I saw the post on WoW Insider about the pre-Cataclysm world events starting up Monday, which had the real-world effect of causing time to slow to a crawl at work. When I got home, I logged onto my hunter and ran through the new quests. I also ran through them on my rogue, and got closer to 65. I didn't know about the daily or the achievement, but I wouldn't have had time for it anyway - raid time was approaching.
I logged onto my druid tank and vent, and ended up waiting about an hour for the rest of raid to assemble. This was a continuation of our alt run from last week, and it took some time to fill up due to the number of pugs we needed. We downed the Blood Princes after about five or six tries - not too bad considering how many people had either never done them before or we playing different roles. We made a few attempts on Val, but it was getting late.
I barely played at all yesterday, due to stopping by Blockbuster and renting Force Unleashed II. It was a bit difficult getting used to the controls as I was used to the PS3 setup I played the first one on; the only copy left in the store was for Xbox 360. It was still a blast though, and when I looked at the clock it was almost four hours later. I may or may not get a chance to finish the game unless I can figure out a way to pry the controller away from my son! I booted up WoW just to do some transmutes and post some auctions, and then it was off to bed.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Back to where it all began
I originally started playing WoW some time after Burning Crusade came out. It may have even been before the expansion. Not that I knew anything about the expansion - a friend suggested that I might like the game. I did the 10 day free trial and played maybe once. I did another trial and I don't think I played at all before it expired. I finally did another trial and gave the game one more shot.
I originally started playing WoW some time after Burning Crusade came out. It may have even been before the expansion. Not that I knew anything about the expansion - a friend suggested that I might like the game. I did the 10 day free trial and played maybe once. I did another trial and I don't think I played at all before it expired. I finally did another trial and gave the game one more shot.
The first character I tried was an Orc. It might have been a warrior - I just don't remember. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; I had never played this type of game before. It took me just under an hour to figure out that the guy with the big yellow ! over his head was there to give me a quest. I stopped playing and started reading about the character types online. I rolled a Night Elf hunter, which is my main to this day. I have only two characters from when I originally started playing: my hunter and my rogue.
I really enjoyed the Night Elf starting area, and the play style of the hunter. I spent a long time exploring, and I was amazed that the zone was on top of a giant tree, which I discovered after falling to my death while trying to pick the pocket of a demon on my rogue. At least I found the portal between the top and bottom of the tree. I eventually shelved the rogue and began leveling my hunter.
My greatest accomplishment was taming a ghostsaber from a Naga relic spawn. I had no idea if it was tamable or not, I thought I'd just give it a go. After a few tries (sometimes they would spawn a level higher than me) I had successfully tamed the beast! Imagine my shock when it suddenly died shortly after. I crossed my fingers and rezzed him back. Ghostpaw currently sits in my stable still.
As I slowly reached the level cap of 60, I started finding online resources for the game. I spent almost as much time on Thottbot and other sites as I did in-game. I picked up the expansion and continued on. I ran into a few people that I had run some low-level dungeons with back when I started and joined their guild. We had a slew of players with different experience levels; some new to the game like me, others who had raided in the original game. We began to raid Kara two or three nights a week, eventually joining with another small guild to tackle the 25-man Gruul's lair.
We were mainly a casual guild, although we had a pretty consistent raid schedule. We never really progressed past Gruul. We ran ZA trying to beat the timer and get our bear mounts, but never accomplished it. When the expansion came out we leveled up and took on Naxx. We were progressing steadily, eventually getting the raid on farm status. Alas, drama raised its ugly head and the guild disbanded due to a falling out between the GM and the officers of the guild.
I took a break from raiding, and began playing around on a few of my alts. I had filled up the stable with 10 characters, even dusting off my rogue to create a personal guild. I would occasionally delete and create a new character, or just level a little and try some new professions. I eventually learned about multiboxing, and was 5-boxing at one point. I dropped down to three - $75 a month was a bit much to be spending on a game.
I ran into my RL friend who got me started on the game, and started rolling alts on his server. He had joined a raiding guild, so I speed-leveled a Death Knight to spend more time playing together. I had started building up another giant stable of alts on that server when my friend decided to take a break from the game for a while. I returned back to my original character on the other server. After a while I saw someone recruiting for another casual raiding guild, and took the plunge.
I ran heroics like crazy to gear up - this guild was working on ICC and I was still in Naxx gear. I had my first raid in ICC rocking my T9. At least I was higher on recount than the tanks! I spent my free time researching the fights, my equipment, shot rotations, everything that I could. Luckily, being the only hunter, I acquired gear rather quickly. I went from being at the bottom of the DPS to being consistently in the top 3. The team already had completed the first wing when I joined, but I was there for the rest. It would usually take most of our two hours to get through the first four bosses, occasionally downing Fester. Most of the problems were due to the fact that we had to pug the last two, sometimes three spots.
The guild eventually grew, and the team started to click. We started moving faster, and soon the first six were down the first night. Eventually, we would down them in the first hour. After a few times learning the fights, the Professor dropped. The Blood Council soon followed, along with the Blood Queen. We saved Valithria, and would even get a few shots at Sindragosa. Sindragosa finally fell, and we took our first shot at Arthas. Just over a month from that first encounter with him, the Lich King finally fell! We met the goal that we had set for ourselves - beating the final boss of the expansion before the Cataclysm.
A lot happened over the course of our journey. The guild grew, at one point having three 10-man raid teams. People came and left, but the core team stayed true. There was no drama, no infighting. Those that had issues with the casual nature of the guild usually left on their own. We stayed friendly, and if people couldn't they were shown the door. I leveled up a few of my alts to 80, with number five happening on the Headless Horseman. I've even geared a few of them up - my druid tank is going on tonight to continue ICC, having downed through the Professor. My main, however, will remain my hunter. On the last few weeks of the current game I'm back where I started, arrow ready and new content to look forward to.
The first character I tried was an Orc. It might have been a warrior - I just don't remember. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; I had never played this type of game before. It took me just under an hour to figure out that the guy with the big yellow ! over his head was there to give me a quest. I stopped playing and started reading about the character types online. I rolled an Night Elf hunter, which is my main to this day. I have only two characters from when I originally started playing: my hunter and my rogue.
I really enjoyed the Night Elf starting area, and the play style of the hunter. I spent a long time exploring, and I was amazed that the zone was on top of a giant tree, which I discovered after falling to my death while trying to pick the pocket of a demon on my rogue. At least I found the portal between the top and bottom of the tree. I eventually shelved the rogue and began leveling my hunter.
My greatest accomplishment was taming a ghostsaber from a Naga relic spawn. I had no idea if it was tamable or not, I thought I'd just give it a go. After a few tries (sometimes they would spawn a level higher than me) I had successfully tamed the beast! Imagine my shock when it suddenly died shortly after. I crossed my fingers and rezzed him back. Ghostpaw currently sits in my stable still.
As I slowly reached the level cap of 60, I started finding online resources for the game. I spent almost as much time on Thottbot and other sites as I did in-game. I picked up the expansion and continued on. I ran into a few people that I had run some low-level dungeons with back when I started and joined their guild. We had a slew of players with different experience levels; some new to the game like me, others who had raided in the original game. We began to raid Kara two or three nights a week, eventually joining with another small guild to tackle the 25-man Gruul's lair.
We were mainly a casual guild, although we had a pretty consistant raid schedule. We never really progressed past Gruul. We ran ZA trying to beat the timer and get our bear mounts, but never accomplished it. When the expansion came out we leveled up and took on Naxx. We were progressing steadily, eventually getting the raid on farm status. Alas, drama raised its ugly head and the guild disbanded due to a falling out between the GM and the officers of the guild.
I took a break from raiding, and began playing around on a few of my alts. I had filled up the stable with 10 characters, even dusting off my rogue to create a personal guild. I would occasionally delete and create a new character, or just level a little and try some new profesions. I eventually learned about multiboxing, and was 5-boxing at one point. I dropped down to three - $75 a month was a bit much to be spending on a game.
I ran into my RL friend who got me started on the game, and started rolling alts on his server. He had joined a raiding guild, so I speed-leveled a Death Knight to spend more time playing together. I had started building up another giant stable of alts on that server when my friend decided to take a break from the game for a while. I returned back to my original character on the other server. After a while I saw someone recruiting for another casual raiding guild, and took the plunge.
I ran heroics like crazy to gear up - this guild was working on ICC and I was still in Naxx gear. I had my first raid in ICC rocking my T9. At least I was higher on recount than the tanks! I spent my free time researching the fights, my equipment, shot rotations, everything that I could. Luckily, being the only hunter, I acquired gear rather quickly. I went from being at the bottom of the DPS to being consistantly in the top 3. The team already had completed the first wing when I joined, but I was there for the rest. It would usually take most of our two hours to get through the first four bosses, occasionally downing Fester. Most of the problems were due to the fact that we had to pug the last two, sometimes three spots.
The guild eventually grew, and the team started to click. We started moving faster, and soon the first six were down the first night. Eventually, we would down them in the first hour. After a few times learning the fights, the Professor dropped. The Blood Council soon followed, along with the Blood Queen. We saved Valithria, and would even get a few shots at Sindragosa. Sindragosa finally fell, and we took our first shot at Arthas. Just over a month from that first encounter with him, the Lich King finally fell! We met the goal that we had set for ourselves - beating the final boss of the expansion before the Cataclysm.
A lot happened over the course of our journey. The guild grew, at one point having three 10-man raid teams. People came and left, but the core team stayed true. There was no drama, no infighting. Those that had issues with the casual nature of the guild usually left on their own. We stayed friendly, and if people couldn't they were shown the door. I leveled up a few of my alts to 80, with number five happening on the Headless Horseman. I've even geared a few of them up - my druid tank is going on tonite to continue ICC, having downed through the Professor. My main, however, will remain my hunter. On the last few weeks of the current game I'm back where I started, arrow ready and new content to look forward to.
I originally started playing WoW some time after Burning Crusade came out. It may have even been before the expansion. Not that I knew anything about the expansion - a friend suggested that I might like the game. I did the 10 day free trial and played maybe once. I did another trial and I don't think I played at all before it expired. I finally did another trial and gave the game one more shot.
The first character I tried was an Orc. It might have been a warrior - I just don't remember. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; I had never played this type of game before. It took me just under an hour to figure out that the guy with the big yellow ! over his head was there to give me a quest. I stopped playing and started reading about the character types online. I rolled a Night Elf hunter, which is my main to this day. I have only two characters from when I originally started playing: my hunter and my rogue.
I really enjoyed the Night Elf starting area, and the play style of the hunter. I spent a long time exploring, and I was amazed that the zone was on top of a giant tree, which I discovered after falling to my death while trying to pick the pocket of a demon on my rogue. At least I found the portal between the top and bottom of the tree. I eventually shelved the rogue and began leveling my hunter.
My greatest accomplishment was taming a ghostsaber from a Naga relic spawn. I had no idea if it was tamable or not, I thought I'd just give it a go. After a few tries (sometimes they would spawn a level higher than me) I had successfully tamed the beast! Imagine my shock when it suddenly died shortly after. I crossed my fingers and rezzed him back. Ghostpaw currently sits in my stable still.
As I slowly reached the level cap of 60, I started finding online resources for the game. I spent almost as much time on Thottbot and other sites as I did in-game. I picked up the expansion and continued on. I ran into a few people that I had run some low-level dungeons with back when I started and joined their guild. We had a slew of players with different experience levels; some new to the game like me, others who had raided in the original game. We began to raid Kara two or three nights a week, eventually joining with another small guild to tackle the 25-man Gruul's lair.
We were mainly a casual guild, although we had a pretty consistent raid schedule. We never really progressed past Gruul. We ran ZA trying to beat the timer and get our bear mounts, but never accomplished it. When the expansion came out we leveled up and took on Naxx. We were progressing steadily, eventually getting the raid on farm status. Alas, drama raised its ugly head and the guild disbanded due to a falling out between the GM and the officers of the guild.
I took a break from raiding, and began playing around on a few of my alts. I had filled up the stable with 10 characters, even dusting off my rogue to create a personal guild. I would occasionally delete and create a new character, or just level a little and try some new professions. I eventually learned about multiboxing, and was 5-boxing at one point. I dropped down to three - $75 a month was a bit much to be spending on a game.
I ran into my RL friend who got me started on the game, and started rolling alts on his server. He had joined a raiding guild, so I speed-leveled a Death Knight to spend more time playing together. I had started building up another giant stable of alts on that server when my friend decided to take a break from the game for a while. I returned back to my original character on the other server. After a while I saw someone recruiting for another casual raiding guild, and took the plunge.
I ran heroics like crazy to gear up - this guild was working on ICC and I was still in Naxx gear. I had my first raid in ICC rocking my T9. At least I was higher on recount than the tanks! I spent my free time researching the fights, my equipment, shot rotations, everything that I could. Luckily, being the only hunter, I acquired gear rather quickly. I went from being at the bottom of the DPS to being consistently in the top 3. The team already had completed the first wing when I joined, but I was there for the rest. It would usually take most of our two hours to get through the first four bosses, occasionally downing Fester. Most of the problems were due to the fact that we had to pug the last two, sometimes three spots.
The guild eventually grew, and the team started to click. We started moving faster, and soon the first six were down the first night. Eventually, we would down them in the first hour. After a few times learning the fights, the Professor dropped. The Blood Council soon followed, along with the Blood Queen. We saved Valithria, and would even get a few shots at Sindragosa. Sindragosa finally fell, and we took our first shot at Arthas. Just over a month from that first encounter with him, the Lich King finally fell! We met the goal that we had set for ourselves - beating the final boss of the expansion before the Cataclysm.
A lot happened over the course of our journey. The guild grew, at one point having three 10-man raid teams. People came and left, but the core team stayed true. There was no drama, no infighting. Those that had issues with the casual nature of the guild usually left on their own. We stayed friendly, and if people couldn't they were shown the door. I leveled up a few of my alts to 80, with number five happening on the Headless Horseman. I've even geared a few of them up - my druid tank is going on tonight to continue ICC, having downed through the Professor. My main, however, will remain my hunter. On the last few weeks of the current game I'm back where I started, arrow ready and new content to look forward to.
The first character I tried was an Orc. It might have been a warrior - I just don't remember. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing; I had never played this type of game before. It took me just under an hour to figure out that the guy with the big yellow ! over his head was there to give me a quest. I stopped playing and started reading about the character types online. I rolled an Night Elf hunter, which is my main to this day. I have only two characters from when I originally started playing: my hunter and my rogue.
I really enjoyed the Night Elf starting area, and the play style of the hunter. I spent a long time exploring, and I was amazed that the zone was on top of a giant tree, which I discovered after falling to my death while trying to pick the pocket of a demon on my rogue. At least I found the portal between the top and bottom of the tree. I eventually shelved the rogue and began leveling my hunter.
My greatest accomplishment was taming a ghostsaber from a Naga relic spawn. I had no idea if it was tamable or not, I thought I'd just give it a go. After a few tries (sometimes they would spawn a level higher than me) I had successfully tamed the beast! Imagine my shock when it suddenly died shortly after. I crossed my fingers and rezzed him back. Ghostpaw currently sits in my stable still.
As I slowly reached the level cap of 60, I started finding online resources for the game. I spent almost as much time on Thottbot and other sites as I did in-game. I picked up the expansion and continued on. I ran into a few people that I had run some low-level dungeons with back when I started and joined their guild. We had a slew of players with different experience levels; some new to the game like me, others who had raided in the original game. We began to raid Kara two or three nights a week, eventually joining with another small guild to tackle the 25-man Gruul's lair.
We were mainly a casual guild, although we had a pretty consistant raid schedule. We never really progressed past Gruul. We ran ZA trying to beat the timer and get our bear mounts, but never accomplished it. When the expansion came out we leveled up and took on Naxx. We were progressing steadily, eventually getting the raid on farm status. Alas, drama raised its ugly head and the guild disbanded due to a falling out between the GM and the officers of the guild.
I took a break from raiding, and began playing around on a few of my alts. I had filled up the stable with 10 characters, even dusting off my rogue to create a personal guild. I would occasionally delete and create a new character, or just level a little and try some new profesions. I eventually learned about multiboxing, and was 5-boxing at one point. I dropped down to three - $75 a month was a bit much to be spending on a game.
I ran into my RL friend who got me started on the game, and started rolling alts on his server. He had joined a raiding guild, so I speed-leveled a Death Knight to spend more time playing together. I had started building up another giant stable of alts on that server when my friend decided to take a break from the game for a while. I returned back to my original character on the other server. After a while I saw someone recruiting for another casual raiding guild, and took the plunge.
I ran heroics like crazy to gear up - this guild was working on ICC and I was still in Naxx gear. I had my first raid in ICC rocking my T9. At least I was higher on recount than the tanks! I spent my free time researching the fights, my equipment, shot rotations, everything that I could. Luckily, being the only hunter, I acquired gear rather quickly. I went from being at the bottom of the DPS to being consistantly in the top 3. The team already had completed the first wing when I joined, but I was there for the rest. It would usually take most of our two hours to get through the first four bosses, occasionally downing Fester. Most of the problems were due to the fact that we had to pug the last two, sometimes three spots.
The guild eventually grew, and the team started to click. We started moving faster, and soon the first six were down the first night. Eventually, we would down them in the first hour. After a few times learning the fights, the Professor dropped. The Blood Council soon followed, along with the Blood Queen. We saved Valithria, and would even get a few shots at Sindragosa. Sindragosa finally fell, and we took our first shot at Arthas. Just over a month from that first encounter with him, the Lich King finally fell! We met the goal that we had set for ourselves - beating the final boss of the expansion before the Cataclysm.
A lot happened over the course of our journey. The guild grew, at one point having three 10-man raid teams. People came and left, but the core team stayed true. There was no drama, no infighting. Those that had issues with the casual nature of the guild usually left on their own. We stayed friendly, and if people couldn't they were shown the door. I leveled up a few of my alts to 80, with number five happening on the Headless Horseman. I've even geared a few of them up - my druid tank is going on tonite to continue ICC, having downed through the Professor. My main, however, will remain my hunter. On the last few weeks of the current game I'm back where I started, arrow ready and new content to look forward to.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Uldaman
My usual Thursday toon had out-leveled the group, so I did a little prep work on a more appropriate level alt the night before. I decided to give MM a whirl, and picked up some gear for my 39 hunter on the AH. I equipped my gear and some glyphs. All that was missing was a pet. Onward to Darkshore!
I decided to get a ghost saber from one of the Naga relics. As I leveled up my bow skills (severely lacking on this toon), I searched for a relic. Silverdragon popped up, and down went the rare Naga with a nice blue ring for one of my lowbies. I got to the first relic and poof, ghost saber on the first try! I quickly dropped a frost trap and began to tame it.
"You already have a pet..."
Crap. Summon pet, abandon pet, tame beast now chewing on my face. Whew! I go to feed my new ghost kitty, and I don't have the right food. I ride back to Auberdine and buy some fish. I'm waiting for the ghost saber to despawn/die so I can revive it and make it permanent. I guess they fixed that bug, because it never happened. I name it "Spooky" and hop on the boat to Stormwind, where I'll park the toon until the Thursday night run.
Our weekly Thursday night run was a four-man clear of Uldaman. I thought we would do ZF, but the Mage was only level 34. I was the only one who remembered the instance, and even I was fuzzy on some of the details. The run went pretty smooth, even with some of the larger pulls. I think we missed one of the optional bosses, but we had a good time and nobody died.
I dinged 40, along with Spooky. Our mage finally hit 35, so next week will most likely be ZF. I will most likely be bringing a different alt next week, because this one is part of my RAF team and will be 60 by the close of the weekend. Our group consists of a Pally tank, Priest healer, Mage DPS, Druid cat DPS, and me. I haven't decided if I'm going to bring a ranged DPS or a melee DPS next week.
I decided to get a ghost saber from one of the Naga relics. As I leveled up my bow skills (severely lacking on this toon), I searched for a relic. Silverdragon popped up, and down went the rare Naga with a nice blue ring for one of my lowbies. I got to the first relic and poof, ghost saber on the first try! I quickly dropped a frost trap and began to tame it.
"You already have a pet..."
Crap. Summon pet, abandon pet, tame beast now chewing on my face. Whew! I go to feed my new ghost kitty, and I don't have the right food. I ride back to Auberdine and buy some fish. I'm waiting for the ghost saber to despawn/die so I can revive it and make it permanent. I guess they fixed that bug, because it never happened. I name it "Spooky" and hop on the boat to Stormwind, where I'll park the toon until the Thursday night run.
Our weekly Thursday night run was a four-man clear of Uldaman. I thought we would do ZF, but the Mage was only level 34. I was the only one who remembered the instance, and even I was fuzzy on some of the details. The run went pretty smooth, even with some of the larger pulls. I think we missed one of the optional bosses, but we had a good time and nobody died.
I dinged 40, along with Spooky. Our mage finally hit 35, so next week will most likely be ZF. I will most likely be bringing a different alt next week, because this one is part of my RAF team and will be 60 by the close of the weekend. Our group consists of a Pally tank, Priest healer, Mage DPS, Druid cat DPS, and me. I haven't decided if I'm going to bring a ranged DPS or a melee DPS next week.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Snow Day
I haven't been playing very much, between RL and not feeling well. I spent a little time Monday and Tuesday trying to finish up the holiday achievements on my main. The only things I have left to do are the dress, roses, and I want to get the permanent pet so I should be done with it by the end of the week.
Tuesday night through Wednesday brought another blizzard which resulted in a snow day for everyone. My plans for spending the day boosting my last RAF team were sidelined by illness. Nothing serious, but I felt miserable. I managed to get the team to 45. The home stretch is in sight.
Tuesday night through Wednesday brought another blizzard which resulted in a snow day for everyone. My plans for spending the day boosting my last RAF team were sidelined by illness. Nothing serious, but I felt miserable. I managed to get the team to 45. The home stretch is in sight.
Monday, February 8, 2010
RAF weekend
I spent the majority of the weekend leveling up another RAF team before my bonus time runs out in just over two weeks. I prefer to create teams of the same class, as I level them together to level 10 before I boost them in dungeons. I rolled a gnome warlock team on Thursday night, and outfitted them with bags and gold. I only gave the RAF toons enough gold to get the first bit of training (everything in the starter zone) and non-binding bags. The main toon that I'm keeping got the good stuff. The starter zone was very easy, with everything falling quicky from 3x damage. Within an hour the team was level 10 and on the tram from Ironforge to Stormwind.
On Friday, I started running them through Deadmines and the team was up to 16 after a few runs. They hearthed back to SW and I did some training on my main - the RAF toons wouldn't be anything but extra bag space now. I ran them through Stockcades until they were in their low 20s. More training for my main and then off to SM Cathedral. I kept running that until they were 40 because the team is easier to control there than ZF; there is much less movement needed.
Saturday was ZF until the team was 45. I normally go right to Strat at 45, but I read the Scholomance was a great place to boost because you didn't have to move the boostees at all. Sure enough, the plan worked as advertised. I ran the quests given by the ghost out front on my 80 and was able to use the ghost vendor in the town for repairs and selling of my junk. The team was at 50 and had bags full of loot and no junk.
Sunday was the final stretch. I have run through Strat too many times to remember - and I have yet to see the mount drop. This day would be no exception. I did, however, get this. I had arranged the leveling of the RAF toons such that they would hit 60 before the main; this way I was able to grant the main level 60 when it was at 59.95, leaving it at 60.95. A few kills later, my 61 lock and the 60 RAF toon hearthed home. My power-leveled lock had a ton of pre-BC blue gear, and enough cloth to level first aid up to 300 plus do all of the cloth turn-ins for some extra exp.
I was able to grant levels to several other toons, and ended the night with a level 60 rogue and priest, and a level 47 hunter. I have one final team in progress on another realm. It will most likely be the last team I do before my RAF expires as I don't have the time to do another. The process gets rather boring as well. I currently have two teams at 58 and the last is at 35. Once they hit 58, I will do the BC trial on the RAF accounts and finish boosting them to 60 in Ramparts for a change of pace.
On Friday, I started running them through Deadmines and the team was up to 16 after a few runs. They hearthed back to SW and I did some training on my main - the RAF toons wouldn't be anything but extra bag space now. I ran them through Stockcades until they were in their low 20s. More training for my main and then off to SM Cathedral. I kept running that until they were 40 because the team is easier to control there than ZF; there is much less movement needed.
Saturday was ZF until the team was 45. I normally go right to Strat at 45, but I read the Scholomance was a great place to boost because you didn't have to move the boostees at all. Sure enough, the plan worked as advertised. I ran the quests given by the ghost out front on my 80 and was able to use the ghost vendor in the town for repairs and selling of my junk. The team was at 50 and had bags full of loot and no junk.
Sunday was the final stretch. I have run through Strat too many times to remember - and I have yet to see the mount drop. This day would be no exception. I did, however, get this. I had arranged the leveling of the RAF toons such that they would hit 60 before the main; this way I was able to grant the main level 60 when it was at 59.95, leaving it at 60.95. A few kills later, my 61 lock and the 60 RAF toon hearthed home. My power-leveled lock had a ton of pre-BC blue gear, and enough cloth to level first aid up to 300 plus do all of the cloth turn-ins for some extra exp.
I was able to grant levels to several other toons, and ended the night with a level 60 rogue and priest, and a level 47 hunter. I have one final team in progress on another realm. It will most likely be the last team I do before my RAF expires as I don't have the time to do another. The process gets rather boring as well. I currently have two teams at 58 and the last is at 35. Once they hit 58, I will do the BC trial on the RAF accounts and finish boosting them to 60 in Ramparts for a change of pace.
Thursday night run
The normal Thursday night run was a bit different, as two of the usuals (or unusuals) weren't going to be able to make it. I ended up filling the other two slots via multi-boxing, and just ran everyone through SM Cathedral and Armory a few times with my 80 main until we hit the 5 instances per hour wall. I think that most of the crew can get into ZF now, so next weeks run will be a nice change of pace.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Deadmines
I really like this instance. The rest of the group was good, and no one else tried to tank. We got through with no real issues. I hearthed home, turned in all my quests, and realized that I missed looting the second boss for the gnome in Stormwind. I popped open the dungeon finder, selected Deadmines and was back almost instantly.
We start up fine. By the time we get to the first boss I notice something. The hunter isn't shooting. I try to ask him if he has a ranged weapon, but before I do the lock grabs aggro. While the priest is rezzing the lock, I get to ask the hunter why he is just using an axe instead of a bow or gun. No answer. Two pulls later the priest answers for him. "No ammo, lols". I notice they are in the same guild.
We get to the second boss, the only one I really need, and he goes down fairly smoothly even though the lock pulled the whole room and the hunter's pet died two pulls ago. I think the other DPS is AFK I loot my quest item, and the priest announces the she has to go and hearths. At this point I can't take it any more. I announce that I can't continue with a melee hunter that can't rez his pet, a pull-happy lock, and Mr. AFK. As I'm hearthing I notice that the lock has pulled again. Too bad.
My ever expanding ignore list has some fresh names, and I'm off to train and call it a night.
We start up fine. By the time we get to the first boss I notice something. The hunter isn't shooting. I try to ask him if he has a ranged weapon, but before I do the lock grabs aggro. While the priest is rezzing the lock, I get to ask the hunter why he is just using an axe instead of a bow or gun. No answer. Two pulls later the priest answers for him. "No ammo, lols". I notice they are in the same guild.
We get to the second boss, the only one I really need, and he goes down fairly smoothly even though the lock pulled the whole room and the hunter's pet died two pulls ago. I think the other DPS is AFK I loot my quest item, and the priest announces the she has to go and hearths. At this point I can't take it any more. I announce that I can't continue with a melee hunter that can't rez his pet, a pull-happy lock, and Mr. AFK. As I'm hearthing I notice that the lock has pulled again. Too bad.
My ever expanding ignore list has some fresh names, and I'm off to train and call it a night.
Wailing Carverns
I did my usual group buffing and let everyone know that I hadn't been in here for a really long time. Neither had anyone else. We cleared the upper portion and the first boss with no problems other than a DC from one of the DPS. We continued on and took out the second boss. While this was happening, the palidin in the group started the usual crap. After a pull gone bad by the pally, I asked him to stop pulling and let me tank while I rezzed the healer. This lasted until we got back over to the other side of the instance.
I don't know what is so hard about the concept of Tank-Heals-DPS that these morons can't understand. We finished the rest of the instance with a few near wipes and me on DPS again. I think I was one of the only ones who didn't die to stupidity on the run. Shadowmeld FTW!
There seems to be a pattern forming. My ignore list grows with every run. At least I leveled a bit, so after a hearth and some training I queue up once more for the night. Six seconds later Deadmines is loading.
I don't know what is so hard about the concept of Tank-Heals-DPS that these morons can't understand. We finished the rest of the instance with a few near wipes and me on DPS again. I think I was one of the only ones who didn't die to stupidity on the run. Shadowmeld FTW!
There seems to be a pattern forming. My ignore list grows with every run. At least I leveled a bit, so after a hearth and some training I queue up once more for the night. Six seconds later Deadmines is loading.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Baby Tank, Baby Steps
Inspired by BBB, I decided to level a new druid. I want to level him mainly through tanking using the dungeon finder. Between the leftover shards, seals, and emblems on my main I was able to outfit by new bear with heirloom shoulders, trinket, chest, and weapon. A few more seals and he’ll have trinket #2. It’s been a while since I rolled a new nelf. The first thing that struck me was that all the starter area mobs are yellow. Even all the spiders. The drop rates seem to have gone up as well. Quested out of the starter area and headed for the mailbox in the next zone to pick up my gear and bigger bags. Dinged 10, and proceeded to do the quests to get my bear form. Once I had completed that, I headed over to Stormwind and made it my home. I figured I’d get level up to 16 so I had swipe and then start using the dungeon finder. I leveled up getting the VC prerequisites so I would have all the quests when I went in.
I had my talents set, glyphs set, my heirlooms on, my non-heirloom equipment the best the AH had, and everything enchanted. I even picked up some elixirs and buff food. I leveled my First Aid. I was ready and eager to tank. I have been mainly running as melee DPS for the last few months on my DK. Before that I was ranged on my Hunter. On my DK I have the pug pet and all the emblem gear I can get from pugging heroics. I’m not a total newb. I’ve seen a lot of bad pugs. It still didn’t prepare me for what I was about to face.
I queued as a tank. Three seconds later I was in Ragefire Chasm. The only other time that I’d been there was when my hunter did the wrathgate quest. I popped over and did both the instance and fished up the rare. Alas, when I tried to do it on my DK, I found it was no longer possible. Anyway, back to my first instance. I buffed everyone with MotW, popped Thorns on myself and let everyone know that I hadn’t been in here in a real long time. Meanwhile the DPS warrior gnome runs over and starts aggroing mobs.
I rush over, pick up the mob, and we’re off to the races. Every time I pull, he charges in and taunts. Or he starts pulling. The healer is going nuts, the warrior and pally are trying to tank, and I’m doing my best to keep the mobs off the healer. Somehow the entire instance gets pulled and we wipe. The healer and a DPS drop group and I follow suit. I repair and rethink my plan. I queue up again and back into Ragefire I go.
Oh look, the same warrior and pally. We proceed to tank the instance. By we, I mean me (queued as tank) , the warrior (queued as dps), and the pally (also queued as dps). After a few minutes of this the warrior says just let him tank and go cat form and dps. I let him know that I don’t get that until level 20. I drop out of bear and stay in my nelf caster form. I stick to dps and also help the healer out because the other dps also thinks they are a tank. Wearing cloth.
The pally goes AFK on follow for the rest of the instance. We somehow get though. I put the warrior, pally, and warlock on my ignore list so I will never have to group with them again. I repair and queue up again. Almost instantly the confirmation pops up. And this time the loading screen shows Wailing Caverns…..
I had my talents set, glyphs set, my heirlooms on, my non-heirloom equipment the best the AH had, and everything enchanted. I even picked up some elixirs and buff food. I leveled my First Aid. I was ready and eager to tank. I have been mainly running as melee DPS for the last few months on my DK. Before that I was ranged on my Hunter. On my DK I have the pug pet and all the emblem gear I can get from pugging heroics. I’m not a total newb. I’ve seen a lot of bad pugs. It still didn’t prepare me for what I was about to face.
I queued as a tank. Three seconds later I was in Ragefire Chasm. The only other time that I’d been there was when my hunter did the wrathgate quest. I popped over and did both the instance and fished up the rare. Alas, when I tried to do it on my DK, I found it was no longer possible. Anyway, back to my first instance. I buffed everyone with MotW, popped Thorns on myself and let everyone know that I hadn’t been in here in a real long time. Meanwhile the DPS warrior gnome runs over and starts aggroing mobs.
I rush over, pick up the mob, and we’re off to the races. Every time I pull, he charges in and taunts. Or he starts pulling. The healer is going nuts, the warrior and pally are trying to tank, and I’m doing my best to keep the mobs off the healer. Somehow the entire instance gets pulled and we wipe. The healer and a DPS drop group and I follow suit. I repair and rethink my plan. I queue up again and back into Ragefire I go.
Oh look, the same warrior and pally. We proceed to tank the instance. By we, I mean me (queued as tank) , the warrior (queued as dps), and the pally (also queued as dps). After a few minutes of this the warrior says just let him tank and go cat form and dps. I let him know that I don’t get that until level 20. I drop out of bear and stay in my nelf caster form. I stick to dps and also help the healer out because the other dps also thinks they are a tank. Wearing cloth.
The pally goes AFK on follow for the rest of the instance. We somehow get though. I put the warrior, pally, and warlock on my ignore list so I will never have to group with them again. I repair and queue up again. Almost instantly the confirmation pops up. And this time the loading screen shows Wailing Caverns…..
Thursday Night Fun
Our weekly friends and family night run went pretty smooth. We range from 32-35, and have been progressing through SM. Our usual team is a pally tank, priest on heals, and mage+kitty+me on deeps. I took my hunter through this time. We ran Library for the first time last night. It went very well so we reset and ran it again. The Houndmaster dropped the Dog Training Gloves both times, which I passed on the first run to the druid. They were still better than the ones I had so I picked them up on the second run. Doan dropped his robe and rod both times so the clothies were very pleased.
There and Back Again
I had a rather stuttering introduction to WoW. A friend told me about the game and thought I would enjoy it. I signed up for the 10 day free trial and created an account. I didn’t know anything about the game at all. I rolled an orc warrior and wandered about, eventually noticing the first quest giver. I didn’t know it was a quest giver, nor did I have any idea what the big yellow “!” over his head meant. After some initial frustration, I figured out that you could right-click to interact with him and I received my first quest. After playing for about an hour alone – there were no other “real” people to be found, not that I’d be able to talk to them anyway since I had no clue as to how to use the chat, I logged off and the free trial eventually ran out. A few weeks later, I created another account for another free trial and it ended up lapsing without me even logging on.
The third time was a charm. I created another account, rolled a nelf hunter and never looked back. The difference in the starting area was the thing that hooked me. Instead of the barren, empty wasteland there was a colorful, thriving area with several “real” people playing. I went to the local electronics megastore and picked up a WoW bundle that came with BC and the large WoW and BC player handbooks. After reading them both several times, I dived back into WoW and leveled my hunter up to 10, rolled a nelf rogue, a nelf warrior, nelf priest, and finally a nelf druid. Now that I had a stable of level 10 nelfs, I thought I’d do something different and rolled a spacegoat hunter.
I eventually settled on my original hunter and continued leveling. I was invited into a guild and started to get into the social aspect of the game, spending about half of my time playing solo and the other half questing with a few others in the guild. I found that the ghost kitty that spawned from the relics in Darkshore could be tamed, and I made that my mission. This would become my signature pet, and I still have her to this day. I learned a lot about my class from my new friend that invited me to the guild. I also learned a lot from trial and error. I progressed rather slowly, exploring and experimenting, spending a lot of time on my various alts. I used them mainly to play around with different professions, eventually creating my own personal guild for storage space and transferring items.
My new friend went to anther guild and invited me to come along. Since the only people that I ever played with went to the new guild, I followed suit. The new guild was a bit more social and after about eight months I hit the level cap of 70. The guild started raiding, and we spent two and sometimes three nights in Kara. I discovered the wonderful world of WoW blogs and spent many hours reading and learning. WotLK arrived and the guild stopped raiding while everyone leveled and explored Northrend. Once we were all 80 and semi-geared from heroics we started raiding Naxx.
I was having a blast. The guild was a lot of fun. These fights were new for several of us, but a few in the guild were raiding Naxx back in the day. The raid leader was great, explaining what need to be done, and we carried out the plan. We were slow progressing, but we were efficient with very few wipes. Just before Ulduar showed up we had Naxx on farm and were working on Maly. All good things, however, must come to an end it seems.
I logged on one night and noticed that the guild roster was missing almost 80% of the people. My first thought was that an officer or the GM had been hacked and we were in the middle of getting everything stolen. My suspicions grew stronger and “so and so has left the guild” messages started scrolling up my chat log. The GM wasn’t on and none of the remaining guildies were online. I received a whisper from one of the former guild members. We weren’t being hacked, the guild had imploded.
There was drama brewing that I was unaware of. I won’t get into the specifics, but it started when WotLK came out. It seemed such a petty thing. I was in shock that the seemingly solid team we had could be torn apart so quickly. A few days later I received an email from the GM saying that the guild was finished and I should look for a new home. I received whispers from some guildies who moved to a new guild asking if I wanted to join. I turned the offer down and retreated into my private alt guild. I took a short break from WoW.
RAF came out and so did sales of WoW/BC combo packs, so I tried to get my wife and son to play with me. My wife played once and didn’t get into it, but my son still plays occasionally. I ended up multi-boxing. At first I would three-box, eventually five-boxing. I gifted levels to my stable of alts to continue their professions, and eventually dropped back down to three accounts as the RAF expired. I had two level 80 toons, and almost thirty more ranging from level 20 to 74.
My RL friend that got me into WoW played on a different server. Rather than spend the money to transfer all of those to his server, I rolled a DK and some bank alts on his server. I quickly leveled up to 80 and joined the raiding guild his main was on with my alts in his private friends and family guild. When WoW went on sale for $5, I couldn’t resist the urge to grow my alt farm on the new server. I now have several level 60 toons to rebuild my profession group. Currently, I spend my time bouncing between servers, and I will eventually transfer at least my hunter over to the new server. My friend has a low level alt and, along with his two sons and a friend of theirs, we get together every Thursday night and run an instance or two.
The third time was a charm. I created another account, rolled a nelf hunter and never looked back. The difference in the starting area was the thing that hooked me. Instead of the barren, empty wasteland there was a colorful, thriving area with several “real” people playing. I went to the local electronics megastore and picked up a WoW bundle that came with BC and the large WoW and BC player handbooks. After reading them both several times, I dived back into WoW and leveled my hunter up to 10, rolled a nelf rogue, a nelf warrior, nelf priest, and finally a nelf druid. Now that I had a stable of level 10 nelfs, I thought I’d do something different and rolled a spacegoat hunter.
I eventually settled on my original hunter and continued leveling. I was invited into a guild and started to get into the social aspect of the game, spending about half of my time playing solo and the other half questing with a few others in the guild. I found that the ghost kitty that spawned from the relics in Darkshore could be tamed, and I made that my mission. This would become my signature pet, and I still have her to this day. I learned a lot about my class from my new friend that invited me to the guild. I also learned a lot from trial and error. I progressed rather slowly, exploring and experimenting, spending a lot of time on my various alts. I used them mainly to play around with different professions, eventually creating my own personal guild for storage space and transferring items.
My new friend went to anther guild and invited me to come along. Since the only people that I ever played with went to the new guild, I followed suit. The new guild was a bit more social and after about eight months I hit the level cap of 70. The guild started raiding, and we spent two and sometimes three nights in Kara. I discovered the wonderful world of WoW blogs and spent many hours reading and learning. WotLK arrived and the guild stopped raiding while everyone leveled and explored Northrend. Once we were all 80 and semi-geared from heroics we started raiding Naxx.
I was having a blast. The guild was a lot of fun. These fights were new for several of us, but a few in the guild were raiding Naxx back in the day. The raid leader was great, explaining what need to be done, and we carried out the plan. We were slow progressing, but we were efficient with very few wipes. Just before Ulduar showed up we had Naxx on farm and were working on Maly. All good things, however, must come to an end it seems.
I logged on one night and noticed that the guild roster was missing almost 80% of the people. My first thought was that an officer or the GM had been hacked and we were in the middle of getting everything stolen. My suspicions grew stronger and “so and so has left the guild” messages started scrolling up my chat log. The GM wasn’t on and none of the remaining guildies were online. I received a whisper from one of the former guild members. We weren’t being hacked, the guild had imploded.
There was drama brewing that I was unaware of. I won’t get into the specifics, but it started when WotLK came out. It seemed such a petty thing. I was in shock that the seemingly solid team we had could be torn apart so quickly. A few days later I received an email from the GM saying that the guild was finished and I should look for a new home. I received whispers from some guildies who moved to a new guild asking if I wanted to join. I turned the offer down and retreated into my private alt guild. I took a short break from WoW.
RAF came out and so did sales of WoW/BC combo packs, so I tried to get my wife and son to play with me. My wife played once and didn’t get into it, but my son still plays occasionally. I ended up multi-boxing. At first I would three-box, eventually five-boxing. I gifted levels to my stable of alts to continue their professions, and eventually dropped back down to three accounts as the RAF expired. I had two level 80 toons, and almost thirty more ranging from level 20 to 74.
My RL friend that got me into WoW played on a different server. Rather than spend the money to transfer all of those to his server, I rolled a DK and some bank alts on his server. I quickly leveled up to 80 and joined the raiding guild his main was on with my alts in his private friends and family guild. When WoW went on sale for $5, I couldn’t resist the urge to grow my alt farm on the new server. I now have several level 60 toons to rebuild my profession group. Currently, I spend my time bouncing between servers, and I will eventually transfer at least my hunter over to the new server. My friend has a low level alt and, along with his two sons and a friend of theirs, we get together every Thursday night and run an instance or two.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
So it begins...
After lurking on numerous WoW blogs for quite some time, I've been bitten by the blog bug. I've recently started a new alt (again) and wanted a place to document my experiences. I've played WoW since just after BC launched, and have about 50 toons across three accounts. As I get more familiar with Blogger, I'll adjust the layout accordingly. All names have been changed to protect the, ahem, innocent.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)