That was the question asked me by a guildie when I fired up Quintalan for about 20 minutes early last evening. It was about the only time I had to spare in between the end of the work day and having to take two of my kids to a skating party, but I figured I'd knock out a few quests in Uldum before I spent a couple of hours at a 1970s era roller rink.
I kind of shrugged at the question. "I've been on," I replied. "Mostly in the mornings and the early afternoon."
"Okay. I haven't been able to get on in the mornings lately, except for Saturday."
I'd noticed that the regular morning crowd for both Tom and Neve/Q has been thinning a bit lately, but until my guildie alluded to it I hadn't noticed the decline in my evening playing. With three kids (and their activities) and a wife who works in the evenings part of the time, I've cut back on my WoW playing. When I do play, it's much easier to run a quick BG or knock out some quests/crafting rather than queue for an instance.
At times like this, I miss the quick Wrath instances like A-N or Forge of Souls, the BC quickie Hellfire Ramparts, and Vanilla's Scarlet Monastery Graveyard. Got 15-20 minutes? No problem! You don't have to be in a losing fight in Warsong Gulch; you can go bash some Scourge or Fel Orcs instead!
But really, the design for Cata instances took away the ability to get a dungeon quickie. Given that Blizz wants to make the instances --especially the heroics-- hard, the concept of a quick and dirty instance clashes with design intent. And I'm fine with that. It's my schedule that has changed, and I shouldn't expect the game to change for me.
This is where things kind of intersect with a persistent theme the past month or two out in the WoW blogosphere, how a certain subset of WoW players have gotten disaffected with the game. We're not talking about the people who like WoW but tried and fell in love with Rift (or LOTRO or another game), but the people who burned out on WoW or who threw up their hands in disgust over the game.
Even if my own WoW time has been cut, I still find things to do. If I'm the only person in my guild on in the morning, I make a point of chit chatting while holding down a tower in Alterac Valley. (And I'm not even talking about roleplaying, but just regular in-game talk.) What I don't get is when people focus in on one aspect of the game so completely that they miss the rest of the game world. I've said it before and I'll say it again: an MMO is what you make of it. Yes, there is design intent at play, but you can choose to buck the system and do your own thing. Nobody pulled out the book of WoW Scriptures and read "Yea, and upon the Seventh Day the Toon assembled with many brethren, and thus they entered the Great Raid. And the Two Headed Ogre with many pokey eyes was slain."
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
So Many items to craft, so few toons to do the dirty work...
There are days when I feel like two toons are one toon too many. Then there are days when I look at the AH prices and grumble that I don't have enough toons.
I've been spending some of my recent time leveling Enchanting and Tailoring on Neve, and as I watch my gold disappear into the WoWified ether, I'm reminded of the old maxim: The questgiver giveth, and the Auction House taketh away. But at least she can craft her own high level gear; Quintalan and Tomakan don't have such a luxury.
Sure, Jewelcrafting and Engineering have their perks, but in terms of the majority of gear I'd need a blacksmith to do the dirty work. Since there are some decent Cata items you can craft via Blacksmithing, I really really really would like to level an alt to get access to that stuff.
But I'm also conflicted on leveling another alt.
I mean, it is a grind leveling again. With Cata zones the way they are, you kind of have to go through them to finish all of the phasing. The XP you get from BGs and instances got nerfed with Cata's release, so I don't have the option of pugging my way to riches like I did with Tom and Neve. (Okay, the option is still there, but not as good as before.)
At the same time, there are races and classes I've thought about trying that I haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with before. The concept of a NE Mage is appealing --hey look, an outsider group in the Alliance!-- but also tinkering with a Worgen or Orc Lock could be good. (Shadow Council? What Shadow Council? I don't know what you're talking about!)
I've been spending some of my recent time leveling Enchanting and Tailoring on Neve, and as I watch my gold disappear into the WoWified ether, I'm reminded of the old maxim: The questgiver giveth, and the Auction House taketh away. But at least she can craft her own high level gear; Quintalan and Tomakan don't have such a luxury.
Sure, Jewelcrafting and Engineering have their perks, but in terms of the majority of gear I'd need a blacksmith to do the dirty work. Since there are some decent Cata items you can craft via Blacksmithing, I really really really would like to level an alt to get access to that stuff.
But I'm also conflicted on leveling another alt.
I mean, it is a grind leveling again. With Cata zones the way they are, you kind of have to go through them to finish all of the phasing. The XP you get from BGs and instances got nerfed with Cata's release, so I don't have the option of pugging my way to riches like I did with Tom and Neve. (Okay, the option is still there, but not as good as before.)
At the same time, there are races and classes I've thought about trying that I haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with before. The concept of a NE Mage is appealing --hey look, an outsider group in the Alliance!-- but also tinkering with a Worgen or Orc Lock could be good. (Shadow Council? What Shadow Council? I don't know what you're talking about!)
***
After being oh-for-January and most of February, I finally started getting on the winning side of BG runs. I still can't win Warsong Gulch to save my life, but I finally got into some winning AV, AB, and BoG battlegrounds. Considering I'm starting over with building up my PvP gear, I'll take whatever badges/points/whatever I can get.
Even after all this time of playing my three toons, I still have this annoying --and often fatal-- habit of charging into the heart of the enemy side while on Neve. I get this "I have to close to really do some damage!" mentality going, and all I can think of is Crusader Strike, Templar's Verdict, Inquisition, and other Paladin abilities. I'm sure that my wife wonders who the hell I'm talking to when I constantly say "No no no! Stay back, dammit! Stay back!" to the computer screen.
***
I've posted before about what happens when my kids watch me play WoW, but it had been a while since any of them had done so. I guess I'd kind of forgotten exactly what it was like having extra pairs of eyes watching me play, when I'd gotten into an Arathi Basin run last week on Neve.
A Hunter and I took the Gold Mine and we kept beating off persistent attempts by a Rogue to ninja us and steal the Mine. After the Hunter pursued the Rogue up toward the Alliance base, I pulled back to see a Pally coming down the other way. In the ensuing duel, I died once but ran back and rezzed to finish the job. Just as I let out a big sigh of relief, I got one-shotted from behind.
"Stupid assed Rogues," I grumbled as I sat by the Spirit Healer, fuming, as I watched the Hunter chase after our persistent pest.
"You died again, Dad!" a small voice piped up at my elbow.
I must have jumped a good foot in the air because my youngest got the giggles. "Scared ya!"
"Hey!" I protested, turning my head in her direction.
She pointed at the screen. "Oh look, you died again."
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Frost Mages get a bit more love
Well, looky here, straight out of the updated 4.1 PTR notes:
Frost
Glyphs
I like the tweak on Ice Barrier, but I'm actually just as excited about the new Glyph. Anything to regen mana quicker is fine by my book. I didn't have any issues running out of mana until Neve reached L85, and then suddenly it hit like a truck. So anything to alleviate mana problems that doesn't entail equipping Spirit gear is fine by me.
Frost
- Ice Barrier base damage value has been increased by approximately 120%. In addition, the benefit from spell power has been increased by approximately 8%.
Glyphs
- Glyph of Frost Armor (new glyph): Frost Armor also causes the mage to regenerate 2% of maximum mana ever 5 seconds.
I like the tweak on Ice Barrier, but I'm actually just as excited about the new Glyph. Anything to regen mana quicker is fine by my book. I didn't have any issues running out of mana until Neve reached L85, and then suddenly it hit like a truck. So anything to alleviate mana problems that doesn't entail equipping Spirit gear is fine by me.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
About those the 4.1 Patch Notes
I found this little line very interesting in the patch notes:
Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.
I've noticed a decrease in utility for Blizzard the deeper I've gone into Cata. For what it does --and AoE attack that will proc Fingers of Frost and other goodies-- the damage has been really lagging behind most of a Frost Mage's other attacks. The only times I've used it in instances I've done it more for the procs than anything else. And now, Blizz seems to be putting some of the damage back in.
Finally.
Another big impression is that Arcane Mages are getting some good buffs to bring them more in line with Fire and Frost. Based on the DPS charts I've seen, Arcane has been lagging behind Fire and Frost in raids, and Blizz is moving to correct that.
As for Paladins, not that much is in the PTR, other than Illuminated Shield getting a longer duration. I'm sorry, but Righteous Fury persisting after toon death isn't anything to cheer wildly about.
Now this little note about the LFD tool is very interesting:
The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.
Apparently that wasn't always the case, but I guess that means that DKs, Warriors, and Pallys will be more rarely grouped together as DPS. Same goes for the cloth armored Warlocks, Mages, and Shadow Priests, and for leather/mail armored Rogues, Hunters, and Druids. Of course, "try" != "will", as I've been on a four Pally run through Gnomer before.
One final note: I found this entry in the Hunter section truly amusing:
Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Greater Proportion, which increases the size of the pet slightly.
All I could think of when I saw that was the line in Blazing Saddles: "Excuse me while I whip this out!"
EtA: One huge win for the leveling crowd: BC Instance maps are now in the 4.1 patch!! Woo!!
Blizzard damage has been increased by 70%.
I've noticed a decrease in utility for Blizzard the deeper I've gone into Cata. For what it does --and AoE attack that will proc Fingers of Frost and other goodies-- the damage has been really lagging behind most of a Frost Mage's other attacks. The only times I've used it in instances I've done it more for the procs than anything else. And now, Blizz seems to be putting some of the damage back in.
Finally.
Another big impression is that Arcane Mages are getting some good buffs to bring them more in line with Fire and Frost. Based on the DPS charts I've seen, Arcane has been lagging behind Fire and Frost in raids, and Blizz is moving to correct that.
As for Paladins, not that much is in the PTR, other than Illuminated Shield getting a longer duration. I'm sorry, but Righteous Fury persisting after toon death isn't anything to cheer wildly about.
Now this little note about the LFD tool is very interesting:
The Dungeon Finder now attempts to avoid putting damage-dealing classes with the same armor type in a group.
Apparently that wasn't always the case, but I guess that means that DKs, Warriors, and Pallys will be more rarely grouped together as DPS. Same goes for the cloth armored Warlocks, Mages, and Shadow Priests, and for leather/mail armored Rogues, Hunters, and Druids. Of course, "try" != "will", as I've been on a four Pally run through Gnomer before.
One final note: I found this entry in the Hunter section truly amusing:
Glyph of Mend Pet is now Glyph of Greater Proportion, which increases the size of the pet slightly.
All I could think of when I saw that was the line in Blazing Saddles: "Excuse me while I whip this out!"
EtA: One huge win for the leveling crowd: BC Instance maps are now in the 4.1 patch!! Woo!!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
It Takes Diff'rent Strokes
Well... Two down, one to go.
Both Tomakan and Neve dinged last week. For the record, Tom crept ahead of Neve the past few weeks while she spent some of her time farming for Frostweave, but I didn't really look at it as an Alliance v. Horde competition.
The primary concern I had with this experiment --could a toon go straight into Cata without stopping to farm Northrend Heroics-- was answered well over a month ago. Of secondary importance was the amount of difficulty melee DPS and ranged DPS would have in making it through Cata, and after that how different the stories each faction would tell. Now, I'm not completely finished with Twilight Highlands, but I'm far enough along that I can draw some conclusions.
Melee or Ranged DPS: Who's got the harder time?
The answer for that is that it depends on the zone.
Some people love Vashj'ir, some people hate it. But for ranged DPS, it's possibly the best zone out there. The added third dimension to the zone means that ranged DPS can zoom in and attack at odd angles, negating the advantage that melee DPS would get having to grind their way through a particular area. Sure, your average toon will have a flying mount by then --and zones such as Deepholm and Twilight Highlands pretty much demand one if you want to get to certain areas-- but with a flying mount you still have to land to attack. in Vashj'ir, the underwater vertical dimension effectively allows ranged DPS to attack from the air. You don't have to clear out all of the nearby enemy to prevent from being caught from behind, but instead you can use the WoW equivalent of surgical strikes to take out the enemy.
For melee DPS, there's a lot that Vashj'ir has going for it as well. Plate DPS will find a lot more useful drops in Vashj than in Hyjal, which can be vital in getting your toon Cata-geared. At the same time, Deepholm seemed more tailor made for melee than ranged DPS. For a Ret Spec Pally with the Holy Wrath Glyph active, any place with boatloads of elementals on it is a real bonus, and Deepholm was filled with them. By comparison, Hyjal, Vashj'ir, and Uldum didn't have nearly as many elementals to work with.
After having read the above, you'd think that by omission I must be ragging on Hyjal and Uldum, but that's not the case. Both zones were pretty much DPS-neutral, not favoring either one. Hyjal had more tank Plate drops than Vashj, so if a tanking offspec were of vital importance to you, Hyjal is the place to go. Uldum had one or two quests that were much easier on Plate DPS than on a squishy Mage --The Pit of Scales being the biggest offender, particularly if it's bugged*-- but in general I felt that Uldum was pretty much DPS-neutral in terms of difficulty.
Now Twilight Highlands, that's another story entirely.
If you leveled through Northrend back in the Wrath days, you know that once you dinged L80 --typically in The Storm Peaks-- things weren't bad at all in Icecrown. Quest greens didn't hold you back much, and the real difficulty came in trying to solo the mulit-person quests. That was when you needed the T9 set.
Therefore, if you were expecting history to repeat itself upon venturing to Twilight Highlands, you were disabused of that opinion almost immediately. It was more along the lines of: "Ding! You're L85! Now go to back and start over!"
For people who never experienced what it was like to start the Cata leveling process with Northrend green gear, this had to be a kick in the nuts. And the Horde's initial Naga quests are particularly brutal to squishy mages, as the waves of them come in so damn fast that you can get completely overwhelmed before you knew what was going on. Once you get past the initial quest chains, however, the zone becomes pretty DPS-neutral. Where Twilight Highlands shines, however, is in the story.
"Thundermar ale is 220 proof; I don't know how that's possible."
The story is similar for both factions throughout Vashj'ir, Hyjal, Deepholm, and Uldum. With Vashj, the story is the same, but the quest givers are Horde or Alliance. The other three have the faction neutral questgivers, so the story is almost exactly the same. Then you get to Twilight Highlands, and things suddenly diverge.
The Horde and Alliance stories emphasize dealing with the new additions to each faction --Dragonmaw and Wildhammer-- and the struggles each leader has in exerting control. The Dragonmaw are initially run by Mor'ghor, last seen on the Netherwing Ledge, and the younger Dragonmaw under the direction of Zaela chafe under his demon-tainted rule. Once Zaela leads a successful revolt, she then has to consolidate power against the drake riders who think the Wildhammer are the greater threat. On top of that, the Horde has big issues --as in Wyrmrest type issues-- by aligning with the Dragonmaw.
The Alliance, by comparison, has a slightly more mellow route through the Twilight Highlands. First, you have to fight off a Horde attack --thanks, Garrosh!-- and then you settle into trying to unite the independent Wildhammer clans. I know that Blizz basically lifted the stereotypical Scottish blueprint and stuck them on the Dwarves, but after a while the quests devolved into something like having Robin Williams describe golf. You go rally the clans, but then everything falls apart because the clans can't stand each other. So you try to arrange a political marriage, and you can guess where this whole thing is going.
Well, the divergent paths of each faction really brings Twilight Highlands to life. And I haven't even gotten through the Red Dragonflight portion of the program yet!
Heard around Azeroth:
Warrior: LF Port to Dal
Neve (Me): I can do that.
[Warrior invites Neve]
Neve (Me): Um, you're in Dal.
Warrior: Oh.
Tomakan (Me, during the Cursed Landing quests): There's something incredibly satisfying about killing 1000 Gnomes.
[Quintalan is helping a couple of people look for a rare spawn in Deepholm while he's finishing up the questlines]
Priest: Did you find anything yet?
Quintalan (Me): No.
[Quintalan pauses to acquire another quest]
Priest: Did you find it?
Quintalan: No.
[Q completes quest, gets another quest]
Priest: Did you find it?
Quintalan: Look, you don't have to ask each time I pause.
Priest: kk. [10 seconds pass] Did you find it?
Quintalan: /facepalm
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: Wrong location. You want Outland.
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: What level are you?
Warrior: L84
Tomakan (Me): You can solo Ring of Blood at L80, much less 84
Warrior: Tried it. Didn't work.
Priest: Just what did you try?
Warrior: The one here. The Ring of Blood.
Priest: That's not the Ring of Blood; that's the Crucible of Carnage.
[One minute passes]
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: ...
Convoy to L85 Update:
Tomakan: L85 and in Twilight Highlands
Nevelanthana: L85 and in Twilight Highlands
Quintalan: L84 and in Uldum
*You know you've got a bugged quest event when you're out of the Pit and taking damage for no visible reason whatsoever while you're still drinking.
Both Tomakan and Neve dinged last week. For the record, Tom crept ahead of Neve the past few weeks while she spent some of her time farming for Frostweave, but I didn't really look at it as an Alliance v. Horde competition.
The primary concern I had with this experiment --could a toon go straight into Cata without stopping to farm Northrend Heroics-- was answered well over a month ago. Of secondary importance was the amount of difficulty melee DPS and ranged DPS would have in making it through Cata, and after that how different the stories each faction would tell. Now, I'm not completely finished with Twilight Highlands, but I'm far enough along that I can draw some conclusions.
Melee or Ranged DPS: Who's got the harder time?
The answer for that is that it depends on the zone.
Some people love Vashj'ir, some people hate it. But for ranged DPS, it's possibly the best zone out there. The added third dimension to the zone means that ranged DPS can zoom in and attack at odd angles, negating the advantage that melee DPS would get having to grind their way through a particular area. Sure, your average toon will have a flying mount by then --and zones such as Deepholm and Twilight Highlands pretty much demand one if you want to get to certain areas-- but with a flying mount you still have to land to attack. in Vashj'ir, the underwater vertical dimension effectively allows ranged DPS to attack from the air. You don't have to clear out all of the nearby enemy to prevent from being caught from behind, but instead you can use the WoW equivalent of surgical strikes to take out the enemy.
For melee DPS, there's a lot that Vashj'ir has going for it as well. Plate DPS will find a lot more useful drops in Vashj than in Hyjal, which can be vital in getting your toon Cata-geared. At the same time, Deepholm seemed more tailor made for melee than ranged DPS. For a Ret Spec Pally with the Holy Wrath Glyph active, any place with boatloads of elementals on it is a real bonus, and Deepholm was filled with them. By comparison, Hyjal, Vashj'ir, and Uldum didn't have nearly as many elementals to work with.
After having read the above, you'd think that by omission I must be ragging on Hyjal and Uldum, but that's not the case. Both zones were pretty much DPS-neutral, not favoring either one. Hyjal had more tank Plate drops than Vashj, so if a tanking offspec were of vital importance to you, Hyjal is the place to go. Uldum had one or two quests that were much easier on Plate DPS than on a squishy Mage --The Pit of Scales being the biggest offender, particularly if it's bugged*-- but in general I felt that Uldum was pretty much DPS-neutral in terms of difficulty.
Now Twilight Highlands, that's another story entirely.
If you leveled through Northrend back in the Wrath days, you know that once you dinged L80 --typically in The Storm Peaks-- things weren't bad at all in Icecrown. Quest greens didn't hold you back much, and the real difficulty came in trying to solo the mulit-person quests. That was when you needed the T9 set.
Therefore, if you were expecting history to repeat itself upon venturing to Twilight Highlands, you were disabused of that opinion almost immediately. It was more along the lines of: "Ding! You're L85! Now go to back and start over!"
For people who never experienced what it was like to start the Cata leveling process with Northrend green gear, this had to be a kick in the nuts. And the Horde's initial Naga quests are particularly brutal to squishy mages, as the waves of them come in so damn fast that you can get completely overwhelmed before you knew what was going on. Once you get past the initial quest chains, however, the zone becomes pretty DPS-neutral. Where Twilight Highlands shines, however, is in the story.
"Thundermar ale is 220 proof; I don't know how that's possible."
The story is similar for both factions throughout Vashj'ir, Hyjal, Deepholm, and Uldum. With Vashj, the story is the same, but the quest givers are Horde or Alliance. The other three have the faction neutral questgivers, so the story is almost exactly the same. Then you get to Twilight Highlands, and things suddenly diverge.
The Horde and Alliance stories emphasize dealing with the new additions to each faction --Dragonmaw and Wildhammer-- and the struggles each leader has in exerting control. The Dragonmaw are initially run by Mor'ghor, last seen on the Netherwing Ledge, and the younger Dragonmaw under the direction of Zaela chafe under his demon-tainted rule. Once Zaela leads a successful revolt, she then has to consolidate power against the drake riders who think the Wildhammer are the greater threat. On top of that, the Horde has big issues --as in Wyrmrest type issues-- by aligning with the Dragonmaw.
The Alliance, by comparison, has a slightly more mellow route through the Twilight Highlands. First, you have to fight off a Horde attack --thanks, Garrosh!-- and then you settle into trying to unite the independent Wildhammer clans. I know that Blizz basically lifted the stereotypical Scottish blueprint and stuck them on the Dwarves, but after a while the quests devolved into something like having Robin Williams describe golf. You go rally the clans, but then everything falls apart because the clans can't stand each other. So you try to arrange a political marriage, and you can guess where this whole thing is going.
Well, the divergent paths of each faction really brings Twilight Highlands to life. And I haven't even gotten through the Red Dragonflight portion of the program yet!
***
Heard around Azeroth:
Warrior: LF Port to Dal
Neve (Me): I can do that.
[Warrior invites Neve]
Neve (Me): Um, you're in Dal.
Warrior: Oh.
Tomakan (Me, during the Cursed Landing quests): There's something incredibly satisfying about killing 1000 Gnomes.
[Quintalan is helping a couple of people look for a rare spawn in Deepholm while he's finishing up the questlines]
Priest: Did you find anything yet?
Quintalan (Me): No.
[Quintalan pauses to acquire another quest]
Priest: Did you find it?
Quintalan: No.
[Q completes quest, gets another quest]
Priest: Did you find it?
Quintalan: Look, you don't have to ask each time I pause.
Priest: kk. [10 seconds pass] Did you find it?
Quintalan: /facepalm
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: Wrong location. You want Outland.
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: What level are you?
Warrior: L84
Tomakan (Me): You can solo Ring of Blood at L80, much less 84
Warrior: Tried it. Didn't work.
Priest: Just what did you try?
Warrior: The one here. The Ring of Blood.
Priest: That's not the Ring of Blood; that's the Crucible of Carnage.
[One minute passes]
Warrior: LFM Ring of Blood
Priest: ...
***
Convoy to L85 Update:
Tomakan: L85 and in Twilight Highlands
Nevelanthana: L85 and in Twilight Highlands
Quintalan: L84 and in Uldum
*You know you've got a bugged quest event when you're out of the Pit and taking damage for no visible reason whatsoever while you're still drinking.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Oh, This is going to be good
I'd known that the Horde was going to partner with the Dragonmaw Clan in the Twilight Highlands, but while Neve was waiting on the platform for the arrival of the zeppelin, I wondered exactly how the intro was going to pan out. Would Hellscream act like a doofus? What exactly would the dragonflights think of this deal with the devil? And were the Dragonmaw worth saving?
Well, at the moment the answers are: yes, I don't know yet, and yes.
For a change, the Goblin in charge of the skyfleet had the right idea: "What kind of madman orders away his close air support?"
Um, that guy.
/points at Hellscream
Well, at the moment the answers are: yes, I don't know yet, and yes.
For a change, the Goblin in charge of the skyfleet had the right idea: "What kind of madman orders away his close air support?"
Um, that guy.
/points at Hellscream
***
I kind of expected that both the Horde and Alliance lead in quests to the Twilight Highlands would be similar: find a Twilight spy, reveal him/her, and basically look good for your faction's boss. That followed the plan to the letter on the Alliance side, but the Horde side was, well, disappointing. Greedy goblins and troops on shore leave in a town that would make Vegas or Bangkok look tame kind of took the edge off of the Horde's lead in quests. If I want to watch greed like that, I'll turn on the news.
Monday, February 28, 2011
The Siren Calls
There's quite a bit of buzz out there about Rift these days.
Some people I know in WoW have been seriously considering letting their subscription lapse in favor of Rift, and others are planning on playing both games concurrently. That a decent subset of the WoW community seems to be grumbling over the current state of WoW only heightens the call of Rift.
I can attest to the allure of the "shiny!" that Rift provides; I spent several days poking around the last open Beta and was impressed with what I found. The story seems very interesting, particularly the aspect of the Rifts themselves. Imagine the Elemental Invasion Cata event, but with the Elementals moving in and taking over world areas if you don't beat them back. Throw into this the faction conflicts of religion vs. technology and insiders vs. outsiders, and you've got a very entertaining backstory. Of course, the story starts out with the bleakest of outcomes, and your job is to prevent that disaster from occurring.
The concept of selecting three souls (talent trees) from a large pool of available souls is a customizer's dream, and a theorycrafter's nightmare. From what I've seen online, there are theorycrafters working on optimal builds for each class (naturally), but it may take a long time before things are hammered out. FWIW, I found the array of choices almost too much, and I can see where a noob would be overwhelmed.
As for the introductory quests, I found them straightforward enough. If you've done intro quests before, there's no real surprise here. What did surprise me was that once you got out into the regular game world, you're thrown to the wolves. Imagine an entire world where your low level areas are mixed with the high level ones --like Scarlet Monastery in Tirisfal Glades-- and you end up getting thwacked by high level NPCs before you knew what was happening. Well, that's what the Rift world is like. You don't mess around in this world, that's for certain.
What do I think of Rift?
Well, Rift is not a world for beginners. Although Trion does take pains to lead people along throughout the intro quest line, the overall player customization and world design implies that their target audience is the experienced MMO player who is dissatisfied with their current game. If you came into the game cold, you'd be lost.
Rift is also following the WoW model with raiding as endgame. For those who were hoping for more of a sandbox environment, this has to be disheartening. As for the non-raider, it gets a big /shrug out of me.
Rift also takes pains to level the playing field. There is no customization for the UI beyond what the game is currently capable of. All of those nifty third-party addons you have in WoW will have to hit the road. And from what I can tell, that's causing no small bit of angst in the message boards. Of course, I leveled Q to L80 with the original UI largely intact, so I don't think it that big a deal.
Will I switch to Rift? Not right now, no. I can only afford one pay-per-month MMO, and WoW is the one for me. Given that I'm still leveling my main and my two primary alts to L85, I haven't exhausted my interest in the game yet.* That said, I can see it's appeal. There's potentially a great story to work with, and an entirely new world worth exploring. I doubt Rift will be a WoW-killer --I suspect an MMO based on Bioware's Dragon Age would be that game-- but it will find a niche market. I wish Trion luck, and if Rift succeeds, so much the better.
*That's one small side bonus in taking it nice and slow in the leveling, there's no "is that all there is?" feeling with 4.1 hitting the PTR servers.)
Some people I know in WoW have been seriously considering letting their subscription lapse in favor of Rift, and others are planning on playing both games concurrently. That a decent subset of the WoW community seems to be grumbling over the current state of WoW only heightens the call of Rift.
I can attest to the allure of the "shiny!" that Rift provides; I spent several days poking around the last open Beta and was impressed with what I found. The story seems very interesting, particularly the aspect of the Rifts themselves. Imagine the Elemental Invasion Cata event, but with the Elementals moving in and taking over world areas if you don't beat them back. Throw into this the faction conflicts of religion vs. technology and insiders vs. outsiders, and you've got a very entertaining backstory. Of course, the story starts out with the bleakest of outcomes, and your job is to prevent that disaster from occurring.
The concept of selecting three souls (talent trees) from a large pool of available souls is a customizer's dream, and a theorycrafter's nightmare. From what I've seen online, there are theorycrafters working on optimal builds for each class (naturally), but it may take a long time before things are hammered out. FWIW, I found the array of choices almost too much, and I can see where a noob would be overwhelmed.
As for the introductory quests, I found them straightforward enough. If you've done intro quests before, there's no real surprise here. What did surprise me was that once you got out into the regular game world, you're thrown to the wolves. Imagine an entire world where your low level areas are mixed with the high level ones --like Scarlet Monastery in Tirisfal Glades-- and you end up getting thwacked by high level NPCs before you knew what was happening. Well, that's what the Rift world is like. You don't mess around in this world, that's for certain.
What do I think of Rift?
Well, Rift is not a world for beginners. Although Trion does take pains to lead people along throughout the intro quest line, the overall player customization and world design implies that their target audience is the experienced MMO player who is dissatisfied with their current game. If you came into the game cold, you'd be lost.
Rift is also following the WoW model with raiding as endgame. For those who were hoping for more of a sandbox environment, this has to be disheartening. As for the non-raider, it gets a big /shrug out of me.
Rift also takes pains to level the playing field. There is no customization for the UI beyond what the game is currently capable of. All of those nifty third-party addons you have in WoW will have to hit the road. And from what I can tell, that's causing no small bit of angst in the message boards. Of course, I leveled Q to L80 with the original UI largely intact, so I don't think it that big a deal.
Will I switch to Rift? Not right now, no. I can only afford one pay-per-month MMO, and WoW is the one for me. Given that I'm still leveling my main and my two primary alts to L85, I haven't exhausted my interest in the game yet.* That said, I can see it's appeal. There's potentially a great story to work with, and an entirely new world worth exploring. I doubt Rift will be a WoW-killer --I suspect an MMO based on Bioware's Dragon Age would be that game-- but it will find a niche market. I wish Trion luck, and if Rift succeeds, so much the better.
*That's one small side bonus in taking it nice and slow in the leveling, there's no "is that all there is?" feeling with 4.1 hitting the PTR servers.)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Habitually Speaking
Back when I first started playing WoW, I developed a lot of bad habits while leveling.
My first 45 levels or so, Quintalan was Holy Spec, but since I rarely went into instances at that time all I knew how to do was quest --and kill things-- using my weak Holy Spec capabilities. To compound the problem, I looked at gear the way I would in my pencil and paper RPGs: a little bit of Intellect and a little bit of Strength never hurt, and look --something with Agility! It never occurred to me that maybe I ought to concentrate on one stat and let the other gear fall by the wayside.
After I switched to Ret --at Soul's suggestion-- I developed another set of bad habits. For example, I'd use tanking abilities in my attacks, which really don't go over well when you get into an instance. And when leveling, I didn't have a concept of a rotation. Sure, you could argue that Ret Spec in Wrath didn't have a rotation --and I'd not disagree with you either-- but the basic understanding behind a rotation escaped me.
Oh yeah, I was a noob. I had my share of "HEY STOOPID!" moments out there in WoW.
It wasn't until I started pugging and got serious about understanding how a Ret Pally works that I finally broke out of these habits. I tinkered with key bindings and how much you could load onto one button until I realized I needed more granularity than that. (Such as saving Avenging Wrath for Bosses; you don't need it for trash. Therefore, don't try to bind it on any of my attacks but leave it on a separate button.)
Even when 4.0.1 dropped I didn't have moments quite like those first few months of playing WoW, and for that I can thank Tomakan. He was mired somewhere in the 40s when 4.0.1 was released, and so I had plenty of time to work out how the new Ret rotations ought to work without all the clutter of higher level Ret capabilities.
But now, after having spent time leveling in the Cata zones, I've kind of backslid a bit. I slack off on my rotations because I can, unless I'm dealing with multiple enemies at once (or an elite). I've got some nice new skills on both Neve and the Pallys, but I haven't really adjusted my key bindings.* I know that the Cata instances are harder than Wrath, but I haven't tested the limits of how quickly I can go through my rotation without pulling aggro.
WoW is still a learning process. Maybe if you work at it hours a day for most days of the week, yeah, you can top out at a high level. But most of us don't have that amount of spare time. To get competent at your class, you need to dedicate some time, but nowhere near the levels seen by the elite raiding guilds.
Unlike my noob experiences, I know what I need to do to get back on track. I need to get into more Cata instances.
Am I worried about getting into Cata pugs? Not really. I like to be prepared, and if I can't be prepared, at least be overpowered. What's killing me is the time factor. I don't have the time to set aside two hours to cover a pug right now. I can run BGs more quickly than what I've discovered via the Cata pugs I've been in, so I end up queuing for them instead. (When Alterac Valley is looking to be quicker than a Cata pug, you know you've got time issues.)
So for the time being, I'm going to continue to quest and accumulate a punch sheet of things I need to do. I'll get around to it. Someday. Maybe.
*I instead lust after a Naga Razr, thinking about adding buttons there rather than upset my current balance.
My first 45 levels or so, Quintalan was Holy Spec, but since I rarely went into instances at that time all I knew how to do was quest --and kill things-- using my weak Holy Spec capabilities. To compound the problem, I looked at gear the way I would in my pencil and paper RPGs: a little bit of Intellect and a little bit of Strength never hurt, and look --something with Agility! It never occurred to me that maybe I ought to concentrate on one stat and let the other gear fall by the wayside.
After I switched to Ret --at Soul's suggestion-- I developed another set of bad habits. For example, I'd use tanking abilities in my attacks, which really don't go over well when you get into an instance. And when leveling, I didn't have a concept of a rotation. Sure, you could argue that Ret Spec in Wrath didn't have a rotation --and I'd not disagree with you either-- but the basic understanding behind a rotation escaped me.
Oh yeah, I was a noob. I had my share of "HEY STOOPID!" moments out there in WoW.
It wasn't until I started pugging and got serious about understanding how a Ret Pally works that I finally broke out of these habits. I tinkered with key bindings and how much you could load onto one button until I realized I needed more granularity than that. (Such as saving Avenging Wrath for Bosses; you don't need it for trash. Therefore, don't try to bind it on any of my attacks but leave it on a separate button.)
Even when 4.0.1 dropped I didn't have moments quite like those first few months of playing WoW, and for that I can thank Tomakan. He was mired somewhere in the 40s when 4.0.1 was released, and so I had plenty of time to work out how the new Ret rotations ought to work without all the clutter of higher level Ret capabilities.
But now, after having spent time leveling in the Cata zones, I've kind of backslid a bit. I slack off on my rotations because I can, unless I'm dealing with multiple enemies at once (or an elite). I've got some nice new skills on both Neve and the Pallys, but I haven't really adjusted my key bindings.* I know that the Cata instances are harder than Wrath, but I haven't tested the limits of how quickly I can go through my rotation without pulling aggro.
WoW is still a learning process. Maybe if you work at it hours a day for most days of the week, yeah, you can top out at a high level. But most of us don't have that amount of spare time. To get competent at your class, you need to dedicate some time, but nowhere near the levels seen by the elite raiding guilds.
Unlike my noob experiences, I know what I need to do to get back on track. I need to get into more Cata instances.
Am I worried about getting into Cata pugs? Not really. I like to be prepared, and if I can't be prepared, at least be overpowered. What's killing me is the time factor. I don't have the time to set aside two hours to cover a pug right now. I can run BGs more quickly than what I've discovered via the Cata pugs I've been in, so I end up queuing for them instead. (When Alterac Valley is looking to be quicker than a Cata pug, you know you've got time issues.)
So for the time being, I'm going to continue to quest and accumulate a punch sheet of things I need to do. I'll get around to it. Someday. Maybe.
*I instead lust after a Naga Razr, thinking about adding buttons there rather than upset my current balance.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Checking in
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busying playing the game lately, instead of writing about it. There's so much to do with a new expansion and I've reached a pretty comfortable spot.
I've gotten all of my Cata reps up to exalted, even as of last night, with my own guild. I've managed to get a decent number of epics and I'm alllllmost happy with my character appearance - gotta replace the shoulders and get a new helmet and weapon.
I've also had the task of building up a somewhat reliable offspec and gear for those situations where we encounter a one tank fight. Which, to be honest, I'm not all that happy about. I really do love tanking and dps is so foreign to me that I end up watching my hotbar instead of raid warnings / bad don't stand here stuff. I'm getting better at it though.
And in the guild, we've managed to down the first 5 bosses in Blackwing Descent. I'm so happy about all of that. My GM has done a little research and found out that we're in the top 60 some odd number of guilds on our server, and that makes me pretty happy considering we spend 6 hours a week raiding. And most of the other guils that have the same numbers of bosses down that we do, have one or two bosses in each raid, not all 5 in one raid.
Also, we've had an interesting twist internally. In wrath, we were loaded to the gills with strength dps classes and only had a few agility based melee. This time around, we haven't had a single strength dps class with us (except for me when I need to offspec), and we're full up on agility characters. And worse yet, we're struggling to get enough ranged classes. We've currently got no warlocks or mages that raid. Argh...
Balancing that sort of raid is pretty challenging, and sometimes proves nearly impossible. For instance, dealing with the worms on the Magmaw fight with any less than three ranged really, really stinks.
For as much as I'm not fond of dpsing, we've had to have one of our bear tanks go boom for the majority of the fights. He says he doesn't mind too much, but still... I'm not sure why the raid design this time around is a bit funky.
It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busying playing the game lately, instead of writing about it. There's so much to do with a new expansion and I've reached a pretty comfortable spot.
I've gotten all of my Cata reps up to exalted, even as of last night, with my own guild. I've managed to get a decent number of epics and I'm alllllmost happy with my character appearance - gotta replace the shoulders and get a new helmet and weapon.
I've also had the task of building up a somewhat reliable offspec and gear for those situations where we encounter a one tank fight. Which, to be honest, I'm not all that happy about. I really do love tanking and dps is so foreign to me that I end up watching my hotbar instead of raid warnings / bad don't stand here stuff. I'm getting better at it though.
And in the guild, we've managed to down the first 5 bosses in Blackwing Descent. I'm so happy about all of that. My GM has done a little research and found out that we're in the top 60 some odd number of guilds on our server, and that makes me pretty happy considering we spend 6 hours a week raiding. And most of the other guils that have the same numbers of bosses down that we do, have one or two bosses in each raid, not all 5 in one raid.
Also, we've had an interesting twist internally. In wrath, we were loaded to the gills with strength dps classes and only had a few agility based melee. This time around, we haven't had a single strength dps class with us (except for me when I need to offspec), and we're full up on agility characters. And worse yet, we're struggling to get enough ranged classes. We've currently got no warlocks or mages that raid. Argh...
Balancing that sort of raid is pretty challenging, and sometimes proves nearly impossible. For instance, dealing with the worms on the Magmaw fight with any less than three ranged really, really stinks.
For as much as I'm not fond of dpsing, we've had to have one of our bear tanks go boom for the majority of the fights. He says he doesn't mind too much, but still... I'm not sure why the raid design this time around is a bit funky.
Monday, February 14, 2011
There's DPS, and then there's DPS
When I go through new content on one of my toons, I have a habit of evaluating the content with an eye toward the other toons.
Take for example the Ragnaros fight, which is the climax of the Hyjal quest chain.
Q completed that quest last week, which is an "assist XXX in defeating YYY" type of quest. I know some bloggers kind of pooh-pooh those quests because they feel they have no impact on the result, but I enjoy them. In this quest, you're not the focus, but that's okay. After all, you're not Warchief, but someone else is*.
In the quest The Firelord, you're providing support in Cenarius' fight against Ragnaros, along with Malfurion and Hamuul, the two Arch Druids. Basically, you're there to keep the adds off of Hamuul and Malfurion while they blast Mr. By-Fire-Be-Purged with massive debuffs. Not a hard thing there to do if you're a Ret Spec Pally, but when I saw the healing requests go by, my first thought was "Holy crap! There's no way in hell Neve could do that!"
From what I've read online, I think that the heal requests will only show if your class can actually heal. Otherwise, your job is straight DPS. After finding that out, I let out a huge sigh of relief.
On the flip side, when I was questing on Neve through Vashj'ir, I thought that the zone was ideally suited to ranged DPS. She could stand back and hit from distance, and so long as she obeyed the cardinal rule of engaging in one enemy at a time, she could handle Vashj'ir quite well. I was certain that melee DPS would not only get hit harder, but have a more difficult time of surviving through the first several sections of Vashj. Melee DPS would be under-armored as well as under-powered, while ranged DPS could reduce the enemy's health significantly before the enemy could close.
As it turns out, the result was a wash. Whether ranged or melee, each DPS had could handle what was thrown at them.
One thing I've never been able to figure out is why some people take such perverse delight in griefing and corpse camping on PvE servers. It's not like they're not going to get caught, because all it takes is someone with the fortitude to hang around long enough, luring the griefer on, while one of two things happens: the toon being griefed gets friends and/or guildies to show up, or an Admin responds to the ticket request. Either way, the griefer loses.
So why bother? What do you get out of thwacking toons in Goldshire or Tranquillien that you can't settle in a Battleground or an Arena?
The Earthen Ring and the Guardians of Hyjal (and the Cenarion Circle) are this expansion's version of the Argent Crusade: a cross faction organization that brings all of Azeroth together to fight the enemy. With all of that going on, it makes me wonder why there isn't more emphasis placed upon the attitude of the grunts who fight alongside their "enemies" on the other faction. Perhaps I'll find more of that later on, but so far I haven't seen anything to demonstrate otherwise.
*Although if you could toss Garrosh out of the Warchief's seat, I'd bet boatloads of Hordies would do so in an instant.
Take for example the Ragnaros fight, which is the climax of the Hyjal quest chain.
Q completed that quest last week, which is an "assist XXX in defeating YYY" type of quest. I know some bloggers kind of pooh-pooh those quests because they feel they have no impact on the result, but I enjoy them. In this quest, you're not the focus, but that's okay. After all, you're not Warchief, but someone else is*.
In the quest The Firelord, you're providing support in Cenarius' fight against Ragnaros, along with Malfurion and Hamuul, the two Arch Druids. Basically, you're there to keep the adds off of Hamuul and Malfurion while they blast Mr. By-Fire-Be-Purged with massive debuffs. Not a hard thing there to do if you're a Ret Spec Pally, but when I saw the healing requests go by, my first thought was "Holy crap! There's no way in hell Neve could do that!"
From what I've read online, I think that the heal requests will only show if your class can actually heal. Otherwise, your job is straight DPS. After finding that out, I let out a huge sigh of relief.
On the flip side, when I was questing on Neve through Vashj'ir, I thought that the zone was ideally suited to ranged DPS. She could stand back and hit from distance, and so long as she obeyed the cardinal rule of engaging in one enemy at a time, she could handle Vashj'ir quite well. I was certain that melee DPS would not only get hit harder, but have a more difficult time of surviving through the first several sections of Vashj. Melee DPS would be under-armored as well as under-powered, while ranged DPS could reduce the enemy's health significantly before the enemy could close.
As it turns out, the result was a wash. Whether ranged or melee, each DPS had could handle what was thrown at them.
***
One thing I've never been able to figure out is why some people take such perverse delight in griefing and corpse camping on PvE servers. It's not like they're not going to get caught, because all it takes is someone with the fortitude to hang around long enough, luring the griefer on, while one of two things happens: the toon being griefed gets friends and/or guildies to show up, or an Admin responds to the ticket request. Either way, the griefer loses.
So why bother? What do you get out of thwacking toons in Goldshire or Tranquillien that you can't settle in a Battleground or an Arena?
***
Having completed three of the Cataclysm zones so far --Vashj'ir, Hyjal, and Deepholm-- I have a set of likes and dislikes. Vashj is the zone with the biggest downer, leading straight into the Throne of the Tides instance. (The other two instances, Blackrock Caverns and Stonecore, are more of a sidelight on the main quest chain.) The Hyjal zone has the happiest ending, with Deepholm close behind.
As for the quest chains themselves... For a quest whore like myself, I really did enjoy them. And yes, I did go through Vashj'ir twice, so the undersea environment didn't bother me at all.
Having now seen both Ysera and Alexstrasza, I guess the formal uniform of a female Dragon Aspect includes a bikini. I'm not exactly sure why, but then again, I'm not planning on asking either of them. I guess it goes to prove the answer to the old question as to what a dragon wears: anything they want.
The Earthen Ring and the Guardians of Hyjal (and the Cenarion Circle) are this expansion's version of the Argent Crusade: a cross faction organization that brings all of Azeroth together to fight the enemy. With all of that going on, it makes me wonder why there isn't more emphasis placed upon the attitude of the grunts who fight alongside their "enemies" on the other faction. Perhaps I'll find more of that later on, but so far I haven't seen anything to demonstrate otherwise.
I've read some posts out there in the WoW blogosphere about how Therazane is a great character, and I can't disagree. She is a strong female character who isn't clad in a skimpy outfit, she has her own agenda that has nothing to do with any other faction, and she's just as likely to kill you as welcome you to her throne room. The strange thing is that I want to check out the quest line for Maraudon again, just to see if there have been any tweaks to accomodate Therazane's presence in Deepholm.
***
And before I forget, Happy Valentine's Day to all of you out in the blogosphere!
***
Convoy to 85 Update
Tomakan: L84 in Uldum
Nevelanthana: L83 in Deepholm
Quintalan: L82 in Deepholm
*Although if you could toss Garrosh out of the Warchief's seat, I'd bet boatloads of Hordies would do so in an instant.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Puppies Want Dungeon!
There seems to be one bug coming out of the 4.0.6 patch: race changed Worgen are unable to queue for any Cataclysm instances. The Worgen started from scratch are having no problems, but the ones who wanted to swap out their toon for a Worgen are currently puttering around Stormwind, chasing Druids in cat form.
EtA: Looks like hotfixes are being rolled out. Your favorite puppy may soon be able to run around in an instance shortly!
EtA: Looks like hotfixes are being rolled out. Your favorite puppy may soon be able to run around in an instance shortly!
Monday, February 7, 2011
Hyjal vs. Vashj'ir - Brief Thoughts
Okay, Quintalan isn't exactly undergeared going into his first Cata zone, so I was prepared for an easier time.
I wasn't prepared for the Elites stuck in the middle of those burning areas when you're searching for the staff parts.
Q was wading in, taking 2 of those non-elites at a time, when Holy Wrath pulled another piece of "trash" over.
"Man," I thought, "that one's hitting hard."
The other two trash disposed of, Q turned his attention to that new elemental and...
"Elite. Oops."
During the corpse run, I reminded myself that I should still take a page from Neve and Tom's playbook and go easy on the trash pulling.
Convoy to L85 Update
Tomakan: L83 in Deepholm
Nevelanthana: L83 in Deepholm
Quintalan: L81 in Hyjal
I wasn't prepared for the Elites stuck in the middle of those burning areas when you're searching for the staff parts.
Q was wading in, taking 2 of those non-elites at a time, when Holy Wrath pulled another piece of "trash" over.
"Man," I thought, "that one's hitting hard."
The other two trash disposed of, Q turned his attention to that new elemental and...
"Elite. Oops."
During the corpse run, I reminded myself that I should still take a page from Neve and Tom's playbook and go easy on the trash pulling.
***
When I got to the portion of the quest chain where you had to escort Fandral Staghelm through the Emerald Dream, I was amused. "Well, well, well. Both he and Magatha are on the outs. Good."
***
While I know I'm only partway through the zone, one thing that strikes me from the drops so far is the abundance of tanking gear. Most of the Plate drops in Vashj'ir were DPS and/or Healing related, so I got used to gearing up quickly. Hyjal, however, is more tank friendly.
Great news for tanks, but not so great news for melee DPS. I'm not big on reforging Cata green gear --I'd rather save my money when I know the next zone will have gear to replace it-- but let's just say I'm glad that Q started with better gear than Tomakan did.
***
Tomakan: L83 in Deepholm
Nevelanthana: L83 in Deepholm
Quintalan: L81 in Hyjal
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
A Few Short Notes
Where's my Can of Raid?
I hate buggy questlines.
The end of the Fleshwerks questline in Icecrown was bugged for what seemed like ages before that finally got fixed, and it kept me from finishing the Icecrown quest achievement for a while. The same thing happened in Howling Fjord with the end of the Ymiron's questline, and that was my stumbling block in that region too.
And now we have Defending the Rift, a special gift for you from Cata.
After trying for about about a dozen times to get the questline cutscene to work, I gave up and called it a night.
Some people claim that it's Horde only, but since I was doing the quest on Tomakan, I know that Defending the Rift has it in for Draenei, too.
/sigh
Why IsShe LFD Being so Difficult?
I have a short, simple goal before I get to L83: Finish the Northrend Dungeonmaster achieve on both toons. It's not a hard thing to do; just get finished with all of the 5-mans (except ICC and ToC) on regular mode.
Then why does LFD hate me so much?
By my count, there are three Wrath instances that are impossible to solo: Trial of the Champion, The Oculus, and Halls of Reflection. ToC and Oculus are impossible to do because of the vehicle portion of the program; you need more than one person in there to survive the joust in ToC and the Eregos fight in Oculus. Halls of Reflection has that nasty DPS race at the end, and no toon is able to put out that much DPS in that short a time before 'Big Boy Arthas' comes within range and nukes you.
To finish these, all you ought to be able to do is queue for only the instances you want, and then slowly eliminate them from the list as you complete them, right?
Then why did LFD send me into ToC over a half dozen times on each toon, giving me the same bosses to fight, without any variation?
I finally finished up enough stuff on Tom so that all I have left is a spare boss in Ahn'kahet that I must have missed, but Neve is still stuck in LFD hell, waiting on a non-fail run of The Oculus to miraculously appear.
Overheard around Azeroth
In The Oculus: "What do you mean, Red is the tank? Red is the DPS, Bronze is the tank!"
In Culling of Stratholme: "What are you doing here, Ginger? You're L82!" [Ginger was Tomakan, in disguise as a red haired bearded guy.]
Tomakan: "I want the achieve before I can't queue for this."
"There is no achieve here in normal!" "Yeah!"
Tomakan: "[Northrend Dungeonmaster]"
"..."
In Icecrown: "So, how are things in Northrend today?"
Neve: "Cold"
"Oh, but I'm sure we could cuddle somewhere for warmth."
Neve: "No thanks."
"But I've got a nice roaring fire here going."
In Pit of Saron: "Why did I die?"
Healer: "Next time, kill adds before you pull Ick. And don't stand in the green stuff. Are you sure you've done this before?"
"Of course I have!"
Healer (in whisper to me): "Yeah, right."
Also in Pit of Saron: "What do we do now?"
"Run up the tunnel and don't stop until you reach..." [tank takes off] "...a halfway mark."
[tank runs up to the safe location]
Healer: "Stop!"
Tomakan: "Stop here!" /jumps
[tank keeps running]
Healer: "Oh Lord"
EtA: Added the rest of Mr. Smooth's attempts to pick up Neve.
I hate buggy questlines.
The end of the Fleshwerks questline in Icecrown was bugged for what seemed like ages before that finally got fixed, and it kept me from finishing the Icecrown quest achievement for a while. The same thing happened in Howling Fjord with the end of the Ymiron's questline, and that was my stumbling block in that region too.
And now we have Defending the Rift, a special gift for you from Cata.
After trying for about about a dozen times to get the questline cutscene to work, I gave up and called it a night.
Some people claim that it's Horde only, but since I was doing the quest on Tomakan, I know that Defending the Rift has it in for Draenei, too.
/sigh
Why Is
I have a short, simple goal before I get to L83: Finish the Northrend Dungeonmaster achieve on both toons. It's not a hard thing to do; just get finished with all of the 5-mans (except ICC and ToC) on regular mode.
Then why does LFD hate me so much?
By my count, there are three Wrath instances that are impossible to solo: Trial of the Champion, The Oculus, and Halls of Reflection. ToC and Oculus are impossible to do because of the vehicle portion of the program; you need more than one person in there to survive the joust in ToC and the Eregos fight in Oculus. Halls of Reflection has that nasty DPS race at the end, and no toon is able to put out that much DPS in that short a time before 'Big Boy Arthas' comes within range and nukes you.
To finish these, all you ought to be able to do is queue for only the instances you want, and then slowly eliminate them from the list as you complete them, right?
Then why did LFD send me into ToC over a half dozen times on each toon, giving me the same bosses to fight, without any variation?
I finally finished up enough stuff on Tom so that all I have left is a spare boss in Ahn'kahet that I must have missed, but Neve is still stuck in LFD hell, waiting on a non-fail run of The Oculus to miraculously appear.
Overheard around Azeroth
In The Oculus: "What do you mean, Red is the tank? Red is the DPS, Bronze is the tank!"
In Culling of Stratholme: "What are you doing here, Ginger? You're L82!" [Ginger was Tomakan, in disguise as a red haired bearded guy.]
Tomakan: "I want the achieve before I can't queue for this."
"There is no achieve here in normal!" "Yeah!"
Tomakan: "[Northrend Dungeonmaster]"
"..."
In Icecrown: "So, how are things in Northrend today?"
Neve: "Cold"
"Oh, but I'm sure we could cuddle somewhere for warmth."
Neve: "No thanks."
"But I've got a nice roaring fire here going."
In Pit of Saron: "Why did I die?"
Healer: "Next time, kill adds before you pull Ick. And don't stand in the green stuff. Are you sure you've done this before?"
"Of course I have!"
Healer (in whisper to me): "Yeah, right."
Also in Pit of Saron: "What do we do now?"
"Run up the tunnel and don't stop until you reach..." [tank takes off] "...a halfway mark."
[tank runs up to the safe location]
Healer: "Stop!"
Tomakan: "Stop here!" /jumps
[tank keeps running]
Healer: "Oh Lord"
EtA: Added the rest of Mr. Smooth's attempts to pick up Neve.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Warring Priorities
It must be nice, being a master of the Auction House.
Not to mention the player who has an entire stable of toons sitting at L85.
And still have a life. (Or a job. Or both.)
For most of us mere mortals, we have to content ourselves with prioritizing our WoW time. And truth be told, playing the role of Farmer Bob is one of those tasks that I typically put at the bottom of my to-do list. My thought process is simple: what's more fun, leveling in Vashj'ir, or mining Cobalt?* Fighting in Alterac Valley, or farming Frostweave?
It used to be the case that I'd combine my farming with waiting for the LFD or BG queue, but since the combination of Battlegroups caused a reduction in queue times, I discovered that I didn't have that much luck getting a lot of farming done. And right now, I'd rather be out questing rather than farming.
Of course, a Tailor still has to have her Frostweave to finish leveling. To help his fellow Hordie out, I've been pulling Quintalan off of whatever bench he's been spending his days on and sending him into Icecrown to beat up on Converted Heroes for their Frostweave. Once he gets a pile, he forwards them on to Neve so she can practice her skills. If you guessed that I don't exactly sound enthusiastic, you're right.
It's one thing if I've seen all of the Cata zones, and poked my nose into each nook and cranny on both factions. I'd be gearing up for PvP, trying my hand at heroics, and working on what I consider side stuff. But since Neve needs the gear she can get from Tailoring (and the boosts from Enchanting), I'm Farmer Quintalan instead.
Tomakan needs the cash, and while the questing is giving a good supply of gold, I don't want him to get to L83 without having visited all of the Northrend instances. So the past couple of days, he's been Miner Tom.
Not exactly the stuff that heroes are made of. Unless, of course, your idea of a hero is more along the lines of Cincinnatus.
I remember reading a post by Linedan from Achtung Panzercow on his attempts to play EVE Online, and my reaction was that if a game feels too much like work, it's no longer a game.** There are days when the WoW grind is too much like work, and not enough like play. That's when I remind myself that to take the measure of a game, you have to assess the good with the bad. Does the fun outweigh the grind?
For me, it does. This grind will eventually go away, and I can move on to other things. There may come a day when the grind no longer makes the game worth it, but it isn't there yet.
*Cobalt was selling for higher prices than Saronite or Thorium on Ysera last week.
**Unless your work is a game, then all bets are off.
Not to mention the player who has an entire stable of toons sitting at L85.
And still have a life. (Or a job. Or both.)
For most of us mere mortals, we have to content ourselves with prioritizing our WoW time. And truth be told, playing the role of Farmer Bob is one of those tasks that I typically put at the bottom of my to-do list. My thought process is simple: what's more fun, leveling in Vashj'ir, or mining Cobalt?* Fighting in Alterac Valley, or farming Frostweave?
It used to be the case that I'd combine my farming with waiting for the LFD or BG queue, but since the combination of Battlegroups caused a reduction in queue times, I discovered that I didn't have that much luck getting a lot of farming done. And right now, I'd rather be out questing rather than farming.
Of course, a Tailor still has to have her Frostweave to finish leveling. To help his fellow Hordie out, I've been pulling Quintalan off of whatever bench he's been spending his days on and sending him into Icecrown to beat up on Converted Heroes for their Frostweave. Once he gets a pile, he forwards them on to Neve so she can practice her skills. If you guessed that I don't exactly sound enthusiastic, you're right.
It's one thing if I've seen all of the Cata zones, and poked my nose into each nook and cranny on both factions. I'd be gearing up for PvP, trying my hand at heroics, and working on what I consider side stuff. But since Neve needs the gear she can get from Tailoring (and the boosts from Enchanting), I'm Farmer Quintalan instead.
Tomakan needs the cash, and while the questing is giving a good supply of gold, I don't want him to get to L83 without having visited all of the Northrend instances. So the past couple of days, he's been Miner Tom.
Not exactly the stuff that heroes are made of. Unless, of course, your idea of a hero is more along the lines of Cincinnatus.
I remember reading a post by Linedan from Achtung Panzercow on his attempts to play EVE Online, and my reaction was that if a game feels too much like work, it's no longer a game.** There are days when the WoW grind is too much like work, and not enough like play. That's when I remind myself that to take the measure of a game, you have to assess the good with the bad. Does the fun outweigh the grind?
For me, it does. This grind will eventually go away, and I can move on to other things. There may come a day when the grind no longer makes the game worth it, but it isn't there yet.
*Cobalt was selling for higher prices than Saronite or Thorium on Ysera last week.
**Unless your work is a game, then all bets are off.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Interactive Drug Trips of Vashj'ir Past
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being a Naga. That whirlwind attack is plenty nice too; every time I heard that whistling noise I thought of Ginsu knives.
In general, both the Horde and Alliance quest lines are alike. There are a few minor differences, namely with the minor sideshow stuff from Goblins/Gnomes, but that's about it. The tone of the characters, however, is completely different. The Horde characters are out for blood, while the Alliance characters have their words tempered a bit. In the 'defend the ship' event, the Horde Captain yells "Make 'em bleed!" The Alliance Captain doesn't say anything quite so memorable: "For Stormwind!" On the flip side, having the Draenei Earthen Ring member talk about having to run and hide her interest in Shamanism rings far truer than a Tauren, and the Dwarven Earthen Ring member saying "Ugh, an Orc... This will take some getting used to" made me laugh.
Finally, between the second and the last of the Battlemaiden sequences culminating in "Visions of Vashj'ir Past", both toons got themselves geared up enough to qualify for the first of the Cataclysm regular instances. So by the time you're through with the Shimmering Expanse you're instance ready, with almost all of your gear replaced by new Cata greens. It's not always optimal --Tom was wearing some tanking shoulders for a good while-- but it's far better than what you're equipped with coming out of Wrath as a fresh L80.
I'm planning on taking Quintalan in the opposite direction to Hyjal and see how the regearing process goes over there. Naturally, he's going to have a lot of advantages that Tom and Neve didn't have, but that's the breaks.
Convoy to L85 Update
Tomakan: L82 in Vashj'ir
Nevelanthana: L82 in Vash'jir
Quintalan: L80 and being used for farming Frostweave in Icecrown
EtA: For the Paladins, so far I've only seen one Relic drop in Vashj'ir, and it's a Holy Spec Relic given you by the woman who sends you out hunting for her lost items. That means for you Prot and Ret Spec Pallys whatever Relic you've got on when you start up Cata will probably still be with you throughout Vashj'ir. In Tomakan's case, it was an old Relic he picked up in one of the Tempest Keep instances and promptly forgot about. I don't believe Tom encountered a Relic at all while running the Wrath 5-mans, and the point of the exercise was not to go out buying stuff but instead just keep on truckin'.
EtA: A Ret (kinda Prot) Relic finally dropped in Vashj'ir, right before the end of zone. For Prot Pallys, you might want to pass on the Prot gear that is an alternate, but that's your choice.
They even split Kvaldir! Now Available at L78!
As an aside, I still think a group of renegade Naga could be a good fit for the Horde or at least a Neutral installation, but I'm not exactly all the way through Vashj'ir yet. So who knows?
I had mixed feelings playing the Battlemaiden's questline, however. In that old conundrum you'd find in The Frozen Throne, who do you root for: the group aligned with the Lich King (Kvaldir), or the group aligned with the Old Gods (Naga + surprise guests)? Either way, the mortal races lose.
In general, both the Horde and Alliance quest lines are alike. There are a few minor differences, namely with the minor sideshow stuff from Goblins/Gnomes, but that's about it. The tone of the characters, however, is completely different. The Horde characters are out for blood, while the Alliance characters have their words tempered a bit. In the 'defend the ship' event, the Horde Captain yells "Make 'em bleed!" The Alliance Captain doesn't say anything quite so memorable: "For Stormwind!" On the flip side, having the Draenei Earthen Ring member talk about having to run and hide her interest in Shamanism rings far truer than a Tauren, and the Dwarven Earthen Ring member saying "Ugh, an Orc... This will take some getting used to" made me laugh.
Finally, between the second and the last of the Battlemaiden sequences culminating in "Visions of Vashj'ir Past", both toons got themselves geared up enough to qualify for the first of the Cataclysm regular instances. So by the time you're through with the Shimmering Expanse you're instance ready, with almost all of your gear replaced by new Cata greens. It's not always optimal --Tom was wearing some tanking shoulders for a good while-- but it's far better than what you're equipped with coming out of Wrath as a fresh L80.
I'm planning on taking Quintalan in the opposite direction to Hyjal and see how the regearing process goes over there. Naturally, he's going to have a lot of advantages that Tom and Neve didn't have, but that's the breaks.
Convoy to L85 Update
Tomakan: L82 in Vashj'ir
Nevelanthana: L82 in Vash'jir
Quintalan: L80 and being used for farming Frostweave in Icecrown
EtA: For the Paladins, so far I've only seen one Relic drop in Vashj'ir, and it's a Holy Spec Relic given you by the woman who sends you out hunting for her lost items. That means for you Prot and Ret Spec Pallys whatever Relic you've got on when you start up Cata will probably still be with you throughout Vashj'ir. In Tomakan's case, it was an old Relic he picked up in one of the Tempest Keep instances and promptly forgot about. I don't believe Tom encountered a Relic at all while running the Wrath 5-mans, and the point of the exercise was not to go out buying stuff but instead just keep on truckin'.
EtA: A Ret (kinda Prot) Relic finally dropped in Vashj'ir, right before the end of zone. For Prot Pallys, you might want to pass on the Prot gear that is an alternate, but that's your choice.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Confession time...
Alright, so I have a confession to make here… having one piece of armor that doesn’t match the rest of my gear really bugs me. For instance, my current set of armor is the blue crystal look of tier 11 along with the flat gunmetal grey color of justice point gear. And then there are my legs they’re iLevel 346, but they’re…. Bright red. Ug.
My wife will gleefully (seriously, giggling and finger pointing) point out the fact that she’s overheard a few of us very manly gamers discussing what color the guild tabard should be in order to match our gear.
And this obsession extends past just gear coordination. When I made my Orc Deathknight, I chose the darkest skin available because it looked the best with armor. And when I chose to race change my warrior to a Worgen, he’s got black fur because it looks the best with the different armors. And this even extends to race choices.
My warrior was created during vanilla. It was originally created to be a level 29 twink – and what a power house he was (There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the “blegh-ack” cry of a one shot gnome).
Well when I decided to start playing my warrior more seriously, I race changed to undead, because they have the best shield slam animation. And I got tired of not being able to see directly in front of myself and not to mention the giant furry egg on his back.
And then I found the guild I’m in now and ended up race changing to a human. But I got bored with that, because at the time my main character was also a human. So I changed to a dwarf – which ended up annoying me in the long run because I literally had to jump to hit some targets and stairs were the death of me a few times because I wasn’t in line of sight of the healers at the bottom of the steps.
With the introduction of Worgen to the Alliance, I was very much looking forward to race changing to one because they looked cool in the videos I had watched and they were new. Not to mention a new chiropractically challenged race would make me feel more like I was playing Horde.
I have now been a Worgen since release and I gotta admit – they’re not all that grand. I like the fact that they added sounds to changing stances as a warrior, as well as adding sounds shouts. It gets a bit tiresome to listen to this for every shout and every stance dance.
And I’m not a fan of the way helmets look on them either. It’s like they’ve got the same problem as trolls do. It’s as if they took a helmet that would fit a smaller race just fine, and cut holes in it to modify it to fit. I’m just not a fan…
And then there’s the boots – I’m the tank here. I’m the wall of iron, steel, wood, muscle, and bone with the sole purpose of stopping the bad guy from beating up everybody else. – So we’ve got the bright red legs with backwards knees and the blue / grey boots with awesome clunky looking reinforcements over the knee and bare toes. It just doesn’t sit right… If I were the boss mob I’d just stomp on the tank’s foot and call it a day.
I run around with the helmet turned off – we discussed this already, and I also turn capes off. The way the shield rests on a Worgen’s back looks right, but it’s almost as if they copied the cape animation from a Dra’nei because it doesn’t look like it flows quite right, and it ends up clipping most of my shield off.
And probably the biggest annoying I have is weapons. It seems that the awesome looking epic pvp axe I have doesn’t scale any larger when I’m in Worgen form, than then I’m in human form. Which makes the weapon (to me at least) seem kinda wimpy. Not that you could see it anyhow from how many flips I end up doing when wielding a two handed weapon (It was cool at first, but I’m not playing Metroid or Sonic – do I really need to spend that much time curled up in a ball?) And when blade storming, my claws end up sticking out further than the blade. And it probably good they do, because of the way Worgen hold their weapon when blade storming - not that getting repeatedly smacked the by flat edge of an axe wouldn’t hurt after a while, but it just looks pitiful.
So, I’m pretty sold on yet one more race change…
My wife will gleefully (seriously, giggling and finger pointing) point out the fact that she’s overheard a few of us very manly gamers discussing what color the guild tabard should be in order to match our gear.
And this obsession extends past just gear coordination. When I made my Orc Deathknight, I chose the darkest skin available because it looked the best with armor. And when I chose to race change my warrior to a Worgen, he’s got black fur because it looks the best with the different armors. And this even extends to race choices.
My warrior was created during vanilla. It was originally created to be a level 29 twink – and what a power house he was (There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the “blegh-ack” cry of a one shot gnome).
Well when I decided to start playing my warrior more seriously, I race changed to undead, because they have the best shield slam animation. And I got tired of not being able to see directly in front of myself and not to mention the giant furry egg on his back.
And then I found the guild I’m in now and ended up race changing to a human. But I got bored with that, because at the time my main character was also a human. So I changed to a dwarf – which ended up annoying me in the long run because I literally had to jump to hit some targets and stairs were the death of me a few times because I wasn’t in line of sight of the healers at the bottom of the steps.
With the introduction of Worgen to the Alliance, I was very much looking forward to race changing to one because they looked cool in the videos I had watched and they were new. Not to mention a new chiropractically challenged race would make me feel more like I was playing Horde.
I have now been a Worgen since release and I gotta admit – they’re not all that grand. I like the fact that they added sounds to changing stances as a warrior, as well as adding sounds shouts. It gets a bit tiresome to listen to this for every shout and every stance dance.
And I’m not a fan of the way helmets look on them either. It’s like they’ve got the same problem as trolls do. It’s as if they took a helmet that would fit a smaller race just fine, and cut holes in it to modify it to fit. I’m just not a fan…
And then there’s the boots – I’m the tank here. I’m the wall of iron, steel, wood, muscle, and bone with the sole purpose of stopping the bad guy from beating up everybody else. – So we’ve got the bright red legs with backwards knees and the blue / grey boots with awesome clunky looking reinforcements over the knee and bare toes. It just doesn’t sit right… If I were the boss mob I’d just stomp on the tank’s foot and call it a day.
I run around with the helmet turned off – we discussed this already, and I also turn capes off. The way the shield rests on a Worgen’s back looks right, but it’s almost as if they copied the cape animation from a Dra’nei because it doesn’t look like it flows quite right, and it ends up clipping most of my shield off.
And probably the biggest annoying I have is weapons. It seems that the awesome looking epic pvp axe I have doesn’t scale any larger when I’m in Worgen form, than then I’m in human form. Which makes the weapon (to me at least) seem kinda wimpy. Not that you could see it anyhow from how many flips I end up doing when wielding a two handed weapon (It was cool at first, but I’m not playing Metroid or Sonic – do I really need to spend that much time curled up in a ball?) And when blade storming, my claws end up sticking out further than the blade. And it probably good they do, because of the way Worgen hold their weapon when blade storming - not that getting repeatedly smacked the by flat edge of an axe wouldn’t hurt after a while, but it just looks pitiful.
So, I’m pretty sold on yet one more race change…
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Under the Sea Plaguelands
If you want to know my opinion of sending the two guinea pigs straight into their first Cata zone --Vashj'ir-- I think the title pretty much sums it up.
For those of you who were around on WoW prior to Cata*, can you remember what it was like taking your first toon at ~L55 and making a mad dash for Light's Hope Chapel? The Eastern Plaguelands was the scary zone in the Old World (sorry, Silithus and Blasted Lands), where it seemed the waves of Scourge were unending and you had to go at a crawl to reach the one safe place in the entire zone. Oh, and it sucked if you happened to be on the road at the same time as the Scarlet Courier; you'd have been better off just running into Plaguewood naked instead.
Of course, all things being equal, some toons were more equal than others at dealing with the challenges of the old Eastern Plaguelands. Paladins were custom made for the zone, while Cloth wearing toons suffered the most.
In a very real sense, that's what I felt when Neve and Tom swam out into Vashj'ir for the first time.
Neve, as a Frost Mage, has the built in advantage of a minion.
Boy, did she need it.
My experience leveling with her in the Old World (pre-v4.0.1) came in handy. The mantra "nice and slow" was vital to her survival. She could handle one 30-40k HP enemy at a time, but two made her sweat. She had very little recourse for healing during a battle, so she had to rely heavily on damage mitigation using her shields. Because the Naga were a) all over the place and b) prone to aggroing on her, she was forced to stand and fight a lot. The shields she had were often exhausted before their cooldown was over, so these fights became a DPS race. Afterward, the Conjured Mana Strudel was steady part of her diet.
Still, she didn't die at all until the "defend the ship" event.
A Cloth wearer like a mage is often a sitting duck in a melee style event, and Neve was no exception. She survived multiple attacks by one Naga, but two at once were almost too much. And three...
After that experience, things became a little easier. She finally started to get a few Cata greens, and her health (and firepower) jumped 3k. In fact, the only time she died after that was when the rare Lady Ya-Ya (yeah, I know, a nod to Lady Gaga) spawned right behind her.
Tomakan, by comparison, has built in healing, and is surrounded by nice, hefty (if puny by Cata standards) Plate. And when Art of War procs, Exorcism will deal 10k damage at a pop. He found the going quite a bit easier than Neve did, and he didn't die once. Okay, I don't think the elite giant catching you from behind should count, but that's just me. I did follow the same rules that I laid down with Neve: one enemy at a time, switch out damage (Ret Aura) for protection (Protection Aura), and go slow. I'll admit I was a bit concerned that Tom would have it harder than Neve because she could get more damage in from distance than he could, but he made up for it in better armor protection and higher spiky damage.
Now, I think both toons are getting their Cata legs under them, and while they aren't going to be knocking on the door of any instances soon, I'm more confident in their ability to survive in the Cata zones.
So the question I posed, "can you survive in the Cata zones going straight from Northrend after dinging L80?", is so far a yes. Now, the "will you die a lot?" question is still out there, but we'll see. A corollary to all this, "how long will it take you to be instance ready?", now that's a head scratcher. I suspect it'll be after all of Vashj'ir is complete, but I don't know for certain. Even with the Cata greens I have, I don't have a high enough iLevel to get into normal Trial of the Champion on either toon, so that gives you a feel on how far I have to go.
*Okay, that's just about everyone, but you never know.
For those of you who were around on WoW prior to Cata*, can you remember what it was like taking your first toon at ~L55 and making a mad dash for Light's Hope Chapel? The Eastern Plaguelands was the scary zone in the Old World (sorry, Silithus and Blasted Lands), where it seemed the waves of Scourge were unending and you had to go at a crawl to reach the one safe place in the entire zone. Oh, and it sucked if you happened to be on the road at the same time as the Scarlet Courier; you'd have been better off just running into Plaguewood naked instead.
Of course, all things being equal, some toons were more equal than others at dealing with the challenges of the old Eastern Plaguelands. Paladins were custom made for the zone, while Cloth wearing toons suffered the most.
In a very real sense, that's what I felt when Neve and Tom swam out into Vashj'ir for the first time.
Neve, as a Frost Mage, has the built in advantage of a minion.
Boy, did she need it.
My experience leveling with her in the Old World (pre-v4.0.1) came in handy. The mantra "nice and slow" was vital to her survival. She could handle one 30-40k HP enemy at a time, but two made her sweat. She had very little recourse for healing during a battle, so she had to rely heavily on damage mitigation using her shields. Because the Naga were a) all over the place and b) prone to aggroing on her, she was forced to stand and fight a lot. The shields she had were often exhausted before their cooldown was over, so these fights became a DPS race. Afterward, the Conjured Mana Strudel was steady part of her diet.
Still, she didn't die at all until the "defend the ship" event.
A Cloth wearer like a mage is often a sitting duck in a melee style event, and Neve was no exception. She survived multiple attacks by one Naga, but two at once were almost too much. And three...
After that experience, things became a little easier. She finally started to get a few Cata greens, and her health (and firepower) jumped 3k. In fact, the only time she died after that was when the rare Lady Ya-Ya (yeah, I know, a nod to Lady Gaga) spawned right behind her.
Tomakan, by comparison, has built in healing, and is surrounded by nice, hefty (if puny by Cata standards) Plate. And when Art of War procs, Exorcism will deal 10k damage at a pop. He found the going quite a bit easier than Neve did, and he didn't die once. Okay, I don't think the elite giant catching you from behind should count, but that's just me. I did follow the same rules that I laid down with Neve: one enemy at a time, switch out damage (Ret Aura) for protection (Protection Aura), and go slow. I'll admit I was a bit concerned that Tom would have it harder than Neve because she could get more damage in from distance than he could, but he made up for it in better armor protection and higher spiky damage.
Now, I think both toons are getting their Cata legs under them, and while they aren't going to be knocking on the door of any instances soon, I'm more confident in their ability to survive in the Cata zones.
So the question I posed, "can you survive in the Cata zones going straight from Northrend after dinging L80?", is so far a yes. Now, the "will you die a lot?" question is still out there, but we'll see. A corollary to all this, "how long will it take you to be instance ready?", now that's a head scratcher. I suspect it'll be after all of Vashj'ir is complete, but I don't know for certain. Even with the Cata greens I have, I don't have a high enough iLevel to get into normal Trial of the Champion on either toon, so that gives you a feel on how far I have to go.
*Okay, that's just about everyone, but you never know.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
And so it Begins
Tom and Neve both dinged L80 this morning.
(My run of bad luck in BGs continues, as I couldn't win in AV on either toon. All I needed was one win and I would have dinged L80 early in the morning on each, but nooo.... /grumble)
Anyway, time to take stock of what's on each toon:
Pretty, um... homely, right?
Although both of them finally left their Outland gear behind (Tom replaced his last piece the other day), both toons only have two items at iL187. (EtA: Tom now has three, since I replaced the heirloom Chestpiece with one from The Oculus he won this morning.) The Wrath heirlooms are still much in abundance, and the vast majority of gear is in the 150s-160s range. Admittedly, this is far lower than I expected when I decided to go with this experiment, but it's realistic. If you're a new player to WoW and you've leveled up to L80, this is what you've got. Unless you figured out how to work the AH, you don't have a lot of gold in the bank to buy the new Cata L78 gear, either.
As you can see, I'm not bothering with an Eternal Belt Buckle (on a low-end Wrath green?). Nor do I have a host of enchants on the items, either. Some of the items don't have the iLevel for it, and others --being heirlooms-- I'd rather not enchant at all. On Neve, I enchant when I can and when it makes sense; I'm not going to dump strength enchants on items just because I can; I'd rather match it up with something she can use. I also need to level her Enchanting and Tailoring more (and I don't want to talk about Tom's Engineering).
I did the initial Vash'jir quest or two on Neve, and while I was waiting on the dock outside of Org, a couple of guildies tried to talk me into buying some of the Cata greens. "You're going to die a lot, Q," I was told.
"But that's the point. I keep reading about how you can do it, and I want to see how well you can do it."
And yes, I won't lie: that first Naga fight was nasty. However, my problem in that fight was that I couldn't damn well see, because my character was zoomed in all the way to FPS mode, and I couldn't seem to zoom back out. (FPS mode makes my head hurt, and I'd rather not play in a zone where I have to play that way.) I'm going to try again later, to see if something simply got out of whack that only a full restart would cure.
EtA: In the interest of full disclosure, this is what Q has on at the moment while he's waiting his turn:
He's a wee bit better equipped to start questing in the Cata zones. His gear is close to as good as you can get without actually having raided in ICC, so he'd have advantages that a true newbie wouldn't.
(My run of bad luck in BGs continues, as I couldn't win in AV on either toon. All I needed was one win and I would have dinged L80 early in the morning on each, but nooo.... /grumble)
Anyway, time to take stock of what's on each toon:
Pretty, um... homely, right?
Although both of them finally left their Outland gear behind (Tom replaced his last piece the other day), both toons only have two items at iL187. (EtA: Tom now has three, since I replaced the heirloom Chestpiece with one from The Oculus he won this morning.) The Wrath heirlooms are still much in abundance, and the vast majority of gear is in the 150s-160s range. Admittedly, this is far lower than I expected when I decided to go with this experiment, but it's realistic. If you're a new player to WoW and you've leveled up to L80, this is what you've got. Unless you figured out how to work the AH, you don't have a lot of gold in the bank to buy the new Cata L78 gear, either.
As you can see, I'm not bothering with an Eternal Belt Buckle (on a low-end Wrath green?). Nor do I have a host of enchants on the items, either. Some of the items don't have the iLevel for it, and others --being heirlooms-- I'd rather not enchant at all. On Neve, I enchant when I can and when it makes sense; I'm not going to dump strength enchants on items just because I can; I'd rather match it up with something she can use. I also need to level her Enchanting and Tailoring more (and I don't want to talk about Tom's Engineering).
I did the initial Vash'jir quest or two on Neve, and while I was waiting on the dock outside of Org, a couple of guildies tried to talk me into buying some of the Cata greens. "You're going to die a lot, Q," I was told.
"But that's the point. I keep reading about how you can do it, and I want to see how well you can do it."
And yes, I won't lie: that first Naga fight was nasty. However, my problem in that fight was that I couldn't damn well see, because my character was zoomed in all the way to FPS mode, and I couldn't seem to zoom back out. (FPS mode makes my head hurt, and I'd rather not play in a zone where I have to play that way.) I'm going to try again later, to see if something simply got out of whack that only a full restart would cure.
EtA: In the interest of full disclosure, this is what Q has on at the moment while he's waiting his turn:
He's a wee bit better equipped to start questing in the Cata zones. His gear is close to as good as you can get without actually having raided in ICC, so he'd have advantages that a true newbie wouldn't.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Me and my Big Mouth
I kept telling myself I wasn't going to post until both of my alts made L80, but the WoW gods conspired against me. I'd had such a great run of good luck pugging the normal Wrath instances that I'd sort of forgotten what it was like to have a bit of drama in a pug. Oh, I don't mean I'd had a series of Wrath Heroic "shh-don't-make-a-sound-we're-grinding-badges" pugs, because most of the pugs have become chatty affairs. (When a UK run takes 45 minutes, you might as well talk about something along the way.)
No, I mean what I experienced today, where you become reacquainted with the Vote Kick button.
The first entertaining instance of the day, I got Halls of Lightning on Tomakan, and I was going into the middle of a run. No big deal, really; when you LFD solo, you get that a lot. The only issue I had was that I was inside Drakuru's Scourge tower, Voltarus, and I had to get out of there ASAP. I ran down, ported out, ran down the ramp, and tried to mount the gryphon.
Then I was reminded that while in disguise I couldn't mount anything. (Yeah, insert adolescent joke here.) So I bit the bullet and ported into Halls of Lightning, making a mental note that I'd probably port out into an aggro situation.
When I arrived, I found the priest and hunter standing around. Recognizing the location, I said, "Afternoon. Almost to Loken?"
"Um..." the Hunter said.
"Where is everyone? Running back?"
"Um..."
"Hey everyone!" the tank shouted, running up. "I'm an L82!"
"Okay," the Priest replied, "how did you get in?"
"The limit on normal Wrath instances is L82," I said. In one of the most overused lines in Star Wars, I had a bad feeling about this.
"I'm a Worgen!"
"Yeah," I replied, "and I'm a Scourge. Or I was a minute ago."
"And I'm a jelly doughnut," the Priest replied.
We buffed, and the tank took off. I swear, he must have thought we were blitzing a Wrath Heroic. "I can take on one of them all by myself! Wanna see?"
"Um, no," the Priest said.
"Oh. K."
We made it through to the end, killed Loken, and the tank queued us up again. Since in spite of his overenthusiasm he was an okay tank, I queued up too. The Priest and the Hunter had to go and dropped, and we stood around waiting for LFD to spit out a healer and DPS.
Then the tank and the other DPS started playing a game of comparisons.
"How old are you?"
"27. You?"
"28. Got you beat. Married?"
"Yep."
"Nope."
"Kids?"
"Yep."
The comparisons began to veer a bit more toward the explicit, and before they could get to discussing things like penis size, I dropped.
I shook it off, ported out, and naturally got jumped by a pair of Scourge in the Reliquary of Pain. Oh well.
Later that afternoon after I got done with work for the day, I got into what was almost an instant queue for Utgarde Pinnacle. We got buffed, ran up, and started the first trash pull before I could even type the words "hello."
Then the tank lost aggro.
"Hey!" one of the DPS said as he and I died. "Watch your threat!"
"WTH happened?" the healer asked.
"I was wondering the same thing," I replied. "At least UP has a short run back."
Our questions were answered a few moments later when the tank DC-ed.
Oh well. "I'm going to go questing," one of the DPS said.
"You're a lame-ass," the one replied. "Questing during an instance."
"Why not? It'll be 15 minutes before we can vote-kick him."
Lo and behold, three minutes later, the magic vote-kick window appeared. "That was the fastest 15 minutes I've ever seen," I replied.
We queued up and got a new tank, and this one was so brand new he had that "new tank" smell. "I've never been here before," he said, "and I'll need some pointers."
Things went okay --if slow-- until toward the end of the second boss. "I've gtg," the tank announced, and suddenly I had aggro.
Oh. Crap.
Luckily, Lay on Hands was off CD, so I was able to stay upright without us wiping, but the tank left the game without leaving the group. We were stuck once more.
This time, the tank we got hung around until the end, but he ignored the healer when she called out for mana. That almost cost us dearly in the Berserker area toward the end, because I got Feared into the latter two packs in the middle of the room. Rather than do something stupid like run to the tank with two trash mobs trailing me and a healer low on mana, I stayed put and took one for the team.
"How'd you get over there?" the healer asked when he maneuvered over to rez me.
"Feared," the tank and I said in unison.
/sigh
This does not bode well for Cataclysm.
(Side note: Draenei do not need the Viking-esque helmet that's a quest reward for UP; they're already horny enough, thankyouverymuch.)
No, I mean what I experienced today, where you become reacquainted with the Vote Kick button.
The first entertaining instance of the day, I got Halls of Lightning on Tomakan, and I was going into the middle of a run. No big deal, really; when you LFD solo, you get that a lot. The only issue I had was that I was inside Drakuru's Scourge tower, Voltarus, and I had to get out of there ASAP. I ran down, ported out, ran down the ramp, and tried to mount the gryphon.
Then I was reminded that while in disguise I couldn't mount anything. (Yeah, insert adolescent joke here.) So I bit the bullet and ported into Halls of Lightning, making a mental note that I'd probably port out into an aggro situation.
When I arrived, I found the priest and hunter standing around. Recognizing the location, I said, "Afternoon. Almost to Loken?"
"Um..." the Hunter said.
"Where is everyone? Running back?"
"Um..."
"Hey everyone!" the tank shouted, running up. "I'm an L82!"
"Okay," the Priest replied, "how did you get in?"
"The limit on normal Wrath instances is L82," I said. In one of the most overused lines in Star Wars, I had a bad feeling about this.
"I'm a Worgen!"
"Yeah," I replied, "and I'm a Scourge. Or I was a minute ago."
"And I'm a jelly doughnut," the Priest replied.
We buffed, and the tank took off. I swear, he must have thought we were blitzing a Wrath Heroic. "I can take on one of them all by myself! Wanna see?"
"Um, no," the Priest said.
"Oh. K."
We made it through to the end, killed Loken, and the tank queued us up again. Since in spite of his overenthusiasm he was an okay tank, I queued up too. The Priest and the Hunter had to go and dropped, and we stood around waiting for LFD to spit out a healer and DPS.
Then the tank and the other DPS started playing a game of comparisons.
"How old are you?"
"27. You?"
"28. Got you beat. Married?"
"Yep."
"Nope."
"Kids?"
"Yep."
The comparisons began to veer a bit more toward the explicit, and before they could get to discussing things like penis size, I dropped.
I shook it off, ported out, and naturally got jumped by a pair of Scourge in the Reliquary of Pain. Oh well.
Later that afternoon after I got done with work for the day, I got into what was almost an instant queue for Utgarde Pinnacle. We got buffed, ran up, and started the first trash pull before I could even type the words "hello."
Then the tank lost aggro.
"Hey!" one of the DPS said as he and I died. "Watch your threat!"
"WTH happened?" the healer asked.
"I was wondering the same thing," I replied. "At least UP has a short run back."
Our questions were answered a few moments later when the tank DC-ed.
Oh well. "I'm going to go questing," one of the DPS said.
"You're a lame-ass," the one replied. "Questing during an instance."
"Why not? It'll be 15 minutes before we can vote-kick him."
Lo and behold, three minutes later, the magic vote-kick window appeared. "That was the fastest 15 minutes I've ever seen," I replied.
We queued up and got a new tank, and this one was so brand new he had that "new tank" smell. "I've never been here before," he said, "and I'll need some pointers."
Things went okay --if slow-- until toward the end of the second boss. "I've gtg," the tank announced, and suddenly I had aggro.
Oh. Crap.
Luckily, Lay on Hands was off CD, so I was able to stay upright without us wiping, but the tank left the game without leaving the group. We were stuck once more.
This time, the tank we got hung around until the end, but he ignored the healer when she called out for mana. That almost cost us dearly in the Berserker area toward the end, because I got Feared into the latter two packs in the middle of the room. Rather than do something stupid like run to the tank with two trash mobs trailing me and a healer low on mana, I stayed put and took one for the team.
"How'd you get over there?" the healer asked when he maneuvered over to rez me.
"Feared," the tank and I said in unison.
/sigh
This does not bode well for Cataclysm.
(Side note: Draenei do not need the Viking-esque helmet that's a quest reward for UP; they're already horny enough, thankyouverymuch.)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
From QQ to Pew Pew!
Okay, I'll admit it. I've been one of the pouters QQing about heroics and what-not. But the heavens have parted at the Blizzard ivory towers and delivered news that is sure to make the DPS throng rejoice.
Among the many buffs, nerfs, and balances coming in Patch 4.0.6, mages are getting some much needed love.
With mana costs being reduced to such spells as Arcane Barrage, Fireball, and, my favorite, Living Bomb, it will make it easier to bring down mobs within a decent amount of time. It won't be the face roll we had in Wrath, but it will be enough so that we can get through a heroic without going OOM half way through trash pulls. Yes, mana management will still be, and should be, part of the class mechanic. What makes this easier for healer and tank is that trash will be more managable for DPS to get them down and still be capable of an "oh $#!+" moment.
Cataclysm does offer mages a return to utility less often seen in Wrath. Sure, we're still the best vending machines in the game, but the use of CC has made playing a mage fun once again. Yeah, I love blowing things up, but I love strategy more. I'm slow to learn them, I'll admit. But once I get it, it's a blast (pun intended) working as a team.
I'm lucky. I have proficient players in my guild who make this game fun. Definitely, I prefer doing heroics with them. But I see this next patch making it easier to get through PUGs in the random dungeon finder, and sometimes that's all we DPS have available to us.
Among the many buffs, nerfs, and balances coming in Patch 4.0.6, mages are getting some much needed love.
With mana costs being reduced to such spells as Arcane Barrage, Fireball, and, my favorite, Living Bomb, it will make it easier to bring down mobs within a decent amount of time. It won't be the face roll we had in Wrath, but it will be enough so that we can get through a heroic without going OOM half way through trash pulls. Yes, mana management will still be, and should be, part of the class mechanic. What makes this easier for healer and tank is that trash will be more managable for DPS to get them down and still be capable of an "oh $#!+" moment.
Cataclysm does offer mages a return to utility less often seen in Wrath. Sure, we're still the best vending machines in the game, but the use of CC has made playing a mage fun once again. Yeah, I love blowing things up, but I love strategy more. I'm slow to learn them, I'll admit. But once I get it, it's a blast (pun intended) working as a team.
I'm lucky. I have proficient players in my guild who make this game fun. Definitely, I prefer doing heroics with them. But I see this next patch making it easier to get through PUGs in the random dungeon finder, and sometimes that's all we DPS have available to us.
What's that old line about patience again?
I noticed that I haven't been posting as much the past month or so, but it's not like I haven't been doing anything. I'm still plugging away at getting Tomakan and Neve to the Cata zones (they're L76 and L77, thanks for asking), and I'm continuing to pug my way through instances and BGs.
My posts about foibles in instances have been few and far between because, well, the number of worthy failpugs has dropped dramatically. My speculation is that people are working on all of their toons in the Cata zones, and given the commentary about failpugs in Cata instances, I might not be too far off the mark.
One thing I have noticed is that LFD isn't really random. My instance selections while leveling in the Wrath zones have been waves of a single instance at a time: first Utgarde Keep, then Ahn'kahet, and now Violet Hold. Scattered in between have been occasional forays into Azjol-Nerub, The Nexus, and Drak'Tharon. I'm not sure how LFD determines the criteria for an instance, but I suspect that certain instances are ranked higher than others depending on your level, your gear's iLevel, and your role selection. That role selection is subdivided if you're DPS into ranged vs. melee. Finally, you're put into a pug based on need.
Anyway, I'm still plugging away in mostly abandoned areas of Azeroth. Last week, when I had some off time, I spent a morning and part of the afternoon on Tom, and between leveling mining and questing in Zul'Drak, I think I saw a grand total of a half dozen other toons. The power levelers have long passed through with their new alt combinations, and at least one guildie in Neve's guild has already lapped her and is closing in with a third toon.
I'm now starting to get antsy about making it to the Cata zones and see all of those spoilerific things that I've been avoiding on other people's blogs.
"Would it help if I got out and pushed?"
"It might!"
Convoy to L85 Progress
Tomakan - L76
Nevelanthana - L77 ("I'm almost L78!" "How old are you, 10?")
My posts about foibles in instances have been few and far between because, well, the number of worthy failpugs has dropped dramatically. My speculation is that people are working on all of their toons in the Cata zones, and given the commentary about failpugs in Cata instances, I might not be too far off the mark.
One thing I have noticed is that LFD isn't really random. My instance selections while leveling in the Wrath zones have been waves of a single instance at a time: first Utgarde Keep, then Ahn'kahet, and now Violet Hold. Scattered in between have been occasional forays into Azjol-Nerub, The Nexus, and Drak'Tharon. I'm not sure how LFD determines the criteria for an instance, but I suspect that certain instances are ranked higher than others depending on your level, your gear's iLevel, and your role selection. That role selection is subdivided if you're DPS into ranged vs. melee. Finally, you're put into a pug based on need.
Anyway, I'm still plugging away in mostly abandoned areas of Azeroth. Last week, when I had some off time, I spent a morning and part of the afternoon on Tom, and between leveling mining and questing in Zul'Drak, I think I saw a grand total of a half dozen other toons. The power levelers have long passed through with their new alt combinations, and at least one guildie in Neve's guild has already lapped her and is closing in with a third toon.
I'm now starting to get antsy about making it to the Cata zones and see all of those spoilerific things that I've been avoiding on other people's blogs.
"Would it help if I got out and pushed?"
"It might!"
Convoy to L85 Progress
Tomakan - L76
Nevelanthana - L77 ("I'm almost L78!" "How old are you, 10?")
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