Patch 3.3.3 phase two
Patch day this Tuesday gave everyone that raids another 5% boost to Damage, Heals, and Health in Icecrown Citadel via the Might of Morgaine buff. Woot.
Regular content easier? Yes please.
You Hardmode hardcore gamers.... Unclench your panties. You'll still get no help beating Hardmode Marrowgar >> Hardmode Lich King. That's still 0% bonus anything. Props to you guys for being Uber L337 and shredding stuff on your own.
We panzies that need the help beating Professor putricide, the Blood Queen, and Sindragosa will take the help we can get. I'd like to personally see the endboss of WotLK and possibly defeat him. Any breaks I can get or advantages we pick up are useful. If the game becomes easymode, I'll jump into a Heroic ICC run or start an Arena Team against the 2000+ rated teams. Those guys will test your mettle.
Not a fan of 90% of the content only seen by 5% of the player base. It's bad economics and wasted time writing code hardly anyone plays. I'll still TRY to beat him with whatever pug team I can scrape together... but I don't have a permanent progression squad and would love to advance.
As it stands, My shaman is standnig to catch my DK in gearscore. Sad sad. Gotta find a permanent 10 man team somewhere. Each group only meets for 1 night and clears only 6 bosses. Blood wing + Professor + The dragons need more attempts - but logging in JUST for those bosses is bad. You miss out on the 18+ badges from the first floor.
I'll keep posting.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Late for IceCrown Citadel 25
Okay folks. RL comes up. Sometimes you work late, have to pick up your daughter from her makeup math test, then drive over to the middle school to catch your son's first Track meet. Then after the Track meet, drive your daughter to her Choir concert, get dinner for the family, come home, and sign onto WoW before your 7:00 start time for ICC 25. Raids are a bitch to make every week. When summer starts, you get pressed for time and life gets busy.
Why stay indoors when the sun is shining and the birds are singing? Oh yea to have fun. So I was late getting home. I had the option of sitting afk in dalarn for a raid spot. Sadly, with 38 guildmates online - there's little demand for another Dk Dps. So I got onto an alt and picked up some Daily quests.
Still, for a Tuesday, it's a bad start to the week.
My advice. Get in a 10 man. Save your 25 man instance run for later in the week. Big guilds run twice a week. Run wth the "B Group" for a while. Run a pug with friends you don't see. Run a 10 man team instead. Don't sit there. You were outside enjoying yourself. Don't postpone RL fun to make EVERY raid time every week. Be early next week. Go get em.
Why stay indoors when the sun is shining and the birds are singing? Oh yea to have fun. So I was late getting home. I had the option of sitting afk in dalarn for a raid spot. Sadly, with 38 guildmates online - there's little demand for another Dk Dps. So I got onto an alt and picked up some Daily quests.
Still, for a Tuesday, it's a bad start to the week.
My advice. Get in a 10 man. Save your 25 man instance run for later in the week. Big guilds run twice a week. Run wth the "B Group" for a while. Run a pug with friends you don't see. Run a 10 man team instead. Don't sit there. You were outside enjoying yourself. Don't postpone RL fun to make EVERY raid time every week. Be early next week. Go get em.
Friday, March 26, 2010
5 Man Healing
Hello and welcome to the healing / keeping people alive portion of tonight's entertainment. Normally, I have a great time being DPS and a good time being main tank. Healing is something I rarely did when people died off and I had to keep people breathing to finish off a boss.
The other day, a paladin friend got me back into healing and I've been pretty happy healing. Getting behind a solid tank, reliable DPS, smart raiders, and capable co-healers make my job as a Resto Shaman quite awesome. Here are some pet peeves.
Every day I try to hit a random group and get my two daily Frost badges. Over time, you learn that some things complicate your run and really chafe your "fun time" away from raid healing.
Tanks that don't type instructions, give notice on pulls, or stop for breaks. These guys are usually at 50k but I've seen over-zealous tanks as low as 30k. I don't know about you guys, but I can't heal a tank when he's dead. No matter how much hp you have, if I'm still 2 rooms behind - You're dead. I'm not wasting time, but I do have to stop to loot corpses or drinking for mana. Unlike dps, I don't stop healing until after the fight. If I stop to loot during the fight, I'm not keeping heals on MT or my team. I'd rather check loot after the dust is setttled. That's just benig professional. Charging ahead and chain pulling isn't cool. Thank goodness for riptide being a HoT and my Mp5 being great. I normally don't have to stop to regain mana after heals unless the incoming damage is obscene. Also, when I ask for a mana break, I want the pulls to stop. When I'm DPS, I don't chain mis-direct whole groups onto the tank. People don't like being pushed along or dragged thru. Random runs take 15-25 minutes at most. That's fine.
2) DPS that move ahead of the Tank. Hey dude. Warlocks in cloth and 22k health make poor tanks. Get your scrawny ass out of that crowd. Nobody cares about your L337 DPS skills. Flexing your E-Peen on a 5 man PuG damage meter is pointless. My only consern about DPS in a pickup group is if he's doing less than 1500 dps on a heroic.
3) People that NEED on everything they can. Really?? Really? Those mail leggings of spirit isn't going to help you do your job any better Mr. Hunter. We all know better. If you're going to get a legitimate BOOST to your Damage, Heals, or Survivability... Need the item. Nobody will question you. There WAS a debate about Needing Frozen Orbs because of their recent jump in value with patch 3.3.3 but now no one can NEED it and everyone greeds those.
Enchanters will often NEED a purple item on the last boss of a pickup group. Why? Because they are gauranteed the shard from disenchanting. If they choose disenchant, you have to compete with 4 others. Luckily, alot of Endboss items are mail, Plate, swords, and such... so no Enchanter (casters usually) can need on every epic.
Pug healing. Most times, no one dies and things go smoothly.
Advice to new Pug Healers? GET some mana regen. Today's pickup groups move at insanely fast pace. I've never been dropped by a group because of mana breaks, but I have been blown off and seen the tank chain-pull at zero mana. Frustrating when you're "obligated" to heal idiots. I could let the MT and everyone else die, but that wastes everyone's time. Caught between pinciples and practicality, I'd just get thru it and choose your Raids carefully. The pickup 5 mans are random and not worth the 30 min deserter debuff unless you really HATE your teammates.
The other day, a paladin friend got me back into healing and I've been pretty happy healing. Getting behind a solid tank, reliable DPS, smart raiders, and capable co-healers make my job as a Resto Shaman quite awesome. Here are some pet peeves.
Every day I try to hit a random group and get my two daily Frost badges. Over time, you learn that some things complicate your run and really chafe your "fun time" away from raid healing.
Tanks that don't type instructions, give notice on pulls, or stop for breaks. These guys are usually at 50k but I've seen over-zealous tanks as low as 30k. I don't know about you guys, but I can't heal a tank when he's dead. No matter how much hp you have, if I'm still 2 rooms behind - You're dead. I'm not wasting time, but I do have to stop to loot corpses or drinking for mana. Unlike dps, I don't stop healing until after the fight. If I stop to loot during the fight, I'm not keeping heals on MT or my team. I'd rather check loot after the dust is setttled. That's just benig professional. Charging ahead and chain pulling isn't cool. Thank goodness for riptide being a HoT and my Mp5 being great. I normally don't have to stop to regain mana after heals unless the incoming damage is obscene. Also, when I ask for a mana break, I want the pulls to stop. When I'm DPS, I don't chain mis-direct whole groups onto the tank. People don't like being pushed along or dragged thru. Random runs take 15-25 minutes at most. That's fine.
2) DPS that move ahead of the Tank. Hey dude. Warlocks in cloth and 22k health make poor tanks. Get your scrawny ass out of that crowd. Nobody cares about your L337 DPS skills. Flexing your E-Peen on a 5 man PuG damage meter is pointless. My only consern about DPS in a pickup group is if he's doing less than 1500 dps on a heroic.
3) People that NEED on everything they can. Really?? Really? Those mail leggings of spirit isn't going to help you do your job any better Mr. Hunter. We all know better. If you're going to get a legitimate BOOST to your Damage, Heals, or Survivability... Need the item. Nobody will question you. There WAS a debate about Needing Frozen Orbs because of their recent jump in value with patch 3.3.3 but now no one can NEED it and everyone greeds those.
Enchanters will often NEED a purple item on the last boss of a pickup group. Why? Because they are gauranteed the shard from disenchanting. If they choose disenchant, you have to compete with 4 others. Luckily, alot of Endboss items are mail, Plate, swords, and such... so no Enchanter (casters usually) can need on every epic.
Pug healing. Most times, no one dies and things go smoothly.
Advice to new Pug Healers? GET some mana regen. Today's pickup groups move at insanely fast pace. I've never been dropped by a group because of mana breaks, but I have been blown off and seen the tank chain-pull at zero mana. Frustrating when you're "obligated" to heal idiots. I could let the MT and everyone else die, but that wastes everyone's time. Caught between pinciples and practicality, I'd just get thru it and choose your Raids carefully. The pickup 5 mans are random and not worth the 30 min deserter debuff unless you really HATE your teammates.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
10 Man Group - Another One
YET another Pug 10 man for my DK. Phayatii is our group leader. This would be team #2 for ICC 10 in guild. I've bitched plenty. I was there on time and I'm there every day on time. Great that I actually earned a spot on a squad.
MT/ Offtank are insanely geared. Offtank has 4pT10 and the MT is one of our Guild's MTs. No tank lewt dropped. The Tanks picked up offset dps gear and 3 caster weapons dropped. No drops for me, other than badges. We one-shot everything, even though one of our main healers was held up in traffic for an hour. We wound up 9 manning Marrowgar and downed Lady Deathwhisper. Gunship and Sarufang were dealt with by 10 people.
Gunship note - PUT ON YOUR DAMMED ROCKET PACK! I wasn't thinking and I got my rocket pack from the goblin on the 3rd boss fight in ICC 10. I've done it a dozen times easily. I'm exalted there. I forgot to test out the rocket pack - so it didn't equip - so I wasn't useful on the gunship battle. Not having a usable rocket pack will HURT your team's performance on the fight. The Frost mage + Cannons are a big part of the battle.
Dam close call on DPS vs the Orc gunship Race. because there was only 1 dps on the Frost mage. Nobody else picked up the slack. Yep, that's my bad. Nobody else wanted to go over and DPS the mage?? Yea. That thought was nagging me too. Probably an indictment of the team.
We had a new warlock with us. He knew the fights. We got into the upper spire and got our weekly. Rotface + Festergut. We were confident we could 1 shot them both. We didn't. Festergut got our tank on a bad swap and we got crunched losing a tank. No loss, cause it was our first attempt at either. Our second attempt got Festergut easily. Rotface was more of the same. We didnt' use heroism and someone ran a slime thru the middle to create a "Big Slime" chewing on the MT/OT. That led to a dead warlock and a Paladin DI that wiped diseases off the only person to live thru it all.
Then came the attempts on Putricide. Ohh how fun is that?? I told ya I hate this guy. We did surprisingly well on phase 1 and phase 2. Dps was on all adds and we got him to phase 3. Ohh yea that 35% limit.... If you have NO Adds during phase 3 transition => Smooth fight vs Professor on a floor of green nuclear slime. Professor putricide won't summon any more.
If you have an add up during the transition, you have to run around, slow the add without an Abom present, and kill the add, while trying to burn the boss down from 35% before the stacks fall off tanks for UBER HP regen. If you're not focused, the add explosions knock you all over the place, Putricide gets up to 60% or more in a hurry, and your raid is wiped. We were the second strat.
Three tries and people ran out of time. Our best attempt was the first one. We had all dps were on all slimes and we got him to phase 3. Once we swtiched to ALL on Green and Ranged on Orange, we died on phase 2. Much harder fight. Definite learning curve.
This group has some very good raiders. Guild GM Healer, Guild Tank, and some solid Guild DPS. This makes for a reliable 10 man. What we don't have is alot of ranged casters. No mage. No Elemental shaman. Just One Warlock and One Hunter. Pally and Disc priest healers. Pally tank. Warrior Tank. DK Dps. Feral Druid DPS.
This may make for some unusual progression.
MT/ Offtank are insanely geared. Offtank has 4pT10 and the MT is one of our Guild's MTs. No tank lewt dropped. The Tanks picked up offset dps gear and 3 caster weapons dropped. No drops for me, other than badges. We one-shot everything, even though one of our main healers was held up in traffic for an hour. We wound up 9 manning Marrowgar and downed Lady Deathwhisper. Gunship and Sarufang were dealt with by 10 people.
Gunship note - PUT ON YOUR DAMMED ROCKET PACK! I wasn't thinking and I got my rocket pack from the goblin on the 3rd boss fight in ICC 10. I've done it a dozen times easily. I'm exalted there. I forgot to test out the rocket pack - so it didn't equip - so I wasn't useful on the gunship battle. Not having a usable rocket pack will HURT your team's performance on the fight. The Frost mage + Cannons are a big part of the battle.
Dam close call on DPS vs the Orc gunship Race. because there was only 1 dps on the Frost mage. Nobody else picked up the slack. Yep, that's my bad. Nobody else wanted to go over and DPS the mage?? Yea. That thought was nagging me too. Probably an indictment of the team.
We had a new warlock with us. He knew the fights. We got into the upper spire and got our weekly. Rotface + Festergut. We were confident we could 1 shot them both. We didn't. Festergut got our tank on a bad swap and we got crunched losing a tank. No loss, cause it was our first attempt at either. Our second attempt got Festergut easily. Rotface was more of the same. We didnt' use heroism and someone ran a slime thru the middle to create a "Big Slime" chewing on the MT/OT. That led to a dead warlock and a Paladin DI that wiped diseases off the only person to live thru it all.
Then came the attempts on Putricide. Ohh how fun is that?? I told ya I hate this guy. We did surprisingly well on phase 1 and phase 2. Dps was on all adds and we got him to phase 3. Ohh yea that 35% limit.... If you have NO Adds during phase 3 transition => Smooth fight vs Professor on a floor of green nuclear slime. Professor putricide won't summon any more.
If you have an add up during the transition, you have to run around, slow the add without an Abom present, and kill the add, while trying to burn the boss down from 35% before the stacks fall off tanks for UBER HP regen. If you're not focused, the add explosions knock you all over the place, Putricide gets up to 60% or more in a hurry, and your raid is wiped. We were the second strat.
Three tries and people ran out of time. Our best attempt was the first one. We had all dps were on all slimes and we got him to phase 3. Once we swtiched to ALL on Green and Ranged on Orange, we died on phase 2. Much harder fight. Definite learning curve.
This group has some very good raiders. Guild GM Healer, Guild Tank, and some solid Guild DPS. This makes for a reliable 10 man. What we don't have is alot of ranged casters. No mage. No Elemental shaman. Just One Warlock and One Hunter. Pally and Disc priest healers. Pally tank. Warrior Tank. DK Dps. Feral Druid DPS.
This may make for some unusual progression.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
ICC 25 - First Half
Having the first half dozen ICC bosses on farm is now the norm for raiders. I'm at ICC 25 6/12 and ICC 10 8/12. Professor putricide, the Dragons, and the LK are the only ones left to learn and beat. I can't even say that it's skill or gear holding us up. It's time spent on task.
We had a big meeting for almost an hour on the future of guild raiding. We decided to switch raids to Tues/Wed and Thurs/Fri groups for our Main / Alt runs. This way the "A Team" had two solid days to burn on attempts.
What's holding us up? We just formally moved away from "Casual" raiding and have a solid 25 man team. We also have several 10 man groups that aren't formalized. That means they raid with each other and include out of guild buddies.
I'm pissed about that last part because I'm an established 25 man raider without a 10 man team. I'm going to have to get into a solid 10 man team. I'm getting one if it kills me. UGH! I think it's gonna.
10 man team Fairy?? Where IZ EWE ?
Ahh Well back to the raiding.
Opening trash. We have a couple of raiders with Shadow's Edge. They do uber dps. 13k dps in some cases dual wielding that in Mainhand. Rocking out the meters vs trash. Didn't have an issue. We didn't even bother with the full clear. Most of us are exalted or dammed near.
Marrowgar - Pwnt. We were lightning fast on the spike clears. Everyone stood nearby and made the job easier. Didn't see any [Boned - 25 man] achievements but that's also because most of us have it. Butter smooth. No deaths.
Lady Deathwhisper - Dealt with. She sent her minions. We cleared them super fast. Then returned to do more dps. There were a few personal slip ups, but that's because an a skeleton add appeared after we left our side. We also lost a player due to over-zealous raiders blasting them during Mind control. We know better. I'm sure it doesn't take much for a Mage to 2 shot a player or a Warlock to stack him up with dots. OOPS. Only 1 player went down.
Ramparts Weekly boss - Messy. On 25 man it's kinda hard to keep everyone alive, but we have like a dozen more people to infect with Death plague before players go boom. Those unfamiliar with the mechanic, it's not easy to learn. We were all familiar with it. My only big regret is that I was swapping a Plague with Heelar and killed him ( our guild's GM and Holy priest ). Apparently, it's a 12k hit. He can take that. Sadly, there was an AOE frost cone + shockwave + my plague touch.... so I kinda broke him. Ooopse! We got out of that one with 18/25. We rezzed the dead and turned in the weekly quest. Got 5 more Frost badgs. Still no 264 BoE Epics.
Gunship - Eeesh. We had a bugged Sarufang that wouldn't engage the Away Tank. He kept getting stacks of Enrage. Then ripped apart the dps on the Frost mage instead of going to the AT when taunted. DPS died. I was the last one left and downed the Frost mage before dying. Last two waves were seeing warlocks and mages and other classes that normally don't Rocket-pack over there. We got the kill. Enemy ship defeated. Very messy tho. First time I've ever died on 25 man Gunship.
Sarufang - Easy peasy. Way used to this fight and 25 man version was smooooth. He only got off one stack at the very end. THe boss dropped the Death Trinket and I was 2nd on the EPDP list. Next week, maybe.
Roftface + Festergut. Another flawless run. Both went down on the first try. Oour Pally Offtank for Rotface is at 50k and we all knew where to run and what to do. Slimes were easy to avoid as well as the explosions. Both bosses were free loot.
Professor Putricide. This guy is a real roadblock. I'd use another word that rhymes with Roadblock... but let's stay civil. Putricide does 19 different things. There are 7 ways to die and 3 things to worry about at all times. You either push him into phase 3 at the right time, or you die. Chaos and mayhem. Melee on Green globs. Ranged dps on Orange globs. Void the explosive bottles. Globs of green goo thrown by the Prof. Lime colored slime. Green blob explosions. Oh yea. Run back to the boss. Hey everyone is dead! Rinse and repeat.
Putricide is a painful encounter. I'd rather the blood counsul and the queen. Those I've beaten in 10 man before. The Prof is still a ball buster.
We had a big meeting for almost an hour on the future of guild raiding. We decided to switch raids to Tues/Wed and Thurs/Fri groups for our Main / Alt runs. This way the "A Team" had two solid days to burn on attempts.
What's holding us up? We just formally moved away from "Casual" raiding and have a solid 25 man team. We also have several 10 man groups that aren't formalized. That means they raid with each other and include out of guild buddies.
I'm pissed about that last part because I'm an established 25 man raider without a 10 man team. I'm going to have to get into a solid 10 man team. I'm getting one if it kills me. UGH! I think it's gonna.
10 man team Fairy?? Where IZ EWE ?
Ahh Well back to the raiding.
Opening trash. We have a couple of raiders with Shadow's Edge. They do uber dps. 13k dps in some cases dual wielding that in Mainhand. Rocking out the meters vs trash. Didn't have an issue. We didn't even bother with the full clear. Most of us are exalted or dammed near.
Marrowgar - Pwnt. We were lightning fast on the spike clears. Everyone stood nearby and made the job easier. Didn't see any [Boned - 25 man] achievements but that's also because most of us have it. Butter smooth. No deaths.
Lady Deathwhisper - Dealt with. She sent her minions. We cleared them super fast. Then returned to do more dps. There were a few personal slip ups, but that's because an a skeleton add appeared after we left our side. We also lost a player due to over-zealous raiders blasting them during Mind control. We know better. I'm sure it doesn't take much for a Mage to 2 shot a player or a Warlock to stack him up with dots. OOPS. Only 1 player went down.
Ramparts Weekly boss - Messy. On 25 man it's kinda hard to keep everyone alive, but we have like a dozen more people to infect with Death plague before players go boom. Those unfamiliar with the mechanic, it's not easy to learn. We were all familiar with it. My only big regret is that I was swapping a Plague with Heelar and killed him ( our guild's GM and Holy priest ). Apparently, it's a 12k hit. He can take that. Sadly, there was an AOE frost cone + shockwave + my plague touch.... so I kinda broke him. Ooopse! We got out of that one with 18/25. We rezzed the dead and turned in the weekly quest. Got 5 more Frost badgs. Still no 264 BoE Epics.
Gunship - Eeesh. We had a bugged Sarufang that wouldn't engage the Away Tank. He kept getting stacks of Enrage. Then ripped apart the dps on the Frost mage instead of going to the AT when taunted. DPS died. I was the last one left and downed the Frost mage before dying. Last two waves were seeing warlocks and mages and other classes that normally don't Rocket-pack over there. We got the kill. Enemy ship defeated. Very messy tho. First time I've ever died on 25 man Gunship.
Sarufang - Easy peasy. Way used to this fight and 25 man version was smooooth. He only got off one stack at the very end. THe boss dropped the Death Trinket and I was 2nd on the EPDP list. Next week, maybe.
Roftface + Festergut. Another flawless run. Both went down on the first try. Oour Pally Offtank for Rotface is at 50k and we all knew where to run and what to do. Slimes were easy to avoid as well as the explosions. Both bosses were free loot.
Professor Putricide. This guy is a real roadblock. I'd use another word that rhymes with Roadblock... but let's stay civil. Putricide does 19 different things. There are 7 ways to die and 3 things to worry about at all times. You either push him into phase 3 at the right time, or you die. Chaos and mayhem. Melee on Green globs. Ranged dps on Orange globs. Void the explosive bottles. Globs of green goo thrown by the Prof. Lime colored slime. Green blob explosions. Oh yea. Run back to the boss. Hey everyone is dead! Rinse and repeat.
Putricide is a painful encounter. I'd rather the blood counsul and the queen. Those I've beaten in 10 man before. The Prof is still a ball buster.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Resto 2.0
I've been a shaman at level 80 for about 6 months. Spent the first couple of weeks as Enhancement / Elemental. Ran around swinging madly at things trying to lava lash everything I could reach. ULD/ Naxx raids and 5 mans before the new LFG group finding system. Pretty frustrating for a new level 80. Decided shaman endgame wasn't my cup of tea.
I swtiched to level my DK some and digest this problem while I was grinding levels. Dam that DK was fun to play. Hell, I liked it so much, I was playing her to the exclusion of all my other toons. For some people, it may not seem much. I have alot of toons. Like an 80 Hunter, 80 Priest, 80 Mage, 80 Warrior, 80 Shaman, 80 DK, 80 Warlock, 72 Paladin, 38 Druid, and a noobie Lv18 Orc Shaman to play on the Horde side.
Yea. I have alts disease. I don't change my primary character easily, but I've also played this game since release date. So I know the basics of pretty much every class and then some. I've now stopped trying to KILL myself getting every Weekly raid quest done on all seven raid level toons. Nowadays I hit up maybe 2 or 3 weeklys and VoA 25/10 on two characters. I only hit ICC 10/25 with my top two or three characters. No sense in keeping a half dozen characters in the endgame. Too much work grinding badges for characters I rarely use. Too expensive gemming Epic gems and Enchants.
Gearscore breakdown: They're always changing. My top toon is just bestial. Can't lie. My bottom toon is still using Relic gear. The most fun ones are the ones that have 10,000 others competing for the same raid spots. I still manage to play what I want to.
Dk 3185 Dps / 2800 Tank
Hunter 2965 Marks
Sham 2885 Resto / 2830 Ele ( Like 2600 Friday )
Priest 2400 Shadow / 2000 Holy
Warrior 2200 Arms / 2200 Prot
Mage 2100 Fire
Warlock 1970 Destro
Are my characters reduced to a stupid 4 digit number? Hardly. They're ALL me. I just see them as either needing gear or NOT needing anything. Still it gives a nice baseline to separate the 80s that are looking for 1 item from Endgame and those 80s that would take anything 232 that dropped.
My shaman, is somewhere between. Last weekend, I had enough combined gear to strike back into ICC 10 and raid endgame again. I hooked up with an old friend that was Raidleader for a pickup team I ran my DK with. She was a fantastic tank and a solid raider. We had a great time. For this run, she needed a healer, and so I go ... back into the fray.
I swtiched to level my DK some and digest this problem while I was grinding levels. Dam that DK was fun to play. Hell, I liked it so much, I was playing her to the exclusion of all my other toons. For some people, it may not seem much. I have alot of toons. Like an 80 Hunter, 80 Priest, 80 Mage, 80 Warrior, 80 Shaman, 80 DK, 80 Warlock, 72 Paladin, 38 Druid, and a noobie Lv18 Orc Shaman to play on the Horde side.
Yea. I have alts disease. I don't change my primary character easily, but I've also played this game since release date. So I know the basics of pretty much every class and then some. I've now stopped trying to KILL myself getting every Weekly raid quest done on all seven raid level toons. Nowadays I hit up maybe 2 or 3 weeklys and VoA 25/10 on two characters. I only hit ICC 10/25 with my top two or three characters. No sense in keeping a half dozen characters in the endgame. Too much work grinding badges for characters I rarely use. Too expensive gemming Epic gems and Enchants.
Gearscore breakdown: They're always changing. My top toon is just bestial. Can't lie. My bottom toon is still using Relic gear. The most fun ones are the ones that have 10,000 others competing for the same raid spots. I still manage to play what I want to.
Dk 3185 Dps / 2800 Tank
Hunter 2965 Marks
Sham 2885 Resto / 2830 Ele ( Like 2600 Friday )
Priest 2400 Shadow / 2000 Holy
Warrior 2200 Arms / 2200 Prot
Mage 2100 Fire
Warlock 1970 Destro
Are my characters reduced to a stupid 4 digit number? Hardly. They're ALL me. I just see them as either needing gear or NOT needing anything. Still it gives a nice baseline to separate the 80s that are looking for 1 item from Endgame and those 80s that would take anything 232 that dropped.
My shaman, is somewhere between. Last weekend, I had enough combined gear to strike back into ICC 10 and raid endgame again. I hooked up with an old friend that was Raidleader for a pickup team I ran my DK with. She was a fantastic tank and a solid raider. We had a great time. For this run, she needed a healer, and so I go ... back into the fray.
Paradigm Shift
My philosophy as a Shaman is to play and have fun. It's generally my philosphy as a whole for MMO games. From Level 1-70, you can grind as Enhance shaman to destroy things without regard to consequence. It's hella fun. You don't need to group and you can regain mana / health as fast as you can spend it. As long as you don't "Overpull" and die, you cannot be stopped. Gettting and keeping 100% efficiency while grinding / levelling is the ultimate goal for character progression.
Restarted an orc this last week on the Horde side of Eonar. My wife has a 4 week head-start and got her hunter to Lv28. Now she's goading me to join her with my own toon.
Next few posts should be interesting being a Noob Shaman again with Every relic item, Four toons with Max Crafting skill, and several thousand gold at my disposal. Battered Hilt? Not quite ready for that, yet.
Restarted an orc this last week on the Horde side of Eonar. My wife has a 4 week head-start and got her hunter to Lv28. Now she's goading me to join her with my own toon.
Next few posts should be interesting being a Noob Shaman again with Every relic item, Four toons with Max Crafting skill, and several thousand gold at my disposal. Battered Hilt? Not quite ready for that, yet.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
My Darker Side
Dks have been around since WoTLK released. We’ve all made one up to see what the news was about, but I personally didn’t get excited about things until just a couple of months ago. I stopped running Ulduar /ToC instances on my Hunter and got back to the basics of leveling. I had my other characters up to level 80 and got familiar with doing raids as an Elemental Shaman. Around December of this last year, my son and I decided to start up characters together.
We all have darker sides and the DK was a fun way to play a "Bad guy" and get all the super-powers I'd ever wanted immmediately. DKs are overpwoered. I have to admit it. They rocked great damage from day 1. We both rolled Alliance DK’s and got into testing out different specs and gear setups for solo Dk’s. I got better atusing the damage meter along with message boards to tweak my damage output for yet ANOTHER class.
Over the months, my rotation got better and I got to check out all three trees thoroughly. I was initially Unholy spec till level 60. Then got into Blood spec till 68. Then I moved my character into Northrend and REALLY took off. I dual specced around 72 and started to build up a second tank set. By the time I hit 80, I had a collection of Blues and a few crafted epics. He was still PvPing with his buddies at level 74. I was moving into Raiding and he was back to a new alt to try out.
The LFG tool allowed me to get into pickup groups SUPER easily. I soon had enough Triumph badges to get my 2pT9 set very quickly. Then I could run the new instances for 232 epics and stomp thru ToC 25 for Trophies. Then I decided to grind out heroics non-stop for a week. I had my 245 Tome as well as a nice 2Hander and the Rep Ring and Frost Badge Cloak.
After a couple of ICC 25 Pugs and a couple more ICC 10 Pugs, I had enough gear to be respectable at DPS and a half-decent tank. Sadly, the guild I was involved with disintegrated with the leadership suddenly left for a 25 man guild. No sense in sticking around, I left for greener pastures. I eventually found a good group of guys running ICC 25 on DKP as an endgame raider.
Bout time I shared some of that info I’ve learned on the way here….
We all have darker sides and the DK was a fun way to play a "Bad guy" and get all the super-powers I'd ever wanted immmediately. DKs are overpwoered. I have to admit it. They rocked great damage from day 1. We both rolled Alliance DK’s and got into testing out different specs and gear setups for solo Dk’s. I got better atusing the damage meter along with message boards to tweak my damage output for yet ANOTHER class.
Over the months, my rotation got better and I got to check out all three trees thoroughly. I was initially Unholy spec till level 60. Then got into Blood spec till 68. Then I moved my character into Northrend and REALLY took off. I dual specced around 72 and started to build up a second tank set. By the time I hit 80, I had a collection of Blues and a few crafted epics. He was still PvPing with his buddies at level 74. I was moving into Raiding and he was back to a new alt to try out.
The LFG tool allowed me to get into pickup groups SUPER easily. I soon had enough Triumph badges to get my 2pT9 set very quickly. Then I could run the new instances for 232 epics and stomp thru ToC 25 for Trophies. Then I decided to grind out heroics non-stop for a week. I had my 245 Tome as well as a nice 2Hander and the Rep Ring and Frost Badge Cloak.
After a couple of ICC 25 Pugs and a couple more ICC 10 Pugs, I had enough gear to be respectable at DPS and a half-decent tank. Sadly, the guild I was involved with disintegrated with the leadership suddenly left for a 25 man guild. No sense in sticking around, I left for greener pastures. I eventually found a good group of guys running ICC 25 on DKP as an endgame raider.
Bout time I shared some of that info I’ve learned on the way here….
Your First Epic DK Weapon
If money is no object, your first two handed weapon should be the Battered Hilt to start the Quel del'ar chain of quests. This mythically rare drop epic only appears on elite ( non trash ) mobs in the three new Heroic 5 man instances for ICC. You can only run them once a day and possibly a few times if they come up as random runs.
Quel Del'ar . BIS 5 man dropped weapon / quest item. Super easy quest to do. AH prices on this item on my server have gone from 14,000 gold to as low as 11,500 gold. Consider yourself the luckiest DK in the world to get this drop, roll need, and win it to start the quest. The rest of us peons don't have the money or eventually upgrade to the 10 / 25 man epics. I have run each of these instances maybe a hundred times combined on six level 80 characters. Never once seen the hilt drop. Other players sell them off once a month for extra cash. Sickening.
Tyrannical Beheader. Once you qualify to run Heroic Pit of Saron ( 2000 GS or better ), you should repeat this instance to get this rare drop off the last boss - Scourgelord Tyrannus. Run as a DPS and you shoulnd't have too much competition getting the axe. Fury 2H warriors, Ret Paladins, and Ninja Tanks should be your only other competition as a Dps DK.
Orca Hunter's Harpoon. AGI / STA version of your beloved Axe. This one is a polearm. Primary competition is the Hunter / Ret Paladin crowd. It also has a gem slot for occasional use as a tanking item. Don't turn down a 232 iLevel weapon if its an upgrade.
Garfrost's Hammer / Edge of Ruin. Third tier 219 iLevel Dk tank weapons. Good for the job. Pretty common to get. Don't invest too much effort in Re-running Heroic ToC. The same que time can be done to get into HPoS for a much better axe.
Pre-level 80.... Wow, there's alot of open debate. I would personally get the quest 2H blue weapon from the Ampitheater of Anguish. It's a fine 178 iLevel axe. Old guides will lead you astray, grasshopper. You would work your faction up to Revered with Knights of the Ebon blade and get their faction 2H Weapon. That's a 187 iLevel sword. Possibly , you could work your way up thru the Argent Dawn Tournament and get epic weapons from your favorite city group. Finally it was recommended to run Heroic Halls of Lightning to get the 200 iLevel Epic Axe from Loken. It's good, but you won't get alot of mileage out of it, if you raid - at all.
Now, it's just Easier to run the new 5-man ICC instances until you get the Epic flavor of the week. Two handers not your favorite brand of damage dealer? The new ICC instances have a bevvy of Axes, Swords, and Maces to slake your thrist. Grind em out. Collect your badges, and get that 4pT9 set put together. There's enough 232 gear in the new heroics to equip a DK nicely as a DPS and an Offtank for ToC 10 and Ulduar 10.
There are at least two weeks of SOLID work to gear up for a 2500 GS and a shot at Icecrown Citadel 10. If you are in an established guild, you can ride along or you get very lucky with a PuG group, you may find yourself the proud owner of a 251 Citadel Claymore or a Ramaldi's Polearm. Thank your lucky stars, because the final tier is the ICC 25 weapons or Shadow's Edge.
Quel Del'ar . BIS 5 man dropped weapon / quest item. Super easy quest to do. AH prices on this item on my server have gone from 14,000 gold to as low as 11,500 gold. Consider yourself the luckiest DK in the world to get this drop, roll need, and win it to start the quest. The rest of us peons don't have the money or eventually upgrade to the 10 / 25 man epics. I have run each of these instances maybe a hundred times combined on six level 80 characters. Never once seen the hilt drop. Other players sell them off once a month for extra cash. Sickening.
Tyrannical Beheader. Once you qualify to run Heroic Pit of Saron ( 2000 GS or better ), you should repeat this instance to get this rare drop off the last boss - Scourgelord Tyrannus. Run as a DPS and you shoulnd't have too much competition getting the axe. Fury 2H warriors, Ret Paladins, and Ninja Tanks should be your only other competition as a Dps DK.
Orca Hunter's Harpoon. AGI / STA version of your beloved Axe. This one is a polearm. Primary competition is the Hunter / Ret Paladin crowd. It also has a gem slot for occasional use as a tanking item. Don't turn down a 232 iLevel weapon if its an upgrade.
Garfrost's Hammer / Edge of Ruin. Third tier 219 iLevel Dk tank weapons. Good for the job. Pretty common to get. Don't invest too much effort in Re-running Heroic ToC. The same que time can be done to get into HPoS for a much better axe.
Pre-level 80.... Wow, there's alot of open debate. I would personally get the quest 2H blue weapon from the Ampitheater of Anguish. It's a fine 178 iLevel axe. Old guides will lead you astray, grasshopper. You would work your faction up to Revered with Knights of the Ebon blade and get their faction 2H Weapon. That's a 187 iLevel sword. Possibly , you could work your way up thru the Argent Dawn Tournament and get epic weapons from your favorite city group. Finally it was recommended to run Heroic Halls of Lightning to get the 200 iLevel Epic Axe from Loken. It's good, but you won't get alot of mileage out of it, if you raid - at all.
Now, it's just Easier to run the new 5-man ICC instances until you get the Epic flavor of the week. Two handers not your favorite brand of damage dealer? The new ICC instances have a bevvy of Axes, Swords, and Maces to slake your thrist. Grind em out. Collect your badges, and get that 4pT9 set put together. There's enough 232 gear in the new heroics to equip a DK nicely as a DPS and an Offtank for ToC 10 and Ulduar 10.
There are at least two weeks of SOLID work to gear up for a 2500 GS and a shot at Icecrown Citadel 10. If you are in an established guild, you can ride along or you get very lucky with a PuG group, you may find yourself the proud owner of a 251 Citadel Claymore or a Ramaldi's Polearm. Thank your lucky stars, because the final tier is the ICC 25 weapons or Shadow's Edge.
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