Tag: WoW

Yesterday was my first trip to Magister’s Terrace, even though I’m now level 72 and it’s an instance for those at level 70 (burning crusade). I was doing the instance with Manos, warrior from guild (recently had Calreth join the guild as well with a mage, looking forward to that!) and I loved how complex the zone seemed. In EQ2 I’ve never had to look up a guide on a zone, I’ve never really had to learn a script, I could simply heal my way through it and very rarely does anything require me to react any differently (raids are different of course). In WoW I find that if I do not know a particular encounter I am probably going to die. There’s been everything from named exploding after they die (I have nightmares about those ones) to being gravity fluxed into the air and being required to swim around from giant energy balls or else risk being killed. I find WoW instances (at this moment in time) incredibly stressful, because I pride myself on being a good healer and when I don’t know the encounters it takes away from my ability as a healer.

Now, I could try to read up on every single instance and memorize what it is I need to do in each one. Or I could forgo the random dungeons and simply read up on specific ones until I learn them, or – well. Anyone else have suggestions?

Aside from learning the encounters in Magister’s Terrace, I also experienced my first (two) heroic dungeons. Again these were done in a team of two instead of a team of five, and they were burning crusade dungeons not Wrath, so they’re not exactly the most difficult of zones to do – but they were still incredibly fun. I managed to obtain the achievement for the heroic Blood Furnace, as well as the heroic Hellfire Ramparts. It was the first time I saw epic loot drop from a zone that wasn’t a boe world drop, and it was awesome to see how the zones changed compared to their ‘regular’ counterparts.

I did also experience my first Wrath dungeon, I headed to The Nexus and won a few pieces of nice loot including a new ring and an offhand. I’m mid way through level 72, and I’d probably be 80 already if I had any sort of dedication towards leveling just one character. As it is I constantly bounce around and I’m not exactly the quickest leveler. I get bored of quest grinding, which seems to be the best way to level up through the 70’s.

Now that a few more friends have started playing on my server I’m excited about us all leveling up and doing some fun things together. Whether we’ll actually stick with it or not I’m not sure yet, but it’s still incredibly fun in the mean time. Between EVE and WoW (and some EQ2 on the side) I really do have everything I want from an MMO (or two). I have the complexity of EVE and the sci fi factor (even though that factor means little to me personally) and I have the incredibly casual relaxed feeling of WoW – the only thing both games lack that I get from EQ2 is the housing. Which is something I miss dearly.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!

I’m pretty good at beating myself up over having alts. I’ve said before that I’ve played WoW off and on since release. My highest character is now level 71, my priest. Instead of working on getting her to 80, I’ve been working on my army of alts. Each of them crafts, and if it were not for the fact that you’re required to have adventure levels in order to raise your crafting, I’d probably not concentrate on them quite so much.

The plus side is that by the time I have one level 80 character, I’ll probably have 4-5 others close. My death knight inched her way to level 62 yesterday, and also managed to get her herbalism into the final stretch, and her alchemy is now capped at 375. I’ll need 65 before I can train for Grand Master, and I’ll need 68 if I want to choose a specialization (which I do).

My shaman is level 54, and yesterday I managed to cap her inscription as well as her jewel crafting. I have quite a stretch before she hits level 65 and can learn grand master, but it’s nice to be there. The hunter is getting close to her current cap, but is only level 50, and hasn’t started on Outland crafting yet. She’s also a skinner, which comes in handy. Unlike the shaman who isn’t a miner nor is she a herbalist, gathering her components can be difficult.

My warlock may only be level 15, but she’s also a crafter, engineering and mining. Long way to go on that one and I don’t bother thinking about it quite yet.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just the type of gamer I am. Some people are lucky enough to be able to concentrate on just one character – but me, I haven’t done that since EQ1. It’s not something I should get angry at myself about, after all I do really NEED to make a run for 80? What’s wrong with taking my time as I have been and playing what I feel like playing at the moment. Nothing, really. I’ll get there eventually.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Not the most fancy of characters, but for someone without a level 80 and no real means of twinking, I’m pretty happy with my shaman alt. I love playing the class, and spent a lot of this weekend working up her inscription and jewelcrafting skills. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Finally, yesterday I managed to reach level 70 with my very first WoW character, my priest. I had saved up quite a collection of gear to wear once I had hit the level, so I eagerly put it all on – including my very first three ‘epic’ pieces of gear, the Primal Mooncloth set that I crafted myself with the help of some massive farming from Manos. It felt really good to be wearing gear that was an enormous upgrade that I had crafted myself, instead of something I bought from the broker or was handed to me in a dungeon.

Once I hit 70 I was pretty tired, so I didn’t really do too much. I picked up my new spells (which cost a grand total of 100g, ouch) and put a bunch of items on broker. One thing I’ve noticed is that items from 60-70 barely sell unless it’s food. Lower level items sell very well (and always have) but it’s typically better for me just to disenchant an item instead of trying to sell it. I also managed to inch my shaman up to level 47, and part way through. I went to Sunken Temple which was my first time in the zone. Well, not exactly my first time in the zone, I had tried to solo it once before but that didn’t go too well. It was probably for the best, as I would have never known what to do to begin with. I’ve also been trying to get my enchanting up there. It’s slow, I haven’t quite reached the 400 mark yet but I’m hoping to before too long. My cooking is now capped at 450, my first skill to what is the current max level.

That’s where things stand for now! Only 10 more levels to go and I’ll be at the current cap – this is the closest I’ve ever been, and it’s quite an odd feeling. Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

I think World of Warcraft has some incredibly beautiful views, especially if you’re a fan of the art style (I realize not everyone is). This holiday weekend was spent divided between a few games (as usual) and I made some nice progress in them all. My priest managed to inch her way through level 68, and is part way through level 69 at the time of this post. I’m incredibly excited about this. No, I can’t afford one of the new flying mounts, and no, I don’t expect the game will change that much for me once I’ve reached 70 – but it’s a step in the right direction. As I’ve said numerous times before I’ve played WoW off and on since release (mostly when I wanted to escape to a game that didn’t require my full attention, as Tipa puts it in her latest post) and I’ve never been close to ‘end game’ or the level cap. Reaching level 70 is the first step towards that goal.

Yesterday also marked the completion of some nice pieces of gear that I crafted. I realize that WotLK will probably void any gear that I make that was from Burning Crusade (this stuff is primal mooncloth) but I really like the set bonus, and I’m still very excited about having made them all myself. The pieces (there are three) took a lot of farming, I needed 19 primal life, 11 primal water, and 12 primal mana, plus 33 netherweave bolts and 22 arcane dusts (I’m an enchanter and a tailor so those were not difficult). These pieces will be my first three pieces of ‘purple’ gear – and the fact that I crafted them myself just makes it even more sweet to me.

For once I actually looked up some information on talent trees, and then instantly wished I had done so a long time ago. I changed the heal spec I had on my priest, as well as her dps spec, and instantly noticed how much easier the new specs were on my mana. I also changed around the spec to my Deathknight, to an ‘all blood’ spec for now, which means it plays almost exactly like a shadowknight from EQ2 with life taps. Being able to heal myself is a great deal and that spec is apparently going to be the ‘tank spec’ once Cataclysm comes out.

I’ve been contemplating who to work on ‘next’ as the priest continues to level. Torn between my 46 shaman and my level 8 druid – I’ve had a level 45 alliance druid before, but I must have deleted her quite some time ago. The DK also happens to be my alchemist, and requires level 68 in order to specialize. I inched her way to level 60 over this weekend and purchased her flying mount, so at least that’s taken care of.

I hope everyone else has had a fantastic weekend so far, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!