Azshandra dinged last week by finally completing Blackrock Depths, which was a real struggle given that it took her about 3-4 weeks to finally get into a run that actually made it to completion.
But Cardwyn? The "Alt Who is Not Quite an Alt" didn't have such issues.
She began the week at L53, got into a couple of Sunken Temple runs, and then after a day's worth of farming and questing in Burning Steppes* she managed to get into not one but two BRD runs in a single night.
And she got to the point where she could finally witness the end of the Marshall Windsor questline**, beating Az to the punch.
Go figure.
It's a weird feeling when your alt is able to complete something ahead of your main.
But like I alluded to above, she's not exactly an alt, but more of a "co-main" at this point.
The more I think about it, I believe her ability to catch up to Az in leveling had not as much to do with Mages being more in demand than Rogues but more to do with Rogues' ability to simply bypass lots of mobs by sneaking through them. Mages, with no such ability, have to essentially blast their way through to quest objectives, which add to the amount of XP they gain when performing similar quests.
Therefore, if I create another class that doesn't have a stealth ability --such as, say, a Paladin-- that Pally will likely level up more quickly than Az as well.
And you can put two and two together and figure out that I'm already thinking of leveling another alt, just because.
I'd considered returning to my Paladin roots for a while now, but as time has gone on I've watched how Pallys are commonly considered one of two things: Healers or Tanks. Yes, Paladins have a Retribution spec --which I've typically played with the exception of Quintalan's early leveling as Holy-- but Ret Pallys seem to be frowned upon in Classic.
When I mentioned this to another Classic friend, she said "Look, go play what you want to play. Don't let the crowd influence you." Which is typically the advice I'd give to almost everybody as well, so it took me aback to see that same advice given to me.
But she was right.
I should play what I want to play, and if others have issues with me playing Ret, that's their problem, not mine.
Then the question becomes who to create.
I thought about one of my old Paladins, Balthan, but I discovered that "Balthan" was already used on the Myzrael server, so I created a "Balthane". I've also considered a few other names, based on either other Paladins I've played or characters I created, but some of them I'm going to wait on for any Burning Crusade servers, and others were also not available. So for the moment, Balthane it is.
But hey, it's better than nothing.
#Blapril2020
*And also finding another kindred soul while working on the Dragonkin Menace quest, which begins the Marshall Windsor questline. Having leveled as Horde back in the day, I didn't even know this questline existed until Classic dropped, because I switched to Alliance around the time Cataclysm was released. And, as I now know, Cataclysm wiped out the Marshall Windsor questline.
**Bolvar was in a killed state last night, so the group I was in decided not to wait for him to respawn so the event could complete, but all I have to do is talk to the squire and that'll be that.
But Cardwyn? The "Alt Who is Not Quite an Alt" didn't have such issues.
She began the week at L53, got into a couple of Sunken Temple runs, and then after a day's worth of farming and questing in Burning Steppes* she managed to get into not one but two BRD runs in a single night.
And she got to the point where she could finally witness the end of the Marshall Windsor questline**, beating Az to the punch.
Go figure.
It's a weird feeling when your alt is able to complete something ahead of your main.
But like I alluded to above, she's not exactly an alt, but more of a "co-main" at this point.
***
The more I think about it, I believe her ability to catch up to Az in leveling had not as much to do with Mages being more in demand than Rogues but more to do with Rogues' ability to simply bypass lots of mobs by sneaking through them. Mages, with no such ability, have to essentially blast their way through to quest objectives, which add to the amount of XP they gain when performing similar quests.
Therefore, if I create another class that doesn't have a stealth ability --such as, say, a Paladin-- that Pally will likely level up more quickly than Az as well.
And you can put two and two together and figure out that I'm already thinking of leveling another alt, just because.
I'd considered returning to my Paladin roots for a while now, but as time has gone on I've watched how Pallys are commonly considered one of two things: Healers or Tanks. Yes, Paladins have a Retribution spec --which I've typically played with the exception of Quintalan's early leveling as Holy-- but Ret Pallys seem to be frowned upon in Classic.
When I mentioned this to another Classic friend, she said "Look, go play what you want to play. Don't let the crowd influence you." Which is typically the advice I'd give to almost everybody as well, so it took me aback to see that same advice given to me.
But she was right.
I should play what I want to play, and if others have issues with me playing Ret, that's their problem, not mine.
***
Then the question becomes who to create.
I thought about one of my old Paladins, Balthan, but I discovered that "Balthan" was already used on the Myzrael server, so I created a "Balthane". I've also considered a few other names, based on either other Paladins I've played or characters I created, but some of them I'm going to wait on for any Burning Crusade servers, and others were also not available. So for the moment, Balthane it is.
But hey, it's better than nothing.
#Blapril2020
*And also finding another kindred soul while working on the Dragonkin Menace quest, which begins the Marshall Windsor questline. Having leveled as Horde back in the day, I didn't even know this questline existed until Classic dropped, because I switched to Alliance around the time Cataclysm was released. And, as I now know, Cataclysm wiped out the Marshall Windsor questline.
**Bolvar was in a killed state last night, so the group I was in decided not to wait for him to respawn so the event could complete, but all I have to do is talk to the squire and that'll be that.
To some extent yes, the fact you don't have to brute force your way to things as a rogue does make it slower getting xp, but I'd argue there are two big reasons you can't get into BRD runs on the rogue, and there's a ton of xp to be had in there.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the Hand of Justice is still BIS for Rogues, dps Warriors and Ret pallies till phase 6 with Naxx drops, so if there's any of those classes in the group, you probably won't get invited, even if they just want it as an off-spec item. I've ran into the same problem getting into Strat Dead runs for the cape off Baron. Was the last big upgrade before BWL came out. (Yes, it's technically better than the stuff in MC.)
Second, mage aoe is so good in there, it wasn't uncommon late phase 1 to see 3-4 mages go in and burn the place down. Rogue aoe is on such a long timer, and talented, that it is less efficient than replacing them with a mage, and if there's anything the classic community seems to attract it's efficiency-minded raiders/players.
Good luck getting in there.
It's been a pretty rare occasion to see a Ret Pally in a group --mostly only Prot or Holy-- but the groups Az has been in haven't had any restrictions on keeping Az out. The restrictions were originally "we want Mages" and now its "we need Tanks". Well, to be fair, just about every instance has a tank shortage right now, given that most tanks were focused on BWL and now ZG. Even the "tank" that we had for a Dire Maul West run the other day was specced Holy Paladin, and I believe he was actually running in Holy Gear, which made it all the more amazing that we actually finished the instance at all.
DeleteIf you want to start a fight in LookingForGroup, all you have to do is post about a raid or an instance looking for DPS with certain drops on reserve. Whether or not it's standard practice is one thing, but people who raise a stink about not being some group's/guild's bitch comes fast and furious, rendering LookingForGroup almost unusable for a while; during those times I switch to less used (on Myzrael) but more quiet user created LFG channel for getting recruits for a group.
In my experience in AoE heavy instances, such as Mara, you still have to use AoE judiciously. Unless you operate at a lower rank for Blizzard or other AoE skills you have to watch your mana continuously, and there's always somebody in the party who doesn't wait for the tank to build up threat before spamming AoE, causing general chaos. I should post one day about an Uldaman run where the Hunter kept spamming AoE. I learned to not stand next to the guy because he simply couldn't control aggro.