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?

***

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.

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!

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.

***

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.

***

Convoy to L85 Update
Tomakan:  L83 in Deepholm
Nevelanthana:  L83 in Deepholm
Quintalan:  L81 in Hyjal

WoW in Popular Culture

Courtesy of historiclols.com.

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 Is She 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.

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.

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.

 

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.