce stun/fear durations, and so on. In PVP, if you run out of mana, you can just run back from the brawl, drink, and run back in (in AV), or fights generally end before you go out of mana everywhere else (either because you killed the other players or you got killed yourself, in which case you rez with full health and mana anyway).
I still do a lot of soloing, so I don't think I will be switching my spec just yet unless I notice a problem with my mana pool in heroics, but when dual speccing comes out, I think I will be switching to a cookie cutter resto/enh PVE spec and doing a 20/0/51 PVP spec.
On that note, I healed my first heroic yesterday. We had one partial wipe (the tank and I died, but held on long enough that the DPS could finish the boss off), but it went pretty well, and I really didn't have many mana issues. I do really need to look at healer addons again (I HATE Healbot), because my healing was a little too slow. There were a couple of scary moments where I almost lost the tank because I was trying to heal one of the DPSers, and a couple moments where I did lose a DPSer because the tank was taking enough damage that I knew I wouldn't be able to heal the mage and then switch back to her in time. Definitely harder to shaman-heal when there are only two melee folks.
But I think it went well, and I think it will go a little better next time. And I got Limb Regeneration Bracers! Finally something with haste on it! Just need to get the spellpower enchant for them now.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Rethinking twinking
I had originally planned to make a pair of AV twinks, one survival hunter and one elemental shaman.
But since I now have an elemental shaman Alliance side (who will be going resto later), I have to say I'm just not really into elemental spec at all. And while I am still leveling another two hunters for fun, I want the Conqueror title for Ideale and I don't think I'll be PVPing much on the other two until she gets it. (Ditto for Ahami, actually.)
I've also been thinking that if I am going to make twinks, I should make them in classes I haven't played yet, for two reasons: 1. I can learn their weaknesses and then exploit them on my other toons; 2. when Blizz finally does start giving XP for battleground PVP like they keep saying they will and my twinks inevitably level, do I really want, like, six level 80 hunters and shamans? Plus, while I don't like any of the other classes enough to make them my main characters, I am finding that in short bursts — an hour or two here and there — they can be a whole lot of fun.
So my current plans have changed. Onashne is sitting pretty at level 30, and I have my troll magey and now an orc warlock* who I have been playing here and there for a break from Northrend. I will get some friends to run me through stuff so I can gear them for the 30-39 bracket, and there they will stay until Ahami, Ideale and Silang are all nice and leveled and maybe even geared a bit, and then I will see where to go from there. Maybe I'll level them for AV; maybe I'll leave them alone until the PVP XP starts, I don't know.
I am guessing that the title of this blog is now somewhat misleading, since hunters aren't my whole focus anymore (though I'm starting to get there with Ideale now in action again!). :-/
*I liked the human storyline and I really do want to try warlock PVP, so I am trying an orc, because maybe the secretive thing will make it more fun.
But since I now have an elemental shaman Alliance side (who will be going resto later), I have to say I'm just not really into elemental spec at all. And while I am still leveling another two hunters for fun, I want the Conqueror title for Ideale and I don't think I'll be PVPing much on the other two until she gets it. (Ditto for Ahami, actually.)
I've also been thinking that if I am going to make twinks, I should make them in classes I haven't played yet, for two reasons: 1. I can learn their weaknesses and then exploit them on my other toons; 2. when Blizz finally does start giving XP for battleground PVP like they keep saying they will and my twinks inevitably level, do I really want, like, six level 80 hunters and shamans? Plus, while I don't like any of the other classes enough to make them my main characters, I am finding that in short bursts — an hour or two here and there — they can be a whole lot of fun.
So my current plans have changed. Onashne is sitting pretty at level 30, and I have my troll magey and now an orc warlock* who I have been playing here and there for a break from Northrend. I will get some friends to run me through stuff so I can gear them for the 30-39 bracket, and there they will stay until Ahami, Ideale and Silang are all nice and leveled and maybe even geared a bit, and then I will see where to go from there. Maybe I'll level them for AV; maybe I'll leave them alone until the PVP XP starts, I don't know.
I am guessing that the title of this blog is now somewhat misleading, since hunters aren't my whole focus anymore (though I'm starting to get there with Ideale now in action again!). :-/
*I liked the human storyline and I really do want to try warlock PVP, so I am trying an orc, because maybe the secretive thing will make it more fun.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Pet choices
Now that I have started leveling Ideale — with much frustration, I might add; after not having played her, literally, for a month, I am a borderline huntard mostly because I keep forgetting where I put things. "I have aggro! I have aggro! Oh yeah, Intimidation! ... Why did I just Arcane Shot?" And also ammo. Shamans do not have ammo, nor do they need it. So I'm sitting there shooting, shooting, shooting, and suddenly I am getting the out of ammo message and have to melee my way back out of Baleheim. *facepalm* Luckily, I think I got all the huntard out of my system by the time I dinged 71.
Where was I? Oh yeah.
Now that I have started leveling Ideale, I've had to face facts. With the exception of my wasp, none of my pet choices are all that awesome for PVP, which is where I intend to spend all of my non-farming time on Ideale. Because really, I am not so good at PVE as DPS. And I don't know if it is a spec problem or I have the cower bug going on or what, but pre-WotLK Cinnamon had no problem holding aggro, and post-WotLK I am pulling aggro even though my DPS has tanked and even using Aspect of the Viper, thus tanking my DPS even more. (The DPS thing is a spec problem, I think — my DPS in Aspect of the Hawk is a bit lower than it used to be in Aspect of the Viper back pre-Wrath, and I don't think it's due to nerfs. I went with a hybrid spec for PVP, and because I am a defensive player went for Readiness, survivability and other tricks rather than massive DPS; this is not a leveling spec at all.)
I desperately MUST tame Loque. I have wanted to tame this cat since the moment I laid eyes on the screenshot at Mania's blog, and after having done the Har'koa quests on Ahami, I want him even more desperately. I've never wanted to tame a pet so badly, ever. I would also very much like a windserpent for PVP, and if I keep having aggro problems with Cinnamon, I would really like to tame a rhino for soloing with.
That's two pets, or maybe three. I have one remaining stable slot.
I am keeping Cinnamon, of course, and I'm already super-attached to my firefly, RIzal, even though he's still not 70. (I was leveling him through Alterac Valley ...) Plus, the wasp poison is absolutely wonderful for PVP. Not a lot of damage, but it really helps with kiting, and annoys the crap out of paladins. And there are so few wasp hunters!
I love Saffron a lot, but having two cats (hopefully soon to be three) is silly, especially since I will be respeccing full BM and the extra pet talent points make Saffy's spec and Cinnamon's incredibly similar. But she's been with me since the Badlands, and I am such a cat person.
And Gutripper — I was so excited when I managed to solo-tame her, and she's been so much fun as a pet, but after the patch, when Screech changed to Snatch, I really don't pull her out much. I don't like to micromanage a pet's abilities, but Snatch very much needs a hunter to micromanage it, or you have your owl grabbing a mage's weapon and then on CD for the rogue or warrior. It's fun to use — they always kind of pause when they lose their weapons, like "WTF???" — but not that fun. But even though I have not had her very long in comparison to my cats, I am attached to her.
So which do I choose to keep? And which do I let go? And more importantly, can I bring myself to follow through, and will I be able to go through it a second time if I can't figure out my aggro issues and need to tame a rhino, too?
I think this is why I've put off leveling Ideale so long (after I'd intended to level them together) — I knew this was coming, and I really don't want to deal with it.
Where was I? Oh yeah.
Now that I have started leveling Ideale, I've had to face facts. With the exception of my wasp, none of my pet choices are all that awesome for PVP, which is where I intend to spend all of my non-farming time on Ideale. Because really, I am not so good at PVE as DPS. And I don't know if it is a spec problem or I have the cower bug going on or what, but pre-WotLK Cinnamon had no problem holding aggro, and post-WotLK I am pulling aggro even though my DPS has tanked and even using Aspect of the Viper, thus tanking my DPS even more. (The DPS thing is a spec problem, I think — my DPS in Aspect of the Hawk is a bit lower than it used to be in Aspect of the Viper back pre-Wrath, and I don't think it's due to nerfs. I went with a hybrid spec for PVP, and because I am a defensive player went for Readiness, survivability and other tricks rather than massive DPS; this is not a leveling spec at all.)
I desperately MUST tame Loque. I have wanted to tame this cat since the moment I laid eyes on the screenshot at Mania's blog, and after having done the Har'koa quests on Ahami, I want him even more desperately. I've never wanted to tame a pet so badly, ever. I would also very much like a windserpent for PVP, and if I keep having aggro problems with Cinnamon, I would really like to tame a rhino for soloing with.
That's two pets, or maybe three. I have one remaining stable slot.
I am keeping Cinnamon, of course, and I'm already super-attached to my firefly, RIzal, even though he's still not 70. (I was leveling him through Alterac Valley ...) Plus, the wasp poison is absolutely wonderful for PVP. Not a lot of damage, but it really helps with kiting, and annoys the crap out of paladins. And there are so few wasp hunters!
I love Saffron a lot, but having two cats (hopefully soon to be three) is silly, especially since I will be respeccing full BM and the extra pet talent points make Saffy's spec and Cinnamon's incredibly similar. But she's been with me since the Badlands, and I am such a cat person.
And Gutripper — I was so excited when I managed to solo-tame her, and she's been so much fun as a pet, but after the patch, when Screech changed to Snatch, I really don't pull her out much. I don't like to micromanage a pet's abilities, but Snatch very much needs a hunter to micromanage it, or you have your owl grabbing a mage's weapon and then on CD for the rogue or warrior. It's fun to use — they always kind of pause when they lose their weapons, like "WTF???" — but not that fun. But even though I have not had her very long in comparison to my cats, I am attached to her.
So which do I choose to keep? And which do I let go? And more importantly, can I bring myself to follow through, and will I be able to go through it a second time if I can't figure out my aggro issues and need to tame a rhino, too?
I think this is why I've put off leveling Ideale so long (after I'd intended to level them together) — I knew this was coming, and I really don't want to deal with it.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Strand of the Ancients = Yay!
The Strand is crazy. I ran it twice — the first time, I had no idea what the hell was going on but we won, and the second time I had figured it out but my team decided we would rather let the Alliance bottleneck us than actually use strategery, so we got curbstomped.
So, if you are doing SotA, please, for the love of Har'koa the Leopard Goddess (I think she's Ahami's new patron because Har'koa kicks ass), take out both gates instead of just throwing yourself through one gate, one siege tank at a time, right into the enemy's defense. Remember, defense has the advantage anyway — if you split them up, then you have a much better chance of making up for that imbalance.
Pretty sure SotA is going to be one of the battlegrounds I love, though. It's a lot of fun, even though I don't really have time to heal it — I'll probably spend more time in there on Ide or Silang, because it's definitely a DPSer's dream match.
I tried to do Wintergrasp, but there were no Alliance in the zone, so I was sad.
So I went to my old pal, Alterac Valley, for a quick run before I had to log, and we swept the place, getting the Everything Counts achievement. Awesome DK tank on Vann, too.
And then, after determining that I really need more resilience and testing the waters in the Strand, I went and spent 400g on training. So I guess we all know what my priorities are.
(Sadly, in the tradition I started with Ideale, I forgot to pay attention to the XP bar entirely and thus missed screen-capping the moment it disappeared.)
P.S. Lava Burst and Hex are really taking away most of my motivation to level a mage.
EDIT: On a side note, I really need to pick a name to go with for this blog. I was using MW at first (mayhemwench was an old chat handle back in the day), but I really don't use that for anything but an e-mail address anymore. Then I went with Siya ("that person") until I discovered that there is another WoW blogger who has been around a lot longer named Siha. So now I'm using KC, because Kitty Collector is just a bit too long for my lazy ass to type, but I am not big on the initials thing. I don't want to use Ahami or Ideale as my handle — that would just be kind of weird, I think.
Ideas?
So, if you are doing SotA, please, for the love of Har'koa the Leopard Goddess (I think she's Ahami's new patron because Har'koa kicks ass), take out both gates instead of just throwing yourself through one gate, one siege tank at a time, right into the enemy's defense. Remember, defense has the advantage anyway — if you split them up, then you have a much better chance of making up for that imbalance.
Pretty sure SotA is going to be one of the battlegrounds I love, though. It's a lot of fun, even though I don't really have time to heal it — I'll probably spend more time in there on Ide or Silang, because it's definitely a DPSer's dream match.
I tried to do Wintergrasp, but there were no Alliance in the zone, so I was sad.
So I went to my old pal, Alterac Valley, for a quick run before I had to log, and we swept the place, getting the Everything Counts achievement. Awesome DK tank on Vann, too.
And then, after determining that I really need more resilience and testing the waters in the Strand, I went and spent 400g on training. So I guess we all know what my priorities are.
(Sadly, in the tradition I started with Ideale, I forgot to pay attention to the XP bar entirely and thus missed screen-capping the moment it disappeared.)
P.S. Lava Burst and Hex are really taking away most of my motivation to level a mage.
EDIT: On a side note, I really need to pick a name to go with for this blog. I was using MW at first (mayhemwench was an old chat handle back in the day), but I really don't use that for anything but an e-mail address anymore. Then I went with Siya ("that person") until I discovered that there is another WoW blogger who has been around a lot longer named Siha. So now I'm using KC, because Kitty Collector is just a bit too long for my lazy ass to type, but I am not big on the initials thing. I don't want to use Ahami or Ideale as my handle — that would just be kind of weird, I think.
Ideas?
Dear Alchemist Finkelstein
You suck. A lot.
Love,
Ahami
***
Dear hunters,
Loque is a dude. He is the mate of Har'koa, the leopard goddess. Please take note of this.
Love,
The Kitty Collector
Love,
Ahami
***
Dear hunters,
Loque is a dude. He is the mate of Har'koa, the leopard goddess. Please take note of this.
Love,
The Kitty Collector
Thursday, December 11, 2008
SO CLOSE
I am a little over a third of the way through 79.
And after healing a guild group at the Amphitheater of Anguish (watched an Alliance group with a hunter, then ran our own group with the hunter class leader in it), I desperately want to play on Ideale, but I'm so. Close. To 80. Can't wait to get there, and then I can go back to tag-teaming between the two again.
Also I want to PVP. I WANT TO PVP NOW. NOW PLZ.
But if I PVP now, then I will do that for the next 2-3 weeks and be sitting at 79 the whole time. And I want at least one 80 before I start getting sidetracked so I can actually do more stuff with the guild.
Don't get me wrong. I adore playing Ahami and have been having a BLAST the past month with all the grouping and healing and exploring and stuff I've been doing. I still fully intend to keep her as my main, I love playing her so much.
But oh, it will be really nice to be able to kill things at a decent speed again, without having to stop and drink every other mob. And it'll be fun to run with Cinnamon again (lame but true, I miss my pixelcat).
P.S. The Venture Co. realm is literally the most awesome realm in WoW. Someone started cracking child molestation jokes in Zul'Drak today, and half the people in the zone jumped down their throat over it, and the person apologized. If I hadn't been there, I'd never have believed it, but it was really kind of cool. I <3 VeCo.
And after healing a guild group at the Amphitheater of Anguish (watched an Alliance group with a hunter, then ran our own group with the hunter class leader in it), I desperately want to play on Ideale, but I'm so. Close. To 80. Can't wait to get there, and then I can go back to tag-teaming between the two again.
Also I want to PVP. I WANT TO PVP NOW. NOW PLZ.
But if I PVP now, then I will do that for the next 2-3 weeks and be sitting at 79 the whole time. And I want at least one 80 before I start getting sidetracked so I can actually do more stuff with the guild.
Don't get me wrong. I adore playing Ahami and have been having a BLAST the past month with all the grouping and healing and exploring and stuff I've been doing. I still fully intend to keep her as my main, I love playing her so much.
But oh, it will be really nice to be able to kill things at a decent speed again, without having to stop and drink every other mob. And it'll be fun to run with Cinnamon again (lame but true, I miss my pixelcat).
P.S. The Venture Co. realm is literally the most awesome realm in WoW. Someone started cracking child molestation jokes in Zul'Drak today, and half the people in the zone jumped down their throat over it, and the person apologized. If I hadn't been there, I'd never have believed it, but it was really kind of cool. I <3 VeCo.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
True cat stories: Merry Treemas
I think I mentioned that Sparrow loves soft things and has stolen several stuffed toys from me because of this. If not ... Sparrow loves soft things and has stolen several stuffed toys from me because of it.
Her favorite is a terrycloth dollar store Kitten that has seen much better days, with stiff competition from Chococat and Softbunny, a soft blue bunny my roommate bought her. She carries them around from room to room throughout the day, lines them all up at the door around the time I get home from work, plays with them as if they were real cats, and is generally adorable as hell.
Sparrow also loves Christmas trees. She was much tinier her first Christmas, and spent most of the holiday launching herself at us from about halfway up the tree. Luckily, she also weighed about three pounds, and the tree never ate it.
That was last year. Many ornaments died. She doesn't climb the tree anymore, though — she just hides underneath it.
This year's Christmas tree got put up Monday night, and the roommates and I all went out for something after that. When we got home and flicked on the light, there was Sparrow laying behind the tree, content and purring. On her right was Chococat, on her left was Softbunny, and directly across from her was Kitten, all facing the tree.
(And yes, if I ask her where one of them is, she will go find it and occasionally carry it back to me, mewing the whole time. Which is hilarious when it's Chococat, because she's smaller than the toy is.)
Her favorite is a terrycloth dollar store Kitten that has seen much better days, with stiff competition from Chococat and Softbunny, a soft blue bunny my roommate bought her. She carries them around from room to room throughout the day, lines them all up at the door around the time I get home from work, plays with them as if they were real cats, and is generally adorable as hell.
Sparrow also loves Christmas trees. She was much tinier her first Christmas, and spent most of the holiday launching herself at us from about halfway up the tree. Luckily, she also weighed about three pounds, and the tree never ate it.
That was last year. Many ornaments died. She doesn't climb the tree anymore, though — she just hides underneath it.
This year's Christmas tree got put up Monday night, and the roommates and I all went out for something after that. When we got home and flicked on the light, there was Sparrow laying behind the tree, content and purring. On her right was Chococat, on her left was Softbunny, and directly across from her was Kitten, all facing the tree.
(And yes, if I ask her where one of them is, she will go find it and occasionally carry it back to me, mewing the whole time. Which is hilarious when it's Chococat, because she's smaller than the toy is.)
Resto shaman item enhancements
Exelus at Shamantics posted this awesome list of rep rewards from each Northrend faction and which items/enchants could be helpful to which tree.
If you are an inscriber, ditch the Sons of Hodir shoulder enchant, because Master's Inscription of the Crag is more awesome.
There are also some decent enchants out there if you are lacking in the resilience for PVP. You might take a hit in mana regen in exchange.
Enchants/enhancements for the resto shaman:
Head: Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Wyrmrest Accord - Revered) or ; PVP Arcanum of Dominance (40 Stone Keeper's Shards, purchased in Wintergrasp)
Shoulders: Master's Inscription of the Crag (Inscription 400; Scribes only) or Greater Inscription of the Crag (Sons of Hodir - Exalted; Honored gives you access to the Lesser version); PVP Inscription of Dominance adds resil, but the hit in spell power and mp5 probably makes it not worth it.
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats (Enchanting 440; 15x Infinite Dust, 4x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Chest - Greater Mana Restoration (Enchanting 420; 20x Infinite Dust, 8x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Legs: I may be wrong, but you seem to be able to buy and use Sapphire Spellthread even if you are not a tailor.
Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower (Enchanting 440; 24x Infinite Dust, 16x Greater Cosmic Essence, 2x Abyss Crystal), Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 8x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence) or Enchant Bracers - Greater Stats (Enchanting 400; 16x Infinite Dust, 3x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 360; 4x Infinite Dust, 1x Lesser Cosmic Essence)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Greater Vitality (Enchanting 405; 14x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle, of course.
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (Enchanting 435; 40x Infinite Dust, 20x Greater Cosmic Essence, 6x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 10x Infinite Dust, 2x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Shield: Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect (12x Infinite Dust)
Rings: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 400; Enchanters only)
I'm really not finding anything else other than armor kits, which seem to be fairly useless for casters aside from the +stam. Am I missing something?
If you are an inscriber, ditch the Sons of Hodir shoulder enchant, because Master's Inscription of the Crag is more awesome.
There are also some decent enchants out there if you are lacking in the resilience for PVP. You might take a hit in mana regen in exchange.
Enchants/enhancements for the resto shaman:
Head: Arcanum of Blissful Mending (Wyrmrest Accord - Revered) or ; PVP Arcanum of Dominance (40 Stone Keeper's Shards, purchased in Wintergrasp)
Shoulders: Master's Inscription of the Crag (Inscription 400; Scribes only) or Greater Inscription of the Crag (Sons of Hodir - Exalted; Honored gives you access to the Lesser version); PVP Inscription of Dominance adds resil, but the hit in spell power and mp5 probably makes it not worth it.
Chest: Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats (Enchanting 440; 15x Infinite Dust, 4x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Chest - Greater Mana Restoration (Enchanting 420; 20x Infinite Dust, 8x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Legs: I may be wrong, but you seem to be able to buy and use Sapphire Spellthread even if you are not a tailor.
Wrist: Enchant Bracers - Superior Spellpower (Enchanting 440; 24x Infinite Dust, 16x Greater Cosmic Essence, 2x Abyss Crystal), Enchant Bracers - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 8x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence) or Enchant Bracers - Greater Stats (Enchanting 400; 16x Infinite Dust, 3x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Hands: Enchant Gloves - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 360; 4x Infinite Dust, 1x Lesser Cosmic Essence)
Feet: Enchant Boots - Greater Vitality (Enchanting 405; 14x Infinite Dust, 4x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Waist: Eternal Belt Buckle, of course.
Weapon: Enchant Weapon - Mighty Spellpower (Enchanting 435; 40x Infinite Dust, 20x Greater Cosmic Essence, 6x Abyss Crystal) or Enchant Weapon - Exceptional Spellpower (Enchanting 395; 10x Infinite Dust, 2x Greater Cosmic Essence)
Shield: Enchant Shield - Greater Intellect (12x Infinite Dust)
Rings: Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower (Enchanting 400; Enchanters only)
I'm really not finding anything else other than armor kits, which seem to be fairly useless for casters aside from the +stam. Am I missing something?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Great Hunter Nerf?
Honestly, I haven't even played my hunter much yet, and I saw it coming a mile away. We were already way OP for PVE, and Echoes of Doom just added to that.
That said, my spec will be changing pretty immediately — no point in keeping Readiness at the expense of the extra pet talent points if it doesn't effect BW/TBW. And some of the changes (I'm thinking mainly Deterrence and Kill Shot) will actually buff us slightly for PVP. In fact, I might retry BM/SV spec — the change to Improved Tracking would be nice in PVP. I've kind of been examining the spec I used last time and I think I see why my DPS dropped so drastically — will need to work on my +agi, though, if I do this.
And the Growl fix will really help with soloing. I wasn't having too many problems for the half-level I've done in Howling Fjord on Ide, but it was a bit more of a pain to manage my threat. Since I farm the stupid way (one mob at a time), this will make soloing much less stressful on my hunter.
The point being, for raiding hunters, I do sympathize, but I'm really not all that upset about these changes. Except Volley. I wanted to PVP with awesome Volley some more before it got nerfed.
Halfway through 78 on Ahami, and about to have a massive gear upgrade in the next day or two thanks to guild leatherworkers who are on top of the recipes, so Ide should be getting play time in the next few weeks. Which means I'll actually be posting about huntering!
That said, my spec will be changing pretty immediately — no point in keeping Readiness at the expense of the extra pet talent points if it doesn't effect BW/TBW. And some of the changes (I'm thinking mainly Deterrence and Kill Shot) will actually buff us slightly for PVP. In fact, I might retry BM/SV spec — the change to Improved Tracking would be nice in PVP. I've kind of been examining the spec I used last time and I think I see why my DPS dropped so drastically — will need to work on my +agi, though, if I do this.
And the Growl fix will really help with soloing. I wasn't having too many problems for the half-level I've done in Howling Fjord on Ide, but it was a bit more of a pain to manage my threat. Since I farm the stupid way (one mob at a time), this will make soloing much less stressful on my hunter.
The point being, for raiding hunters, I do sympathize, but I'm really not all that upset about these changes. Except Volley. I wanted to PVP with awesome Volley some more before it got nerfed.
Halfway through 78 on Ahami, and about to have a massive gear upgrade in the next day or two thanks to guild leatherworkers who are on top of the recipes, so Ide should be getting play time in the next few weeks. Which means I'll actually be posting about huntering!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Wishlist: PVE gear for the almost 80 resto shaman
With tomorrow and Tuesday off, I should be hitting 80 by the weekend at the latest, so I am starting to put together a little wishlist of gear from factions and the basic (non-heroic) 77-80 dungeons for PVE purposes. I really do want to give this PVE thing a real go — it's much more fun as a healer than DPS, and now that I'm finally starting to feel like part of my guild (they're awesome, it just takes me a long time to feel comfortable in new groups, honestly — I like to think I hide it well but I am excruciatingly shy in real life), running instances is much more fun.
I'm sure I will eventually be doing heroics, and since the guild has already started 10-man Naxx (and cleared a couple of wings, I think!) with a bunch of extras, I will hopefully be able to tag along on the occasional raid despite my schedule. But at the moment I don't have the gear for either and need to learn the instances a bit more thoroughly anyway, so.
Anyway, here's what I am aiming for:
- The Stormhide set (Crafted - Leatherworking) is actually better than most of the current items I have access to via PVE for the chest, feet, waist and wrist slots, at least until I hit 80 and start doing heroics.
- Hands: Gauntlets of Dark Conversion (Culling of Stratholme)
- Head: I have a few choices here. My best bets might be either the Hollow Geode Helm (Halls of Stone) or the Battle Mender's Helm (Argent Crusade - Revered), depending on my other gear. But the Sharkjaw Cap (Oracles - Revered) or Nightshock Hood (Crafted - Leatherworking) would be okay short-term choices, too.
- Legs: Kilt of Molten Golems (Halls of Lightning). And such an awesome name, too! Second choice would be the Scavenged Feather Leggings from the Frenzyheart, but Ahami doesn't care for those wolvar much and there are things I want from the Oracles first anyway.
- Shoulders: The Epaulets of Market Row (BOE drop from Culling of Stratholme) are just a titch better than the Stormhide shoulders.
- Cloak: There is a very, very nice purple BOE cloak made by tailors that I very, very much want - Wispcloak. However, it will be quite some time before I can gather the mats for it. In the meantime, the Shroud of Dedicated Research (Kirin Tor - Honored) and Shroud of Resurrection (Utgarde Pinnacle) aren't bad.
- Shield: Warsong Stormshield (Horde Expedition - Revered), which I can pick up right now. The Alliance equivalent is Lordaeron's Resolve (Alliance Vanguard - Revered).
- Neck: Chain of Fiery Orbs (Halls of Stone) would be good enough for now — I will be leveling Ide's mining and jewelcrafting soon enough.
- Finger: None of them thrill me. I'll just pick up whatever drops that looks okay and replace as I level Ide's jewelcrafting.
- Trinkets: Soul Preserver (Culling of Stratholme); not sure what to put in the second slot. Maybe Badge of the Infiltrator for now. I could try for Darkmoon Card: Illusion. There are some engineering trinkets that look nice, but I won't be leveling engineering until Ide's mining and jewelcrafting is at 450 and Silang is to Northrend to pick flowers, if at all.
- Totem: Totem of the Bay (Grizzly Hills vendors, requires Venture Co. tokens) would be nice, especially for PVP, when I basically spam Chain Heal. Savage Gladiator's Totem of the Third Wind (PVP, requires honor and arena points, no rating) might mean I'll have to suck it up and dance in arena a few times, because it might be better for some 5-mans when I'm not chain healing.
I will worry about weapons another day, since this is already tl;dr.
I'm sure I will eventually be doing heroics, and since the guild has already started 10-man Naxx (and cleared a couple of wings, I think!) with a bunch of extras, I will hopefully be able to tag along on the occasional raid despite my schedule. But at the moment I don't have the gear for either and need to learn the instances a bit more thoroughly anyway, so.
Anyway, here's what I am aiming for:
- The Stormhide set (Crafted - Leatherworking) is actually better than most of the current items I have access to via PVE for the chest, feet, waist and wrist slots, at least until I hit 80 and start doing heroics.
- Hands: Gauntlets of Dark Conversion (Culling of Stratholme)
- Head: I have a few choices here. My best bets might be either the Hollow Geode Helm (Halls of Stone) or the Battle Mender's Helm (Argent Crusade - Revered), depending on my other gear. But the Sharkjaw Cap (Oracles - Revered) or Nightshock Hood (Crafted - Leatherworking) would be okay short-term choices, too.
- Legs: Kilt of Molten Golems (Halls of Lightning). And such an awesome name, too! Second choice would be the Scavenged Feather Leggings from the Frenzyheart, but Ahami doesn't care for those wolvar much and there are things I want from the Oracles first anyway.
- Shoulders: The Epaulets of Market Row (BOE drop from Culling of Stratholme) are just a titch better than the Stormhide shoulders.
- Cloak: There is a very, very nice purple BOE cloak made by tailors that I very, very much want - Wispcloak. However, it will be quite some time before I can gather the mats for it. In the meantime, the Shroud of Dedicated Research (Kirin Tor - Honored) and Shroud of Resurrection (Utgarde Pinnacle) aren't bad.
- Shield: Warsong Stormshield (Horde Expedition - Revered), which I can pick up right now. The Alliance equivalent is Lordaeron's Resolve (Alliance Vanguard - Revered).
- Neck: Chain of Fiery Orbs (Halls of Stone) would be good enough for now — I will be leveling Ide's mining and jewelcrafting soon enough.
- Finger: None of them thrill me. I'll just pick up whatever drops that looks okay and replace as I level Ide's jewelcrafting.
- Trinkets: Soul Preserver (Culling of Stratholme); not sure what to put in the second slot. Maybe Badge of the Infiltrator for now. I could try for Darkmoon Card: Illusion. There are some engineering trinkets that look nice, but I won't be leveling engineering until Ide's mining and jewelcrafting is at 450 and Silang is to Northrend to pick flowers, if at all.
- Totem: Totem of the Bay (Grizzly Hills vendors, requires Venture Co. tokens) would be nice, especially for PVP, when I basically spam Chain Heal. Savage Gladiator's Totem of the Third Wind (PVP, requires honor and arena points, no rating) might mean I'll have to suck it up and dance in arena a few times, because it might be better for some 5-mans when I'm not chain healing.
I will worry about weapons another day, since this is already tl;dr.
Spirit Kitty
After seeing all the jerks in Sholazar gloating about killing Loque, and all the hunters pissed about it, and all of the horror stories on BRK's blog about people who finally, finally see the cat only to have it snatched from under them ...
I am totally taming the spirit kitty. I'll get a windserpent on one of my other hunters. That same little stubborn streak that has caused me to level Ahami from 10 to 77 (halfway to 78!) as straight resto has been activated, and as soon as Ideale is 76, I will probably be spending most of my time in game camping the spawn point for Loque.
I am totally taming the spirit kitty. I'll get a windserpent on one of my other hunters. That same little stubborn streak that has caused me to level Ahami from 10 to 77 (halfway to 78!) as straight resto has been activated, and as soon as Ideale is 76, I will probably be spending most of my time in game camping the spawn point for Loque.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Gearing for the battlegrounds at 80
With 3.5 levels to go before I hit 80, I figured it was time to start looking at options for world and battleground PVP. Unlike the previous expansion, where you could buy the basic blue resilience set from various factions upon hitting 70, there are, as far as I have been able to tell, no faction-sold PVP sets for 80. So where do you get gear?
Well, there are a few options.
Option 1: Become an Arena Junkie
If you are into arena, then you are pretty well set — all you need for the blue Savage Gladiator set is arena points and honor, and if you manage to top a 1550 rating, you can get the mid-rate Hateful Gladiator epic set. [Note: I linked to the plate chestpiece for each set, since the links for the full sets seem to be sort of busted. Just search for "Savage Gladiator" or "Hateful Gladiator" to find the appropriate set pieces for your class.]
According to WoWHead, the blue set will also be available with Emblems of Heroism, gained from heroic 5-mans and 10-man raids; you can purchase the purple set with Emblems of Valor, gained from 25-man raids. That's all I know about arena gear, though, since I really don't intend to do it.
Option 2: That PVE Thing
As mentioned above, you can earn Emblems of Heroism and Emblems of Valor from completing PVE objectives, and use these to purchase arena gear. Why you would do that rather than purchase PVE gear, I don't know, at least right now. I could see this happening later when you are overgeared for everything and have 82 of the things, but now? That's kind of shafting your guild, if you are all working on the content, but you're not working on gearing for it. Unless you are just PUGing heroics to get them, but why would you do that to yourself?
Anyway, this is not the only way to get geared. See, in very general and oversimplified terms, PVP gear is itemized around survival first and burst damage output second, whereas PVE gear is itemized more around doing continuous damage/mana regen and efficiency/lasting power/etc. (Or so it seems to me, based on the stats for comparable pieces of both.)
If you were really dead-set against arena and enjoy that PVE thing, you could probably build a "glass cannon" PVP set around PVE gear. Use PVE gear, gem and enchant with resilience in mind, or supplement with the off-set pieces (which can be purchased with honor points; cannot find if they require an arena rating to purchase, but I'm pretty sure at least the blues will not). Basically, try to mitigate the loss of stamina and resilience with a significant increase in MQoSDPS, ranged or otherwise, or lots of healing power and staying power. (If you're a good healer and you're not in a battleground with a bunch of schmucks, the only way you're going to die is if you get zerged or some sneaky warlock DoTs the crap out of you before anyone can figure out where they are, and you'd probably die anyway in that case, after you've finished the battleground returned to Dalaran, and wandered off to fish in the sewers or something.)
If you do this, of course, be sure you aren't gimping yourself in PVE — that's unfair to the groups you run with. Use off-set pieces, pieces for slots you've upgraded, vendor gear, etc.
Option 3: Wintergrasp PVP and that Wintergrasp PVE thing
Stone Keeper's Shards. You can get them in a couple of ways: By completing the daily quests in Wintergrasp, or as boss drops when your faction controls Wintergrasp only. Stone Keeper's Shards can be used to buy some VERY nice gear, like the Prized Beastmaster's Mantle (extra nice because it binds to the account and scales with level). Or enchants or gems like the Inscription of Dominance or Trenchant Earthshatter Diamond. Or you can just blow them on fun stuff, like the Reins of the Black War Mammoth, and then ride around Dragonblight yelling, "MAAAAAAAMMOOOOOOTTTTTHHHH!"
Ahami and Ideale will be spending quite a lot of time in Wintergrasp, I can tell.
Plus, if you do the PVE dungeon in Wintergrasp (available only when your faction controls it), the bosses drop arena gear of various levels. And the season hasn't even started yet!
Option 4: Craft Craft Revolution
Blizz included crafting recipes in the expansion that can be used to create a full set of basic arena gear. This gear is not great — in fact, if you have S4, S3, and maybe even S2, you might want to very carefully weigh which pieces you replace — which stats are you shaky on? Will a few pieces of the Stormhide set fix that?
If you had a fresh 70 who you chose to level to 80, then the set is a very good starter set, to be supplemented with gear obtained in other ways. But if you had a 70 who was already decently geared for PVP, then weigh your choices. The nice (well, sort of) part about these sets is that they don't have a set bonus, so you can replace pieces as you go without worrying about maintaining a certain number.
Certain specs of certain classes (holy paladins and enhancement shamans, for example) might be better off looking elsewhere for PVP gear.
That said, here are the sets you can get:
Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing sets seem to be taught by trainers. Blacksmiths can make the Ornate Saronite and Savage Saronite sets.
Leatherworking: Leatherworking patterns can be purchased in exchange for pieces of Heavy Borean Leather. If you have a skinner, you might offer to supply your leatherworker if they purchase the patterns for the pieces you need. Leatherworkers can make the Stormhide, Swiftarrow, Eviscerator's, and Overcast sets.
Tailoring: Like blacksmithing, the tailoring set seem to be simply taught by the trainers. Tailors can make the Frostsavage set. As far as I can tell, this is the only tailoring set available.
Are there better ways to gear up for WotLK PVP? Probably. But with avoiding arena as much as possible in mind, this is what I've come up with to gear my peeps. (Though I might give arena a go for a couple of rounds — the new arena maps and the rebalancing is supposed to have made it somewhat closer to fun. Don't really want to commit to something I don't have a schedule for and would just be half-assing, though.)
Well, there are a few options.
Option 1: Become an Arena Junkie
If you are into arena, then you are pretty well set — all you need for the blue Savage Gladiator set is arena points and honor, and if you manage to top a 1550 rating, you can get the mid-rate Hateful Gladiator epic set. [Note: I linked to the plate chestpiece for each set, since the links for the full sets seem to be sort of busted. Just search for "Savage Gladiator" or "Hateful Gladiator" to find the appropriate set pieces for your class.]
According to WoWHead, the blue set will also be available with Emblems of Heroism, gained from heroic 5-mans and 10-man raids; you can purchase the purple set with Emblems of Valor, gained from 25-man raids. That's all I know about arena gear, though, since I really don't intend to do it.
Option 2: That PVE Thing
As mentioned above, you can earn Emblems of Heroism and Emblems of Valor from completing PVE objectives, and use these to purchase arena gear. Why you would do that rather than purchase PVE gear, I don't know, at least right now. I could see this happening later when you are overgeared for everything and have 82 of the things, but now? That's kind of shafting your guild, if you are all working on the content, but you're not working on gearing for it. Unless you are just PUGing heroics to get them, but why would you do that to yourself?
Anyway, this is not the only way to get geared. See, in very general and oversimplified terms, PVP gear is itemized around survival first and burst damage output second, whereas PVE gear is itemized more around doing continuous damage/mana regen and efficiency/lasting power/etc. (Or so it seems to me, based on the stats for comparable pieces of both.)
If you were really dead-set against arena and enjoy that PVE thing, you could probably build a "glass cannon" PVP set around PVE gear. Use PVE gear, gem and enchant with resilience in mind, or supplement with the off-set pieces (which can be purchased with honor points; cannot find if they require an arena rating to purchase, but I'm pretty sure at least the blues will not). Basically, try to mitigate the loss of stamina and resilience with a significant increase in MQoSDPS, ranged or otherwise, or lots of healing power and staying power. (If you're a good healer and you're not in a battleground with a bunch of schmucks, the only way you're going to die is if you get zerged or some sneaky warlock DoTs the crap out of you before anyone can figure out where they are, and you'd probably die anyway in that case, after you've finished the battleground returned to Dalaran, and wandered off to fish in the sewers or something.)
If you do this, of course, be sure you aren't gimping yourself in PVE — that's unfair to the groups you run with. Use off-set pieces, pieces for slots you've upgraded, vendor gear, etc.
Option 3: Wintergrasp PVP and that Wintergrasp PVE thing
Stone Keeper's Shards. You can get them in a couple of ways: By completing the daily quests in Wintergrasp, or as boss drops when your faction controls Wintergrasp only. Stone Keeper's Shards can be used to buy some VERY nice gear, like the Prized Beastmaster's Mantle (extra nice because it binds to the account and scales with level). Or enchants or gems like the Inscription of Dominance or Trenchant Earthshatter Diamond. Or you can just blow them on fun stuff, like the Reins of the Black War Mammoth, and then ride around Dragonblight yelling, "MAAAAAAAMMOOOOOOTTTTTHHHH!"
Ahami and Ideale will be spending quite a lot of time in Wintergrasp, I can tell.
Plus, if you do the PVE dungeon in Wintergrasp (available only when your faction controls it), the bosses drop arena gear of various levels. And the season hasn't even started yet!
Option 4: Craft Craft Revolution
Blizz included crafting recipes in the expansion that can be used to create a full set of basic arena gear. This gear is not great — in fact, if you have S4, S3, and maybe even S2, you might want to very carefully weigh which pieces you replace — which stats are you shaky on? Will a few pieces of the Stormhide set fix that?
If you had a fresh 70 who you chose to level to 80, then the set is a very good starter set, to be supplemented with gear obtained in other ways. But if you had a 70 who was already decently geared for PVP, then weigh your choices. The nice (well, sort of) part about these sets is that they don't have a set bonus, so you can replace pieces as you go without worrying about maintaining a certain number.
Certain specs of certain classes (holy paladins and enhancement shamans, for example) might be better off looking elsewhere for PVP gear.
That said, here are the sets you can get:
Blacksmithing: Blacksmithing sets seem to be taught by trainers. Blacksmiths can make the Ornate Saronite and Savage Saronite sets.
Leatherworking: Leatherworking patterns can be purchased in exchange for pieces of Heavy Borean Leather. If you have a skinner, you might offer to supply your leatherworker if they purchase the patterns for the pieces you need. Leatherworkers can make the Stormhide, Swiftarrow, Eviscerator's, and Overcast sets.
Tailoring: Like blacksmithing, the tailoring set seem to be simply taught by the trainers. Tailors can make the Frostsavage set. As far as I can tell, this is the only tailoring set available.
Are there better ways to gear up for WotLK PVP? Probably. But with avoiding arena as much as possible in mind, this is what I've come up with to gear my peeps. (Though I might give arena a go for a couple of rounds — the new arena maps and the rebalancing is supposed to have made it somewhat closer to fun. Don't really want to commit to something I don't have a schedule for and would just be half-assing, though.)
True Cat Stories: OH GOD GET IT OFF
Back when I lived in Queens, I used to hang out in the parks all the time because I missed living in the country and they were about as close as you could get.
So one day, I was in Central Park and this guy comes walking down a path with this absolutely gorgeous Himalayan cat on a leash. It was possibly the yuppiest thing I've ever seen, but also the most awesome — this can was completely unperturbed by bikers, roller bladers, and people walking their dogs, and he even let me pet her (yes, I asked!).
Ditto, my old kitty, used to just follow me along and never needed a leash, but when Sparrow was a kitten, she had a propensity to wander away to chase after bugs and stuff, and living in town, I was afraid she'd run into the street or something, so I went out and bought myself a cat leash. After the first time she wore it, it never bothered her at all, and now when she hears me taking it out of the basket, she comes running from wherever she is in the apartment to go for a walk.
Klio, on the other hand, was not all that fond of the outdoors and never needed her leash — which is good, because she's one of those cats who acts as though the leash is crushing them. (She did the same thing with her collar for a week.)
Only recently, Klio has decided that if Sparrow gets to go outside, then she should go outside, too. The first couple of times she was great. She was nervous, so she stuck to my side like glue.
Once she got used to it, it was a nightmare. See, Klio is a very playful cat, and her favorite thing in the world (Sparrow's too, actually) is to be chased. And she decided that "Time to go in" meant "Time to play chase!" and started hiding under bushes, running up trees, coming a fingertip's distance away and then running in circles around me, and so on, and for a chubby little cat she is EXTREMELY FAST.
Last time we went out, then, I put the harness and leash on her. And she stayed the entire time at the foot of the stairs (which I had to carry her down), yowling like I was killing her and pressed flat to the ground.
So when we got back inside, I left the harness on her. She'll get used to it, right? I figured I'd feed them wet food, and by the time she was done eating, she'd have forgotten it.
No dice. I carried her to the food, plopped her down inches away, and went to check my e-mail. Three or four minutes later, she started yowling again, and I went to check, and found out why she was crying. Sparrow had taken advantage of Klio's apparent inability to move the two inches to her food dish and was wolfing down Klio's treat in addition to her own. *facepalm*
So the harness is off for now, and I am at a loss as far as figuring this out. Klio desperately wants to go outside — to the point where she tries to sneak out when I am coming home from work or bringing Spar back in — but I cannot trust her off the leash and she is immobile and loud on the leash. What to do?
So one day, I was in Central Park and this guy comes walking down a path with this absolutely gorgeous Himalayan cat on a leash. It was possibly the yuppiest thing I've ever seen, but also the most awesome — this can was completely unperturbed by bikers, roller bladers, and people walking their dogs, and he even let me pet her (yes, I asked!).
Ditto, my old kitty, used to just follow me along and never needed a leash, but when Sparrow was a kitten, she had a propensity to wander away to chase after bugs and stuff, and living in town, I was afraid she'd run into the street or something, so I went out and bought myself a cat leash. After the first time she wore it, it never bothered her at all, and now when she hears me taking it out of the basket, she comes running from wherever she is in the apartment to go for a walk.
Klio, on the other hand, was not all that fond of the outdoors and never needed her leash — which is good, because she's one of those cats who acts as though the leash is crushing them. (She did the same thing with her collar for a week.)
Only recently, Klio has decided that if Sparrow gets to go outside, then she should go outside, too. The first couple of times she was great. She was nervous, so she stuck to my side like glue.
Once she got used to it, it was a nightmare. See, Klio is a very playful cat, and her favorite thing in the world (Sparrow's too, actually) is to be chased. And she decided that "Time to go in" meant "Time to play chase!" and started hiding under bushes, running up trees, coming a fingertip's distance away and then running in circles around me, and so on, and for a chubby little cat she is EXTREMELY FAST.
Last time we went out, then, I put the harness and leash on her. And she stayed the entire time at the foot of the stairs (which I had to carry her down), yowling like I was killing her and pressed flat to the ground.
So when we got back inside, I left the harness on her. She'll get used to it, right? I figured I'd feed them wet food, and by the time she was done eating, she'd have forgotten it.
No dice. I carried her to the food, plopped her down inches away, and went to check my e-mail. Three or four minutes later, she started yowling again, and I went to check, and found out why she was crying. Sparrow had taken advantage of Klio's apparent inability to move the two inches to her food dish and was wolfing down Klio's treat in addition to her own. *facepalm*
So the harness is off for now, and I am at a loss as far as figuring this out. Klio desperately wants to go outside — to the point where she tries to sneak out when I am coming home from work or bringing Spar back in — but I cannot trust her off the leash and she is immobile and loud on the leash. What to do?
Friday, December 5, 2008
Clearcasting
With the itemization change that led to +spell and +heal being something like the same thing (or whatever, I don't get math), I decided to shoot for a few points in the elemental tree rather than the enhancement. I figured that then I could use essentially the same gear if I got stuck DPSing for some reason, and still do a decent amount of damage. (Don't use my current spec as a guide for anything. I just stuck points in random crap until I got what I wanted in both resto and elem. I'll shell out the gold at 80 for a real spec.)
Let me just say right now, two things have made me extremely glad I did this: Lava Burst and Clearcasting.
Lava Burst is the shit, and with the points in that talent that adds to your crit and damage for Lava Burst and fire totems, I can actually burn down mobs at something resembling a normal leveling speed now. I went from 74 to 75 faster than any level since the 30s, and I'm already halfway through 76. When I put Flame Shock up first for the Lava Burst autocrit, I'm critting for 2400-2800. I think that's pretty good for a shoddily-geared resto shaman at 76, right?
And the wonderful thing about the autocrit is that it procs Clearcasting. Clearcasting is AWESOME — it basically cuts the mana cost of any two damage or healing spells by 40 percent every time it procs, meaning that in the rotation (haha, like I actually plan these things out) I am using while soloing, a good two-thirds of my spells are reduced price. I played for two hours yesterday morning and had to drink once. ONCE. And then I played for two more hours last night, a bit more intensively, and am down just four more honeymint teas.
Let me be a bit more clear: Before I got Clearcasting, I was going through 2-3 stacks of drinks every time I played and it took me ages to kill anything, but with the elem sub-spec, I'm killing things much more quickly and it's costing me much less mana.
While I do plan to go something like 13/0/58 at 80 while I relearn the battlegrounds/learn Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp (haven't really ventured in since WotLK hit*, though I am planning an hour or two on my death knight tomorrow, because her lack of kills is bugging me, and I might suck it up and try the 19 bracket on my mage this week, too), I do want to experiment with a resto/elem hybrid spec at some point as well. But I might wait until dual-specs are implemented, because I'm incredibly attached to Riptide. <3 Riptide.
Anyway, the point is, if you are a resto/enh shaman, you might want to give resto/elem a try — it's totally worth the loss of instant ghost wolf.
*It's my carrot, along with my hunter. I made the mistake of going into the battlegrounds on Ahami at 49 and spent two weeks doing nothing at all but PVP. And then at 59 I did the same thing, but for even longer. If I go in on her before I hit 80, I won't come out, and I'd like to get there before the New Year so poor Ideale can get some love.
Let me just say right now, two things have made me extremely glad I did this: Lava Burst and Clearcasting.
Lava Burst is the shit, and with the points in that talent that adds to your crit and damage for Lava Burst and fire totems, I can actually burn down mobs at something resembling a normal leveling speed now. I went from 74 to 75 faster than any level since the 30s, and I'm already halfway through 76. When I put Flame Shock up first for the Lava Burst autocrit, I'm critting for 2400-2800. I think that's pretty good for a shoddily-geared resto shaman at 76, right?
And the wonderful thing about the autocrit is that it procs Clearcasting. Clearcasting is AWESOME — it basically cuts the mana cost of any two damage or healing spells by 40 percent every time it procs, meaning that in the rotation (haha, like I actually plan these things out) I am using while soloing, a good two-thirds of my spells are reduced price. I played for two hours yesterday morning and had to drink once. ONCE. And then I played for two more hours last night, a bit more intensively, and am down just four more honeymint teas.
Let me be a bit more clear: Before I got Clearcasting, I was going through 2-3 stacks of drinks every time I played and it took me ages to kill anything, but with the elem sub-spec, I'm killing things much more quickly and it's costing me much less mana.
While I do plan to go something like 13/0/58 at 80 while I relearn the battlegrounds/learn Strand of the Ancients and Wintergrasp (haven't really ventured in since WotLK hit*, though I am planning an hour or two on my death knight tomorrow, because her lack of kills is bugging me, and I might suck it up and try the 19 bracket on my mage this week, too), I do want to experiment with a resto/elem hybrid spec at some point as well. But I might wait until dual-specs are implemented, because I'm incredibly attached to Riptide. <3 Riptide.
Anyway, the point is, if you are a resto/enh shaman, you might want to give resto/elem a try — it's totally worth the loss of instant ghost wolf.
*It's my carrot, along with my hunter. I made the mistake of going into the battlegrounds on Ahami at 49 and spent two weeks doing nothing at all but PVP. And then at 59 I did the same thing, but for even longer. If I go in on her before I hit 80, I won't come out, and I'd like to get there before the New Year so poor Ideale can get some love.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Post-break breakdown
So I after not playing on Thursday and Friday because of the holiday and work, and not playing Saturday, Sunday and most of today (EDIT: Today meaning Monday — it's not a new day until I've slept) due to Christmas shopping, card making, and various cooking projects, I finally got Ahami up to 75. And Silang close to 59 (I put Onashne on hold and have been going through Stranglethorn Vale with my friend E. on her priesty, but E.'s computer is in the shop, so Silang has mostly just been herbing).
Oh, and my troll mage up to 14. *shifty eyes*
Actually, the break was kind of nice. I got a lot done over the weekend and did some catching up (I've been playing fairly heavily since the patch came out, and needed to take a step back), and jumped back in ready to go.
I'm really excited, though, because in the process of getting Ahami to 75, I also completed the last of the prerequisite quests for the Wrathgate chain (yes, I'm still in Dragonblight. I still have quests in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, too, but I think after I finish this chain and the Dragonblight group quests, I will move on for now). I held off on starting it because of the server restart, but after the vague comments about how incredible it is, I am very much looking forward to doing it in the next few days.
I'm glad I chose not to start it tonight, though, because I got a little tip just before logging off that I should do all of the quests offered by Varimathras before starting this last leg if I plan to do them at all. And while I've done them all on Ambassador Ideale, I have not done them on Ahami, so it looks like I will be doing a few lowbie quests before I continue with leveling.
And on a side note, a group needed a healer for the last boss in the Nexus (good timing, no?) and I ended up healing through 6? 7? attempts. Three levels later and that instance still blows. We finally ended up getting through it with me and an enhancement shaman both healing, and lost the tank and rogue right as that bitch finally went down. The rogue got a dagger, and I got the achievement and will never step foot in that hellhole again.
Really, I think that unless you are a druid or maybe a priest, or really, really experienced with panic healing and GOOD at it, too, that instance is not a good one to be healing. Too many of the mobs and bosses either interrupt or require you to keep moving, meaning that unless you have a decent arsenal of quick-to-instant heals or HoTs, you end up sacrificing your own life to heal only for everyone else to die when no one heals.
EDIT: Oh, and I went and did some exploring in Grizzly Hills to kill the remaining time before I logged for the night, and it looks just like camp from when I was a kid. Except at camp the bears mostly just knocked over the dumpsters a lot instead of attacking random people riding down the road, and there weren't any furbolgs. But yeah, I don't know if it was the inspiration for sure, but it sure looks an awful lot like Yosemite.
Oh, and my troll mage up to 14. *shifty eyes*
Actually, the break was kind of nice. I got a lot done over the weekend and did some catching up (I've been playing fairly heavily since the patch came out, and needed to take a step back), and jumped back in ready to go.
I'm really excited, though, because in the process of getting Ahami to 75, I also completed the last of the prerequisite quests for the Wrathgate chain (yes, I'm still in Dragonblight. I still have quests in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, too, but I think after I finish this chain and the Dragonblight group quests, I will move on for now). I held off on starting it because of the server restart, but after the vague comments about how incredible it is, I am very much looking forward to doing it in the next few days.
I'm glad I chose not to start it tonight, though, because I got a little tip just before logging off that I should do all of the quests offered by Varimathras before starting this last leg if I plan to do them at all. And while I've done them all on Ambassador Ideale, I have not done them on Ahami, so it looks like I will be doing a few lowbie quests before I continue with leveling.
And on a side note, a group needed a healer for the last boss in the Nexus (good timing, no?) and I ended up healing through 6? 7? attempts. Three levels later and that instance still blows. We finally ended up getting through it with me and an enhancement shaman both healing, and lost the tank and rogue right as that bitch finally went down. The rogue got a dagger, and I got the achievement and will never step foot in that hellhole again.
Really, I think that unless you are a druid or maybe a priest, or really, really experienced with panic healing and GOOD at it, too, that instance is not a good one to be healing. Too many of the mobs and bosses either interrupt or require you to keep moving, meaning that unless you have a decent arsenal of quick-to-instant heals or HoTs, you end up sacrificing your own life to heal only for everyone else to die when no one heals.
EDIT: Oh, and I went and did some exploring in Grizzly Hills to kill the remaining time before I logged for the night, and it looks just like camp from when I was a kid. Except at camp the bears mostly just knocked over the dumpsters a lot instead of attacking random people riding down the road, and there weren't any furbolgs. But yeah, I don't know if it was the inspiration for sure, but it sure looks an awful lot like Yosemite.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Fun questlines
I took Ahami back to the Borean Tundra — in the interests of being able to afford things when I hit 80 and during Ideale's leveling process, I've been trying to stick to the first three zones (Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Dragonblight) until I've done all or nearly all of the quests there. I had managed about 50 quests in the Borean Tundra before I fled screaming, and I'm about halfway through Dragonblight and three-quarters through Howling Fjord (have I mentioned I love this zone?).
Borean Tundra has been much more fun the second time around, perhaps because I finished all of the Warsong Hold quests and have not had to deal with swarming, quickly-spawning insectthings this time. I really hated those stupid things. My favorite quests in the zone are most definitely the murloc quests near Bor'gorok Outpost. There's one where you run around freeing baby murlocs, and oh my god, the cuteness. They're fairly quick and easy and you feel like you accomplish a lot doing them.
I'm also really enjoying the D.E.H.T.A. questline. I have had trouble with Kaw the Mammoth Destroyer — the server lagspiked and crashed right in the middle of my first attempt, and it's been bugged ever since (yes, that was me, VeCo. I'm so sorry). His mammoth is now stuck on permanent evade — she doesn't attack but you can't kill her, so even if you kill Kaw (and I have, twice), you cannot pick up the halberd. I'll try again next Tuesday — server maintenance should reset it. I put in a ticket but got some crazy e-mail response about PVP the next day and it's still bugged, so ... yeah.
I loved the Hearthglen quests in Dragonblight, and my favorite quest in Howling Fjord was the one where you have to fight yourself. My favorite quests, though, are the ones to help the Kaluak. I'm still patiently working through the ones in Howling Fjord, having finished both Borean Tundra and Dragonblight.
So what I do each day, right now, is log on, do the Dalaran cooking quest (having finally hit Dalaran a couple days ago), do the two Kaluak dailies (the one where you kidnap wolvar pups kind of makes me cringe, but I think that's just because I did a lot of research and paper-writing on the Carlisle Industrial Schools in college), and then pick a zone and start questing.
I'm not shooting for the loremaster title at all — and would have a lot of work in the Old World and Outland to do if I were — but I would like to save as many quests as I can for later gold. (And I plan on heading back to Outland and doing the Cenarion Expedition quests in Blade's Edge Mountains and Hellfire Peninsula, since I haven't yet — I'm gonna get that damn hippogryph).
Halfway there. I'm hoping to ding 80 before or on Dec. 13 (my next day off).
Borean Tundra has been much more fun the second time around, perhaps because I finished all of the Warsong Hold quests and have not had to deal with swarming, quickly-spawning insectthings this time. I really hated those stupid things. My favorite quests in the zone are most definitely the murloc quests near Bor'gorok Outpost. There's one where you run around freeing baby murlocs, and oh my god, the cuteness. They're fairly quick and easy and you feel like you accomplish a lot doing them.
I'm also really enjoying the D.E.H.T.A. questline. I have had trouble with Kaw the Mammoth Destroyer — the server lagspiked and crashed right in the middle of my first attempt, and it's been bugged ever since (yes, that was me, VeCo. I'm so sorry). His mammoth is now stuck on permanent evade — she doesn't attack but you can't kill her, so even if you kill Kaw (and I have, twice), you cannot pick up the halberd. I'll try again next Tuesday — server maintenance should reset it. I put in a ticket but got some crazy e-mail response about PVP the next day and it's still bugged, so ... yeah.
I loved the Hearthglen quests in Dragonblight, and my favorite quest in Howling Fjord was the one where you have to fight yourself. My favorite quests, though, are the ones to help the Kaluak. I'm still patiently working through the ones in Howling Fjord, having finished both Borean Tundra and Dragonblight.
So what I do each day, right now, is log on, do the Dalaran cooking quest (having finally hit Dalaran a couple days ago), do the two Kaluak dailies (the one where you kidnap wolvar pups kind of makes me cringe, but I think that's just because I did a lot of research and paper-writing on the Carlisle Industrial Schools in college), and then pick a zone and start questing.
I'm not shooting for the loremaster title at all — and would have a lot of work in the Old World and Outland to do if I were — but I would like to save as many quests as I can for later gold. (And I plan on heading back to Outland and doing the Cenarion Expedition quests in Blade's Edge Mountains and Hellfire Peninsula, since I haven't yet — I'm gonna get that damn hippogryph).
Halfway there. I'm hoping to ding 80 before or on Dec. 13 (my next day off).
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Dear PVE thing
Dear PVE thing,
WTF
Love,
Ahami
***
So I've been leveling Ahami veryvery slowly. Fortunately, I have so far managed to almost keep up (haha, that'll change by tomorrow) with some of the guild, and managed to get in on two instances this week: Nexus and Drak'Tharon Keep.
For Nexus, I was right smack in the middle of the suggested level and the lowest-level player there. Everyone else was at the high end or above. We wiped 4-5 times in two and a half hours, only making it to the third boss. It was SO frustrating, and I really feel like my healing was part of the problem; any time a DPSer pulled aggro, they went down before I could heal. They said I did okay, but I freak out when I let people die, so yeah. Anyway, it was ridiculously hard, and I hid from instances for the rest of the week because of it (although I really do want to go back in before I'm over-leveled, because I think it would be good practice — if I can get my guildies to go again).
So some of my best buds in the guild wanted to do Drak'Tharon Keep, and needed a healer. I ended up letting them talk me into going, even though I'm way below the suggested level and allegedly below the minimum level. To be honest, I didn't argue that hard — they're a lot of fun to run with. I was just worried I'd have to go before we were done (ended up having to go RIGHT after so I could frantically write this before my family gets here).
We blew through it in under an hour, with one almost-wipe on a bad pull that the awesome death knight off-tank and I ended up two-manning through. It was SO EASY. I went oom once during a chain pull, and that was it. Three deaths total, whole instance, on that one bad pull. SO EASY. Although I still don't know WTF was going on with this dude.
In my opinion, Blizz needs to switch these instances. For real.
WTF
Love,
Ahami
***
So I've been leveling Ahami veryvery slowly. Fortunately, I have so far managed to almost keep up (haha, that'll change by tomorrow) with some of the guild, and managed to get in on two instances this week: Nexus and Drak'Tharon Keep.
For Nexus, I was right smack in the middle of the suggested level and the lowest-level player there. Everyone else was at the high end or above. We wiped 4-5 times in two and a half hours, only making it to the third boss. It was SO frustrating, and I really feel like my healing was part of the problem; any time a DPSer pulled aggro, they went down before I could heal. They said I did okay, but I freak out when I let people die, so yeah. Anyway, it was ridiculously hard, and I hid from instances for the rest of the week because of it (although I really do want to go back in before I'm over-leveled, because I think it would be good practice — if I can get my guildies to go again).
So some of my best buds in the guild wanted to do Drak'Tharon Keep, and needed a healer. I ended up letting them talk me into going, even though I'm way below the suggested level and allegedly below the minimum level. To be honest, I didn't argue that hard — they're a lot of fun to run with. I was just worried I'd have to go before we were done (ended up having to go RIGHT after so I could frantically write this before my family gets here).
We blew through it in under an hour, with one almost-wipe on a bad pull that the awesome death knight off-tank and I ended up two-manning through. It was SO EASY. I went oom once during a chain pull, and that was it. Three deaths total, whole instance, on that one bad pull. SO EASY. Although I still don't know WTF was going on with this dude.
In my opinion, Blizz needs to switch these instances. For real.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Class review
So I spent a good portion of my time prior to Wrath (and a little weensy bit of my post-Wrath time, though I'm mostly playing Ahami and Ideale to level and Silang to work on her professions) making lots of alts and playing around with them.
Once I had Ideale to 70 and Ahami to the mid-60s, I thought it was time to go back and retest the other classes I'd thought I hated, just to see if that had changed since I learned to play. Sort of like Pike's Alt Project, but not as organized. (Okay, to be honest, I just got addicted to the character creation screen for a while and just tried new stuff since "nothing much matters these last two weeks anyway").
The only class I haven't retried is paladin, and that's mostly because I do really not want an Alliance pally, but I also do not really want another blood elf. Dilemma.
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
1. Mage: I talked a little bit about my experimental Feathermoon magey and how fun she was. She was so fun, in fact, that I now have a troll mage on VeCo, my main server, with plans to level her to 39 and twink for a while while I work on my mains, with the possibility of eventually either leveling her to end game or transferring her to my level 60 account and playing in AV to my heart's content. I especially like the fire tree. My favorite thing so far has been to ice nova mobs, then either pyroblast or arcane missiles.
2. Warrior: If you play a warrior and enjoy it, you have my respect. Especially if you play one well. I can't figure these out and I hate them hate them hate them. I hate every tree, I hate every talent except intercept, I hate melee, I hate warriors so much (unless they are keeping my healer alive, then they are my favorite class ever).
3. Warlock: I tried something different. After all of the undead warlocks I've rolled, I rolled a human 'lock over on my Alliance server, Blackhand. I like the whole secretive storyline, though it kind of falls apart when you see people roaming around Stormwind with their minions out and their skully helms and whatnot. It's more fun this time around, but I still don't think I'll make it much farther; it's just not proactive enough for me to DoT stuff and then sit and wait for it to die. I am very hands-on. I like to kill things directly with pewpew.
4. Druid: I've talked about Onashne here, and she's my highest-level non-shamunter alt (not counting the death knight). I'm torn. I really like healing as a druid, and I really like some aspects of moonkin. That said, I'm not fond of feral (aside from charging things), I'm frustrated at how quickly I go out of mana as balance (this is coming from a shaman, too), and there's really no need for a healer when grouping with a priest. Onashne will be making it at least a bit farther, because she is fun to play and I do like her character, but she's temporarily on hold while I do other stuff. Right now she's sitting at 30 and kodo-fied, so maybe I'll get a guildie to help me twink her as a healer for the 30-39 bracket for a while.
5. Priest: Meh.
6. Rogue: Stealthing and pickpocketing are fun. Too bad the rest of the class abilities are boring as hell.
7-8. You know my opinions on hunters and shamans. And yes, I rolled more. And then deleted them because crazy can only go so far and I spend most of mine on kitties. The truth is, I really don't like elemental as much as I thought I would (trying in on Mangaragan while I get leveled to resto) — I just like to chain heal — and I really want to work on Daj, but she's on hold because I only play her with my 'locky pal, and she and my other RL friends have been speed-leveling my Alliance shaman during our few hours of play time each week, so yeah.
I want to play with more pets (*gasp* I KNOW). I'm thinking I might wait and tame the spirit kitty on Tshaya (since she already has a ghost saber, so ghost pets could be her theme) and tame either a dragonhawk or a windserpent on Ideale. I'm really wanting to try out more pets now that we have the stable slots to do so, but I can't bring myself to give up Gutripper or Saffron, I'm keeping my wasp forever, and I would delete Ideale before I would abandon Cinnamon. And if I tame the spirit kitty, I will not be able to give him up either.
But on the other hand, MOAR KITTEHS. So I dunno yet.
9. Death knight: I think I mentioned how awesome fun these are, right? I really, really like the unholy tree, like, a LOT. I would probably like the frost tree, too, if I could stop playing unholy long enough to try it. They're like a super-fun cross between a mage, a warlock, and a paladin. I LOVE them.
10. Paladin: Haven't tried again yet.
Once I had Ideale to 70 and Ahami to the mid-60s, I thought it was time to go back and retest the other classes I'd thought I hated, just to see if that had changed since I learned to play. Sort of like Pike's Alt Project, but not as organized. (Okay, to be honest, I just got addicted to the character creation screen for a while and just tried new stuff since "nothing much matters these last two weeks anyway").
The only class I haven't retried is paladin, and that's mostly because I do really not want an Alliance pally, but I also do not really want another blood elf. Dilemma.
Anyway, here are my thoughts:
1. Mage: I talked a little bit about my experimental Feathermoon magey and how fun she was. She was so fun, in fact, that I now have a troll mage on VeCo, my main server, with plans to level her to 39 and twink for a while while I work on my mains, with the possibility of eventually either leveling her to end game or transferring her to my level 60 account and playing in AV to my heart's content. I especially like the fire tree. My favorite thing so far has been to ice nova mobs, then either pyroblast or arcane missiles.
2. Warrior: If you play a warrior and enjoy it, you have my respect. Especially if you play one well. I can't figure these out and I hate them hate them hate them. I hate every tree, I hate every talent except intercept, I hate melee, I hate warriors so much (unless they are keeping my healer alive, then they are my favorite class ever).
3. Warlock: I tried something different. After all of the undead warlocks I've rolled, I rolled a human 'lock over on my Alliance server, Blackhand. I like the whole secretive storyline, though it kind of falls apart when you see people roaming around Stormwind with their minions out and their skully helms and whatnot. It's more fun this time around, but I still don't think I'll make it much farther; it's just not proactive enough for me to DoT stuff and then sit and wait for it to die. I am very hands-on. I like to kill things directly with pewpew.
4. Druid: I've talked about Onashne here, and she's my highest-level non-shamunter alt (not counting the death knight). I'm torn. I really like healing as a druid, and I really like some aspects of moonkin. That said, I'm not fond of feral (aside from charging things), I'm frustrated at how quickly I go out of mana as balance (this is coming from a shaman, too), and there's really no need for a healer when grouping with a priest. Onashne will be making it at least a bit farther, because she is fun to play and I do like her character, but she's temporarily on hold while I do other stuff. Right now she's sitting at 30 and kodo-fied, so maybe I'll get a guildie to help me twink her as a healer for the 30-39 bracket for a while.
5. Priest: Meh.
6. Rogue: Stealthing and pickpocketing are fun. Too bad the rest of the class abilities are boring as hell.
7-8. You know my opinions on hunters and shamans. And yes, I rolled more. And then deleted them because crazy can only go so far and I spend most of mine on kitties. The truth is, I really don't like elemental as much as I thought I would (trying in on Mangaragan while I get leveled to resto) — I just like to chain heal — and I really want to work on Daj, but she's on hold because I only play her with my 'locky pal, and she and my other RL friends have been speed-leveling my Alliance shaman during our few hours of play time each week, so yeah.
I want to play with more pets (*gasp* I KNOW). I'm thinking I might wait and tame the spirit kitty on Tshaya (since she already has a ghost saber, so ghost pets could be her theme) and tame either a dragonhawk or a windserpent on Ideale. I'm really wanting to try out more pets now that we have the stable slots to do so, but I can't bring myself to give up Gutripper or Saffron, I'm keeping my wasp forever, and I would delete Ideale before I would abandon Cinnamon. And if I tame the spirit kitty, I will not be able to give him up either.
But on the other hand, MOAR KITTEHS. So I dunno yet.
9. Death knight: I think I mentioned how awesome fun these are, right? I really, really like the unholy tree, like, a LOT. I would probably like the frost tree, too, if I could stop playing unholy long enough to try it. They're like a super-fun cross between a mage, a warlock, and a paladin. I LOVE them.
10. Paladin: Haven't tried again yet.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Fail is also ...
... being less than one bubble from 71 and having to go to work. Why didn't I schedule days off?
(And yes, 71. I was starting from 68, and I haven't been playing Ahami exclusively. ... Okay, I just fail hardcore at leveling and am the lowest-level non-death knight in my guild. /cry)
(And yes, 71. I was starting from 68, and I haven't been playing Ahami exclusively. ... Okay, I just fail hardcore at leveling and am the lowest-level non-death knight in my guild. /cry)
Fail is ...
1. Night elf rogues who camped the Isle of QQ and picked off all of the freshly-minted 70s in quest greens, but only if they had two mobs on them and didn't fight back. And then camped.
2. Level 75 night elf hunters who camp Skorn in Howling Fjord and pick off level 70-71s, but only when they have two mobs on them and don't fight back. And then camp.
Are these the same person? YOU DECIDE.
Seriously, the one time his stupid gorilla missed and I fought back, he ran off, only to come back as soon as I was drinking and finish me off. I am a level 70 resto shaman, did he really think I was gonna kill him? (Although he did get killed by a 71 warlock twice, so maybe.)
I actually asked the rogue on the realm forum if that was his hunter, but I'm almost positive it is the same person, since the rogue hasn't been touched in weeks and they have the same modus operandi. Totally has to be the same guy. A 71 druid ended up camping him. I sent him golds. :-D
I love to PVP, but when the odds are already stacked way in your favor and you still need to camp in the most cowardly way possible? Well, when another player sees you at half health and assassinates you after I bitch in General, I will pay them.
2. Level 75 night elf hunters who camp Skorn in Howling Fjord and pick off level 70-71s, but only when they have two mobs on them and don't fight back. And then camp.
Are these the same person? YOU DECIDE.
Seriously, the one time his stupid gorilla missed and I fought back, he ran off, only to come back as soon as I was drinking and finish me off. I am a level 70 resto shaman, did he really think I was gonna kill him? (Although he did get killed by a 71 warlock twice, so maybe.)
I actually asked the rogue on the realm forum if that was his hunter, but I'm almost positive it is the same person, since the rogue hasn't been touched in weeks and they have the same modus operandi. Totally has to be the same guy. A 71 druid ended up camping him. I sent him golds. :-D
I love to PVP, but when the odds are already stacked way in your favor and you still need to camp in the most cowardly way possible? Well, when another player sees you at half health and assassinates you after I bitch in General, I will pay them.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Shoveltusk-mania
Ahami has journeyed from the Borean Tundra to the Howling Fjord to join Ideale. Yes, the Not-Fundra got better, but it still sucked — I plan to go back and finish a few quests when I'm done with Howling Fjord, but the rest can wait until I'm 80 and poor and looking to finish achievements.
Anyway, I have discovered my new favorite thing in this expansion, and that is killing entire herds of shoveltusks. There are a ton of them on the western road from New Agamand to Grizzly Hills, and if you aggro one, the whole herd comes after you. So, as a resto shaman, I drop my fire elemental totem, earth shield it, then spam lightning bolt and chain lightning until the whole herd goes down. Keep an eye on his health, but those shoveltusk go down so fast it usually isn't a problem. Then heal him, mana up and pull the next herd.
I can manage two herds before the totem runs out, sometimes three.
Then I run a bit down the road, wait for the cooldown, drop my earth elemental, and do the same thing. With the earth elemental, I can only manage one herd because it takes longer, and you have to focus more on healing him, but keeping earth shield and riptide up seems to do just fine, with the occasional lesser healing wave thrown in (I never really used LHW before, but it crits like crazy now, so half the time it's like using HW with less mana).
You suck down a lot of water (well, seal whey or whatever) doing this, but just one rotation last night (after round two, you have the much longer cooldown), I made a bubble and a half of XP at level 70, plus I had a crapton of shoveltusk flanks and meat for cooking with.
I imagine you could do the same as a hunter with volley, as long as you had a pet that could AOE aggro. Probably with less downtime. I don't plan on getting an AOE'r pet on Ideale, so I can't test this out, unfortunately.
Anyway, I have discovered my new favorite thing in this expansion, and that is killing entire herds of shoveltusks. There are a ton of them on the western road from New Agamand to Grizzly Hills, and if you aggro one, the whole herd comes after you. So, as a resto shaman, I drop my fire elemental totem, earth shield it, then spam lightning bolt and chain lightning until the whole herd goes down. Keep an eye on his health, but those shoveltusk go down so fast it usually isn't a problem. Then heal him, mana up and pull the next herd.
I can manage two herds before the totem runs out, sometimes three.
Then I run a bit down the road, wait for the cooldown, drop my earth elemental, and do the same thing. With the earth elemental, I can only manage one herd because it takes longer, and you have to focus more on healing him, but keeping earth shield and riptide up seems to do just fine, with the occasional lesser healing wave thrown in (I never really used LHW before, but it crits like crazy now, so half the time it's like using HW with less mana).
You suck down a lot of water (well, seal whey or whatever) doing this, but just one rotation last night (after round two, you have the much longer cooldown), I made a bubble and a half of XP at level 70, plus I had a crapton of shoveltusk flanks and meat for cooking with.
I imagine you could do the same as a hunter with volley, as long as you had a pet that could AOE aggro. Probably with less downtime. I don't plan on getting an AOE'r pet on Ideale, so I can't test this out, unfortunately.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Starting out in Wrath
So, with two toons over 68, I had the luxury of being able to test the waters in both start zones, Horde-side.
Sadly, I think Ideale will hit 71 before Ahami hits 70, even though Ahami is now supposedly my main. This is because the Borean Tundra may be the "Boring Tundra" to the Alliance, but to the Horde (or me at least), it's the "OH GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE BUG THINGS SWARMING ME EVERY TIME I LEAVE WARSONG HOLD!?!?! OH CRAP I DIED" Tundra. Seriously, it's a little terrifying. I finished up with the bug things and ran away to the taunka village, and now I'm afraid to leave.
Plus, Howling Fjord is both way prettier and has a giant wandering elite akin to the Fel Reaver for me to dodge, and this makes things much more interesting. And I got my turkey-killin' achievement.
As far as quests, there are a lot more Horde quests in Borean Tundra than Howling Fjord, but the Howling Fjord ones are way more fun. The Borean Tundra ones are more standard — go kill some bugs and destroy their egg sacks, go kill some boars and bring back their meat, go kill blah blah kill blah. It's all running around and killing and then more running around and more killing (so far, anyway). Howling Fjord, on the other hand, has a bunch of "go kill stuff" quests, but it also has some cool Forsaken-related quests, like the one where you go get the ingredients to make a plague, then bomb some ships with it, then go do some research, then run the research to New Agamand, then go get more ingredients to make another plague, etc.
Gear-wise, both zones seem great for a fresh-70 hunter; Borean Tundra seems better for enhancement shamans, while Howling Fjord seems to offer more upgrades for elemental and resto shamans. This is, of course, for 68 to fresh, green-geared 70; even the crappy blues I have on Ide are mostly about the same as any "sidegrades" I'm getting here. For example, I got a nifty axe with +61 agility and stuff on it, but the hit in, well, +hit and +stamina I took by switching has me second-guessing. If I was currently specced survival, it'd be no contest, but as a BM hunter with crappy +hit to start with, I'm not sure it's worth trading yet. I did get some boots that are much better than my old ones, and actually match my current gear, though!
I'm thinking that what I will do, because Ahami is killing things quite excruciatingly slowly compared to Nagrand, is play pocket-healer to willing guildies or others in both starting zones (and beyond once I'm a higher level) whenever I can; I should really do the quests in both to catch up and gear up a little before moving on, and this will make it a bit more fun. I am a healer, I want to heal things! It would be less frustrating, I think, had I had a month or so at 70 to heal in the battlegrounds and maybe some instances, but without a break in the leveling grind, it's a bit frustrating. And if I want to be able to do that PVE thing with her, I need to keep up at least a little with the wave of death knights in my guild who are about to hit Northrend (having already missed the first wave of people sticking with their current toons). Because I hate most PUGs veryvery much.
The best start zone in Wrath, hands down, though, is the Death Knight zone. :-D Even if you don't plan to play or keep a DK, roll one just to get to level 58 and do the quests. The lore is fantastic, the feel of the quests are pretty epic (though I do think that Blizz could have played up the redemption quests a bit more, as they were very borderline anti-climactic), and then when I saw the little scene play out between Keseleth and Anselm at Vengeance Landing, I was like, "HEY! I KNOW HIM!"
In conclusion:
Borean Tundra: Not totally horrible, but definitely not fun
Howling Fjord: Awesome
Ebon Whatever-it-is in EPL: Even more awesome
Grizzly Hills: Pretty, though the border with Howling Fjord is distinctly lacking in grizzlies
Death knight: Fun, keeping her, leveling her to 80. Been playing meat shield to my roomie's shadow priest in STV while I figure out rotations and what everything does, and to help my roomie catch up (she has another priest to solo with and solos quite a bit on her main during the week, and has the hang of the class down fairly well, so our weekend strategy is now to try and speed her through about 4-6 levels each time we play together, so she can spend her solo time playing with new abilities and rotations and exploring whatever zone I left her in; we're hoping to hit Outland by Christmas).
Professions: Taking herbalism and alchemy on Silang. Might take engineering on Ahami once I get Silang to Northrend — maxing out her inscription, Ide's jewelcrafting, and Silang's alchemy should keep me busy until then, and selling mats for mad gold could be helpful with my mount and gear situations. I need an alchemist, though, so I can stop dumping money into mana pots for Ahami all the time. And alchemy is just such a perfect fit for an undead death knight, isn't it?
EDIT: The OMG I'M GONNA DIE Tundra gets better after you get out of Warsong Hold, luckily. I would have given it a C- yesterday, but I was playing Ahami last night a bit and I think I'd raise it to a B-/B range. It's pretty and the quests are not bad, but it's still way less fun than Howling Fjord.
Sadly, I think Ideale will hit 71 before Ahami hits 70, even though Ahami is now supposedly my main. This is because the Borean Tundra may be the "Boring Tundra" to the Alliance, but to the Horde (or me at least), it's the "OH GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE BUG THINGS SWARMING ME EVERY TIME I LEAVE WARSONG HOLD!?!?! OH CRAP I DIED" Tundra. Seriously, it's a little terrifying. I finished up with the bug things and ran away to the taunka village, and now I'm afraid to leave.
Plus, Howling Fjord is both way prettier and has a giant wandering elite akin to the Fel Reaver for me to dodge, and this makes things much more interesting. And I got my turkey-killin' achievement.
As far as quests, there are a lot more Horde quests in Borean Tundra than Howling Fjord, but the Howling Fjord ones are way more fun. The Borean Tundra ones are more standard — go kill some bugs and destroy their egg sacks, go kill some boars and bring back their meat, go kill blah blah kill blah. It's all running around and killing and then more running around and more killing (so far, anyway). Howling Fjord, on the other hand, has a bunch of "go kill stuff" quests, but it also has some cool Forsaken-related quests, like the one where you go get the ingredients to make a plague, then bomb some ships with it, then go do some research, then run the research to New Agamand, then go get more ingredients to make another plague, etc.
Gear-wise, both zones seem great for a fresh-70 hunter; Borean Tundra seems better for enhancement shamans, while Howling Fjord seems to offer more upgrades for elemental and resto shamans. This is, of course, for 68 to fresh, green-geared 70; even the crappy blues I have on Ide are mostly about the same as any "sidegrades" I'm getting here. For example, I got a nifty axe with +61 agility and stuff on it, but the hit in, well, +hit and +stamina I took by switching has me second-guessing. If I was currently specced survival, it'd be no contest, but as a BM hunter with crappy +hit to start with, I'm not sure it's worth trading yet. I did get some boots that are much better than my old ones, and actually match my current gear, though!
I'm thinking that what I will do, because Ahami is killing things quite excruciatingly slowly compared to Nagrand, is play pocket-healer to willing guildies or others in both starting zones (and beyond once I'm a higher level) whenever I can; I should really do the quests in both to catch up and gear up a little before moving on, and this will make it a bit more fun. I am a healer, I want to heal things! It would be less frustrating, I think, had I had a month or so at 70 to heal in the battlegrounds and maybe some instances, but without a break in the leveling grind, it's a bit frustrating. And if I want to be able to do that PVE thing with her, I need to keep up at least a little with the wave of death knights in my guild who are about to hit Northrend (having already missed the first wave of people sticking with their current toons). Because I hate most PUGs veryvery much.
The best start zone in Wrath, hands down, though, is the Death Knight zone. :-D Even if you don't plan to play or keep a DK, roll one just to get to level 58 and do the quests. The lore is fantastic, the feel of the quests are pretty epic (though I do think that Blizz could have played up the redemption quests a bit more, as they were very borderline anti-climactic), and then when I saw the little scene play out between Keseleth and Anselm at Vengeance Landing, I was like, "HEY! I KNOW HIM!"
In conclusion:
Borean Tundra: Not totally horrible, but definitely not fun
Howling Fjord: Awesome
Ebon Whatever-it-is in EPL: Even more awesome
Grizzly Hills: Pretty, though the border with Howling Fjord is distinctly lacking in grizzlies
Death knight: Fun, keeping her, leveling her to 80. Been playing meat shield to my roomie's shadow priest in STV while I figure out rotations and what everything does, and to help my roomie catch up (she has another priest to solo with and solos quite a bit on her main during the week, and has the hang of the class down fairly well, so our weekend strategy is now to try and speed her through about 4-6 levels each time we play together, so she can spend her solo time playing with new abilities and rotations and exploring whatever zone I left her in; we're hoping to hit Outland by Christmas).
Professions: Taking herbalism and alchemy on Silang. Might take engineering on Ahami once I get Silang to Northrend — maxing out her inscription, Ide's jewelcrafting, and Silang's alchemy should keep me busy until then, and selling mats for mad gold could be helpful with my mount and gear situations. I need an alchemist, though, so I can stop dumping money into mana pots for Ahami all the time. And alchemy is just such a perfect fit for an undead death knight, isn't it?
EDIT: The OMG I'M GONNA DIE Tundra gets better after you get out of Warsong Hold, luckily. I would have given it a C- yesterday, but I was playing Ahami last night a bit and I think I'd raise it to a B-/B range. It's pretty and the quests are not bad, but it's still way less fun than Howling Fjord.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
I have no self-control
No less than an hour after my copy of Wrath was delivered, not only had I parked Ideale in Howling Fjord and reset her hearthstone, I'd also dragged Ahami off to the Borean Tundra (with her hearth still set to Garadar in Nagrand, in case said Tundra ends up being too difficult/tedious for her to tackle alone, though I'm hoping various guildies will want a pocket healer to chill with — haha, chill, get it?).
Oh, but my lack of willpower does not end there. It does not end there at all.
For I spent the remainder of my time before work leveling Silang, my death knight, partway into 56.
At first impression, death knights are ... different. I really dislike melee in general. I leveled a rogue to the mid-twenties once and loved the lockpicking and stealthing but despised the melee. I currently bounce between feral and balance on a druid. I like feral, but like the option of range. My highest warrior got to level 3; my paladin mostly healed or AOE'd (I realize now that I spent most of my time on my pally trying to play a mage ...).
The classes I've enjoyed the most have been hunters and healers (though I am growing mildly fond of mages as well, and in fact spent my frustration this morning leveling a troll mage to ... 8? I think?). I like standing in the back. I'm good at standing in the back. You can tell I suck at melee when I do better in PVP on a hunter than a rogue.
I was not planning on even rolling a death knight, let alone enjoying it. I mostly did it out of a perverse curiosity — I followed two guildies around for about half an hour last night, and then listened to people talking about hearing voices and so on, and it sounded kind of new and neat. And the quests looked fun. I rolled Silang for the same reason I rolled Ideale — to check out the start zone.
So I was really surprised to find that I'm really, really liking it. I put her points into the Unholy tree so far, but I will probably switch to Frost, since that seems to have a few more options as far as getting away from pure melee. It's a very interesting change both in playstyle and mindset. I tend to be obsessive over my health bar — it rarely budges on my hunters or baby mages (yay range!) and is constantly being refilled on my shamans and druid (yay healers!), so actually watching it go down is freaking weird. Meanwhile, my playstyle is currently running around like a spaz spamming whatever I am in range to spam, though I'm getting the hang of not panicking and almost dying. But how does one stay behind a mob when you are soloing?
The storyline in the starting area is pretty damn cool, too, though I feel kind of mean. Here's what I mean about mindset — with the exception of Daj, who is a bit "roguelike" in her point of view, all of my toons are kind of carebears at heart. Ideale likes a good fight, but will help out enemy youngsters if she runs across them in the wild. Ahami is a healer — I think she's actually earned maybe 100 HKs from offensive action (and many of those in defense), versus about 1400 from healing people who were doing the killing. She kills when it's necessary and isn't wishy-washy about it, but is more focused on keeping things alive than making them dead. Onashne is a druid who will someday be a tree. 'Nuff said. None of my Alliance toons PVP (I did two battlegrounds on Tshaya before giving up with a huge sense of guilt — killing Horde is just wrong).
So having this character who voluntarily chose to join Arthas and is now running about killing farmers begging for their lives is a bit creepy, even knowing that she will be going good eventually. But coming up with a backstory and motivations to explain why she's doing what she's doing was really kind of fun.
I'm pretty sure I will be keeping her and actually leveling her, even if I end up not caring much for the class. If I like it (and I think it's different enough that it'd be a nice "downtime" class to play around with when I'm not in the mood to work on my mains), I'll pick up engineering and herbalism on her (Ide has mining), and then drop herbalism for alchemy on Ahami. If I dislike it, well, she's still 25 levels closer to 80 than my druid or survivalist, and I only play them with friends anyway, so she can be a gatherer and badass bank alt, and I'll pick up engineering on Ide and alchemy on Ahami. It's win-win.
Now I have the sad duty of cleaning out my log-in screen — I have a lot of trouble deleting characters, but with three upcoming twinks, I can at least transfer funds and randomcrap and get rid of my bank alts, as well as the priest Silang started out as. I want to keep at least a couple of slots free for future hero classes or experimental alts, and right now, I'm using all 10. I'll probably transfer Kresha to Feathermoon eventually, after Christmas maybe — I want to check out the Horde side over there, have no need for three hunters on one realm, and can't bear to delete her.
EDIT: *pokes at Blizz* C'mon, update the armory already. And also let us rearrange our toons on our log-in screen — it bugs me that mine are not in order by level.
Oh, but my lack of willpower does not end there. It does not end there at all.
For I spent the remainder of my time before work leveling Silang, my death knight, partway into 56.
At first impression, death knights are ... different. I really dislike melee in general. I leveled a rogue to the mid-twenties once and loved the lockpicking and stealthing but despised the melee. I currently bounce between feral and balance on a druid. I like feral, but like the option of range. My highest warrior got to level 3; my paladin mostly healed or AOE'd (I realize now that I spent most of my time on my pally trying to play a mage ...).
The classes I've enjoyed the most have been hunters and healers (though I am growing mildly fond of mages as well, and in fact spent my frustration this morning leveling a troll mage to ... 8? I think?). I like standing in the back. I'm good at standing in the back. You can tell I suck at melee when I do better in PVP on a hunter than a rogue.
I was not planning on even rolling a death knight, let alone enjoying it. I mostly did it out of a perverse curiosity — I followed two guildies around for about half an hour last night, and then listened to people talking about hearing voices and so on, and it sounded kind of new and neat. And the quests looked fun. I rolled Silang for the same reason I rolled Ideale — to check out the start zone.
So I was really surprised to find that I'm really, really liking it. I put her points into the Unholy tree so far, but I will probably switch to Frost, since that seems to have a few more options as far as getting away from pure melee. It's a very interesting change both in playstyle and mindset. I tend to be obsessive over my health bar — it rarely budges on my hunters or baby mages (yay range!) and is constantly being refilled on my shamans and druid (yay healers!), so actually watching it go down is freaking weird. Meanwhile, my playstyle is currently running around like a spaz spamming whatever I am in range to spam, though I'm getting the hang of not panicking and almost dying. But how does one stay behind a mob when you are soloing?
The storyline in the starting area is pretty damn cool, too, though I feel kind of mean. Here's what I mean about mindset — with the exception of Daj, who is a bit "roguelike" in her point of view, all of my toons are kind of carebears at heart. Ideale likes a good fight, but will help out enemy youngsters if she runs across them in the wild. Ahami is a healer — I think she's actually earned maybe 100 HKs from offensive action (and many of those in defense), versus about 1400 from healing people who were doing the killing. She kills when it's necessary and isn't wishy-washy about it, but is more focused on keeping things alive than making them dead. Onashne is a druid who will someday be a tree. 'Nuff said. None of my Alliance toons PVP (I did two battlegrounds on Tshaya before giving up with a huge sense of guilt — killing Horde is just wrong).
So having this character who voluntarily chose to join Arthas and is now running about killing farmers begging for their lives is a bit creepy, even knowing that she will be going good eventually. But coming up with a backstory and motivations to explain why she's doing what she's doing was really kind of fun.
I'm pretty sure I will be keeping her and actually leveling her, even if I end up not caring much for the class. If I like it (and I think it's different enough that it'd be a nice "downtime" class to play around with when I'm not in the mood to work on my mains), I'll pick up engineering and herbalism on her (Ide has mining), and then drop herbalism for alchemy on Ahami. If I dislike it, well, she's still 25 levels closer to 80 than my druid or survivalist, and I only play them with friends anyway, so she can be a gatherer and badass bank alt, and I'll pick up engineering on Ide and alchemy on Ahami. It's win-win.
Now I have the sad duty of cleaning out my log-in screen — I have a lot of trouble deleting characters, but with three upcoming twinks, I can at least transfer funds and randomcrap and get rid of my bank alts, as well as the priest Silang started out as. I want to keep at least a couple of slots free for future hero classes or experimental alts, and right now, I'm using all 10. I'll probably transfer Kresha to Feathermoon eventually, after Christmas maybe — I want to check out the Horde side over there, have no need for three hunters on one realm, and can't bear to delete her.
EDIT: *pokes at Blizz* C'mon, update the armory already. And also let us rearrange our toons on our log-in screen — it bugs me that mine are not in order by level.
HURRY UPS PERSON HURRY
OH GOD I SEE THE ORDER IT'S BEEN IN TOWN SINCE 4:25 AM WHY ARE YOU NOT HERE YET?
So maybe I'm a bit more anxious for WotLK than I thought ...
EDIT: I rolled a mage on VeCo out of entertainment — a guildie made a 30-39 twink guild and I think a mage would be fun in PVP, so why not? I'm literally the lowest-level person on the server right now at level five. Aside from a level 9 hunter, there is no one under level 45 on. It's bizarre.
So maybe I'm a bit more anxious for WotLK than I thought ...
EDIT: I rolled a mage on VeCo out of entertainment — a guildie made a 30-39 twink guild and I think a mage would be fun in PVP, so why not? I'm literally the lowest-level person on the server right now at level five. Aside from a level 9 hunter, there is no one under level 45 on. It's bizarre.
*clings to Nagrand*
No midnight release for me (closest was about 30 miles away and I'd have had to ditch work), but honestly, I'm not really that upset. Getting to hear my guildies' impressions of the expansion was cool, and it'll come soon enough.
I am rethinking my whole anti-death knight stance, after running about with two of my awesomest guildies and their DKs for a couple minutes, and then listening to them over Vent. But really, it gave me some time to get a bit closer to 69 on Ahami (four bars to go!), which reminded me that I needed to get my Consortium payoff still this month, which reminded me that I need to pay the electric bill.
So it works out.
And honestly, I love Azeroth and love parts of Outland, and probably won't be back to either for a while, so it was nice to kind of cruise around, check a few places out, wrap up some unfinished business (like Ambassador Ideale's exploration — oh, and ambassador title), etc.
So hopefully my copy of Wrath will come tomorrow, but if it doesn't? I'm not too worried.
I am sleeping on the couch tonight, though, so as to actually hear the postman/postwoman when s/he comes. Just because I won't be upset to miss it doesn't mean I'm going to risk it!
I am rethinking my whole anti-death knight stance, after running about with two of my awesomest guildies and their DKs for a couple minutes, and then listening to them over Vent. But really, it gave me some time to get a bit closer to 69 on Ahami (four bars to go!), which reminded me that I needed to get my Consortium payoff still this month, which reminded me that I need to pay the electric bill.
So it works out.
And honestly, I love Azeroth and love parts of Outland, and probably won't be back to either for a while, so it was nice to kind of cruise around, check a few places out, wrap up some unfinished business (like Ambassador Ideale's exploration — oh, and ambassador title), etc.
So hopefully my copy of Wrath will come tomorrow, but if it doesn't? I'm not too worried.
I am sleeping on the couch tonight, though, so as to actually hear the postman/postwoman when s/he comes. Just because I won't be upset to miss it doesn't mean I'm going to risk it!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Expansion plans
Thursday: Ha, like the servers will even be up. Will probably head to the movies and see "High School Musical 3."
Friday: Morning, see above. Evening, none, because I have to be up and ready to leave at 8:30 a.m. and my normal bedtime is 4-5 a.m. Already working on resetting myself.
Saturday: None; family reunion of pure awesome, followed by sleep the moment I get home.
Sunday: Hit Blade's Edge Mountains with Ahami. Maybe do some Skettis dailies with Ideale FOR XP NOW WOOT. Or the Sporregar Naga-genocide quest. Or just work on Consortium rep — I'm getting close to Exalted with them!
Monday: Venture into one of the Northrend start zones to train professions. Work on leveling my Alliance shaman/Daj with BFF, and Onashne with roomie. Check Honor Hold for Operation: Death to Death Knights.
Tuesday: Ha, like maintenance will be over before 8 p.m. Might hit the movies again, but it's unlikely, since nothing else I want to see opens until Thanksgiving week, and probably won't play in this craptown anyway.
Wednesday: More BEM/Skettis.
Thursday following: Venture forth into Northrend. Return to Outland if it is too crowded and start working on Shadowmoon Valley.
Now, where to go in Northrend first? Since I have a short attention span and two characters of a level to go in, I will send one to the Borean Tundra and one to the Howling Fjord. Lore-wise, Ideale would be more likely to hit up the Howling Fjord while Ahami could go either way — Ide's more likely to head out with the Forsaken than the orcs when it comes to fighting the Scourge.
And at this point, I'd like to note that druids have the joy of earning rep for two druid-centric factions and will now have the D.E.H.T.A. questline. Well, I want to be able to earn rep with the Farstriders and the Earthen Ring! Why can't there be more class-related factions? That would be kind of awesome.
Friday: Morning, see above. Evening, none, because I have to be up and ready to leave at 8:30 a.m. and my normal bedtime is 4-5 a.m. Already working on resetting myself.
Saturday: None; family reunion of pure awesome, followed by sleep the moment I get home.
Sunday: Hit Blade's Edge Mountains with Ahami. Maybe do some Skettis dailies with Ideale FOR XP NOW WOOT. Or the Sporregar Naga-genocide quest. Or just work on Consortium rep — I'm getting close to Exalted with them!
Monday: Venture into one of the Northrend start zones to train professions. Work on leveling my Alliance shaman/Daj with BFF, and Onashne with roomie. Check Honor Hold for Operation: Death to Death Knights.
Tuesday: Ha, like maintenance will be over before 8 p.m. Might hit the movies again, but it's unlikely, since nothing else I want to see opens until Thanksgiving week, and probably won't play in this craptown anyway.
Wednesday: More BEM/Skettis.
Thursday following: Venture forth into Northrend. Return to Outland if it is too crowded and start working on Shadowmoon Valley.
Now, where to go in Northrend first? Since I have a short attention span and two characters of a level to go in, I will send one to the Borean Tundra and one to the Howling Fjord. Lore-wise, Ideale would be more likely to hit up the Howling Fjord while Ahami could go either way — Ide's more likely to head out with the Forsaken than the orcs when it comes to fighting the Scourge.
And at this point, I'd like to note that druids have the joy of earning rep for two druid-centric factions and will now have the D.E.H.T.A. questline. Well, I want to be able to earn rep with the Farstriders and the Earthen Ring! Why can't there be more class-related factions? That would be kind of awesome.
Professions blogs?
Just out of sheer curiosity, are there any profession blogs out there? I can't imagine that there'd be that much to write about, I guess, but I'm curious.
One of the reasons I can't roll on a server without several alts is that I like to have professions that complement each other on all my toons. For example, when Daj gets to end-game, someday, I'm going to drop skinning for herbalism so that I can drop herbalism on Ahami and pick up alchemy. That way, I can transmute gems for myself, create vellums for myself (Daj is also an enchanter), and take care of all my inscription, enchanting and jewelcrafting needs as well as stock up on potions and flasks and whatnot.
Onashne will probably beat Daj to 80, since the BFF and I have been playing our Alliance alts rather than our Horde ones (by which I mean we frantically loot whatever her fiance and our other friend kill in whatever instance they are running us through repeatedly, and occasionally she sheeps a stray mob while I keep her healed until one of them can come kill it). This was unplanned — I didn't know if I'd like her or keep her, and would have picked up engineering and mining instead of leatherworking if I had — although now I can max out her skill when I get some spare cash and make PVP gear for my other two.
And the Alliance alt I mentioned? The guild needs an alchemist and that goes nicely with her eventual healing role, so I'm picking that up. But wait, if I have a healer, I'm going to need a toon to do dailies and farm with, because doing that stuff on a healer is an exercise in frustration. So I transferred Tshaya to Blackhand — she will be my miner — and rolled a warlock. If the warlock can make it to a decent level, she'll be my eventual herbalist, and M. will pick up engineering. If not, we'll see how far along Tshaya is with enchanting — the guild has an enchanter, so I could drop that and pick up herbalism with her instead.
I don't have altitis, exactly, so much as professionitis and a dislike of shelling out gold on the AH for mats I could easily gather myself.
EDIT: Oh, and I now have five mounted characters, and am really close to having a sixth. :-O
One of the reasons I can't roll on a server without several alts is that I like to have professions that complement each other on all my toons. For example, when Daj gets to end-game, someday, I'm going to drop skinning for herbalism so that I can drop herbalism on Ahami and pick up alchemy. That way, I can transmute gems for myself, create vellums for myself (Daj is also an enchanter), and take care of all my inscription, enchanting and jewelcrafting needs as well as stock up on potions and flasks and whatnot.
Onashne will probably beat Daj to 80, since the BFF and I have been playing our Alliance alts rather than our Horde ones (by which I mean we frantically loot whatever her fiance and our other friend kill in whatever instance they are running us through repeatedly, and occasionally she sheeps a stray mob while I keep her healed until one of them can come kill it). This was unplanned — I didn't know if I'd like her or keep her, and would have picked up engineering and mining instead of leatherworking if I had — although now I can max out her skill when I get some spare cash and make PVP gear for my other two.
And the Alliance alt I mentioned? The guild needs an alchemist and that goes nicely with her eventual healing role, so I'm picking that up. But wait, if I have a healer, I'm going to need a toon to do dailies and farm with, because doing that stuff on a healer is an exercise in frustration. So I transferred Tshaya to Blackhand — she will be my miner — and rolled a warlock. If the warlock can make it to a decent level, she'll be my eventual herbalist, and M. will pick up engineering. If not, we'll see how far along Tshaya is with enchanting — the guild has an enchanter, so I could drop that and pick up herbalism with her instead.
I don't have altitis, exactly, so much as professionitis and a dislike of shelling out gold on the AH for mats I could easily gather myself.
EDIT: Oh, and I now have five mounted characters, and am really close to having a sixth. :-O
Monday, November 10, 2008
FOR THE HORDE!
If you are not in the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar right now, you are missing out. The Scourge is attacking and that fool Garrosh Hellscream is going to get himself killed.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Six days to go and vengeance will be mine
And I hit 68. So I can happily go into Northrend with my guild, even if I do not manage to get another level before Thursday. This makes me superhappy.
Not that I couldn't have gone in on Ideale, of course — and I will be DPSing for the guild as well as healing, I'm sure. But Ideale I can solo to 80 with without many problems — having mostly (but not entirely!) soloed to 68 as resto, I'd really, REALLY like to group up as much as possible with Ahami.
However, I forgot how ganktastic Nagrand was to non-70s, and I am glad that I was reminded, because my first act in the expansion will not be to head straight to Northrend or to pick up the leveling game again. No, my first act in the expansion will be to chill outside Honor Hold, where I will wave and salute all of the new 60s and then gank every death knight who comes out of the doors.
My reasoning? A 60 hunter or shaman or priest or druid might be someone's first toon, and I don't want to ruin it for them. But death knights can't be made without having a high-level character already — and I don't discriminate, so I'll have to just kill them all.
Not that I couldn't have gone in on Ideale, of course — and I will be DPSing for the guild as well as healing, I'm sure. But Ideale I can solo to 80 with without many problems — having mostly (but not entirely!) soloed to 68 as resto, I'd really, REALLY like to group up as much as possible with Ahami.
However, I forgot how ganktastic Nagrand was to non-70s, and I am glad that I was reminded, because my first act in the expansion will not be to head straight to Northrend or to pick up the leveling game again. No, my first act in the expansion will be to chill outside Honor Hold, where I will wave and salute all of the new 60s and then gank every death knight who comes out of the doors.
My reasoning? A 60 hunter or shaman or priest or druid might be someone's first toon, and I don't want to ruin it for them. But death knights can't be made without having a high-level character already — and I don't discriminate, so I'll have to just kill them all.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Why I have not blogged this week
1. I'm about halfway through 67 on Ahami, and think I might hit 68 by Saturday. So instead of writing about WoW, I've mostly been playing WoW.
1a. Also, achievements are horrible, addictive things that should be removed (oh God please ignore that I will cry if they go away).
2. For some asinine reason, I decided to inflict NaNoWriMo on myself during U.S. election season/Wrath of the Lich King release month. OH GOD WHY
3. Those of you in the U.S. know that this week is election week. Because of my job in the evil elite liberal media (only so totally not), this means that this week has been CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08 for me. And as I am a masochist (I play a hunter in PVP, like you didn't already know that), I am clinging to it, sobbing "Please never leave me, CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08, please please please PLEASE."
3a. The 5 a.m. Wednesday no-sleep-yet, adrenaline-fueled Denny's run o' joint elation-and-despair kind of tuckered me out, too.
4. My cat has felt neglected due to NaNo and CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08 and has made it quite known by doing things such as playing on top of me or eating my fingers/toes/face to wake me up after I've had no more than four hours of sleep, sitting by the door and yowling for 20-minute stretches, and laying down on top of my hands and keyboard and staring at me with the expression of a child in a World Vision commercial while I'm in the middle of AV. She needs love a bit more than both the blog and the pixel-cats — and can punish me more effectively if I don't give her attention.
5. There is no spoon.
1a. Also, achievements are horrible, addictive things that should be removed (oh God please ignore that I will cry if they go away).
2. For some asinine reason, I decided to inflict NaNoWriMo on myself during U.S. election season/Wrath of the Lich King release month. OH GOD WHY
3. Those of you in the U.S. know that this week is election week. Because of my job in the evil elite liberal media (only so totally not), this means that this week has been CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08 for me. And as I am a masochist (I play a hunter in PVP, like you didn't already know that), I am clinging to it, sobbing "Please never leave me, CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08, please please please PLEASE."
3a. The 5 a.m. Wednesday no-sleep-yet, adrenaline-fueled Denny's run o' joint elation-and-despair kind of tuckered me out, too.
4. My cat has felt neglected due to NaNo and CRAZY ASS BUSY WEEK FROM HELL WEEK OF DOOM ELECTION WEEK '08 and has made it quite known by doing things such as playing on top of me or eating my fingers/toes/face to wake me up after I've had no more than four hours of sleep, sitting by the door and yowling for 20-minute stretches, and laying down on top of my hands and keyboard and staring at me with the expression of a child in a World Vision commercial while I'm in the middle of AV. She needs love a bit more than both the blog and the pixel-cats — and can punish me more effectively if I don't give her attention.
5. There is no spoon.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
And here I go!
I have finally, finally made it past the low-60s slump. When Ide hit 62-ish, I didn't play her more than a bubble or so of XP at a time for weeks while I leveled all of my lowbie alts (including my priest!). Around the time she hit 64, I was spending most of my playing time running Ahami all over Azeroth to put out fires.
But when she hit 66, end-game was within reach, and even grinding mobs instead of questing (and I was, because I wanted that damn talbuk!) I was hooked and could not stop playing. I think part of it is that I went to Nagrand at 66 and the quests there are just a blast.
Poor Ahami was 63 when the patch hit, and even though I was unable to play for nearly a week, she was still only 65 yesterday.
And last night, at 65, I did not want to play Ahami at all. At all. I ended up running my roommate through the Scarlet Monastery and Gnomeregan on Ideale instead (we both wanted to play but were sick of killing skull-less Hillsbrad farmers and bloodless and tongueless bears and mountain lions, and I'd not gotten the achievement for SM or ever been in Gnomer). And then I went and killed scourge for a while, even though there is nothing I particularly want from this but Argent Dawn rep, and if I get Ahami a little higher in time, I could get her a couple of decent pieces of gear.
This morning, I logged on her intending to do nothing but inscription research. But I was three bubbles from 66 and sick of Terokkar, so I told myself that I would do a few more quests to get there, then abandon the rest and head for Nagrand.
And the second I dinged, I swear, I couldn't bear to log and switch to Ideale again. I kept questing in Terokkar for five or six more quests, then went to Nagrand, picked up everything, and did several of those quests. Now I'm halfway to 67 and ready to come home and buckle down tonight and get there. And since tomorrow is my day off, maybe I can bribe some guildies to go kill the Scourge with me — that'd get me to 68 pretty quick, I bet. I'd like the tabard, but I'd REALLY like the shoulders and gloves, since I'm not going to have time to gear up at 70, probably. And maybe I'll even get lucky and a couple of useful leather or mail purples will drop in the process. *crosses fingers*
Please tell me I'm not the only one who stalls out badly between Winterspring and Nagrand?
But when she hit 66, end-game was within reach, and even grinding mobs instead of questing (and I was, because I wanted that damn talbuk!) I was hooked and could not stop playing. I think part of it is that I went to Nagrand at 66 and the quests there are just a blast.
Poor Ahami was 63 when the patch hit, and even though I was unable to play for nearly a week, she was still only 65 yesterday.
And last night, at 65, I did not want to play Ahami at all. At all. I ended up running my roommate through the Scarlet Monastery and Gnomeregan on Ideale instead (we both wanted to play but were sick of killing skull-less Hillsbrad farmers and bloodless and tongueless bears and mountain lions, and I'd not gotten the achievement for SM or ever been in Gnomer). And then I went and killed scourge for a while, even though there is nothing I particularly want from this but Argent Dawn rep, and if I get Ahami a little higher in time, I could get her a couple of decent pieces of gear.
This morning, I logged on her intending to do nothing but inscription research. But I was three bubbles from 66 and sick of Terokkar, so I told myself that I would do a few more quests to get there, then abandon the rest and head for Nagrand.
And the second I dinged, I swear, I couldn't bear to log and switch to Ideale again. I kept questing in Terokkar for five or six more quests, then went to Nagrand, picked up everything, and did several of those quests. Now I'm halfway to 67 and ready to come home and buckle down tonight and get there. And since tomorrow is my day off, maybe I can bribe some guildies to go kill the Scourge with me — that'd get me to 68 pretty quick, I bet. I'd like the tabard, but I'd REALLY like the shoulders and gloves, since I'm not going to have time to gear up at 70, probably. And maybe I'll even get lucky and a couple of useful leather or mail purples will drop in the process. *crosses fingers*
Please tell me I'm not the only one who stalls out badly between Winterspring and Nagrand?
Saturday, November 1, 2008
I raided!
Sort of. My guild was in SSC today and downed either Tidewalker or Lurker, I don't know, and someone had to go right before Vashj. So one of the guild leaders whispers if I want to come.
Now, I am not at all geared for that on Ide. Hell, I'm barely geared for HEROICS on Ide — I am half in greens and rep blues and half in PVP gear. I don't even HAVE a PVE set. And I said so, but he was like, "We don't care, come on."
So we got Vashj to phase two, apparently, but wiped on all the adds. It was still pretty cool up until then, though!
So ... yeah. Sheer madness. And despite only being in for the last 20 minutes or so, it was a blast; not at all what I expected based on the sheer painfulness of five-mans. Definitely something I'd like to try again.
Now, I am not at all geared for that on Ide. Hell, I'm barely geared for HEROICS on Ide — I am half in greens and rep blues and half in PVP gear. I don't even HAVE a PVE set. And I said so, but he was like, "We don't care, come on."
So we got Vashj to phase two, apparently, but wiped on all the adds. It was still pretty cool up until then, though!
So ... yeah. Sheer madness. And despite only being in for the last 20 minutes or so, it was a blast; not at all what I expected based on the sheer painfulness of five-mans. Definitely something I'd like to try again.
Alliance finally scores a point with me
I have to say, the draenei Call of Elements quests are WAY cooler than the Horde ones.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tips for leveling in Outland as a resto shaman
I'm about halfway to level 66 and can proudly say that, were I not so stubborn, I could have been at 70 weeks ago — but I have leveled Ahami to 65 and will level her to 80 as a resto shaman. From the moment she hit level 10, she has never been another spec.
And every time I go into AV and hit first or second on the healing charts with 200K+ healing at level 64 and now 65, or keep guildmates alive through a bad pull in a lowbie dungeon run, I don't really care. It's a good feeling. (Actually, it's a freaking great feeling when someone says, "Well, we're gonna wipe" on Vent and then we get through the pull without a single death. Mostly it's due to good tanks and CC, but I help!)
That said, leveling as a resto shaman gets extremely painful once you hit Outland. The mobs are tougher and hit harder, which slows you down like crazy, and with the patch changes, it's a bit easier to go out of mana, at least at this level. So here are a few tips I've been using for myself:
- Use Flametongue Weapon. Yes, we have our new, fancy weapon buff just for resto, and when you're healing instances or PVP, yes, use it. But when you're soloing, that extra damage from the flametongue buff helps a lot — more than Windfury, which does not proc regularly enough to be useful for us.
- Shields. You can really go three ways with this — lightning shield does extra damage, water shield gives you more mana, and earth shield keeps your health topped off. I personally was using earth shield until the patch; now I am using water shield and hitting riptide on myself when I start getting low, but I don't think this actually helps me save mana. No theorycrafting to back that up, just a gut feeling.
- Be careful when using magma totem. In many areas of Outland (and even in Felwood and Winterspring) mobs are pretty thick but a good number of them are not aggressive. If you use magma totem and a sporebat or talbuk wanders in range, then you've just added another mob to deal with.
- For mana conservation, tag the mob with a flame shock, drop a totem, and keep that up, and then just melee them down. Going this route, you can take on several mobs at a time (I can manage 5 or 6 level 64-66 mobs at a time), but it will go fairly slowly.
- If you are more into speed, bring along 3-4 stacks of water and a bunch of mana pots because you will need them. You will go much faster if you are working like a caster and spamming lightning bolts (especially now that interrupts seem much less devastating than pre-patch) than trying to be an enhancement shaman, unless you have an enh/resto hybrid build. Your best bet with this is to take on no more than two or three mobs at a time and then sit and drink — or, and this seems quicker to me, just nab one at a time several in a row. Drink whenever your mana pool is about 5-10 percent. (This is my preferred method; it seems to go more quickly than the multi-mob M.O.)
Basically, leveling from 60-70 seems pretty much the same as leveling from 20-60, just slower and with more need to be aware of your environment.
And every time I go into AV and hit first or second on the healing charts with 200K+ healing at level 64 and now 65, or keep guildmates alive through a bad pull in a lowbie dungeon run, I don't really care. It's a good feeling. (Actually, it's a freaking great feeling when someone says, "Well, we're gonna wipe" on Vent and then we get through the pull without a single death. Mostly it's due to good tanks and CC, but I help!)
That said, leveling as a resto shaman gets extremely painful once you hit Outland. The mobs are tougher and hit harder, which slows you down like crazy, and with the patch changes, it's a bit easier to go out of mana, at least at this level. So here are a few tips I've been using for myself:
- Use Flametongue Weapon. Yes, we have our new, fancy weapon buff just for resto, and when you're healing instances or PVP, yes, use it. But when you're soloing, that extra damage from the flametongue buff helps a lot — more than Windfury, which does not proc regularly enough to be useful for us.
- Shields. You can really go three ways with this — lightning shield does extra damage, water shield gives you more mana, and earth shield keeps your health topped off. I personally was using earth shield until the patch; now I am using water shield and hitting riptide on myself when I start getting low, but I don't think this actually helps me save mana. No theorycrafting to back that up, just a gut feeling.
- Be careful when using magma totem. In many areas of Outland (and even in Felwood and Winterspring) mobs are pretty thick but a good number of them are not aggressive. If you use magma totem and a sporebat or talbuk wanders in range, then you've just added another mob to deal with.
- For mana conservation, tag the mob with a flame shock, drop a totem, and keep that up, and then just melee them down. Going this route, you can take on several mobs at a time (I can manage 5 or 6 level 64-66 mobs at a time), but it will go fairly slowly.
- If you are more into speed, bring along 3-4 stacks of water and a bunch of mana pots because you will need them. You will go much faster if you are working like a caster and spamming lightning bolts (especially now that interrupts seem much less devastating than pre-patch) than trying to be an enhancement shaman, unless you have an enh/resto hybrid build. Your best bet with this is to take on no more than two or three mobs at a time and then sit and drink — or, and this seems quicker to me, just nab one at a time several in a row. Drink whenever your mana pool is about 5-10 percent. (This is my preferred method; it seems to go more quickly than the multi-mob M.O.)
Basically, leveling from 60-70 seems pretty much the same as leveling from 20-60, just slower and with more need to be aware of your environment.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
You know what's fun?
Killing a level 70 marks hunter via melee in Eye of the Storm as a level 65 resto shaman because he doesn't get back in range. By myself. Twice. Both times, he sent his pet off to someone else and tried to melee me down. YOU ARE A MARKS HUNTER, YOU CANNOT DO THAT.
Underestimating healers? You lose.
(Seriously, though, I suck hardcore at melee and I am a healer, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? My head hurts.)
Underestimating healers? You lose.
(Seriously, though, I suck hardcore at melee and I am a healer, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? My head hurts.)
Saving more bank space
I kind of adore the currency tab. It's so nice to be able to purchase items or even just glance at it to see where I stand as far as battleground tokens and honor goes.
But I think the developers half-assed it a little. There are plenty of other bank-space eating tokens that are equally annoying to have to go pick up and cart around to spend. I'd really like to see these moved to the currency tab, too:
- Arcane Runes/Holy Dust
- Thrallmar marks (and presumably Honor Hold ones, too)
- Halaa research and battle tokens
And I'm sure there are other things I haven't gotten in game that would do better on the currency tab than cluttering my bags.
It would also be nice to see a tab similar to the pet and mount tabs for tabards. With achievements based around collecting tabards and with the expansion promising a new reputation system based around wearing tabards to gain rep for that faction, people are going to have a crapton of tabards in their bank and their bags. It'd be really nice to be able to simply have them all on a tab, so you can switch at will without having to carry them all around.
But I think the developers half-assed it a little. There are plenty of other bank-space eating tokens that are equally annoying to have to go pick up and cart around to spend. I'd really like to see these moved to the currency tab, too:
- Arcane Runes/Holy Dust
- Thrallmar marks (and presumably Honor Hold ones, too)
- Halaa research and battle tokens
And I'm sure there are other things I haven't gotten in game that would do better on the currency tab than cluttering my bags.
It would also be nice to see a tab similar to the pet and mount tabs for tabards. With achievements based around collecting tabards and with the expansion promising a new reputation system based around wearing tabards to gain rep for that faction, people are going to have a crapton of tabards in their bank and their bags. It'd be really nice to be able to simply have them all on a tab, so you can switch at will without having to carry them all around.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Back to your regularly schedule whatever
My framerate in Shatt is 32 fps, with the video settings all on High. 32! With the video settings on low on my old comp, 11 fps was the absolute best I ever got.
Holy crap, people.
Also, no more lag issues. Hooray! I think the patch just pretty much killed my video card entirely.
But yeah, I'm back in game, and will be spending the next few days leveling a wasp, trying to get these necrotic rune things, and leveling Ahami as much as I can. And I want to throw up something here soon (before the expansion, perhaps) about post-patch Outland for the resto shaman, and a PVP review of the 40/21/0 spec I never got to truly test out on Ideale.
EDIT: Did you know that there are scrubby little bushes all over Durotar? And that the snow in Winterspring sparkles? 'Cause I totally didn't.
Holy crap, people.
Also, no more lag issues. Hooray! I think the patch just pretty much killed my video card entirely.
But yeah, I'm back in game, and will be spending the next few days leveling a wasp, trying to get these necrotic rune things, and leveling Ahami as much as I can. And I want to throw up something here soon (before the expansion, perhaps) about post-patch Outland for the resto shaman, and a PVP review of the 40/21/0 spec I never got to truly test out on Ideale.
EDIT: Did you know that there are scrubby little bushes all over Durotar? And that the snow in Winterspring sparkles? 'Cause I totally didn't.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Argent Dawn tabard
Ideale needs one for many reasons, most of them RP. NEEDS. I honestly don't care about the achievement, but the tabard is necessary.
Apple Store tonight. Hopefully will get everything installed and get these rune things I need before the event is over. Otherwise I'm really going to be bummed out.
Apple Store tonight. Hopefully will get everything installed and get these rune things I need before the event is over. Otherwise I'm really going to be bummed out.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
I'm both annoyed and excited
So, given that my computer has been having battery problems for a while (first gen MacBook — I should have waited for second gen, but I really, really wanted one), already blew one hard drive, and neither Blizz nor Apple can fix my current problem ... I think I'm probably going to go buy a MacBook Pro on Monday. *facepalm*
Should I? No. Aside from game play issues and the fact that reinstalling my OS destroyed the usability of Pages and my photo editing program somehow (they both hop around like they're opening and then freeze — ironically, these are the two programs I use the most other than WoW), it's still working pretty well. Unless I unplug it. Then it dies.
But I can afford one right now, which might not be the case by this time next year, and dammit, I am missing Hallow's End AND the zombies. And I could really use the new toys that come with it, since I want to start doing some freelance web design and writing again. And, well, I kinda need Pages working for that, and to be able to import and edit photos.
Plus I really want one. And my mom has been the only person to try and talk me out of it so far, and she cracked as soon as I argued my case. *shifty eyes*
So ... hopefully I'll be able to catch the end of the events. And actually try out my new specs and stuff. And maybe even get Ahami closer to 70 — though I don't think she'll make it before the expansion, I can at least still haul ass for 68 so she can head right into healing in Northrend.
Should I? No. Aside from game play issues and the fact that reinstalling my OS destroyed the usability of Pages and my photo editing program somehow (they both hop around like they're opening and then freeze — ironically, these are the two programs I use the most other than WoW), it's still working pretty well. Unless I unplug it. Then it dies.
But I can afford one right now, which might not be the case by this time next year, and dammit, I am missing Hallow's End AND the zombies. And I could really use the new toys that come with it, since I want to start doing some freelance web design and writing again. And, well, I kinda need Pages working for that, and to be able to import and edit photos.
Plus I really want one. And my mom has been the only person to try and talk me out of it so far, and she cracked as soon as I argued my case. *shifty eyes*
So ... hopefully I'll be able to catch the end of the events. And actually try out my new specs and stuff. And maybe even get Ahami closer to 70 — though I don't think she'll make it before the expansion, I can at least still haul ass for 68 so she can head right into healing in Northrend.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Seriously, Blizz, Winterspring is COLD
What Kinnavieve said.
I was so excited to find armor for Ahami that had sleeves and legs — poor Ideale was wearing chainmail bikini bottoms and a crop top through the whole zone. I finally got her a tabard just because she looked so darned cold.
I realize that Blizzard believes its core demographic is horny teenage boys, but seriously, even Lara Croft got a furry jacket to wear over her Daisy Dukes when she went to the arctic.
What really gets me is when the same armor on male toons is full sleeved and sports legs, though, I have to say. Guys get to have their female toons two strips of cloth/chainmail away from nekkid, but we don't get guys in Speedos? Not fair.
I was so excited to find armor for Ahami that had sleeves and legs — poor Ideale was wearing chainmail bikini bottoms and a crop top through the whole zone. I finally got her a tabard just because she looked so darned cold.
I realize that Blizzard believes its core demographic is horny teenage boys, but seriously, even Lara Croft got a furry jacket to wear over her Daisy Dukes when she went to the arctic.
What really gets me is when the same armor on male toons is full sleeved and sports legs, though, I have to say. Guys get to have their female toons two strips of cloth/chainmail away from nekkid, but we don't get guys in Speedos? Not fair.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
More on the lag
Is anyone else having this problem with lag/latency spikes? And more importantly, did you manage to fix it?
I'm wondering if removing WoW completely and reinstalling it would help. But given all of the patches I would need to download, I'm a bit hesitant to do that.
I submitted a petition, but it's been an hour and a half with no answer.
EDIT: Dammit, I'm finally looking at the Mac support forum (just occurred to me that none of the PC users I know seem to be having this issue, or not even close to the same extent). Apparently the one thing that has been working for people is a complete reinstall. *sigh* Well, guess I won't be playing for a couple of days — it took me nine hours to install in the first place, so I highly doubt, with the new content patches since I started playing, that it will be any quicker this time.
EDIT II: Spoke too soon. This has only worked for a couple of users; others report doing it and still having problems. One person said they partitioned their iMac and installed Windows XP, and are having no trouble on that version of WoW but still having framerate/lag issues on their Mac version.
So, back to the drawing board. If it comes down to it and I have to, I'll do the partition thing, but I'd really prefer not to.
EDIT III: AND this is a known issue with my crap video card; apparently for Macs using the GMA 950 video card, there is a known bug with Leopard 10.5.5 that causes problems with WoW's graphics, which is why I can hop on, play for about 15 minutes, then have to reboot my computer.
So, if you are having this problem and have a GMA 950 card (older MacBooks and Mac Minis usually have this), I spoke with a tech at Apple. What you need to do is get your Leopard install disc and once it's in, shut down your computer. Restart it while holding down the "C" key. Choose your language, choose "Archive and Install" and make sure to preserve user and network settings, and this will revert you back to the original version of Leopard that you had on your computer.
Then, go to the 10.5.4 Combo Downloader on Apple's website and download that. Do not download and install through your Software Update menu — this will just give you 10.5.5 again.
Unfortunately, I cannot find my stupid disc — but you know what? I don't really care all that much about Leopard, and WoW ran quite a bit better for me in Tiger anyway due to Leopard's higher memory demands. I don't really use my computer for much beyond archiving photos of my cats and surfing the web anymore anyway. Since I know where my Tiger disc is, I might just hop back to that until I can get a new computer.
UPDATE: This did not actually help much. My screen stopped freezing and I don't think I'm having any more latency problems, but my framerate is still 6-11 fps.
I'm wondering if removing WoW completely and reinstalling it would help. But given all of the patches I would need to download, I'm a bit hesitant to do that.
I submitted a petition, but it's been an hour and a half with no answer.
EDIT: Dammit, I'm finally looking at the Mac support forum (just occurred to me that none of the PC users I know seem to be having this issue, or not even close to the same extent). Apparently the one thing that has been working for people is a complete reinstall. *sigh* Well, guess I won't be playing for a couple of days — it took me nine hours to install in the first place, so I highly doubt, with the new content patches since I started playing, that it will be any quicker this time.
EDIT II: Spoke too soon. This has only worked for a couple of users; others report doing it and still having problems. One person said they partitioned their iMac and installed Windows XP, and are having no trouble on that version of WoW but still having framerate/lag issues on their Mac version.
So, back to the drawing board. If it comes down to it and I have to, I'll do the partition thing, but I'd really prefer not to.
EDIT III: AND this is a known issue with my crap video card; apparently for Macs using the GMA 950 video card, there is a known bug with Leopard 10.5.5 that causes problems with WoW's graphics, which is why I can hop on, play for about 15 minutes, then have to reboot my computer.
So, if you are having this problem and have a GMA 950 card (older MacBooks and Mac Minis usually have this), I spoke with a tech at Apple. What you need to do is get your Leopard install disc and once it's in, shut down your computer. Restart it while holding down the "C" key. Choose your language, choose "Archive and Install" and make sure to preserve user and network settings, and this will revert you back to the original version of Leopard that you had on your computer.
Then, go to the 10.5.4 Combo Downloader on Apple's website and download that. Do not download and install through your Software Update menu — this will just give you 10.5.5 again.
Unfortunately, I cannot find my stupid disc — but you know what? I don't really care all that much about Leopard, and WoW ran quite a bit better for me in Tiger anyway due to Leopard's higher memory demands. I don't really use my computer for much beyond archiving photos of my cats and surfing the web anymore anyway. Since I know where my Tiger disc is, I might just hop back to that until I can get a new computer.
UPDATE: This did not actually help much. My screen stopped freezing and I don't think I'm having any more latency problems, but my framerate is still 6-11 fps.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
This is getting old
I would very much like to knock out the last few levels to get Ahami to 70. She's got quite a bit of rested XP saved up that I could blow through pretty quickly.
But last time I tried, I ran v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. out into Terokkar, looked around for a couple of minutes for mobs, decided the lag was too bad to find any, ran back into the town, flew to Shattrath to pick up more parchment for glyph research, researched a glyph and then, and only then, keeled over dead from whatever mob offed me in Terokkar.
The time I tried before that, I fell off of Aldor Rise, brushed myself off, flew out to Zangarmarsh, and died right before landing.
This lag thing is getting a bit ridiculous. I know that some servers aren't having the problems — I'm not sure which ones, because every time I log in to one of mine, I get stuck. I know it's not my internet provider, because my neighbor has another provider and an unsecured wireless network, and I still have problems. I know it's not my computer, because my roommate also has problems. I know it's not a regional thing, because BFF and her guild were having problems Monday, and they are on the East Coast.
The note claimed that the devs knew what the problem was and would fix it during rolling restarts last night, but no. Still having problems. Still a log-on note from Blizz that they're working to correct the problem. *sigh*
So I am getting the exploration achievements, Diplomat title, and candy quests done on Ideale, and then will work on the exploration and Diplomat achievements for Ahami (she finished the candy). At least then I can get a teeny bit of XP while waiting for this latency crap to be solved.
P.S. I'd say Blizz owes me about 15 ankhs, but since I got the G.N.E.R.D. Rage achievement on Ahami in one AV match at over 4000 latency, guess my pride is a fair trade.
But last time I tried, I ran v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.l.y. out into Terokkar, looked around for a couple of minutes for mobs, decided the lag was too bad to find any, ran back into the town, flew to Shattrath to pick up more parchment for glyph research, researched a glyph and then, and only then, keeled over dead from whatever mob offed me in Terokkar.
The time I tried before that, I fell off of Aldor Rise, brushed myself off, flew out to Zangarmarsh, and died right before landing.
This lag thing is getting a bit ridiculous. I know that some servers aren't having the problems — I'm not sure which ones, because every time I log in to one of mine, I get stuck. I know it's not my internet provider, because my neighbor has another provider and an unsecured wireless network, and I still have problems. I know it's not my computer, because my roommate also has problems. I know it's not a regional thing, because BFF and her guild were having problems Monday, and they are on the East Coast.
The note claimed that the devs knew what the problem was and would fix it during rolling restarts last night, but no. Still having problems. Still a log-on note from Blizz that they're working to correct the problem. *sigh*
So I am getting the exploration achievements, Diplomat title, and candy quests done on Ideale, and then will work on the exploration and Diplomat achievements for Ahami (she finished the candy). At least then I can get a teeny bit of XP while waiting for this latency crap to be solved.
P.S. I'd say Blizz owes me about 15 ankhs, but since I got the G.N.E.R.D. Rage achievement on Ahami in one AV match at over 4000 latency, guess my pride is a fair trade.
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