I was doing my usual link-jumping thing (SOP when the VeCo realm forums are slow and my work is done) and ended up at Outland Bound. Good blog. When I'm not feeling lazy, I'll add it to the blogroll.
Anyway, in the top entry Ess talks about running into a crappily-geared ret pally at Hellfire Peninsula.
Ideale was not well-geared when I got to Outland — I didn't know what quests to watch out for and ran very few instances. I, too, had horrible pants (level 36 chainmail bikini bottoms, oh how I hated you). I did quest and kill stuff in the levels before 58, so much of my gear was at least level-appropriate and had decent stats, aside from the pants, but I think a lot of peoples' first toons* probably have similar problems, especially if you're still learning the ins and outs of the WoW economy, and especially if you ignore advice and don't bother to take double-gathering or level your single gathering profession past 106 until you hit the 60s. But even though most people might have a few pieces of crap gear when they go through the Dark Portal, the Recruit-A-Friend program really does make it harder to keep up if you don't know what you're doing.
I recruited my roommate. I've been trying to get her to play with me since April, and I really wanted a zhevra mount, so I bullied her into it — she's enjoying it so far. But when we had hit level 8 without doing all of the level 1-5 quests in Mulgore, I knew we were going to have a problem. So at level 8, I walked her through summoning me to Silvermoon City (she plays a blood elf priest — she started with a Forsaken mage but said it was boring because everything died too fast), set her up as a tailor, set my druid up as a leatherworker, and off we went.
And when she logged off, I logged onto Ideale and Ahami, farmed enough linen, wool, and leather to power-level both of us to about 150, made rings and necklaces, purchased bags, and sent them along. I'm keeping an eye out for recipes, too, and showed her how to do the same, as well as how to auction drops, since she does not want me funding her anymore. If we keep this up, we should be able to keep ourselves decently geared via crafting even if we aren't getting all the best quest rewards (and to be honest, I have no idea which quests give decent feral druid or shadow priest gear, and researching would be pointless with the leveling speed).
And since we mostly play together, me tanking** and her DPSing/healing, or me rooting things and us both burning them down, she's getting the grouping thing down pretty well. She's getting the hang of Fade down, she's got Shadow Word: Pain and Smite down, she is a shaky but learning healer. I'll drag her into the battlegrounds at 29 — I have honestly found that the battlegrounds are FANTASTIC places to practice healing; the first instance I ever healed was SM: Cath (I think) and I did not have a single problem other than a crappy hunter running ahead and trying to tank — and maybe suck it up and drag us both through SFK or Wailing Caverns. And I've linked her to a few blogs, thottbot and WoWWiki, too.
So really, in cases like that where people are actually recruiting friends instead of creating second accounts, I blame the recruiter for n00b syndrome — that's fine when it's a case like my friends, who begged me to try it and then I went and sneak-joined on the opposing faction on a different realm six months later. How were they going to help me out then, huh? But when you're actively playing with a friend and dragging them around, at least bother to explain what to look for in gear, how basic abilities work, link them to resources, help them pay for training if they can't afford it, or something. Don't let your friends run around Outland in level 26 pants!
* Ide was not even close to my first toon, but she was the first past 32 and to 70.
** Despite my hatred of the rage bar, I'm actually enjoying this a lot. I think I will be speccing balance later — I love rooting stuff and killing it from afar (Edit: And it seems kind of silly to gear up two healers for PVP, but who knows, maybe I'll like resto druid, too) — but I wanted to try tanking for a little while and give my friend practice with healing and DPSing without pulling aggro, and it doesn't suck. I do need to remember that I am feral when crafting gear for myself, though.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
*nod* You've hit the nail on the head. If you use Recruit-A-Friend to introduce someone to WoW, it's your responsibility to actually be their friend. That means helping them learn the game as it goes by in super speed.
Of course, if you are both new you get to fumble together. and that's okay -- we're all new sometime. :>
This is true. For some reason, it hadn't occurred to me that two new people might join together with one recruiting the other. :-/
I wrote about why instance runthroughs are bad over on my blog a while back. This recruit a friend thing adds in some of the same problems.
(read it here )
Its great for us seasoned players leveling our alts but I feel it gimps the experience for the genuine newbie. I do like how it encourages group play however... far too many people just solo all the way to the level cap.
I am so not seasoned. *puts noob hat back on* *points to the hat* See? Not even close.
I do think that the forced grouping is a good thing, as long as you are learning to actually play your class, and I say this as someone who dislikes grouping outside the battlegrounds.
I don't think that there is anything wrong with soloing, honestly, but you should at least play in a group a few times to learn your role, so that you're not completely unprepared if you decide at 70 that you want to raid or do arenas or something. I hate instances, but I still drag all of my toons through at least one or two, just for the experience. And sometimes they don't suck hardcore.
Post a Comment