We All Missed Darkmoon

It seems that the npcs of Darkmoon have taken March off; and I for one missed them. What ever the cause the game did not sync with the calendar in the last week or so, and there is much anger and spamming. Mine included. A good summary of the conversation here on Blue Tracker, and my post to ask some questions on the official forums.

What I dont get is that the Faire was planned for Elwynn forest. I was in Elwynn forest a few days before the 10th (scheduled start on the web) and it was not there.If it was a week early, then I’d have seen it. It appears it was not there at all due to some other issue.

I hope we can see a spawn after the reboot/maintenance on Tuesday. I am like many others, I have been waiting for a few weeks to turn in a deck for one of the trinkets; another month is really not good.

Also if there was a recognised issue of the calendar being wrong as the event happened early, why did they not update the calendar? Or announce it?

 For me that means another month of waiting to get the Vengence card, which is another month before I’ll have a jump in my stats for tanking. With a Kara raid planned for Friday, this is not good.

Update: The gist of the Blizzard Forum thread indicates that darkmoon will spawn after the shutdown on Tuesday. Yay! Thank you to Blizzard for understanding our frustration, and thank you to all the forum posters and bloggers for creating the buzz/hype/drama to get this done. It looks like Kisirani did most of the legwork on this one.

Screenshots and observations

With so much happening, I’ll say it with pictures. Above is my Warlock called Aurac, who was fighting hard to stay healthy during the run. I was spoilt by the run as I got my Malefic Girdle, and Voidheart Gloves.

Still so much to do in Kara, and apart from anything else I need some better weapons.

Last night I also entered Kara for the first time with Diamon, my Prot Paladin. He was not actually fighting, but was able to jump in after the run where Aurac was getting spanked to complete the first part of the massive Kara quest chains.

I was stoked to see him walking around in there.

As it was a slow night a few of us Endeavour folks decided to start some Horde toons. We have a Blood Elf Warlock, a Blood Elf Paladin; and I picked a Tauren Druid – named Casserole (I like naming things).

I’ll hopefully enjoy the Druid class as I can see them being a good hybrid class, and I like that about the Paladin. The class mix should be very complementary, as two of the three can heal, might be able to tank later, and we can all dish out some damage.

 Crowd control might be lacking a bit, but I hope we all play at the same time, so three people playing at the same time will make questing easy.

I ding’ed level 6, picked up First Aid, Leatherworking, and Skinning. I was thinking of Herbalism or Mining and might switch, but I don’t want to take something that the other guys might take, and then have to share the nodes. Cooking basic training was more money than I had, but I’m planning on getting Cooking and Fishing, as they’re great stuff to do while waiting.

What spec will I choose, which gear path, blah, blah, blah? Stop! 

Goals:

• Some good sized bags
• Get across to the Blood Elf area, so I can play with the guys.
• Either start a guild, or join one. Naming your guild is fun, and with us having 70s on the other side of the war, cash should be as simple as a trip to the neutral auction house.

I have to go now and attend the Alt-aholics meeting.

The Tankadin Unleashed – Part Three

Now that I’ve tanked a bit, I can see more of the balance you need in gear. +sp dam really helps me keep aggro, but +defense will make me immune to crits.

As a related segway, now I’m planning whats next for my toons. My goals are pretty much limited by time and gold; and to be honnest as gold is aquired over time, its really a question of what order to burn time on.

Ands thats what makes a good character in WoW, the time you spend. I’d agrue that any reasonable intelligent person who spends the time can get a nice character. This is why many people have 4x 70s, but others struggle for just one.

If I had 25,000 gold tomorrow it would accelerate my gear progression, but not fix the goals of getting certain drops and getting a good level of rep, which unlocks pattern and gear.

When I can, I’ll always run an instance. Most of the time this will generate money (unless we wipe a few times), and also get gear, practice, and rep.

As I run two characters, my shopping list is based upon the stuff that will have the most significant upgrade, but may not be the order I aquire them.

Here goes:

Paladin goals

1) Tankatronic Goggles (time – dependent on heroic badges or being lucky)
2) Darkmoon card – Vengeance (gold – just need the Six of Furies)
3) Epic mount (gold)
4) Kara / Heoric level gear (time)
5) Engineering to 375 (gold)
6) Gold
7) BG epic single-hander (time)

Warlock goals

1) Exalted with Violet Eye, etc (time)
2) Kara, Gruuls, and ZA gear (time and luck)
3) Enchanting to 375 (gold)
4) Gold
5) BG gear (time)

Make your own cartoons

Even though you might lack any drawing skill at all, and have little idea of layout – a great little tool is available for the budding cartoonists who wish to make an impression.

Stripgenerator just such a thing, and its fun to waste time on. All I need now is a good few jokes to tell – which the tool can’t help you with. Shame really I could use the help (see my junky strips below).

Here is better quality versions -  Angsty Tanks in Warcraft, and some other thoughts.

Paladin hits 70 and a new ride

Wednesday night my paladin hit 70, which I’m pretty chuffed about. What made it extra sweet was flying straight away to get a flying mount. I had to save for a while to get the cash together for my warlock’s flying mount, and even longer for him to get his epic flyer.

This was not quite the same level of excitement, but certainly made the event a milestone in wow for me. White was the only real choice, as I don’t like the look of the black (unless its on a shadow priest), and the gold looks just like the normal gryphons, which is something I’m well sick of flying around on.

Screenshots

A few good screenies, to stretch time a bit – which is what I do when affected by lag or loading screens:

This is the result of a few Horde folks wandering into Iron Forge with evil intentions. Good show chaps, I think you deserve a small reward and a corpse run. I arrived very late by chance, and only saw the Warlock, Mage, and Rogue get killed but get the impression that a stack of Horde must have initially been involved – because the boddies were everywhere.

Also in this pic s a great character name: Ignore. Thats great, better than my suggested pvp team name of <Reagent Vendor>.

And this shot from a Shadow Labs run, where I tried to look threatening to all the monsters at level 68. A few laughed, but then saw the 4x 70s with me, and when all quiet, and dead.

Welcome to Nagrand (population: you)

 

Nagrand is the new Stranglethorn Vale. Rolling hills, streams, trees, and plenty of mobs.

The zone is full of both solo and groups quests, has a huge area to cover, a very large range of beasties present, and you can get killed while resting (which is the theme in tBC).

Its also just like STV in that you need to quests there, but they can get very tedious. To top it off that layabout Nessingwary is there – asking you to prove your skills, so he can reward you. If this guys is such a great hunter, why not go kill the animals himself. What  a bloated windbag!

Hopefully I’ll be through Nagrand is a few days, and will only return later at 70 to grind up some rep.

There are group quests in each zone that are just a pain to get done – and Terrokar Forest and Nagrand seem to be well populated with these funky quests.

Highlights:

• Ring of Blood
• Halaa 18 slot bags
• Son of Gruul (who walks very quietly for a 1000 ft tall monster)

The Tankadin Unleashed (ooh, the colours)

Before shutdown last night the guild helped be through my first instance as a tank. And when I mean helped, I mean 4x level 70 characters zurg rushed through Manna Tombs, much to displeasure : pain and screaming of the inhabitants. It was like using a sledgehammer to crack wallnuts – blunt, ugly, and effective.

The downside was that I didn’t learn a whole lot about tanking, more how to watch pretty lights. My GUI didn’t know what hit it, and I was a tad lost during much of the combat. Its very different from sitting back healing, and totally different from DPS as a range caster. That run also has me thinking that perhaps I’ll load up on some more spell damage gear, and will certainly look out for the Felsteel items, particularly the Gloves and Helm.

And it was also darn enjoyable. The guys on the run were in fine form, and there were only a few times where we even got close to being in trouble.

The upside was excellent: a new shield: Shield of the Void from Pandemonius (his shadow damage during knockback is nasty), and a new pair of boots: Flesh Beast’s Metal Greaves from a quest. Also got the legs: Consortium Plated Legguards from another quest reward, but as they’re really for a Healer – they get compared to my other gear in storage, but most likely banked.

My plan is to solo grind for a bit to setup my GUI and get used to this new playing style. I can always jump into some runs if they occur, and hopefully the group will be forgiving of my noobness.

In warlock news

We also got the 5 man done which is the lead in to the Netherwing daily quests. With that and Orgilla, I should be up to my neck in daily quests – which will fund my enchanting, and a possibly a flyer for the pally when he gets to 70.

Toon Update

Heya all – time for another toon update…

Paladin “needs more rage”

After a good few afternoons of questing and grinding, I’ve dinged level 66 on my Paladin and now thinking of a Protection respect. I’ve played a Holy pally through the some of the 60 end-game (MC, ZG), and a Warlock into 70 (early Kara); so Healing and DPS are things that I understand pretty well. Thus I’m pretty nervous about Prot, as tanking is the skill that skill that I’ve tried to avoid till now.

As example of why– I’ve never tanked more than SM on my lowbie 38 Warrior, and I made a dog’s breakfast out of it (bad pug, and my lack of understanding made it worse).

However the Tankadin looks like a winning tank IMHO. If what I read is correct they can multi-mob tank very well, and their TPS (threat per second) is based upon holy damage which only gets better with +damage gear. Being bad at multi-mob tanking is the thing that kept we away from Tanking in the first place, and if being a Tankadin makes this easier to do, then I’ll try it. That nifty ability to grab aggro for 3 seconds from anyone will come in way handy, especially once I grab a macro that makes targeting it simple.

Being a tank will also make getting groups easier, as almost every LFG tell I see is looking for a healer or tank. I’ve got no intention of trying to split between Prot and Holy, and on first look the Prot + Ret looks the way to go, and I’ll leave the healing to somebody else. I figure I can always bubble + heal / bandage when solo, and in instances it shouldn’t be my problem.

Tankadin – good for tanking, but what about levelling?
Although this all looks fantastic, a fear I have is that the capacity for levelling after a respect will go out the window. I’ve been told that killing one mob, or killing 3 is about the same for a Prot paladin. So the question comes – when is best to make the switch?

Another part of my brain is saying “stay Retribution man, you’ll get to 70 faster”. Gear will be replaced, and keep levelling as Ret, but pick the Tanking quest rewards, so that I have good gear when finally switching over.

One of the guides that I’m reading has a good discussion going; especially for the pre-60 path.

And a tank build linked from there, which looks sensible for a full time tank, but I’m not sure about it for levelling.

The reason I say this is that Seal of Command is excellent for quickly dropping casters, especially when you have a good two hander. And I know you shouldn’t have a 2h weapon while Prot, but there are times that maybe SoC might be handy. Warlocks especially frustrate me, Shamans a bit less, then Druids, and then other Paladins. When I’m grinding I want some plain mobs, that hit like trucks and have no special abilities which I’ve got to try and stun/stop.

I’m thinking that the 5pts in Holy which gain 10% extra Int might not be worth it. I can add 3 more points in Ret and get SoC, a bonus to Parry, and still get a 2 pts in Holy for a minor Int bump. I was thinking of this build as an alternative. This spec is 2/46/13 which means that I can skip the 2 in Holy and 2 in Ret, while at 66 – and add them in as I level.

Finally I suppose that if I really suck at tanking I can always re-spec back to Ret (gold cost aside); and then be a Ret-nub in the LFG channel till the WotLK is released.

A great fun Run – Blood Furnace
A side note for the weekend was my run in Blood Furnace. The pug was great, we didn’t wipe, and handled the mobs well. A good reason for this was the 70 Priest who was healing us, and the tank who didn’t mind when I stole aggro. Being a 65 and the instance is for the 62-63s helped too, but we honnestly did communicate well, and were patient with each other. A few times we took our foot of the pedal to take a break, and still the tempo was maintained. I also dinged 66 during the run, and the Warlock dinged 61.

Warlock is now friendly with Ogrilla-la-la-la
This weekend the guildies also finally got my Warlock friendly with Ogrilla, which means I have access to a stack more daily quests. This is great for the gold generation, especially as the Bombing run is far easier when you have an epic flyer. A guild-mate on a standard flyer was having a bit of trouble getting dismounted, while I was able to duck-and-weave through most of the cannon fire. I’m sure once he gets some practice, he’ll be showing me up, and then when he gets an epic, all be handed my arse (he’s a pally so goes pretty fast once he has a good flyer).