Thursday, March 4, 2010

brdbrdbrdbrdbrd

I like the place, I really do, but one can only eat so much halloween candy before they, well, make their folks regret purchasing that cream colored carpet. 

Thankfully, the place is big enough that it you don't really do the whole thing at once, but I have seen it enough that my eyes are starting to bleed.  I wonder why Blizzard put in these 'bottleneck' dungeons in vanilla wow.  ST and now BRD are the only dungeons I get sent to through LFG.  Yes, I there is some overlap - Maura was green when I started ST and BRD was orange as I was wrapping it up - but I was never SENT there.  I think I'm about to graduate into DM which and I think Scholo and Strat will soon follow so the issue will (hopefully) go away.  But it's still odd. 

I mean, when I get to Outlands, Hellfire Ramparts and Blood Furnace are almost equal.  The dungeons in Zangamarsh and Terrokar also overlap, levelwise.  In Northrend, there are several dungeons for a given level range.  I guess that means Blizzard learned the lesson.  Thats a good thing and something I've really come appreciate about them - they made a great game in Vanilla WoW, but saw ways to improve.  More importantly, they weren't conceited enough to not implement those changes.  The same was true for the transition from BC to Wrath and even during Wrath itself (hello LFG!).  And Cataclysm seems to foreshadow even more improvements. 

In any event, I'm BR(n)D out (I'm out of rest xp as well) but I'm still in the Eastern Kingdoms.  I've been working on Loremaster on Nozekrusher.  Northrend and Outland are both complete, which, truthfully, isn't saying much - they're broken nicely into several zones that give you both a focus to work and a sense of accomplishment as you complete them.  I have the Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms to go and I figured I'd go with EK first.  I've made...decent... progress, I guess.  I'm down to needing around 80 quests to wrap it up, but I'm not entirely sure where I need to go to get them.  Yes, I have Questhelper and the /qh incomplete function has been invaluable.  But I'm running out of zones!  Anyway, I'm sure I'll get through it and then on to Kalimdor.  I'm not looking forward to that at all.  I have close to 150 quests to go there and, again, I'm not sure where I'll find them since this is where I did the vast majority of my leveling on Noze. 

Ah well, I'm sure I'll find out. 

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Rest BRD Rest BRD

I haven't stopped playing Bigfncow, I'm just trying to get his rested level up a bit.  It's much more gratifying when you see those xp bars turn blue rather than wait and wait for them to turn purple.  (For me, rested XP is shown as blue on my bar, unrested is purple.  I'm not sure if that's universal).

That became abundantly clear as I was finishing up in Sunken Temple.  I did get my trinket from there and that's been it.  Of course that last run was the smoothest because I finally know what I'm doing there.  Ah, the irony.

I have been in Blackrock Depths three times so far.  For LFG purposes, it's broken into three sections.  I've only run the first (lowest) section but we've always gone on to do more content.  Like Mauradon, the first section of BRD is only for one boss - High Inquisator Gerstahn.  Unlike Maruadon, she's very easy to get to - simply take the second hallway on the right.  I think you can take the first hallway on the right as well - they may just loop back on one another, but I'm not 100% sure.

Anyway, after killing her, we've just wandered around killing and following any tidbits of information the group may have from past runs.  Lots of "I think that guy is this way" (he rarely was) or "the bar should just be around the corner" (it was always on the other side of the dungeon).

Anyway, I've gotten my key and while I haven't gotten to the Grim Guzzler yer, nor killed Emperor Thaurssian yet, I've had lots of fun.  Plus, there is simply tons of XP to be had here.  More mobs than I can count - gathered nicely in decent sized packs that are far enough apart that they don't all aggro.  You can spend as much time as you want in this place and just level up time and again.  One group I was in had everyone ding.

I've always liked BRD and I'm really enjoying my time there.  Now, if only I could get rested so I can move up faster!

Friday, February 19, 2010

The Joy of Nethweave Bags

When I'm not leveling Bigfncow (who is soon to be the highest toon with that name in the GAME?!?  How is that possible?) I do have other interests.  I run randoms and raid with my main, Nozekrusher for fun and badges, of course.  But I also make gold.  Lots and lots of gold.  I'm not obsessive about it and I usually spend what I earn, but I never have less than 10k on my toons and I'm usually closer to 20k.  Right now, I'd say I'm right around 30k .  I have various methods for making my fortune - I buy cheap greens on the auction house, DE them, and sell the mats.  I buy saronite ore when it's cheap enough and prospect it and cut the resulting blue gems for profit and use the green gems to make trinkets to DE.  I buy raw epic gems (again, when they're cheap enough) then cut and resell them.  I even have an alt staked out in Booty Bay making a killing selling Horde pets on the neutral auction house.  (Seriously, I buy them for what, ~50s?  I sell em for 5g each.  And sell them consistently too.)

There are plenty of ways to make gold in this game, including professions.  Every profession has it's 'thing' though.  Each has it's moneymaker that it's professors can use to recoup the costs they spent leveling. For most professions, this payoff comes only after hitting the max level, or close to it.  Blacksmiths have their belt buckle, engineers their epic ammo for hunters, leatherworkers have their leg armors, etc.  But there are few items that crafters can create that can make them gold while they level.  Yes, yes, I know leatherworkers make armor kits from the start and enchanters obviously enchant.  But seriously, how many folks fully buff their toons while they level?  I mean, why shell out gold to enchant a weapon I'll just replace next LFG?

Well, tailors are the exception that proves the rule.  They have their high end spellthreads, but they also make the ideal must have for any leveling toon - bags.  Bags are the one thing that most any guide - regardless of focus - speed, gold, RP, etc. stress as must haves.  Bags save you time by reducing the number of times you need to find a vendor to sell your junk.  The less you do that, the more you kill/farm/roleplay.  And while bags do drop from mobs, they don't do it consistently.  So most folks look to the auction house for their bagging needs.  And one bag absolutely stands out from the rest.

The humble, sturdy, not quite pink, not quite purple, Netherweave Bag.

Wait, wha?  That's not the biggest bag or even the biggest crafted bag or even the biggest crafted bag not requiring tons of cooldowns to make.  All that is absolutely true.

But the Netherweave bag hits the trifecta of ease when it comes to, well, anything.  This bag is easy to calculate (one stack of netherweave cloth per bag) makes it incredibly simple for tailors to calculate their cost and thus determine what they'll charge to make a profit (or decide to use the cloth for something else).

Let's flashback to 3rd grade math word problems -

If a Netherweave Bag sells for 10g and you want to make a 4g profit, how much can you spend on a stack of netherweave cloth if a single stack can be turned into one bag?



Compare that to

If a frostweave bag sells for 60g and you want to make a 20g profit, how much can you spend on a stack of frostweave and a stack of infinite dust if it takes 3 stacks of frostweave and 12 dusts (plus 6g in thread) to make a single bag?


 
Next, the materials for the bag are easy to farm for.  Again, it's just the cloth and the thread.  Other than the small slot linen and woolen bags, you need to farm something other than cloth.  Big deal, you say?  Well, it is if you're trying to squeeze as much gold out of as little time as possible.  Even better, though, the cloth it needs is netherweave cloth.  That stuff seems to just fall from the sky.  If you sneeze?  An NPC seems gives you a couple of pieces just to blow your nose.  The price of most other cloths have gone up because folks just don't spend time in those zones anymore.  But Netherweave?  The price increase has been negligible (on my server) since Wrath came out because folks are gathering enough cloth to meet demand even when fewer folks are spending less time in Outland!  Stacks of cloth go for 5g or less (on my server).  Sometimes they're posted for more, but  I do not pay more than 5g a stack and I create a healthy supply of bags - selling 10-15 a day.  

So what's the third part of this easy trifecta?  This bag is easy to buy.  And by easy, I mean cheap.  On my server, I sell them for 10g each.  Compare that to the 55-65g per bag for the Frostweaves and you can see what I'm talking about.  If you're a level 80 decking out a new leveling alt with 10 bags (4 to carry around and 6 for the bank), 100g is much easier to fork over than 500.  Those extra 40 slots definitely aren't worth the extra gold outlay (in most situations).  These bags are the ideal combination of slots (16) and cost (10g) for bank alts, leveling alts, new guild members, and even random feel good giveaways.  So they sell like hotcakes. 

Why am I sharing this?  Well, for one thing, I like to share my gold making tips.  I know I'm no genius and I have no secret plan.  I have learned how to make gold from others, so I'm just paying it forward, so to speak.

But last night it happened...I ran out of netherweave bags.  I mean it, I sold the last of my inventory.  Yes, I'll be able to make more 5-6 a day maybe, depending on the auction house.

But let me tell ya, at one point, I had my bank alts bags (all netherweave, of course) FULL of netherweave bags!  I'm talking his bank and bank bags too.  And there is more.  I once had so many bags, I created a guild for my bank alt and bought two tabs for him - and nearly filled both with nethweave bags! (about a tab and a half).

I don't know what it was, but about 6 months ago, the cloth was just crazy cheap - 3g a stack or less.  This wasn't right when Wrath launched, but several months after.  After the first rush of DKs leveled through Outlands.  After the last of the latecomers have moved on to Northrend.  Maybe it was the folks who leveled to 80 first and then did DKs?  I dunno.  All I know was that for about 3 weeks, I was buying so much cloth that I stopped.

??

Yes, I stopped buying dirt cheap cloth.  I was afraid I was missing something in the economy.  I was looking at bag after bag filling up with bag after bag.  I wasn't sure if the bags would make up for the cost of buying the guild tabs (plus more if this madness went on).  I was tired of sitting there watching my tailor make 120 bags at a time - at 10 seconds a bag.  And not being able to really leave the screen and let it go automatically because I'd have to mail the bags to my bank alt or else the tailor's bags would get full and he'd stop making em.

Eventually things returned to normal the cost of cloth climbed back to around 5g and the supply wasn't as overwhelming.  As I sold off more and more bags, I began buying more cloth.  But I noticed that I was selling more bags than I was making.

And now?  I'm out.  I have four stacks of cloth on my tailor toon, but that doesn't really count.  I'm used to posting (and selling) 10-15 a day.

Sigh. 

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Random Thoughts

I've had several ideas/thoughts/observations that don't quite warrant their own blog post but I still want to get them out.  So I'll put them here in Random Thoughts - my potentially recurring themed article.  Let me know what you think!

I was running Maraudon and still getting used to the place.  The first few times I ran it, we continued on after our 'loot' boss (the one that gives us our sack of goodies) and each time, the group ran into a brick wall when we got to the hydras.  No big deal, they were red mobs to me and most of the rest of the group as well.  And when we wiped, getting back to the dungeon (and correct instance) proved too difficult so we called it.

I figured this time would be about the same.  But when I zoned in, our healer put up what must have been a pre-made statement.  I don't remember it verbatim, but it went something like this

'Hi and welcome to the run.  I have a few suggestions that will make everyone's experience more enjoyable.  First, let the tank get aggro.  He may be lower level than you or she may still be learning her role.  Please count to 5 before unleashing your big guns.  When the tank has aggro, things die more quickly and we have more fun!'

or something to that effect.

Since this came right on the heals of my usual 'howdy' it caught me off guard but I lol'd.  Since I was the tank, I appreciated the sentiment.  There wasn't much reaction otherwise.

Thinking back on it, I liked what he did.  I wouldn't duplicate it myself because I think if it was something that gained widespread use, it would lose its effect.  But seeing it just the one time made an impression.

Oh yea, and at the end of the run, he had another script thanking us for the smooth fight.  All in all, nicely done and just understated enough to be effective. 

Wow, I guess that could have been a blog entry. Oh well.

Other random thoughts?

Running Sunken Temple with melee trolls is hard.  I can't tell you how many times I accidentally targeted a party-mate in there.

Have you ever noticed that you only really learn the instance when you're done with it?  Well, except for Wailing Caverns, of course.  But I only ran that 2-3 times.  But when I think about it, the first time I ran each stage of Maraudon, I was completely lost and only got comfortable on the last run or two before I moved up to the next stage.  Same with Uldaman, and now Sunken Temple.  I've spent more time in BRD than these others, so I (kinda) know my way around.  But I'm sure I'll get blindfolded lost at first.

Looking ahead, I've heard that LFG puts us straight into Outland dungeons meaning we won't do Scholomance and Stratholme.  I think I'm gonna pick those two special.  I want a (very small) chance at the mount.  I want the experience of running it at level (the actual experience, not the XP), I want the achievements, and I want the key.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I'm 50 and Sunken Temple is as Bad as I Feared but I have a Guide!

I dinged 50 over weekend - WOOT!  I picked up Devastate so now my sunder armors actually do damage.  I'm looking forward to doing damage and still gaining rage (Cleave takes the place of a white attack, so you not only spend the rage from Cleave, but you also miss out on the rage you would have gained from the white attack - a double whammy).

On the Fury side, I skipped Rampage since I don't really intend to do many dungeons in this build and instead took Bloodsurge.

So now I'm taking a bit of a dungeon break and am working on my level 50 warrior quests so I can get my admittedly 'meh' trinket from Sunken Temple.  Which I've been running ad nauseum for the past week.  And while I won't say that the place grows on you, it does get less infuriating as you learn where you're going.  I still don't have it down cold yet, but I am getting better. 

In a nutshell, here are my tips on how to make Sunken Temple bearable -

Whichever method you use, you'll be taking the route that is straight/right hallway.  If you do the upper part, you'll stick with the main hallway. If you do the lower part, you 'll take a hard right after you enter the hallway and go down a few flights of stairs.

I highly recommend doing the lower section first (with all the maggots).  This is the statue part and it makes for a quicker run.  If you do the top section first, you'll be retracing your steps (I forget why, but it happened twice, so I believe it).  Anyway, as you enter the dungeon, you'll take the front/right hallway.  You'll kill a couple of mobs and then face a decision to go up a flight of stairs or take a hard right and go down a few flights.  Go down.  (Note, this turn if very easy to miss, so pay attention).  You'll know you're in the right area when you see bunches of maggots running around....well, crawling around....ok slithering?  In any event, the maggots are my key indicator that I'm in the right spot.

Now, clear this whole hallway along with the five statue rooms.  Once that is all done, the statues need to be activated in the proper order.  I will say that the order is

6 o'clock (south)
12 o'clock (north)
8 o'clock (SW)
5 o'clock (SE)
10 o'clock (NW)
2 o'clock (NE)

But I wouldn't blame you if you forgot (I still do, I had to look that up).  Instead, send each person to a statue, and you start at the southern one.  Click on your statue first and it will glow green.  Run to the empty statue (6 statues, 5 man group).  While you're running, have each person click on their statue. The one that lights up is 'set' and another person can try.  Do this until all statues are glowing green.

Jump down and kill the boss!

Once you have, you run out of this room and you'll make your way back to the entrance room of the dungeon.  Now take the same hallway as when you started, but this time go up the stairs.  As with the lower tier, you'll want to clear this hallway along with the side rooms.  The side rooms have a troll in each one but this part can be tricky - the rooms can be on either side - left or right (I think they alternate).  And again, the doorways are easy to miss.  From each troll balcony, you can see how many more you need to kill or if you've missed any, so that helps.

Once all the trolls are dead, jump down into the room below.  The tank should go first because you will land in combat.  Clear this room completely.  There are some bosses off this room.  Hakkar is purely optional and in fact can only be accessed if someone in your party has done a quest chain and gotten an egg of some sort.  I've only done it once.  It was fun, but long.

The two required bosses are the Prophet and Eranikus.  Prophet must die first because he 'unlocks' Eranikus.  It's a pretty straightforward fight.  The main tip is for the trash - pull them waaaay back because they do fear.  A lot.  Also, when some of the trash dies, they turn into slow-moving spectres that pack a wallop if they get close enough.  They cannot be killed, but will self destruct after 10-15 seconds or so.  Running away from them is the easiest option.

Eranikus has two 'guardian' dragons - the mini bosses Hazzas and Morphaz.  They aggro together and they tend to toss the tank around, so it's best to put your back up against a wall.  Other than that, they're not very hard, but they are lvl50 elites, so if you're in a lower leveled group, they'll prove a decent challenge.

And that's basically it.  It does take a long time - roughly an hour - regardless of how fast you go.  It's just a big instance with lots of trash to kill.  And there is an order you need to follow in order to unlock bosses to get to the end.

I hope I'm about to 'graduate' into BRD soon.  Although ST is easier now that I know it, it's still nowhere near my favorite.  I'll run it one more time to get my trinket and then that'll be it.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Pimp Mah Build 2

Just wanted to give an update on my build since I've grown to twice the level since my first post about it.  Lots of changes since level 23, let me tell ya.  Not the least of which is I broke down and bought dual spec and now have a second build to discuss.  Why I shell out the 1,000g?  Well, partly because I had it sitting around and I like to have the flexibility.  But also I can see myself wanting to experiment with warrior DPS.  Plus, the thought of a big (fn) cow walking around wielding two massive 2-H weapons is a happy thought indeed.

But first, we'll revisit my current Prot build. At the end of my first PMB, I was pondering where to go next and was leaning towards taking some damage boosting talents such as Incite and Improved Revenge instead of Toughness which I think I did for awhile.  I'm not sure how far along I got, though, before I realized I was a tank and my job was to take damage and live.  So I did Big's first respec and took Toughness and have concentrated on mitigation talents since.  Right now, my focus is to move down the tree as quickly as possible so that I can get Shockwave at 60.  To get there, I'll finish up with Vitality (stamina, strength expertise cha-cha-cha!) and One Handed Weapon Specialization (cuz while I'm not actively seeking DPS in my talents, I won't turn my nose up at it either and that is simply the best talent to get me to the next level.   And I get two very nice skills in that level - Devastate and Warbringer.  From what I understand, Devastate will be the focus of my tanking rotation and the flexibility and mobility that Warbringer will give me will be HUGE.  I'll take Focused Rage to round out that tier and from there it'll be a nice straight shot down to Shockwave. 

Now, let's take a look at my Fury build I don't plan on actively gearing this build for some time, but I have noticed that I have access to some decent items from the loot sacks I get each dungeon run so I confident I'll be able to maintain a decent set all the way up.  Plus, I can see myself wanting some time between dungeon runs to mine or pick flowers.  Insta-queue is great, don't get me wrong, but sometimes a tank just wants some time to hisself.  Anyway, my goal with this build is the same as with Prot - to get to my top talent ASAP.  I used Matthew Rossi's great guide Fury 101 to help me pick out the must have talents and I think I got it (mostly) right.  I haven't taken it out for a spin yet, but this weekend I'll do some farming and probably go and solo SFK, which I somehow managed to not do through the LFG.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Ful Fur Luv

I've been doing the Love Is In the Air quests on Big this week.  Well, and the daily boss on Noze as well.  Why have I diverted from my dungeon life?  Truthfully, for the XP.  I'm not a big holiday guy in-game.  I have better things to do with my time than scurrying all over hell and creation for miscellaneoous quests that don't give rewards I need or want. 

Except for those that give XP.  Send me to each town to talk to some guy or put out some flame?  And give me hella XP to boot?  And it doesn't reduce my rested XP savings?  I'm in.  So Big has been doing the intro quest line and racked up great XP in the bargain.  He even farmed some mobs to get the lucky charms for the bracelets too.  Since, I don't get XP for the repeatable daily quests, so now that I've done them once, I'll be heading back to Mara and ZF. 

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Boomkins FTW!

I haven't been working on Bigfncow much lately.  He did ding 40, which was very nice and I have my fast mount now which is even better.  I'll get back to leveling him (and using vigilance!) this weekend.

I've been using my time to get the 4-piece T9 bomkin set for Nozekrusher.  Huh?  Why do that?  I'm much more popular (and comfortable) either healing or tanking? Well, that's all basically true.  But we have a dearth of ranged DPS in my guild and that's causing us to get stuck on Lady Deathwhisper.  And while we don't have an exact surplus of healers, I'll be able to swap out for that fight at least.

So I ground out heroic after heroic until I got my pieces, bought the 245 bracelet and took the rest from my healing kit.

....and realized that I had no idol and no trinkets.

Still though, I was hit capped (264) and soft haste capped (420 or so) and a nice crit of around 25%

Just to get my feet wet, I ran some non-heroics with our GM and another officer (our GM is dusting off her druid tank and the officer is just 77 on an alt).  And all I can say is wow.  Just...wow.  After running two regulars, I queued up for a heroic and got VH and topped the charts.  It was a BLAST!  How did I not know that DPSing was so much fun?

And then this morning?  Me and my tanking brewfest trinket and the blue dragon (I love that trinket) got sent to Halls of Reflection.  Then Forge of Souls.  And I more than held my own, if I do say so myself.  Folks really appreciate a druid decursing and abolishing poison all over the place too.  No drops from those places, though I did get the Spark of Life in HoS and I actually went back and picked up the Badge of Justice Idol and trinket.  Not OP, but better than nothing.

Anyway, I'm very very happy with my boomkinness and I hope I get to use it soon and often!

Monday, February 1, 2010

What's the time limit on a blog?

I'm asking because, in the past year, we've lost several prominent WoW blogs and WoW.com has seen major changes as well with writers leaving and many columns receiving facelifts.  It makes me wonder if this isn't the beginning of some sort of sea change with WoW - that maybe folks are starting to ...
tire? (no)
burn out? (no)
get bored with? (no)
have real life intrude? (no)
change and have different interests/priorities after playing for years? (close but not quite)

none of the above exclusively but all of the above combined?  (YES!  Not very eloquent, but effective nonetheless).

The World of Warcraft attracts an incredibly diverse player base.  It's worldwide, financially accessible, has something to attract a 5 year old up through retirees.  But while that base will stay the same - there will always be some mom helping her 5-year old with the character creation screen or clicking on the fishing bobber and grandparents will keep creating toons to play with their grandkids - individual players are constantly changing.  In fact, they're often going through major life changes that drastically change how (or even if) they play WoW.  And if they blog about their playing?  The impact is much more visible. 

Let's look at a few hypothetical examples:

First, take the stereotypical teenager who is playing the game.  Let's say he was 17 when Vanilla WoW released.  He had plenty of time to devote to playing his last year in high school and then goes off to college where he still maintains a heavy play schedule, but takes a course or two that encourages him to create and maintain a blog.  The blog gains a readership and he continues writing throughout his undergrad years. 

But now he's graduating and either pondering the heavier workload of grad-school, or starting a career and family or what-have-you.  Now he wants to write about his newer interests - music or the city he lives in, etc.  He realizes his WoW writing has stopped being a passion and turned into more of a ... habit.  And he moves on. 


Next, let's take the example of someone who starts playing in their 20s.  She has a good job, but isn't married yet.  She uses WoW for fun, but also figure it's cheaper to spend a couple nights a week playing than going out to the bars/movies/etc.  After all, money is tight!  She starts a blog because her guildies always come to her for advice and tips and she feels she has a unique voice. 


But as Vanilla turned into BC and into Wrath, she has fiancee whom she wants to spend more time with.  Her career has progressed and she wants to spend more time with her friends.  Her playing time dwindles and she realizes she's not as current with the latest theorycrafting.  And she's ok with that.  She still plays, but not as much. 


One more example (I promise) - a young married couple play WoW together and create a funny, hip blog they both write.  It's very popular and even some mainstream media take notice and feature the 'gaming couple.'  When the wife discovers she's pregnant, they both vow to keep playing and writing, but of course, kids change everything.  They quickly realize that they can't keep up their previous commitments and leave WoW to raise their family. 


Five years is very easy to say and when we do, it seems like a short period of time.  But when speaking about real life?  It's not.  It can go by in a flash, but it's hard to avoid major events.  Teenagers leave high school and go to college (and turn 21).  People fall in love and get married and have kids and get divorced (sometimes within the same 5 years). 


And that's not even taking into account the changes WoW has undergone since launch.  While they have definitely provided fodder for blogging, they may also have gradually and ultimately turned some writers off. 

With all that, it's easy to see why/how so many prominent blogs have folded up tent or gone on hiatus this year.

And with all that, let's not forget that there are still some great blogs out there and tremendous writing at wow.com as well.  But I get the feeling we need to enjoy them while we can before they move on to bigger and better things.  Plus we have new blogs popping up all the time :) 

I dunno, though.  I get the feeling that the past two years were the Golden Age of WoW writing and as those responsible for that greatness move on...I don't know what will happen.  I don't know if WoW will lose players because there they read less about the game and don't get motivated to try the latest build/add-on/strategy.  WoW would be less accessible outside the actual game which would give players more opportunities to find other ways to occupy their time

Which is all great more diversity in our lives and hobbies and occupations make us better, more rounded people.  But it'll be interesting to see it happen nonetheless. 

Or maybe I'm just reading too much into things. 

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Warrior Quests

I haven't run many instances since my last post.  Mainly because I didn't had much time for BigF but also because I wanted to work on the warrior specific quests, specifically Essences of Exile.  I was also at 225 for my First Aid, so I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone in the Arathi Highlands.

Wrong.

First, it seems you need to be 35 to get the quest Triage for first aid.  I was 34 when I looked - a fresh 34.

Second, the elemental exiles I had to kill?  They were either a very deep orange 38 or a bright red 39.  No problem, says I, I've been killing red mobs on a regular basis.  I'M PROT!

Y'ever notice that there's a difference between mobs that are the same level?  I mean, I understand that they should and do have different abilities and attacks and such, but some you can kill easily while others just eat your lunch?  That's the case here on several levels.  I have killed mobs in the upper 30s with relative ease before, even as a 33 myself.  These guys, especially the 39s were very different.  Still, I managed to cull enough 38s and barely survive enough 39s to get the necessary 8 cresting charms with just a few deaths.  The drop rate for the charms isn't that great, but I figured it was good XP so I didn't mind.  Then I moved on to the thundering charms.  And hit a wall.  Well, not a wall exactly, more like a gale force wind.  These air elementals have ranged attacks that make it very difficult to pull them away from their compatriots.  Plus the drop rate still sucks.  I find my self eating/bandaging/lifeblooming during or after every pull which makes for some VERY slow going.  And I haven't even touched the burning guys yet.

As I was writing this post, I did notice that the charms can be bought on the AH, or farmed by a higher level toon.  I may check out their prices and see how much they cost.  But I won't spend too much, though.  I did finally ding 35 so hopefully the mobs will be just that much easier to kill now.

Then I'm going back to the dungeon.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Good Times in Scarlet Monastery

I had some fun last night in SM.  Fun because firstly, it's not Gnomer.  Second, I had two guildies with me.  The first was our GM Winnie who is leveling a mage.  She levels her toons very very fast.  When I last saw her mage, she was in the early 20s when I logged on last night, she was 30.  I wanted to run a few with her before she blew past my warrior a left him eating dust.  So we queued up and got the Graveyard.  I don't mind GY, necessarily, it's a quick, easy run but it's almost too quick, if you know what I mean.  Sure, we get more loot sacks here, but I don't need another set of gloves or another damn caster neckpiece (seriouisly, SP and Int on 3 straight bags, nary a +crit or +str to be seen).  I want XP and GY tends to just whet my appetite.

Anyway, halfway through our first run, Bullwark our main tank wants to join us on his rogue.  Great, I say, welcome aboard and be prepared to have your brain picked.  So he switches over and since he's 34, and Winnie's mage is 30, we can't do a random together.  So I sign us up for SM Library which is on all of our screens.  While we're waiting I bombard poor Bull with question after question, do tanks use slam (no, use heroic strike instead) what about rend (no) when do we become not rage starved (when we get hit more) so then what is my priority of rage use (thunderclap first, then cleave spam and refreshing TC if AOE threat is needed) what about sunder (use it if you're losing threat, but 1-2 stacks should be sufficient).  And on and on.  I think I made his ears bleed.

We made two runs through SM Library that came off without a hitch and each of us dinging (well Winnie dinged when she turned in a quest after the second run). 

But..the one drawback to SM?  At least so far in my 5-6 GY and 2 Library runs?  Lots of caster gear, not so much for tanking/melee folks :(

Monday, January 25, 2010

Let the Lepors Have It!

Yes, I'm talking about Gnomeregan.  Man is that place horrid!  I ran it twice this weekend and on a third, I...
I ....
I bailed.  
I pulled an Occulus.
I saw those damn steam pipes in the loading screen and when I zoned in, I left and took the debuff.  
I wish I could say I'm sorry or that I feel guilty.  But the truth is, I'm not.  I want to have fun with the game and Gnomer is definitely NOT fun.  Plus, I'm hopeful that the rest of the party, after losing the tank dissipated and the toons found a nice happy RFD run instead.  

So what's my beef with the Gnome city?  Let me regale you with my tale:

On my first run through, I was actually happy to see it come up.  It was, after all, a new dungeon for me and I had just read a simple strategy - somewhere (wow.com, maybe?) in passing - keep moving left and don't jump.  

Well my first group had a couple folks who wanted to jump.  So we did.  And we got lost.  And wiped.  And on the run back in, realized that when you jump, it's basically as if you have to start over.  So we jumped again, only this time landed on a pile of mobs who killed our half-healthed selves.  We start again and actually make progress (I think, we're still lost in my mind, and just killing random mobs).  The jumpers say we're close to the end when we lose two people.  The two new folks don't know where we are at and don't know about jumping, so they die.   And that's when I left the group.  I had just had it and didn't see us finishing up.  

My second try was better only in that we finished.  And that was thanks to a remarkable group of folks (whom I've forgotten, I need to write down names/servers for this stuff).  We zone in and the mage immediately says "uhg, I hate this place."  We all laugh, but start moving.  We have a warrior, though, who keeps charging ahead and pulling, regardless of healer mana or even a rez.  I finally tell him that I'd do the pulling and he responds that he wants to.  I say then he should equip his shield and I'll dps.  The lock in our group chimes in saying that he has no shield.  I say that I'll pull then.  The warrior keeps saying he can pull and why can't he pull and someone, gratefully, initiates a kick vote which succeeds.  The lock leaves with his buddy and we quickly get two more folks and continue on and make good progress.  One of the new folks leaves the group for no reason that I could see and so we get a new DPS.  He's making his way to us, but dies in the 'safe zone.'  (Is that zone safe just for allies?  If so, then that's just not fair.  If there's a quest or something we need to do, then, that still sucks.)  Anyway, we go back and rez him and we still continue on. 


Somewhere near the end, the healer dies.  Not sure how, I think a pat came wandering out from a hallway intersection.  The mage also dies, but 2 locks survive and I.  The healer tells the mage not to release, he'll run back and rez.  See, that's why we stuck this run out, we were all in this together.  If I took a wrong turn, they corrected me and I didn't get huffy.  They also didn't correct me like an asshat either, which helps.  The mage, who hated this place, didn't let it affect him - he just kept plugging and doing well.  


Well, the healer released and ran back...and found mobs.  Vanilla Dungeons respawn?  Really?  How was that ever a good idea?  So the mage releases and joins the healer and they realize the entire place respawned, not just a few pats.  Ugh.  The three of us start making our way back to the priest/mage and they start (slowly) coming back to us.  Forutnately it was a nice mixture - the mage could survive and kill things, if slowly and the locks and I were able to make decent progress back, thanks to healthstones!  


Finally, my group rounded a corner and ran into a pat.  Unfortunately, we hadn't fully healed from our last fight, so things were grim.  Then we saw  "There they are!" in party chat and at the other end of the corridor were the other two.  I started making a beeline towards them and everyone typing "HEAL THE TANK."  I was down to, well, I couldn't see my health bar anymore when our healer got in a big heal that saved us all.  After that ordeal, the mage reiterated that he hated this instance.  We all agreed.  


We finished up with no other problems, but it was still 90 minutes in there.  I haven't been back since. 

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Pimp Mah Build!

I like WoW.com's returning feature Pimp My Profile.  It gives some expert advice to folks in need and while doing so, also provides great information to a wide readership that they can incorporate on their own.

I'd been meaning to talk about my build for awhile now, but, well, honestly, at lvl23, I don't have much of a build to talk about yet!  Actually, I think that's all the more reason to talk about what I have.  There is plenty of discussion on full blown 80 builds - dps, pvp, raiding, etc.  But I'm hard pressed to find any talk about creating your build from the ground up.  And not just for warriors, but for all classes.  So periodically, I'll take some time to discuss where my build is at, why I put points where they are, and where I plan on going with my next several points.

Here's my lvl23 build.  I wanted to do three things right off the bat:
  1. Improve my rage input/output - Shield Specialization and Improved TC do this.  I use TC a lot so, the cheaper the better.  It also strikes me that getting 5 rage every time I block or dodge should give me a decent rage income.  Note - I'm still constantly rage starved, but I guess it's not as bad as it could be.  
  2. Lay a solid tanking foundation - damage mitigation is essential to any tank and Anticipation helps with that.  As a druid tank, I know the value of dodge!  Plus, it boosts my chances of getting another 5 rage!
  3. Get Last Stand - Most tank classes have something similar (stoopid pallies make my absolute conditional).  Anyway, it's a nice 'oh crap' button and I really like that I get it so early in my build. 
So that's how I got to where I am at.  Looking forward, the expected way to go is through Toughness, but I'm not so sure.  I think I'm going to improve my damage output for the next few talents.  Incite will take me down to the next tier.  From there, I'm not sure yet.  I'm torn on Improved Revenge, though.  On the one hand, 20% damage boost for two points is very, very attractive.  On the other hand, the stun proc smacks of PvP and confuses me.  It mitigates incoming damage, obviously, but I think it would also slow my rage generation and the little hiccup the stun would cause might interrupt the flow of battle.  So I'm not sure and only time will tell.  I've got three levels to decide!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Movin' On Up

I hit lvl23 last night and I'm making solid progress.  Not as fast as others I know, but I'm not sure how much time they're putting in either.  The most pleasant surprise so far has been the variety of dungeons I'm running.  I was dreading the prospect of being sent to the same place over and over again.  That, happily, has not been the case.  After running RFC five times in a row (not as bad as it sounds, most were quick final boss-only runs), I've been sent to WC three times, Deadmines twice and last night I hit Blackfathom Depths for the first time.

My theory for this is that I've been leveling so quickly (at least one ding per dungeon), that I'm quickly moving through my available dungeons and 'opening' new ones.  I really, really, hope this is true.  For one thing, I like the pace I've been going - a dungeon 2-3 times is sufficient before it starts to get redundant.  For another, I hope this system lasts up through Sunken Temple.  I hate that place.

The loot bags (Satchel of Helpful Goods) dropped two more cloaks for me, one was for casters (stoopid pallys) and the was dps-y, but not OMG-so.  As the link details, the satchels are broken down into levels, depending on your level.  Each level has loot that fills two slots (i.e. waist and back) and the item has random stats.  So at level 30, I'll be seeing lots of neck pieces and gloves.  The 40's will be sparse tho since they give shoulder pieces and rings.  I highly doubt they'll have anything better than my heirlooms.  Though on the other hand, maybe a pure tanking shoulder may have an edge... we'll see.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Finding the Groove

Wow, low level dungeons are not quick! I realize now how spoiled I was with 20 minute heroics, lol. But I have found a nice groove for getting them done, though. I can usually do two in a session which gets me around two levels worth which is great.

This weekend I went into WC and, well, ugh. My first run broke up after looking waaaayyy too long for a missed boss. How long? We had 3 people join and quit the group, WITHOUT KILLING ANYTHING. Second time through was better, but I still couldn't tell ya where all the bosses are.

I also ran Deadmines which is still a blast. That is one great instance. Unless you wipe. Then you (ok, I) get lost on the way back. Not cool.

I'm learning to really like the loot bags the dungeons give out though. I'm noticing a developing trend - the first three bags I received all had different cloaks for me, all mail, but one was +8 stam, one was more DPS and the third one was a great tanking cloak that I'm still wearing. I think I got another cloak or two as well that I vendored (should have taken chanting). Now I've gotten 3 belts in a row, again a great tanking one and a nice dps one and one meh.

So with my heirlooms, the loot bag drops and boss drops, I'm confident that I'll be rocking very good gear all the way up! Great job Bliz!

Friday, January 15, 2010

What did I get myself into?

No, this is not yet another tale of a good LFG PUG gone bad.  Or even a bad LFG PUG gone worse.  I have, thankfully, had only a few of those.  The vast majority of my dungeons are silent and quick.  Usually after the 'Hi' at the start, the next thing I see in blue text is 'nice group, thanks.'  I have had a few asshats in my runs, and I've had a few runs where we all get along great and chat and make jokes, but those are on the periphery.  And they're not what this post is about. 

No, it's starting to sink in that in order to make this deal of mine work - to level almost exclusively in dungeons through the LFG, I'm committing myself to running instances that I abhor.  It's also refreshing my memory all the Vanilla WoW dungeons got wrong.  Thankfully, Blizzard learned from their mistakes in BC and learned from those mistakes in Wrath.  So without further ado, here's my list of things I hate about Vanilla WoW dungeons -

  1. Finding the damn place - Can you honestly say you can find the entrance to the Razorfen Downs - or Kraul, whichever one is on the east side of the road?  I can't.  Admittedly, I never ran it all that often - maybe once as a level appropriate place and 2-3 times at 80 to get the achievement on various toons.  But man, it should be an achievement just to get TO the place!
  2. Getting to the entrance - A slight variant to #1.  Everyone knows where the Sunken Temple is, right?  It's well, it's the big sunken temple in the middle of the lake.  But knowing where it is is one thing - getting to the entrance is another.  The Sunken Temple is probably my most hated instance in this game for many many reasons, but having to fight through I don't know how many packs of trash and missed turns etc. just to reach the entrance of the instance heads the list.  Uldamann is another example along with Blackfathom Deeps and Mauradon and Wailing Caverns.  In the old days, getting a group together was hard enough.  Getting everyone summoned was also a chore.  Now we had to fight our way in?  No thanks.  Thankfully with LFG this shouldn't be a problem.  We should get 'ported right inside.
  3. Pick an entrance, any entrance.  Which one has the colored entries?  And lord help you if you choose the wrong one during a corpse run?  I'm guessing its either Mauradon or Uldaman.  But man is that freaking irritating.  And it always splits the group.  Every freaking time.  I'm to blame most of the time because, again, I'm not 100% confident which way to go on these so I'm just looking for a swirly thing to run through.  And don't try to run out either because remember, we got ported in - all that lovely trash is still there!
  4. Levels - You're minimap is basically useless in Sunken Temple.  No, check that - it's entirely useless in Sunken Temple.  You might be able to see the '?' you've been hunting for on your map.  Hell, you might even have your cursor floating right over that '?', but there's no one to turn that quest into.  Why?  Because they're a flight up or a flight down.  And take my word for it - if you go down a flight, they're now up two.  And if you go up a flight?  They're in the basement.  This is the main reason I hate ST, I just never know where I'm going.  They have so many directions and stairs and necessary order to kill or click on things, it was just never worth my time.  I always loved the quest chain leading up to it, but after banging my head against the group finding wall and then having folks leave the group because we'd be lost for hours on end, I just decline it now. 
Now, to be fair, there are a few things I do like about Vanilla dungeons -
  1. Trash mobs.  Yup, I said it - I like trash.  Why?  Well, first and foremost, the XP.  Dungeons are the single best source of XP because you're killing mobs all the time.  They kept it up in OL but sadly the trash has diminished in Wrath.  And I understand why.  We all want teh lewtz without working so much for it.  But I'll take a nice tash of trash anyday. 
  2. Needing on greens - sadly this won't apply as much to me this time 'round since I have my heirlooms and I expect to run in mostly dungeon blues for the rest.  But I miss the days of looking over every drop, I mean every single one, and checking to see if it had some stats that were an upgrade and if those were worth the downgrade in other stats.  Greens meant something back then man!  Uphill!  Both ways!  IN SNOW!
  3. Size - Vanilla dungeons take time.  Not because of a boss mechanic or we have to wait out some intermidible dialog - yes Svala, the sensation is beyond your imaginings.  Copyright that phrase before Dr. Pepper steals it for their next Canadian ad campaign.  No, they took time because they're HUGE.  I acknowledge that this can be a blessing or a bane, depending on your group, but if you have a good party going, it's nice to settle in for awhile and get the job done instead of knocking out 20 minute runs and then entering the dungeon lottery again. 
So anyway, those are my initial thoughts, or preconceived prejudices, or what-have-you on Vanilla dungeons.  They're probably not 100% right, I know they're not 100% wrong, but they are 100% mine!

Feel free to add your own.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

It's Level 15!

OK, so that's settled, LFG kicks in at 15. My guess is that while RFC is level 13 for horde toons, Blizzard is keeping the bar at 15 so all toons have the same starting point (allied folks can't access RFC - located in the middle of Orgrimmar - until they reach or near 80).

Anyway, I joined LFG (tank/DPS) and spent about 20 minutes running around Mulgore picking flowers, breaking rocks, and killing harpies. I finally did get into an RFC group and it went very well, the folks were friendly and shared their quests. Most also had some heirloom gear as well, so they had experience.  Best of all, the healer we had (shaman) was from my server!  He also said he was planning on LFG'ing extensively, so hopefully we can run together.  Plus, I won the bracers! This was a huge jump for me because, well, honestly, I was still wearing white bracers, maybe even grey.  Oh yea, I also ding'ed 16 when I turned in the shared quests. 

Funniest part of the run?  The hunter ran out of arrows.  Seriously.  I couldn't make that up if I tried.  Well, I could, but it would be too cliche.  We all laughed and told him to melee away.  Then he said his DPS would be low and we pointed out that it would still be higher than shooting an empty bow.  All good natured and all fun.  I realized I miss low level instances where mages need on green staves with strength because everyone else passed and the +stam is still an upgrade over whatever they had, and different folks at different levels can lead to very interesting results.  I think I'm gonna enjoy this expirment. 

The only drawback?  No officers from my guild were on when I hit 15 to add me up :(  We have an policy of alts being 15 before they're added.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A Slight Hiccup

I didn't have much time to play last night - I worked late and had to get up early - but I did log on long enough to ding 13 and join LFG for RFC.  And I couldn't?  If I tried to open up the LFG window, nothing would happen, just as I was leveling up.  I checked the patch notes and they don't list a level requirement below which LFG doesn't work, indeed, they seem to go out of their promoting it for all levels
Level-appropriate rewards will be offered to players who choose the Random Dungeon option for pre-Wrath of the Lich King dungeons.
The only thing I can think of is that I clicked on LFG too quickly after hitting 13 (it was before the gong sound and the light whoosh faded).  I didn't actually intend to run the instance, just verify I could, in fact, queue up.  Ah well, I'll check again tonight and hope for better results.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Why I'm Here

Hello everyone and welcome to Hooves & Horns.  I'm starting this blog mostly to track my efforts to level my new warrior, Bigfncow entirely through WoW's LFG system.  He's not my only toon, though, so I may write on other topics from time to time.  

While Bigfncow is new, I'm not starting from scratch.  He does have the heirloom chest and shoulder pieces, a full set of netherweave bags, and 10g to get rolling.  I may kit him out with the heirloom trinket as well, but I don't think I'll get him a weapon.  I want him to learn and level as many different types of weapons as possible because, well, because he can!  


So, what's the inspiration for all this?  Well, the LFG system, released with patch 3.3 is obviously a huge motivator.  It makes running instances so much easier and quicker.  Well, at least the Northrend instances.  I don't have any experience with running dungeons from BC or Vanilla WoW (yet).  And instances are my favorite part of the game.  I've done the quests over and over and over and over again.  So I know the quests.  I'm not a big BG'er (in no small part that whatever faction/server combo I join seems to be the whipping boy of the battlegroup).  

Now, why a warrior?  Well the key with the LFG, though, is to be able to heal or tank.  If you're a pure DPS, the waits are dramatically reduced, but they're still there.  Healers and tanks, though?  ZOOOM! right into the instance.    As you can see from above, I have two druids - both can heal and one can tank.  I love druids (obviously) but I wanted something different.  I've tried DKs several times and I'm just ...meh... about them.  I'm not sure why, they just never took ahold of me.  Oddly enough, I think it may be because I skipped 55 levels and didn't have a chance to 'grow' with my toon, learning new skills every two levels and such.  In any event, DKs were out.  I thought about palladins as well, and while they do hold a good degree of appeal to me, I wanted a warrior.  I wanted to be the basic, prototypical tank.  I wanted to wear plate and use a shield and look badass.  So, a warrior it was.  


What race though?  I was tempted to go gnome.  I've always wanted a gnome - they look funny and I like those starting quests.  But in the end, I went through the other extreme and chose Tauren.  Why?  Because I want to tank and being a tank means needing lots of health points and Tauren get a 5% base health boost.  Plus, that whole badass part from above?  Tauren pull that off with ease.  We're big, we're broad, and we glower.  Plus, I enjoy their starting zones too. 


So I created Bigfncow and ran him up to level 12 last night.  When he dings 13, I can queue up for Ragefire Chasm and from there, no more quests.  Well, I'll take quests for the dungeons if folks can share them, of course.  But if/while I wait for groups to form, I'll be picking my flowers and mining my ore and killing random mobs for lewt/cloth/rep whichever I need at the moment.  


So wish me luck, and check back often!