Thursday, September 8, 2011

Random Thoughts are Random

I decided to cobble together a healing set for my lowby pally (44) which consisted of the heirloom leather shoulders, mail chest, trinkets(two), and healing mace, among other things. Even with some Str gear still equipped (but Holy spec'd), I was able to heal two level appropriate instances very easily.

It turns out that I've learned how to play a Holy Pally! And...it's fun! At least at this level. On one of the runs, the tank commented that he loved my healing.

I also picked up the Justice Point tanking sword for soloing. Yeah, I know Daxie needs gear, but...sigh, I think I hit the wall with end game for at least one day.

So, I burned off the rested XP for Daxynn and then picked up Daxen the Rogue and started getting her Leatherworking on track. My one complaint about the Worgen starting area is the dearth of skinnable mobs. I had to go grind some lowbie mobs. On the plus side, it did give me a chance to remember how to play a Rogue.

After getting my skinning and LW up to a respectable level, I went ahead and burned off a little rested XP. I dinged 15, so tonight, I believe I'll queue up for a random and burn off the remaining rested XP fairly quickly.

Gripe: Why is it that Leatherworking has so many useless items that you have to make until you can finally get a recipe that you can make to wear? I'm making Light Leather armor kits just for the skill up, and I plan on using them at least until I can make Medium Leather armor kits. But still, almost all of the beginning leather armor set is worse than what one gets through questing.

I need to get Daxie up to Honored with The Ebon School in order to buy Heirloom helms and capes. Oh, and have the cash to pick them up. Currently, I'm just shy of halfway through Friendly.

Since dual specs only cost 10 gold (10 GOLD!!), I might add a second spec to my Shaman for soloing. Any suggestions? I have Hunter Heirlooms as well as caster gear so both Elemental and Enhancement are viable.

Still planning on replacing two hunters on KT. I'm thinking of a Mage and a Warrior. I have to wait, though, as I have to delete one hunter to make room for another toon. Note to Blizz: I can haz moar slots?

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Ding!

Friday: 82
Saturday: 83 & 84
Monday: 85

Daxie, the Shadow Priest, hit the cap Monday morning, bought some PvP gear off the AH, got a generous donation of some JP boots from a guildy, and jumped into running random Heroics.

After one run, I had enough JP to upgrade my trousers; it wasn't until the 4th or so run that something finally dropped that I could use.

One of the unsung perks of being in a guild is knowledge. Almost immediately upon hitting 85, I had a guildy advise me on how to gear up for Heroics rather quickly. For instance, I didn't know there was a quest to save Thrall that rewarded an epic cape, and it was fairly easy to obtain.

Another aspect of guild knowledge is being able to go into a Heroic instance and have a guildy explain the nuances of various boss fights. Reading the strat is all well and good, but having someone break it down for you is much easier.

Now I did know there were Firelands dailies, but I didn't know that upon opening up the questing area, I'd be able to buy an epic neck piece right off the bat. I can see a clear path for all of my alts...

Speaking of which, I have settled on the Miner/Engineer Hunter Dwarfvader as my next leveling project. DV brings Mining to the table as I will need ore for Daxie to prospect and level her JC. I will not be leveling him at a break neck speed as I did for Daxie due to dailies and randoms that I need to do on her.

I also plan on regularly burning off the rest XP of my lowbie alts, which currently consist of a lvl 28 shaman, a lvl 44 pally, and a lvl 14 rogue. An aside, why is it that there is no crafted plate healing gear until the Brilliant set in Wrath? Where do leveling healing pallies get their gear? Apart from snagging mail, leather, or cloth items, I mean...

Friday, September 2, 2011

Holy Leveling Speed, Batman!

In about two hours worth of playing yesterday, Daxie the Shadow Priest went from 80 to 81. As part of The Ebon School, a level 25 guild, I enjoyed all the associated perks including the Fast Track XP boosts.

My first priority yesterday was to start selling junk on the Auction House. I had less than 150 gold across all my toons, and I really wanted to get Oldlands flying for Daxie. So, I scanned the AH, emptied a lot of my alts' bags, and dumped it all on the AH.

The next priority was to make sure I had all of my equipment slots filled. I ended up ninjaing my Heirloom staff from my alt because I had no weapon to equip. Also, I didn't have a neck or wand equipped. Close enough 'cause I had some business with some druids over on Kalimdor.

I had completed the first couple of quests at the Hyjal starting point when my random dungeon popped. I finished about a half of a BWD before the group fell apart, and I had to start on dinner. The important part is that I could finally afford Oldlands flying!

After dinner and our workout, I hopped back on the computer, queued for another dungeon, and continued questing. I got in a full run of BWD and saved the wolf aspect of Hyjal, and ding! 81, after about 2 hours of playtime.

So, in the next hour or so, I worked my way through the Lightning shelf and first Firelands portal areas. I'm just shy of halfway through the level and should hit 82 and maybe 83 tonight.

Some random thoughts:
This is really the first clothie that I've taken through Hyjal, and I must say that there is a distinct lack of cloth quest rewards. So, it's not just BWD.

I decided to train soon after hitting 81, and I'm glad I did for Mind Spike. I am in looooove with this spell! Per my usual MO, I didn't bother to read the description, I just started using it. And then I noticed that if I cast a Mind Blast after a Mind Spike, the cast time was shorter.

Then, without meaning to, I cast a MB after casting two MS's in a row. Result: a nearly insta-cast MB! Whoa. Then I bothered to read just a little bit and saw that, indeed, MS affects MB. Oh, cool. Then I started paying attention. Yes, three MS's in a row do produce an insta-cast MB.

I still need to read and process the description because I think there's more going on than just that. It probably has something to do with a new talent point that I picked up - Evangelism. Once again, I scanned the talent description, but couldn't be bothered to really think about it.

So, for most mobs my level, two MS's + a MB = dead. Sometimes I have to finish them off with a SW:Death, but most times not.

I have killed the elite fire elemental in that first Firelands portal 3 or 4 times on different toons and have never killed it the "right" way. I guess there's some sort of floor mechanism that helps kill the dude; once again, I can't be bothered to read the quest info. He dies quick enough if I just smack him around a bit.

I now know the pain of taking epic gear that I spent literally months attaining and replacing it with some quest reward green. That has better stats than my ICC Sindragosa kill??? Oh...kay.

I really like being back riding a dragon around. I missed it. I also like having a title with my name, although, I have ditched Kingslayer for the more generic Jenkins. I don't want to be pretentious...

I have way too many hunters on this server (4). I have plans on ditching at least two of them. Don't tell Rysteranch and Smoochie. k?

That's about it. I'm looking forward to seeing how far I can get tonight and this weekend. I might even be able to hit 85 by next Tuesday!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Failin' and Bailin'

Last night, I decided to venture into another Heroic on my Holy Pally. After three pulls, I realized that I was in over my head, apologized to the group, and bailed.

Here's what I've come up: I have fun healing normal instances; I get stressed out trying to heal Heroics. Normals have enough challenge to keep things interesting; Heroics present a challenge that I just don't want to deal with. At this point, raiding at any level might just be right out.

Now, after four months of essentially playing WoW as a single player game (ala Dragon Age), I also have started missing the interaction with others in the game. I sure wouldn't categorize LFG with any part of social interaction, unless it involves bullying or shunning.

So, after being frustrated at having any fun in a Heroic, I pm'd one of my son's buddies who plays on Kael'thas and asked to join his guild with one of my lowbies on KT. Daxen the Rogue (12) is now a part of Apathetic, and I'm leaning toward starting the Empire back up on the Alliance side of things.

Oh, and I logged onto Daxie and said "hello" to everyone at The Ebon School. After spending a little bit running around and figuring out where the heck everything is now with the Cata changes and catching up on guild news (they're a 10 man raiding guild now), I think I'm going to spend some time on KT for the foreseeable future.

I emptied all my Hordies mailboxes; I didn't cancel any auctions as I'll just check my bank toon on Friday to finish up the transition to storage.

Alliance side, I have a mess to deal with on my toons as I essentially gave the account to Teurion to strip of all useful items/money when I quit last year. I've got a long ways to go to get to the level of comfort that I currently enjoy on my Suramar toons.

I got no money.
I got no 85's.
I got no Cata greens.
I got no OLDLANDS FLYING!!! /weep

On the plus side,
I do have all the trade skills at 450, so I'm over all the Wrath choke points.
I do have epic flying on 5? 6? toons.
I do have awesome mounts (dragons!!) for the majority of my toons.
I do have people to interact with in The Ebon School.

Now I just have to decide which toon to start leveling. I'm tempted to grab Dwarfvader, the Hunter miner/engineer, as he can start the ore/cloth production for both Daxea, the Hunter blacksmith/enchanter and Daxie, the Priest jewelcrafter/tailor.

Vanco, the Death Knight miner/herbalist is also a viable candidate as he could gather up ore, cloth, and herbs. Daxxy, the Druid alchemist/herbalist is probably not going to be my first choice due to the lack of usable gathering skills.

There is another appealing side to cranking things up on KT: I have never (nor do I ever want to) put an account back together after a hacking, which is what I allowed (and encouraged) Teurion to do with my toons. I like the challenge of getting the pieces put back together.

Oh, and I have a little Pally (44) that I can level! I've already spec'd her for Holy and Ret, so I'll be able to practice a lot of healing while leveling and hopefully get much better at it. Hopefully...