Tag: WoW

Last night was my first attempt at the only aspect of WoW that I have ever ever delved into before. Tanking. I created a night elf warrior and happily made my way to level 15 which is when you can start to queue for dungeons. I wanted some experience under my belt. I know you can easily make your way through game having not ever grouped with another person but in order to learn how to tank properly I actually have to group. Goal number one. The first instance I entered was Deadmines – and I should have known better and attempted the zones on my paladin as dps first because they’ve been revamped in layout and design and I haven’t been to the beginner dungeons in a very long time.

I don’t like to say that all of a particular class plays poorly, but dang if I didn’t have not one, but TWO really horrid hunters in group that would randomly pull whatever they wanted from where ever they wanted. Needless to say they died. A lot. I was also level 15 with a level 21 mage in group which made things difficult (ie: aggro control) BUT some how we made it all the way to the end of the instance. I died twice, and I reached level 19.

A word about these levels. I have been playing with a friend who has recruit-a-friend tied to my account for two more weeks. This grants us 300% experience to both quests and kills and the experience is FAR TOO MUCH for beginner players on a new server. Why? Because we fly through content too quickly to gather appropriate gear, or coin in order to afford skills. There’s no time to learn anything because every time we blink, we level. On our veteran characters and server this wouldn’t be a big deal because at least we could outfit ourselves and we’d have coin but coming to a new server and a new faction on new characters? It’s been incredibly annoying. I really wish we could turn this feature off some how, other wise I’m simply reluctant to group with my friend.

I found tanking stressful and not in the good exhilarated type of way but in the O M G we’re all going to DIE type of way. After Deadmines I went back to the paladin, thinking that perhaps tanking is just not for me. I did Shadowfang Keep (which has also changed a fair amount) and for some odd reason when the zone was completed I decided I would give tanking another try.

This time I ended up in Wailing Caverns, with a group who had just lost their tank. We were still near the entrance, and they informed me that the previous tank had been kicked because he was dps spec’d and geared. No problem there, as a typical healer I know how difficult it is to keep up tanks that think they’re dps. The group went surprisingly well. I told everyone from the start that even if it hadn’t been revamped I would probably get incredibly lost in WC because it’s just one of those zones I’ve never been able to memorize the layout to and the maps are confusing. There was one point where we all had to jump across two little gaps and I fell down. Twice. I joked that the third time was the charm and that I was never very good at Mario games. Everyone was very calm and even though WC is an incredibly LONG zone, we finished it, without deaths. I don’t think I did that bad of a job tanking, either. I find WC hard because almost everything casts, and likes to stand as far away from you as possible while they do so.

I dinged level 22 on the paladin, and 20 on the warrior. I was quite pleased that I’d managed to tank without too many issues. While I’m quite used to playing the healer and do so eagerly, tanking has always been a fear of mine. In WoW double as much fear because everything seems to rely on the tank. If I had a steady group of people to play with I know I would enjoy tanking 100% more then I do while attempting random PUGS but since that is not in the plans for me, I’ll just have to make due.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

I’ve been playing horde for quite some time now, having abandoned my Alliance and paying to move most of them over to horde faction. With Cataclysm only days away I decided I was in the mood for something new, and picked a new server (Argent Dawn) along with a handful of new characters. I created a gnome priest – and was pleased to see that they have been busy claiming Gnomeregan (I probably spelled that wrong, please don’t hurt me) for themselves once more. You start out as a fresh toxic covered gnome (perhaps this is related to NASA’s Arsenic-feeding bacteria announcement) and are explained some of the history of what has been going on. Before you’re let loose in Azeroth you have to be decontaminated. The lore is pretty interesting although the quests themselves are quite drab and I got bored after level 3. I created a human paladin in the interest of being able to tank, heal, or dps depending on my mood. After hitting level 15 I queued up for a dungeon and found myself in Ragefire chasm where I heard the most amusing thought of the night. The tank (a night elf warrior) mentioned to the group in /say that he had “never been to this dungeon before, I’m used to playing horde.”

Last I checked Ragefire Chasm was smack dab in the middle of Orgimmar (probably also spelled that wrong) which is – you guessed it, a major horde city. I didn’t mention anything to him about this comment but it made me giggle.

After making our way through the dungeon I decided that I really DID want to try my hand at tanking. Any time A mob peeled and started hitting a dps or a healer I would taunt with the paladin (even though I was not technically the tank, they were a little slow picking up the fact that someone else had aggro). I went back to my night elf warrior and leveled her to 15 which is the starter level to begin queuing for dungeons. I like to be good at playing my character, and I’m a little nervous because I’m not sporting any heirloom gear. When it comes right down to it the thought that echoed clearly through my mind is – how bad could I be compared to some of the tanks that I have grouped with. It’s a game, what’s the WORST that could happen. I cause the group to wipe, can’t hold aggro, and they kick me. Well. Big deal. That’s not the end of the world I can just get into another dungeon group.

Figuring out what I want to play has been quite fun. I have a handful of “new” alts at level 15. Having no money at all on the new server is annoying but I’ve been looking for little ways to raise some. I suppose (this idea just came to me and I almost literally smacked my head for having not thought of it sooner) technically I could just make a Death Knight and use that character to farm lower level instances. I guess I know what I’m doing today.

Safe travels, no matter where you find yourself!

I know that over the next little while there will be a slew of WoW posts on various sites as players live through the shattering taking place. Pictured above is the newly designed Brill, and Orgrimmar has had a drastic face lift among other places in old world Azeroth. A lot people I know simply don’t like World of Warcraft – and that’s ok. There’s lots of things not to like which can be said for pretty much every single game out there. That’s why choices are good.

Even if you don’t like the game what so ever – it’s hard to deny the fact that Blizzard is doing something pretty gutsy with their game. They are revamping (basically) the entire world (which is huge). They’re raising the level cap, and adding more dungeons and raids which is something every game seems to do during an expansion. They are adding two new races, and they’re doing it all at once.They’ve had some incredible live events leading up to the expansion that players can take part in. It’s one thing to have a cataclysm take place before your character arrives on a world, and completely different to physically LIVE through one.

Last night when I logged in there was a cinematic explaining the shattering. It was probably the most incredible thing I watched all day, and it made me want to purchase Cataclysm on the spot. THAT is how you release an expansion. What blizzard is doing is enticing old and new players to try out their expansion. When was such a ruckus made  over a 6 year old game? When were we THIS excited? Normally this sort of chatter is reserved for new games that we’re all attempting to get into the beta for. Even if you don’t play WoW and dislike it with every inch of your being, I bet you’ve heard about what’s going on, and maybe, in the deepest, darkest corner of your mind you’re wondering what it would be like to play again. Not that you’d ever admit it.

Just like I hate admitting that Blizzard is doing something right. As one of the very few subscription-without-cash-store games left, they are proving to people that they’ve still got it.

Am I excited? Well. I haven’t played in a month and I decided to subscribe (for a month so far) so that I could check out the changes. I stick by my thoughts that WoW simply doesn’t offer enough to me to make it my main game of choice, and the community is absolutely horrid, but I’m willing to put up with that at least for this massive event.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

As many people have already posted, I too am feeling the quiet before Cataclysm comes out. I find myself being restless, unsure of what I want to do. I currently have two level 80 characters who are geared well enough to do anything I would like in game (this excludes raids, as they’re not really something I’m interested in) with 5.3k gs. I COULD work on random achievements, but they just don’t interest me.

I do have alts, but again for some reason I’m simply not seeing the pull of the game. It all seems so pointless when everything is about to get destroyed and revamped in the next little while.

If anything I thought this would spur me on to complete things, but I guess I was wrong.

I’ve been trying to finish off the Halloween achievements, but those are incredibly slow going, especially since I’m not spending that much time in game.

How has everyone else been spending their time in Azeroth?

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!