WoW Update - 19 Nov 2008: Almost a Liveblog

Zul'Drak is so grind-friendly it's making me stupid.

I've been playing for almost 11 hours straight with a few breaks and I'm in "the zone" - extreme tunnel vision, eye and hand fatigue, and a general inability to communicate with the world in any civilized manner. I'm 33% into 76 and will probably grit my teeth and get to 77 before the night is out - all to purchase Cold Weather Flying.

Zul'Drak is a brilliantly designed zone. Here is our first introduction to two important game factions - the Knights of the Ebon Hand and the Argent Crusade. The Ebon Hand storyline is insidious and almost macabre. The Argent Crusade storyline is desperate but militaristic. I've done the Argent Crusade dailies twice so far (succeeding at the timer once, failing the second time) and each time I find something to appreciate about the amount of thinking Blizzard put into this zone and these quests.

The Troll quests are immersive and well executed. On my screen I am a weapon of justice, scything my way across the landscape of the fallen, corrupt Drakkari trolls who rose up and ate - ate! - their gods. I've been on this quest chain for the past two hours and already it's beginning to blur into one long, manic sequence of attack after attack after attack, pausing only to loot and occasionally eat and drink. This is not a good way to be.

I'm so deep into the mid-game that my quest rewards no longer provide STA and instead offer me armor penetration, critical strike, hit or haste. I've upgraded my retribution set a number of times, and although I've been scouring the questlines for suitable rewards, my healing and tanking sets remain mostly intact since my first steps into Northrend.

24 hours to go till my WoW vacation ends. 77 or bust.

WoW Update - 19 Nov 2008: Thoughts on WotLK

I've just hit 76 so I suppose I can take a little time to post something to my poor neglected blog.

In the past few hours, specced Retribution, I've managed to do my dailies and of course level up. This is partly because Retribution is so powerful right now - in my quest greens and patchy TBC epics I've been able to do the equivalent of Froufrou's DPS at 5 levels higher. I can only imagine what this was like pre-nerf. I'll admit my spell cycle needs work - so far all I do is run in, judge Wisdom, cast Crusader Strike and then Divine Storm. After a short wait on timers I hit Crusader Strike before throwing a Hammer of Wrath. Pretty good for a retnoob! Right now I'm flying to the Kalu'ak vendor to pick up a Whalebone Carapace. I would also normally get an Ivory-Reinforced Chestguard but I managed to loot a Battlechest of the Twilight Cult on one AK run which is comparable.

Speaking of Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom, it's currently my favorite instance. I haven't run that many WOTLK instances yet, but this for me was all that's best in Lich King design: it's short and fairly straightforward, with some pretty challenging fights. We can clear it in under 40 minutes now. Someone mentioned R.A. Salvatore when he first entered the instance, and of course the theme of the instance is very Lovecraftian (especially the last boss). Hell, the whole Old Gods theme is straight out of Lovecraft.

One thing Blizzard's done right is to treat all the adventurers streaming into Northrend as seasoned veterans and specialists coming to a battlefront. There is a lot of ego stroking in Borean Tundra, when the Alliance officers fall all over themselves to greet you and get you to the front lines as fast as possible. It's a nice thing, being recognized as a hero of the Alliance. Of course, it doesn't last long - sooner or later, we all learn humility while questing.

Right now the fastest leveller in GoV is Akiross, who hit 79 earlier today. Roth is not far behind at 78. I think I've edged out G- (currently at 75), who got in trouble yesterday by intimating on Guild chat that he was one of the "top players" by levelling faster than most of the others (to be fair to him, he said he got it wrong almost immediately after making that statement). It's flawed thinking but fairly prevalent on the server. Already I'm seeing flying-mounted toons dropping in for a quick node ninja, which sucks as getting to nodes is a tricky proposition while still groundbound. For my part, I'm levelling quickly because I know I want a character at max level before I start really working on levelling Froufrou, and because I know I won't have a weekend to level. I fully expect to log in on Sunday evening to find that five or six more Guild members have hit at least level 76. And of course, I'll be back at work next week, so levelling will naturally slow down at that point.

I'm waffling back and forth with trying to decide whether to level Engineering or to drop it for Jewelcrafting. Engineering is a good profession for the helm, of course, and for the mote extractor, but we currently have 3 miners/engineers (Malago and Roth), and with the exception of Hotohori who just picked up the tradeskill we have no jewelcrafters. In the meantime, I've started farming Cobalt without using it - I have 200 Cobalt bars at the moment and something like 80 Cobalt ore. I intend to farm up to 200 ore before making a decision.

WoW Update - 18 Nov 2008: A Numbers Post

Avierra's level: 74
% of XP TNL: 23%
Estimated level at end of "expansion vacation": 76
Average time between levels: 8.5 hours

Number of days spent playing so far: 3
Average number of hours of sleep a night: 5
Showers taken in the course of the expansion: 1

Gold at this time: 1223g
Number of respecs so far: 7
- to ret/holy: 3
- to prot: 2
- to LOLret: 2
Average cost of respec: 50g

Group quests soloed: 5
Group quests failed to solo: 3 (ouch)
Group quests pugged with total strangers: 2
Group quests done with Horde: 1
Superstar bloggers encountered in the course of leveling up: 1

Number of instance runs: 18
- in Utgarde Keep: 0
- in Nexus: 9
- in Azjol-Nerub: 6
- in Ahn'Kahet: 3
- pugged: 0 (Asian Invasion FTW!)

Asian Invasion members
- with the expac who've logged in since it hit: 7
- who've rolled a Death Knight: 2
- who don't have the expac yet: 2 (Jarvisius and Hotohori)
- retiring: 1 (Romola =()
- recruited: 1 (Biancangel, a.k.a. "Doc" from Bleeding Hollow)
- who aren't even at 70 yet but who log in anyway: 2

Number of beers consumed at computer desk: 6 (QQ)

Now back to the game..

WoW Update - 14 Nov 2008: First Steps

Avierra hit the Borean Tundra last night and immediately went to work killing various mobs and looting quest gear. I spent a total of 3.5 hours levelling, eventually logging off at 1 am at 69% of the way to level 71.

It was an interesting experience. On Bleeding Hollow quest mob repops didn't have a large queue, as ganking Horde players waiting for the same mob was just part of the new expansion experience. On Bloodhoof, there was no such thing occurring. Instead Horde and Alliance alike competed for the same mobs, and the most we did to shoo the Horde away from our quest mobs was to /spit on them.

The new content, the little I've seen of it at least, is gorgeous. I'm not going to say I won't get sick of it - I felt that way at the start of Burning Crusade, and look where that got me - but it certainly brought back a sense of awe and wonder that I've been missing for a while in Azeroth. Now I'm actually excited to get home and play. I've got goals.

On the loot side, I've ditched only one piece of equipment - my Sunward Crest - for a quest green, in this case the Plainkeeper Blockade. I haven't stepped into an instance yet, but that's just because I'm waiting for the rest of GoV to get into Northrend.

Queues on Bloodhoof are quite long and I'm not looking forward to trying to log in during the next week, when I go on leave from work to level my toons. But I'm going to wait. I think it'll be worth it.

Goodbye Outland, We'll Always Have Screenshots

I really should have done this earlier, but I wasn't expecting WOTLK to be available here early.

For posterity, here are my toons and their gear at this point in time (before Northrend):



Avierra (Protection Spec)
Head: Tankatronic Goggles
Neck: Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen
Shoulders: Pauldrons of Stone Resolve
Back: Gilded Thorium Cloak
Chest: Chestguard of the Warlord
Wrist: Vambraces of Courage
Gloves: Iron Gauntlets of the Maiden
Waist: Crimson Girdle of the Indomitable
Legs: Wrynn Dynasty Greaves
Boots: Jungle Stompers
Shield: Sunward Crest
Weapon: Gavel of Naaru Blessings
Libram: Libram of Repentance
Ring 1: Shermanar Great-ring
Ring 2: Signet of Eternal Life
Trinket 1: Ancient Aqir Artifact
Trinket 2: Violet Badge

Avierra (Holy Spec)
Head: Mask of Introspection
Neck: Shattered Sun Pendant of Restoration
Shoulders: Merciless Gladiator's Ornamented Spaulders
Back: Red Riding Hood's Cloak
Chest: Ecclesiastical Cuirass
Wrist: Bracers of Justice
Gloves: Brutal Gladiator's Ornamented Gloves
Waist: Guardian's Ornamented Belt
Legs: High Justicar's Legplates
Boots: Boots of Valiance
Shield: Enamelled Disc of Mojo
Weapon: Gavel of Naaru Blessings
Ring 1: Violet Signet of the Grand Restorer
Ring 2: Anveena's Touch
Trinket 1: Ribbon of Sacrifice
Trinket 2: Pendant of the Violet Eye



Froufrou
Head: Malefic Mask of the Shadows
Neck: Brooch of Deftness
Shoulders: Swiftstrike Shoulders
Back: Cloak of the Coming Night
Chest: Tunic of the Dark Hour
Wrist: Vindicator's Leather Bracers
Gloves: Netherblade Gloves
Waist: Belt of Deep Shadow
Legs: Skulker's Greaves
Boots: Edgewalker Longboots
Offhand: Swift Blade of Uncertainty
Main hand: Blade of Serration
Thrown: Xavian Stiletto
Ring 1: Ring of a Thousand Marks
Ring 2: Violet Signet of the Master Assassin
Trinket 1: Abacus of Violent Odds
Trinket 2: Icon of Unyielding Courage

Healadin 3.0.3

The other day I respecced Avierra to Holy from Protection - maybe not the best idea I've had, but it made sense at the time to try out the new talents, especially the much-talked-about Bacon of Light... excuse me, I mean Beacon.

To be honest... it confused me. I guess I'm not going to be Holy this expansion.

For starters, let's describe how I used to heal:

Up to 3.0.1 Avierra was a healbot. She stood in one place and spammed heals and Cleanse. Occasionally she would throw out a Lay on Hands, Blessing of Protection, Blessing of Freedom or Divine Intervention. That's it. I used to bind keys 1-4 for heals: FOL 3 on 1 (free heals for when I ran out of mana), FOL MAX on 2, HL 5 on 3 (later upgraded to HL 6) and HL MAX on 4. And Cleanse on Q. Key 5 used to be another heal, but I later changed it to Judgement.

I used to have to remember how much each button healed for (1 - 600-1000, 2 - 1300-2000, 3 - 2000-3000, 4 - 4000-6000). Then when someone was low, I'd click on them and throw the appropriate heal.

That's it. No Seals, except in the rare raid when I'd be on melee duty as well. No Judgements. No Holy Shock.

Patch 3.0 changed all that. Now there's constant pressure to cast Holy Shock (to trigger Infusion of Light). And to Judge from a distance (to trigger Judgements of the Pure). So that's two abilities I have to work into my casting cycle.

Beacon of Light is the third.

It's a lovely spell, really. It forks heals so that your heals on Player X are duplicated on Player Y - usually the tank. It makes sense for battles with a lot of splash damage. I've considered putting the Beacon on the DPS most likely to take damage, but that didn't make a lot of sense in 25-main raids, so on the tank it went.

Other than that, it's fairly straightforward. It would be even better if it affected everyone's heals, but it's caster-only; Amihan's heals won't trigger it.

Now I'm just confused as to what to do as a healadin.

I used to start simple: two quick Flash of Lights to keep the tank up while he gains aggro, then a downranked Holy Light to get the Light's Grace buff. But downranking got nerfed, so no more cheap Light's Grace. At least I have Divine Favor macro'd so I get 60% of my initial heal cost back if I want Light's Grace up.

I'll tell you what I like about the straight-up Holy build: with ranged Judgements and Holy Shock I'm farming much more easily. But I've also messed up with Judgements, breaking CC in 25-mans twice on trash pulls due to poorly timed Judging.

Also, Holy has great potential for being a farming build, with Consecration benefiting from the overall buff to spellpower. I wouldn't be unhappy farming in Holy; it's just that I don't think I can raid in it. The Beacon build is clearly not for me.

So I respecced to Ret/Holy... and again to Protection... and that's where I'll be for the foreseeable future.

Closing The Burning Crusade

OMG I have so many things to blog about.

For starters, we're on the run-up to the expansion, due out later this week. The Burning Crusade is officially over - Kil'jaeden's been beaten back into the Sunwell, Illidan is a crumpled corpse on the ramparts of the Black Temple, and his little buddies Kael'thas and Vashj are merely dark stains on the boots of millions of adventurers who streamed through the dark portal nearly two years ago.

Yes, nearly two years ago. It's been ages since we first took our noobie selves into Hellfire Peninsula. At 60 we were the shiznit. At 70, well, we're still the shiznit.

I started TBC a happy ASTIG raider and am ending it a maybe not-so-happy GoV raider. (I'm quite happy in the Guild socially, but disgruntled at raid progression... familiar story, yes?) I started in purples on one toon and blues on another; this time around, I'm in purples on both toons with significant raiding experience as a rogue and paladin (both healing and tanking). And I started TBC quite poor, unable even to afford epic riding skill on Froufrou. Now... well, I've got epic flying mounts, it's true, but let's just say that other things don't change.

So what's The Wrath of the Lich King looking like for my toons? I had hoped to put Avierra behind me as the Paladin class is so effin' problematic. Instead I find myself constantly affirming how great paladins are to play despite the constant nerfs. I still can't play a retadin for shit, but my buddy Rizal has shown me that not all retadins are noobs by constantly topping the DPS charts, outstripping even my tricked-out rogue.

And I'm not despairing of Froufrou either... she's still rocking 800+ dps in raids - consistently sixth or seventh (depending on who's online). In 10-man raids she's often top DPS, and here's the best part - she doesn't die that often any more. I'm still solidly in Combat as it's the best spec for raiding, but Subtlety has grown on me. I wouldn't mind using a good hemo build if I could find one.

I intend to level Avierra solo as protection. I intend to level Froufrou with the Asian Invasion. Those sound like good ways to go.