It’s been a while and somehow I’m already level 44 on my main paladin Sevotarthe. Most of my play time has been on the weekends, and I’ve enjoyed early morning sessions slowly but surely making progress.
I’ve been mainly tanking and healing when I group into dungeons, and I’ve been pleased by how good the groups have been. Everyone has been nice and helpful, and rarely have we even wiped. My favorite dungeons are probably Razorfen Downs and recently Uldaman. RFD is much more straightforward, and as a paladin I love all of the undead mobs, which make holding agro so much easier. Uldaman feels like a sprawling archaeological dig site and it gives a real sense that I’m exploring a lost city and ancient ruins. There’s also been a popular strategy when fight the last boss Where the group runs him to another room to avoid some of the adds he spawns, and when he’s chasing your group it feels like an epic escape.
My professions have started to take a back seat, and I’m going to recommit to working on my blacksmithing before I get to level 50. I’ve got a lot of mithril to mine, but I enjoy progressing the professions to help me make my own gear.
I’ve started flagging myself for pvp when in the open world, and it’s been a lot of fun having the occasional skirmish between willing Horde players. It’s one of the things I like about playing on an RP realm because PVP is something players opt into, and if I’m not in the mood or I don’t have the time I can opt out too. With phase two coming out this week, I am very excited about the increased world pvp. Some epic battles await, and some of my most fun, even in defeat is still to be had.
My goal is to get to level 60 before the new year, and it looks like I might be able to make it happen. Not sure what I’ll do once I get there, but I’m enjoying the journey. How about you? How are you enjoying classic wow?
Monday, November 11, 2019
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Day Three of Classic WoW
I was able to wake up early again and play more on Sevotarthe. Today's goals were to explore the Jasperlode Mine, continue to level up my professions, and continue to make progress through the quests in Elwynn Forest.
I was excited to be able to mine and use the copper ore to craft gear and equipment for my character and my alts. I really like the feeling of being able to work towards acquiring items to make my character stronger. Not having to rely solely on quest rewards and random drops is really nice because I know I can get the gear I need by putting in a little time and effort.
The Jasperlode Mine did not disappoint in the rewards I found there. I managed to get a fair amount of copper, two chests, and I was able to take down a rare spider in the back of the cave that dropped a nice item that I could send to one of my other characters. I'm definitely going to be back in this cave in the future. Not only is it less populated that the Fargodeep Mine because it's off the beaten path from Goldshire, the caster kobolds have a chance to drop candles that have a ranged ability. This will come in handy when I'm trying to tank as a paladin since they don't have any ranged abilities to pull mobs with.
After completing the quests in that area of the zone, I headed south to try to kill Princess. This endeavor was a fun lesson in reading carefully. I scanned the quest text and I saw a farm mentioned. So I went to the farm, and since there were boars there, I figured Princess would spawn eventually. Another player was also in the zone killing boars, and I figured she was on the same quest. She was and we grouped up. Continuing to kill boars for at least five minutes, there was no sign of Princess. The warlock then realized that we were at the wrong farm. We were at the Stonefield's farm, where the quest turns in, while Princess is at the Brackwell Pumpkin Patch to the east. So we went in that direction and finished the quest without a hitch.
It was a funny moment, and one of the reasons I'm glad that I've been fortunate to have such nice people in my groups. Otherwise I might have been killing boars for a lot longer before I reread the quest text a little more carefully.
I managed to get to level 10 during this play session, and I was pretty happy with how much progress I had made in my profession leveling. The only problem was that I had been training to learn new recipes and skills that I was all out of coin to do much more crafting. In the future, I'll need to focus more on making money and less on spending it all.
I was excited to be able to mine and use the copper ore to craft gear and equipment for my character and my alts. I really like the feeling of being able to work towards acquiring items to make my character stronger. Not having to rely solely on quest rewards and random drops is really nice because I know I can get the gear I need by putting in a little time and effort.
The Jasperlode Mine did not disappoint in the rewards I found there. I managed to get a fair amount of copper, two chests, and I was able to take down a rare spider in the back of the cave that dropped a nice item that I could send to one of my other characters. I'm definitely going to be back in this cave in the future. Not only is it less populated that the Fargodeep Mine because it's off the beaten path from Goldshire, the caster kobolds have a chance to drop candles that have a ranged ability. This will come in handy when I'm trying to tank as a paladin since they don't have any ranged abilities to pull mobs with.
After completing the quests in that area of the zone, I headed south to try to kill Princess. This endeavor was a fun lesson in reading carefully. I scanned the quest text and I saw a farm mentioned. So I went to the farm, and since there were boars there, I figured Princess would spawn eventually. Another player was also in the zone killing boars, and I figured she was on the same quest. She was and we grouped up. Continuing to kill boars for at least five minutes, there was no sign of Princess. The warlock then realized that we were at the wrong farm. We were at the Stonefield's farm, where the quest turns in, while Princess is at the Brackwell Pumpkin Patch to the east. So we went in that direction and finished the quest without a hitch.
It was a funny moment, and one of the reasons I'm glad that I've been fortunate to have such nice people in my groups. Otherwise I might have been killing boars for a lot longer before I reread the quest text a little more carefully.
I managed to get to level 10 during this play session, and I was pretty happy with how much progress I had made in my profession leveling. The only problem was that I had been training to learn new recipes and skills that I was all out of coin to do much more crafting. In the future, I'll need to focus more on making money and less on spending it all.
Day Two of Classic WoW
After playing my Human Paladin, Sevotarthe Einkill, to level 8 in the morning, I was happy to take some time to play with my wife on a pair of Dwarves. These characters are intended to be played in dungeon groups that we do, and as such their primary source of experience will be dungeons and dungeon quests once they get up to about level 17 or so.
My wife is playing a priest, and I'm playing as a warrior with the intention to tank. Odaren Dankil, brother of Otarthen and Ochiren, will be a protection warrior and serve as the tank for our group. We were able to quest through Coldridge Valley without too much trouble, and we made good progress in Dun Morogh until we came to a pair of quests that required the acquisition of items from a small set of monsters. With the high population of other players in the area, it got to be frustrating to wait for respawns and be under so much competition.
We did manage to get to level 8 during this play session, and then we switched over to other games for the remainder of the night. We were playing with the intention of following the quests and completing all of the quests. After encountering the competition due to the plethora of plucky players, we decided that if that kind of situation happens again, we'll just skip those quests and grind experience by killing monsters that more rapidly spawn.
My wife is playing a priest, and I'm playing as a warrior with the intention to tank. Odaren Dankil, brother of Otarthen and Ochiren, will be a protection warrior and serve as the tank for our group. We were able to quest through Coldridge Valley without too much trouble, and we made good progress in Dun Morogh until we came to a pair of quests that required the acquisition of items from a small set of monsters. With the high population of other players in the area, it got to be frustrating to wait for respawns and be under so much competition.
We did manage to get to level 8 during this play session, and then we switched over to other games for the remainder of the night. We were playing with the intention of following the quests and completing all of the quests. After encountering the competition due to the plethora of plucky players, we decided that if that kind of situation happens again, we'll just skip those quests and grind experience by killing monsters that more rapidly spawn.
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Day one of Classic WoW
The launch of the long awaited classic wow servers felt like New Year’s Eve. There were dozens of streamers ready to log in, and it felt like there was a buzz in the community. I had the character selection screen up and ready to go for when the servers went live. When the time came I was happy to be able to login without any trouble. I thought it was really cool to see so many people, as Northshire was packed with humans beginning their journey.
I didn’t play for very long as I had a DnD session, and when I tried getting back on later in the evening I was met with the familiar queue time I remember when I was in high school playing on a high population server. Nothing like the classic experience. After about a half an hour I got to play some in Dun Morough until I got disconnected and wasn’t able to reconnect. By that time it was time for bed.
This morning, though, was not problem. I was able to login without a queue, and I could play for about two hours leveling my paladin through the first part of Elwynn Forest. I made a group to kill Garret Padfoot with a nearby warrior on the quest, and later I was trying to group up with a warlock to make killing Goldtooth in the Fargofeep Mine easier. The warlock wasn’t on the same quest as me so we just killed kobolds until we went down a tunnel and stumbled upon a rare spawn. We were able to get the boss down, but we fell with him, and when we recovered our bodies the respawn rate was more than we could handle. I made myself some armor and leveled my blacksmithing and mining, and I’m looking forward to venturing to the Jasperload Mine to the north and fine the treasures the await.
Currently, I’m level 8, and my goal is to finish the zone completely before heading to Westfall. This way my professions should be high enough, and I’ll most likely be a higher level which will make the transition into the higher level zone smoother.
I didn’t play for very long as I had a DnD session, and when I tried getting back on later in the evening I was met with the familiar queue time I remember when I was in high school playing on a high population server. Nothing like the classic experience. After about a half an hour I got to play some in Dun Morough until I got disconnected and wasn’t able to reconnect. By that time it was time for bed.
This morning, though, was not problem. I was able to login without a queue, and I could play for about two hours leveling my paladin through the first part of Elwynn Forest. I made a group to kill Garret Padfoot with a nearby warrior on the quest, and later I was trying to group up with a warlock to make killing Goldtooth in the Fargofeep Mine easier. The warlock wasn’t on the same quest as me so we just killed kobolds until we went down a tunnel and stumbled upon a rare spawn. We were able to get the boss down, but we fell with him, and when we recovered our bodies the respawn rate was more than we could handle. I made myself some armor and leveled my blacksmithing and mining, and I’m looking forward to venturing to the Jasperload Mine to the north and fine the treasures the await.
Currently, I’m level 8, and my goal is to finish the zone completely before heading to Westfall. This way my professions should be high enough, and I’ll most likely be a higher level which will make the transition into the higher level zone smoother.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Role Playing in Classic WoW
Hail and well met traveler. I've been thinking lately about an aspect of the game that I've never really focused on, role playing. I've always played on a role playing server, but it's mostly to play with friends who go me started in the game. I never really role played in the game, and since playing more D&D, I've been more interested in the fun aspect of putting myself in the mindset of my character as I play.
The main character I intend to play in this way is my Paladin. My current plan, to make it more seamless with my gameplay, is to use a set of macros. The macros would cause my character to say certain things that would correspond to the spells and abilities he is using. For example, if he casts Blessing of Might, he'll say "Light give you strength," or something like that.
I'm only going to do that for abilities that have longer cool downs. So abilities that have cool downs longer than 15 seconds or so. It would get kind of annoying if my character was saying something every time they attacked.
I do plan on doing this for all of my characters not just my paladin, and I'm looking forward to making the things they say fit with the characters that I'm creating. I'm not great at typing things quickly in chat while playing, and having these macros will help me add a little flair to my game plays.
I'm excited to start playing next week on the RP realm Bloodsail Buccaneers, and I'm looking forward to playing around a little with my characters and their stories. I've got a backstory for each of them, and while nothing is set in stone, I think that it's a good start.
I'm only going to do that for abilities that have longer cool downs. So abilities that have cool downs longer than 15 seconds or so. It would get kind of annoying if my character was saying something every time they attacked.
I do plan on doing this for all of my characters not just my paladin, and I'm looking forward to making the things they say fit with the characters that I'm creating. I'm not great at typing things quickly in chat while playing, and having these macros will help me add a little flair to my game plays.
I'm excited to start playing next week on the RP realm Bloodsail Buccaneers, and I'm looking forward to playing around a little with my characters and their stories. I've got a backstory for each of them, and while nothing is set in stone, I think that it's a good start.
Friday, June 14, 2019
Seal of Righteousness (Paladin Threat)
The next round of Classic WoW beta stress tests is coming around, and I've been thinking about what I want to test during the time I have to (hopefully) play on the beta servers. Since I am so interested in playing a protection paladin, I'm interested in how Seal of Righteousness interacts with different one handed weapons.
I learned during the last test that the spell deals more damage with a two handed weapon equipped, and I'm interested in seeing how the damage works with weapons of different speeds. My guess is that a faster weapon will be ideal for threat generation as more weapon hits mean more holy damage applications of the Seal. I'm also interested in testing whether the Seal's damage will apply if I'm unarmed (in case that's faster, and because some mobs do disarm). With the faster weapon being ideal, I am wondering how advantageous it might be to use the Skinning Knife while tanking (at least early on) since it's weapon speed is 1.6 seconds, which is considerably faster than any sword or mace I could find.
The tradeoff I'm wondering about with using a fast weapon is that the white hits will be low. So even with a lot of holy damage the low white hit damage might still mean lower threat. I'm going to try to farm enough mobs to vendor enough items to afford to buy weapon training and different weapons with different speeds to see how the damage of Seal of the Righteousness scales.
This may not yield anything very interested or illuminating, but it'll give me a better idea of what I will be testing when I start tanking my first instances. Just like I plan on test different talent builds, I'm interested in seeing what the best weapon/seal combo is to be an effective tank.
I always hear about how the game is 15 years old and everything has already been theory crafted, but it isn't 15 years old to me and I haven't theory crafted everything out. Having started playing so close to the release of Burning Crusade, I didn't get a chance to play as much Vanilla as I would have liked, and now I'll get that chance. So I'm going to try and figure out as much as I can.
What are you interested in learning (or relearning) as you dive back into the game?
Update: I got to play some of the stress test today and last night, and I found out that the faster Skinning Knife did not reduce the holy damage from Seal of Righteousness. So I'm going to give it a try tanking to see how it does while tanking dungeons. I imagine that it might be particularly useful at the start of fights, and if I can get a decent enchant on it, it could be worth until I can find a fast enough weapon with Intellect or plus Spell Damage stats.
I learned during the last test that the spell deals more damage with a two handed weapon equipped, and I'm interested in seeing how the damage works with weapons of different speeds. My guess is that a faster weapon will be ideal for threat generation as more weapon hits mean more holy damage applications of the Seal. I'm also interested in testing whether the Seal's damage will apply if I'm unarmed (in case that's faster, and because some mobs do disarm). With the faster weapon being ideal, I am wondering how advantageous it might be to use the Skinning Knife while tanking (at least early on) since it's weapon speed is 1.6 seconds, which is considerably faster than any sword or mace I could find.
The tradeoff I'm wondering about with using a fast weapon is that the white hits will be low. So even with a lot of holy damage the low white hit damage might still mean lower threat. I'm going to try to farm enough mobs to vendor enough items to afford to buy weapon training and different weapons with different speeds to see how the damage of Seal of the Righteousness scales.
This may not yield anything very interested or illuminating, but it'll give me a better idea of what I will be testing when I start tanking my first instances. Just like I plan on test different talent builds, I'm interested in seeing what the best weapon/seal combo is to be an effective tank.
I always hear about how the game is 15 years old and everything has already been theory crafted, but it isn't 15 years old to me and I haven't theory crafted everything out. Having started playing so close to the release of Burning Crusade, I didn't get a chance to play as much Vanilla as I would have liked, and now I'll get that chance. So I'm going to try and figure out as much as I can.
What are you interested in learning (or relearning) as you dive back into the game?
Update: I got to play some of the stress test today and last night, and I found out that the faster Skinning Knife did not reduce the holy damage from Seal of Righteousness. So I'm going to give it a try tanking to see how it does while tanking dungeons. I imagine that it might be particularly useful at the start of fights, and if I can get a decent enchant on it, it could be worth until I can find a fast enough weapon with Intellect or plus Spell Damage stats.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Paladin Tanking in Classic WoW
One of my favorite features from the former versions of World of Warcraft is the talent specialization trees. I enjoy earning a talent point every level, and playing around with the structure to see what kind of combinations of abilities I could find that might work well together. As a paladin player for the vast majority of my time playing WoW, I have tried out countless combinations of talent builds to theorize the perfect arrangement of points for my desired play style.
Thankfully there are plenty of sites available for classic talent trees and I have contributed a significant amount of traffic just playing around with the paladin. Because the paladin has a hybrid set of skills, there is a lot of variability with how one decides to play the class. You could select for mostly damage points with some off healing, mostly damage with pvp oriented talents, mostly healing with some damage talents for soloing, mostly healing with some pvp talents, most tanking with some off healing, or mostly tanking with some damage. That’s a broad overview, as there are tons of slight variations that players will make, but you get the idea.
My goal in classic it to try my hand at tanking dungeons on a paladin while having some utility when soloing quests and pvp. I will play two paladins, one by myself and one in a group. Both will try to tank primarily, but the one going solo will have more Retribution take ya to help with killing things quicker.
Paladins are fine tanks but they have some weaknesses. They have armor and self heals plus a plethora of buffs to support their group. However, they lack a taunt, and because mana is their primary resource maintains threat over longer fights is a struggle. With that in mind, I have an idea for a spec that aims to alleviate some of the mana and threat struggles that the tanking paladin faces.
https://classicdb.ch/?talent#syVz0MZV0xhZVfe00bo
Going down the Holy side of the talent tree, I opted for Divine Intellect 5/5 and Divine Strength 4/5. The bonus to intellect will help my mana pool, and the bonus to strength will improve my block value. The 4/5 in the Divine Strength is to move down the rest of the tree to pick up the Improved Blessing of Wisdom 2/2. I anticipate using Wisdom as my primary blessing to help with mana regeneration. Consecration is an obvious choice as it does holy damage over an area which will make tanking three or more mobs a lot easier. Improved Seal of Righteousness 5/5 is also desirable as it will increase the holy damage I deal, which is where my threat generation will come from.
Moving to the Protection portion of the tree, I am picking up a surprisingly low amount of talents considering I'm trying to tank, and I've debated about what to focus on here. Should I focus more on damage mitigation or hit rating. I've opted for the damage mitigation, which is why I'm going with Toughness 5/5 to increase my armor contribution. I've also picked up Redoubt 5/5 to increase my block chance after receiving a critical hit, and those ten points will unlock the Improved Righteous Fury 3/3 to increase threat generated from holy spells.
To build on the threat from holy damage and to help manage the mana I use, I went with Benediction 5/5 to reduce the mana cost of my Judgement and Seal spells. Moving down, I've got Deflection 5/5 for the parry chance to help mitigate damage, as well as Improved Judgement 2/2 and Improved Seal of the Crusader 3/3. Being able to Judge more often plus increasing the holy damage a target takes by an additional 15% should both be useful in helping my threat, especially on a boss fight. I'm going to opt not to pick up Seal of Command even though it is one of my favorite spells in the game because it's not really useful while tanking. This also frees up a point to spend in Vindication 3/3, which will help reduce the damage I take. I'm then getting Improved Retribution Aura 2/2 for the increased holy damage taken by attackers. This opens up one point that I can put into Sanctity Aura which increases the holy damage done by another 10%.
Between the increased damage from Improved Seal of Righteousness, Improved Seal of the Crusader, plus Sanctity Aura, by holy damage from Seals and Judgement alone will be a bunch of bonus holy damage not including Consecrate. My planned rotation on a boss fight is to start with Retribution Aura. Since the boss will probably be hitting me before I'm able to start hitting him this will be some initial holy damage. Once I Judge with Seal of the Crusader, I'll swap auras to Sanctity and cast Consecrate followed by Seal of Righteousness. Then I'll be Judging on cooldown, and using lower ranks of Consecrate throughout the fight if I need to. On trash pulls I plan on using Retribution Aura and not worrying about Seal of the Crusader since it will use more mana without very much yield since the fights will be shorter. Consecrate will be my go to with more than two mobs, and lower ranks will be used after the initial pull.
The key to all of this working as I have planned is that the damage players give me some time to get the initial threat built up on boss fights, and I'll be using markers to prioritize kills on trash to help ensure they are attacking the same target that I am. Consecrate and Ret Aura should produce enough ambient threat to keep mobs on me even if I'm not attacking them. I still plan on tab targeting to get a couple of melee swings with Seal of Righteousness up to ensure that they ancillary mobs are taking holy damage, but I think this set up will work well.
If it doesn't, I'll be swapping to a more conventional tanking spec. My main concerns are that I will be squishy since I won't have the bonus shield block, I won't have Blessing of Sanctuary, and I won't have Holy Shield which all provide added mitigation. Gear wise, I'll try to accumulate a mix of spell damage through rings, trinkets, and weapons, while maintaining a solid amount of stamina and armor. I'm excited to see how this build works out, and I'll keep updating on how the spec is progressing through leveling and eventual end game.
https://classicdb.ch/?talent#syVz0MZV0xhZVfe00bo
Going down the Holy side of the talent tree, I opted for Divine Intellect 5/5 and Divine Strength 4/5. The bonus to intellect will help my mana pool, and the bonus to strength will improve my block value. The 4/5 in the Divine Strength is to move down the rest of the tree to pick up the Improved Blessing of Wisdom 2/2. I anticipate using Wisdom as my primary blessing to help with mana regeneration. Consecration is an obvious choice as it does holy damage over an area which will make tanking three or more mobs a lot easier. Improved Seal of Righteousness 5/5 is also desirable as it will increase the holy damage I deal, which is where my threat generation will come from.
Moving to the Protection portion of the tree, I am picking up a surprisingly low amount of talents considering I'm trying to tank, and I've debated about what to focus on here. Should I focus more on damage mitigation or hit rating. I've opted for the damage mitigation, which is why I'm going with Toughness 5/5 to increase my armor contribution. I've also picked up Redoubt 5/5 to increase my block chance after receiving a critical hit, and those ten points will unlock the Improved Righteous Fury 3/3 to increase threat generated from holy spells.
To build on the threat from holy damage and to help manage the mana I use, I went with Benediction 5/5 to reduce the mana cost of my Judgement and Seal spells. Moving down, I've got Deflection 5/5 for the parry chance to help mitigate damage, as well as Improved Judgement 2/2 and Improved Seal of the Crusader 3/3. Being able to Judge more often plus increasing the holy damage a target takes by an additional 15% should both be useful in helping my threat, especially on a boss fight. I'm going to opt not to pick up Seal of Command even though it is one of my favorite spells in the game because it's not really useful while tanking. This also frees up a point to spend in Vindication 3/3, which will help reduce the damage I take. I'm then getting Improved Retribution Aura 2/2 for the increased holy damage taken by attackers. This opens up one point that I can put into Sanctity Aura which increases the holy damage done by another 10%.
Between the increased damage from Improved Seal of Righteousness, Improved Seal of the Crusader, plus Sanctity Aura, by holy damage from Seals and Judgement alone will be a bunch of bonus holy damage not including Consecrate. My planned rotation on a boss fight is to start with Retribution Aura. Since the boss will probably be hitting me before I'm able to start hitting him this will be some initial holy damage. Once I Judge with Seal of the Crusader, I'll swap auras to Sanctity and cast Consecrate followed by Seal of Righteousness. Then I'll be Judging on cooldown, and using lower ranks of Consecrate throughout the fight if I need to. On trash pulls I plan on using Retribution Aura and not worrying about Seal of the Crusader since it will use more mana without very much yield since the fights will be shorter. Consecrate will be my go to with more than two mobs, and lower ranks will be used after the initial pull.
The key to all of this working as I have planned is that the damage players give me some time to get the initial threat built up on boss fights, and I'll be using markers to prioritize kills on trash to help ensure they are attacking the same target that I am. Consecrate and Ret Aura should produce enough ambient threat to keep mobs on me even if I'm not attacking them. I still plan on tab targeting to get a couple of melee swings with Seal of Righteousness up to ensure that they ancillary mobs are taking holy damage, but I think this set up will work well.
If it doesn't, I'll be swapping to a more conventional tanking spec. My main concerns are that I will be squishy since I won't have the bonus shield block, I won't have Blessing of Sanctuary, and I won't have Holy Shield which all provide added mitigation. Gear wise, I'll try to accumulate a mix of spell damage through rings, trinkets, and weapons, while maintaining a solid amount of stamina and armor. I'm excited to see how this build works out, and I'll keep updating on how the spec is progressing through leveling and eventual end game.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Questing in Darkshore Contd.
This morning I continued to work on the Darkshore zones on my Void Elf warlock. The quests I focused on are taking me to the north to investigate the activity of the Shatterspear trolls who have been increasingly antagonistic to the local night elves.
After meeting up with the Sentinels who were already in that area, there seems to be just some laboring trolls digging away at the highborne ruins for artifacts. Upon killing a patrolling Overseer, I Ickes up a latter that suggests some cooperation between the Shatterspear Trolls and the Horde. I’m then sent to dispatch the horde camp off the northern coast. While there I come across a prisoner who has information about the leader of the Shatterspear that will help us ensure his defeat. The mission then shifts toward gathering the amulets from the troll shamans to craft an arrow that can break the trill leaders defenses. After gathering the material and taking out some lieutenants the attack on the troll camp commenced. Once in the heart of their territory I got to pilot an ancient to dispatch a large number of the trolls which set the stage for the final encounter.
The leader of the sentinels were there, and together we took down the leader and lifted a missive from the horde warcheif outlining their coordination to assault the night elves.
All in all this part of the story was interesting to see how the horde is reaching out to new allies to go on the offensive against the Alliance. The later part of the zone did have a nice ramp up and feeling of epicness as we sought to take out the troll leader, especially piloting the ancient to take out masses of trolls. I'll be interested to see what happens in the southern part of the zone.
After meeting up with the Sentinels who were already in that area, there seems to be just some laboring trolls digging away at the highborne ruins for artifacts. Upon killing a patrolling Overseer, I Ickes up a latter that suggests some cooperation between the Shatterspear Trolls and the Horde. I’m then sent to dispatch the horde camp off the northern coast. While there I come across a prisoner who has information about the leader of the Shatterspear that will help us ensure his defeat. The mission then shifts toward gathering the amulets from the troll shamans to craft an arrow that can break the trill leaders defenses. After gathering the material and taking out some lieutenants the attack on the troll camp commenced. Once in the heart of their territory I got to pilot an ancient to dispatch a large number of the trolls which set the stage for the final encounter.
The leader of the sentinels were there, and together we took down the leader and lifted a missive from the horde warcheif outlining their coordination to assault the night elves.
All in all this part of the story was interesting to see how the horde is reaching out to new allies to go on the offensive against the Alliance. The later part of the zone did have a nice ramp up and feeling of epicness as we sought to take out the troll leader, especially piloting the ancient to take out masses of trolls. I'll be interested to see what happens in the southern part of the zone.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
Classic WoW vs. Retail WoW
As a frequent purveyor of the World of Warcraft community through the respective subreddits, twitch streams, youtube videos, and related podcasts, I've been reading and hearing a lot of opinions about what people are excited and not so excited about with regards to the release of Classic WoW later this summer. Some people are thrilled to be able to run around with their gray armor, and no mount until level 40, while others have enjoyed the quality of life improvements that retail wow has brought. From these preferences there has been a natural discussion about which version of the game is better. With all of this discussion, I've come down on the side that both games are great, they're just different and serving different audiences.
Classic WoW is a more social game with systems that facilitate grouping up and cooperating with your faction to take the upper hand against the enemy. Your character starts off very weak. The majority of the armor available for almost 20 levels has no bonus stats, and the creatures in the world are often grouped and difficult to take down. Because mobs could be tagged by other players, it was advantageous to group together. Interacting with one another and grouping with new people meant meeting new people. Maybe you liked playing together, and wanted to do more group content. Maybe you had a quest that led to a difficult dungeon. You'd need to find more people to fill out your group. Dungeons were places where you would assemble your group to take down a syndicate boss, or a powerful warlock. You needed to discuss strategy and coordinate your efforts to use crowd control, snare mobs that ran away, or interrupt spell casters. The pace was dictated by the mana of the group, and it felt rewarding to complete because of the trials and tribulations along the way. All of these interactions were side effects of the game's design. It was all a product of making content difficult enough to make grouping more rewarding.
Retail WoW is more of a single player RPG with group content for more prestigious rewards. Currently, I can level for over two hours in a zone and not see another player. The quests are not as difficult because the player is stronger. With the advent of heirloom items, I never have to worry about upgrading my armor because the armor levels with me. The quests have leave markers on your maps to make it easier to find where you're going, and often times you don't even have to read the quest to know what to do. If you feel like doing a dungeon, the main mechanics involve pulling a group, and AoEing them down. Rarely needing to wait for mana to regenerate, and rarely saying a word to each other because the content is pretty easy to complete. With my heirloom items, I can just about solo dungeons at my level, so with a group of four other people of similar power, the danger of defeat isn't really present. If you want harder content that needs to be strategized for it's available through mythic dungeons and raids, and that's the key. While much of the game has become easier to complete, there is still plenty of opportunities for challenging content for players who want to play at the highest levels.
Both games have plenty to do outside of the PVE content, whether it be PVP in the world or in a battleground. In classic you could duel people outside of major cities, or someone could organize dueling tournaments for that 1v1 show of skill. In retail there are rated battlegounds, and arena matches that players can compete in. The rating is based on your skill so you're always matched with comparable opponents.
Both games have professions and secondary skills that can be leveled. They have their grinds and rewards. In classic you can farm mats and sell them for a profit on the auction house, you can hoard patterns and be the go to person on your server to craft a powerful item, or you could level your fishing and cooking to help your group get all the buffs they need for the raid night. In retail you can craft items for low level characters or for transmogrification, you can farm for mats to craft gear at the highest levels of end game content, or you can run through old raids for unique appearances and achievements, there are pet battles, and the Brawler's Guild, World Quests, Island Expeditions, Warfronts, and just so many options of how to spend your time in the game to advance your character.
Both versions of the game will serve the audience that prefers the kinds of features they offer. If you like getting online and doing quick bit sized pieces of content, maybe you'll like retail more. If you like content at a little slower pace with people you may not have met before, maybe classic appeals to you. There are preferences and differences, and I can't say that one is objectively better because I can find so much fun to be had in both.
I hope both games continue to be successful and serve the audiences that want them. I don't want either to fail because World of Warcraft can be for anyone, and with the release of classic it can bring back the old school people who left while maintaining the retail serves that millions continue to enjoy.
Classic WoW is a more social game with systems that facilitate grouping up and cooperating with your faction to take the upper hand against the enemy. Your character starts off very weak. The majority of the armor available for almost 20 levels has no bonus stats, and the creatures in the world are often grouped and difficult to take down. Because mobs could be tagged by other players, it was advantageous to group together. Interacting with one another and grouping with new people meant meeting new people. Maybe you liked playing together, and wanted to do more group content. Maybe you had a quest that led to a difficult dungeon. You'd need to find more people to fill out your group. Dungeons were places where you would assemble your group to take down a syndicate boss, or a powerful warlock. You needed to discuss strategy and coordinate your efforts to use crowd control, snare mobs that ran away, or interrupt spell casters. The pace was dictated by the mana of the group, and it felt rewarding to complete because of the trials and tribulations along the way. All of these interactions were side effects of the game's design. It was all a product of making content difficult enough to make grouping more rewarding.
Retail WoW is more of a single player RPG with group content for more prestigious rewards. Currently, I can level for over two hours in a zone and not see another player. The quests are not as difficult because the player is stronger. With the advent of heirloom items, I never have to worry about upgrading my armor because the armor levels with me. The quests have leave markers on your maps to make it easier to find where you're going, and often times you don't even have to read the quest to know what to do. If you feel like doing a dungeon, the main mechanics involve pulling a group, and AoEing them down. Rarely needing to wait for mana to regenerate, and rarely saying a word to each other because the content is pretty easy to complete. With my heirloom items, I can just about solo dungeons at my level, so with a group of four other people of similar power, the danger of defeat isn't really present. If you want harder content that needs to be strategized for it's available through mythic dungeons and raids, and that's the key. While much of the game has become easier to complete, there is still plenty of opportunities for challenging content for players who want to play at the highest levels.
Both games have plenty to do outside of the PVE content, whether it be PVP in the world or in a battleground. In classic you could duel people outside of major cities, or someone could organize dueling tournaments for that 1v1 show of skill. In retail there are rated battlegounds, and arena matches that players can compete in. The rating is based on your skill so you're always matched with comparable opponents.
Both games have professions and secondary skills that can be leveled. They have their grinds and rewards. In classic you can farm mats and sell them for a profit on the auction house, you can hoard patterns and be the go to person on your server to craft a powerful item, or you could level your fishing and cooking to help your group get all the buffs they need for the raid night. In retail you can craft items for low level characters or for transmogrification, you can farm for mats to craft gear at the highest levels of end game content, or you can run through old raids for unique appearances and achievements, there are pet battles, and the Brawler's Guild, World Quests, Island Expeditions, Warfronts, and just so many options of how to spend your time in the game to advance your character.
Both versions of the game will serve the audience that prefers the kinds of features they offer. If you like getting online and doing quick bit sized pieces of content, maybe you'll like retail more. If you like content at a little slower pace with people you may not have met before, maybe classic appeals to you. There are preferences and differences, and I can't say that one is objectively better because I can find so much fun to be had in both.
I hope both games continue to be successful and serve the audiences that want them. I don't want either to fail because World of Warcraft can be for anyone, and with the release of classic it can bring back the old school people who left while maintaining the retail serves that millions continue to enjoy.
A Day of Firsts
Today I started questing through Darkshore for the first time on a Warlock for the first time. I'm working on getting the Loremaster of Kalimdor achievement, and since I have to do all of the zones, I figured I should start with the former kin of my void elf.
I started by being notified that survivors had washed up along the shore. These must've been survivors from events from the Cataclysm, and my guess is that there are quests in Teldrasil that connect what's going on.
One of the survivors was concerned about his pet Grimclaw, and I'm later sent to find Grimclaw to reunite the two. Unfortunately shortly after being reunited, the night elf, Volcor, dies from the toxins inflicted by the water elementals. A really sad end, but at least Grimclaw made it back to him before he died.
There was also a quest to learn about the wild like through the Buzzboxes throughout the woods. I had never quested in Darkshore before, but I had seen guides that mention the Buzzbox quests. The investigation led to a cave with a satyr who was infecting the wildlife in the area to disrupt the forest with his foul magics. While in the cave, I rescued some of the caged wildlife, and stumbled upon a forsaken apothecary seeking to use the satyr's magic for his on nefarious purposes. There is some follow up to that story I still need to do.
One of the night elfs who escaped the infection sent me to find his wife who was not so lucky at the Ruins of Bashal'Aran. He wanted me to release her spirit, and while there I released some other haunting spirits. Nearby I found Grimclaw and a keeper who wanted me to gather some items from the nearby wildlife to help him heal Grimclaw. I plucked some whiskers off of some sleeping nightstalkers, tuffed some fur from feasting bears, and snagged some hair from the the nearby does while the stags weren't looking. After completing this ritual I was able to commune with the animal spirits and game one of their blessings. I chose to gain the nightstalker cat's blessing, which grants me increased casting speed within Darkshore, so that's pretty nice.
I'm enjoying the zone very much, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn more about the night elven story. Also, the kittens I'm fostering make an appearance while I'm questing, so that's a bonus.
I started by being notified that survivors had washed up along the shore. These must've been survivors from events from the Cataclysm, and my guess is that there are quests in Teldrasil that connect what's going on.
One of the survivors was concerned about his pet Grimclaw, and I'm later sent to find Grimclaw to reunite the two. Unfortunately shortly after being reunited, the night elf, Volcor, dies from the toxins inflicted by the water elementals. A really sad end, but at least Grimclaw made it back to him before he died.
There was also a quest to learn about the wild like through the Buzzboxes throughout the woods. I had never quested in Darkshore before, but I had seen guides that mention the Buzzbox quests. The investigation led to a cave with a satyr who was infecting the wildlife in the area to disrupt the forest with his foul magics. While in the cave, I rescued some of the caged wildlife, and stumbled upon a forsaken apothecary seeking to use the satyr's magic for his on nefarious purposes. There is some follow up to that story I still need to do.
One of the night elfs who escaped the infection sent me to find his wife who was not so lucky at the Ruins of Bashal'Aran. He wanted me to release her spirit, and while there I released some other haunting spirits. Nearby I found Grimclaw and a keeper who wanted me to gather some items from the nearby wildlife to help him heal Grimclaw. I plucked some whiskers off of some sleeping nightstalkers, tuffed some fur from feasting bears, and snagged some hair from the the nearby does while the stags weren't looking. After completing this ritual I was able to commune with the animal spirits and game one of their blessings. I chose to gain the nightstalker cat's blessing, which grants me increased casting speed within Darkshore, so that's pretty nice.
I'm enjoying the zone very much, and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn more about the night elven story. Also, the kittens I'm fostering make an appearance while I'm questing, so that's a bonus.
Friday, May 31, 2019
Morning Warsong Gulch, Better PVP Experience
This morning, I had woken up a little later than normal, which meant that I had a little less time to play before leaving for work. I had already gotten my warlock to Kalimdor to start questing in Darkshore and working on the Loremaster of Kalimdor achievement, but I didn't want to start that process if I wouldn't be able to make significant progress on those quests.
Instead, I hopped on my now level 85 Retribution Paladin for some random battlegrounds, and a lot of mining in Pandaria while waiting on the queue. After a fair amount of farming for Ghost Iron, I was worried that the queue wouldn't pop before I would run out of time. No sooner did that thought cross my mind, I was in and ready to deliver righteous justice in the name of the Alliance.
Getting into the group, I was so thankful to see not one, not two, but three healers supporting our group. This was a welcomed sight because in my previous queues there were no other healers, while the horde would be the ones with the support. This might have contributed to my bad experiences, but at the same time in previous battlegrounds we didn't have healers and still did fine. At any rate, I was ready to play with and around my team, and I wanted to focus on sticking with other people to accomplish our objective.
It helped that a few other players on the team were helping to call out directions which helped the team focus our efforts. We stuck together well, and whether it was due to a gear advantage or a numbers advantage, we were able to pick off stragglers, and isolate their flag carrier in most instances to win with an easy 2-0 capture differential. I felt good dealing damage, helping to keep my teammates alive in a pinch. There was one instance where I went in with a rogue to take out the enemy flag carrier, and while we were outnumbered, I was able to take their attention and keep the rogue alive while we took back our flag.
It was a fun time, and it reminded me why I enjoy battlegrounds so much. I am wondering how the changes that have been made will effect my enjoyment of battlegrounds when I play the WoW classic version. Since in the original version of Warsong Gulch there was not time limit, there were no damage and healing debuffs by carrying the flag, and the graveyards were in a different spot. I'll need to make sure I have the time to devote to potentially longer matches for sure.
Instead, I hopped on my now level 85 Retribution Paladin for some random battlegrounds, and a lot of mining in Pandaria while waiting on the queue. After a fair amount of farming for Ghost Iron, I was worried that the queue wouldn't pop before I would run out of time. No sooner did that thought cross my mind, I was in and ready to deliver righteous justice in the name of the Alliance.
Getting into the group, I was so thankful to see not one, not two, but three healers supporting our group. This was a welcomed sight because in my previous queues there were no other healers, while the horde would be the ones with the support. This might have contributed to my bad experiences, but at the same time in previous battlegrounds we didn't have healers and still did fine. At any rate, I was ready to play with and around my team, and I wanted to focus on sticking with other people to accomplish our objective.
It helped that a few other players on the team were helping to call out directions which helped the team focus our efforts. We stuck together well, and whether it was due to a gear advantage or a numbers advantage, we were able to pick off stragglers, and isolate their flag carrier in most instances to win with an easy 2-0 capture differential. I felt good dealing damage, helping to keep my teammates alive in a pinch. There was one instance where I went in with a rogue to take out the enemy flag carrier, and while we were outnumbered, I was able to take their attention and keep the rogue alive while we took back our flag.
It was a fun time, and it reminded me why I enjoy battlegrounds so much. I am wondering how the changes that have been made will effect my enjoyment of battlegrounds when I play the WoW classic version. Since in the original version of Warsong Gulch there was not time limit, there were no damage and healing debuffs by carrying the flag, and the graveyards were in a different spot. I'll need to make sure I have the time to devote to potentially longer matches for sure.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Classic WoW Beta Stress Test Part 2
Last night I was able to log in during the second round of the Classic WoW Beta Stress Test. My main goal with my play time last night was to create some more of the characters I intend to play if I get the chance to play in the beta, and to see if I can even log in.
I got into a 3800+ queue, and it said that it would take about a half an hour to enter the realm, but it seemed like it only took about 10 - 15 minutes. I didn't pay too close attention, but I did feel like the wait was not too long. Once in the real test would be to see if I'd be able to log in to the dwarf that I had already made last week. The first attempt failed, so I created a human to see if logging into a different zone would help. I was able to log in without a problem, and I was surprised by how few people there were in the starting zone. There were still plenty of people, don't get me wrong, but since the level cap had been raised to level 10, the starting zone was less congested compared to the screenshots I had seen from last week.
I didn't really play much on the human, and swapped to the dwarf. I had logged off in the Gurubashi arena last week, and upon logging in, I didn't see anyone, so I hearthed back to the starting zone. Since my dwarf is only level 2, I want to try getting to a higher level before trekking back to Stranglethorn. I will definitely park an alt in the area, but I have low hopes of ever getting the chest from the middle of the arena anytime soon.
I didn't have very much time to play last night, but I was able to get online this morning. When I played this morning, my goal was to test out how macros and keybindings could work on my paladin. I tried out using a mousewheel keybind for casting my Devotion Aura. The idea is that by using the mousewheel, I can quickly swap between auras in a pinch. My thought was that a quick swap to Concentration Aura would help my be able to cast heals with less pushback when my health was low.
I also tested equipping a one handed weapon and a shield macro, and I also tried binding that to my mousewheel. If I need some extra defense that might be a useful option. The main testing I was doing was to see how Seal of Righteousness behaved with one handed weapons versus two handed weapons. It seems like it does about twice as much damage per hit with a two handed weapon. I had a hunch that the faster weapon would be more procs and would out pace the two hander, but it looks like in most cases the two hander will be more damage. I plan on doing more math on this in future testing. To see how fast the weapon would need to be to pull ahead.
I got to level four just grinding mobs. I didn't want to do any quests, so I can save that for when the game launches, and I mainly wanted to see what I could handle as far as level disparity. Grinding was a slow go for me, but I wasn't really rushing. I did find that the mobs dropped some useful loot for vendoring and getting enough silver for training, If the starting zones are congested early on, I might just grind to until I can train professions as a way of leveling.
All in all the stress test was smooth and fun. I'm looking forward to more bite sized testing as the beta continues.
I got into a 3800+ queue, and it said that it would take about a half an hour to enter the realm, but it seemed like it only took about 10 - 15 minutes. I didn't pay too close attention, but I did feel like the wait was not too long. Once in the real test would be to see if I'd be able to log in to the dwarf that I had already made last week. The first attempt failed, so I created a human to see if logging into a different zone would help. I was able to log in without a problem, and I was surprised by how few people there were in the starting zone. There were still plenty of people, don't get me wrong, but since the level cap had been raised to level 10, the starting zone was less congested compared to the screenshots I had seen from last week.
I didn't really play much on the human, and swapped to the dwarf. I had logged off in the Gurubashi arena last week, and upon logging in, I didn't see anyone, so I hearthed back to the starting zone. Since my dwarf is only level 2, I want to try getting to a higher level before trekking back to Stranglethorn. I will definitely park an alt in the area, but I have low hopes of ever getting the chest from the middle of the arena anytime soon.
I didn't have very much time to play last night, but I was able to get online this morning. When I played this morning, my goal was to test out how macros and keybindings could work on my paladin. I tried out using a mousewheel keybind for casting my Devotion Aura. The idea is that by using the mousewheel, I can quickly swap between auras in a pinch. My thought was that a quick swap to Concentration Aura would help my be able to cast heals with less pushback when my health was low.
I also tested equipping a one handed weapon and a shield macro, and I also tried binding that to my mousewheel. If I need some extra defense that might be a useful option. The main testing I was doing was to see how Seal of Righteousness behaved with one handed weapons versus two handed weapons. It seems like it does about twice as much damage per hit with a two handed weapon. I had a hunch that the faster weapon would be more procs and would out pace the two hander, but it looks like in most cases the two hander will be more damage. I plan on doing more math on this in future testing. To see how fast the weapon would need to be to pull ahead.
I got to level four just grinding mobs. I didn't want to do any quests, so I can save that for when the game launches, and I mainly wanted to see what I could handle as far as level disparity. Grinding was a slow go for me, but I wasn't really rushing. I did find that the mobs dropped some useful loot for vendoring and getting enough silver for training, If the starting zones are congested early on, I might just grind to until I can train professions as a way of leveling.
All in all the stress test was smooth and fun. I'm looking forward to more bite sized testing as the beta continues.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
I am not good at PVP
This morning, I tried my hand at some battlegrounds on my level 84 ret paladin. I had played some over the weekend, and I had some fun playing as ret, since I could do damage and heal my team. Today was not as much fun.
In general, it was difficult for my teams to get very much momentum as the horde were much better at being grouped, focusing down a target, and they wiped the floor with us. Our team was all over the place. People (me included) running in haphazardly without the group, and we got picked off so easily.
I queued as a healer to see how that played out, and let's just say that entering a battleground is not the right time to situate one's action bars for pvp healing. I've played a holy paladin for years, but having rarely pvped since cata, I was very unprepared.
I will keep trying to pvp, as that is something I am looking forward to when classic comes out. I'm going to try to focus on helping my team coordinate better, so that we aren't just lambs to the slaughter. Fingers crossed.
At the very least, it gives me time to farm some Ghost Iron.
In general, it was difficult for my teams to get very much momentum as the horde were much better at being grouped, focusing down a target, and they wiped the floor with us. Our team was all over the place. People (me included) running in haphazardly without the group, and we got picked off so easily.
I queued as a healer to see how that played out, and let's just say that entering a battleground is not the right time to situate one's action bars for pvp healing. I've played a holy paladin for years, but having rarely pvped since cata, I was very unprepared.
I will keep trying to pvp, as that is something I am looking forward to when classic comes out. I'm going to try to focus on helping my team coordinate better, so that we aren't just lambs to the slaughter. Fingers crossed.
At the very least, it gives me time to farm some Ghost Iron.
Monday, May 27, 2019
Questing in the Wetlands
Today I quested through the Wetlands from start to finish to complete the Loremaster of Eastern Kingdoms achievement. It took about two and a half hours, and I had fun working my way through the zone.
It started with some investigation in the seismic activity near where the former Stonewrought Dam broke and let the loch pour into the marsh lands. There were some threshers who were relocated and some water elementals causing a ruckus for the geologists. This section of the zone ended with a dispatching of a nearby Dark Iron camp.
From there it was off to Menethil Harbor to aid the townsfolk as they are dealing with the aftermath of the flood caused by Deathwing. There were some more Dark Irons, saving kids from sharks, retrieving stolen treasures from nearby murlocs, and helping to release the spirits of fallen Kul Tiran sailors. This ended with the turn in of a cursed item to a priest who reveals that the original quest giver had been dead for sometime, but he didn't offer much of an explanation. Twas a spooky ending, and a little unsatisfying. Kind of like a movie where at the end you realize it was all a dream.
From there I helped out some engineer collect some raptor eggs, and a skinner who I helped gather some more croclisk skins including a rare skin. The skinner had lost his home in the flood, and was trying g to get as many crockilisk skins as he could to earn enough for his family to start anew. The rare skin from the biggest crockilosk was going to help him accomplish that goal. Once again there were more dark iron dwarves, but this time they are using gnolls to steal Ironforge gold and they were trapping them as hostages. Rescuing the gnolls was tough at first because of you killed a dark iron a gnoll was fighting it would come after you.
From helping the engineer the next stage of the zone led to a group of Explorers League members who were finding the dinosaur fossils had come to life, and there were angry earth elementals to boot. After helping to gather some bones and tools, the focused shifted to a near by Dragonmaw orc camp. The Dragonmaws show up again in the following Night Elf section of the zone as you help to rescue some black dragon whelps. This seemed like an interesting tie into the bigger story of the Cataclysm expansion with these orca and their relationship with different types of dragons. I thought this could have been a nice tie into visiting Grim Batol which is near the border of the zone between The Wetlands and the Twilight Highlands.
There were no follow up quests, however, and it was on to Thandol Span to help Thargas Anvilmar thwart the ascending Dark Iron incursion of Twilight Cultist. It ends with a lead up that suggests an epic showdown with the leader of the cultists, but it ends pretty abruptly without much of an epic payoff. I would have liked a more epic battle maybe or more of a lead up about who the big bad cultist leader was. Or even more time with Anvilmar. They elude to his prior history working with King Varian, but not much else. I mean he’s the descendant of a High King of the dwarves for crying out loud.
The zone overall was fun, and it flowed nicely from one place to the other. I would have liked to have some quests around Ironbeards Tomb. I was surprised they didn’t revisit that, and I would have liked more of a connection to the black dragons and the neighboring twilight highlands. Maybe something involving Cho’gall similar to the Zul’Gurub allusions in Stranglethorn.
Next I’m off to Kalimdor. I’m going to level my Void Elf Warlock through there. Looking forward to seeing how the story plays out over there. The full video of me questing through the zone is linked below.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2206697002718938&id=1242017209308617
It started with some investigation in the seismic activity near where the former Stonewrought Dam broke and let the loch pour into the marsh lands. There were some threshers who were relocated and some water elementals causing a ruckus for the geologists. This section of the zone ended with a dispatching of a nearby Dark Iron camp.
From there it was off to Menethil Harbor to aid the townsfolk as they are dealing with the aftermath of the flood caused by Deathwing. There were some more Dark Irons, saving kids from sharks, retrieving stolen treasures from nearby murlocs, and helping to release the spirits of fallen Kul Tiran sailors. This ended with the turn in of a cursed item to a priest who reveals that the original quest giver had been dead for sometime, but he didn't offer much of an explanation. Twas a spooky ending, and a little unsatisfying. Kind of like a movie where at the end you realize it was all a dream.
From there I helped out some engineer collect some raptor eggs, and a skinner who I helped gather some more croclisk skins including a rare skin. The skinner had lost his home in the flood, and was trying g to get as many crockilisk skins as he could to earn enough for his family to start anew. The rare skin from the biggest crockilosk was going to help him accomplish that goal. Once again there were more dark iron dwarves, but this time they are using gnolls to steal Ironforge gold and they were trapping them as hostages. Rescuing the gnolls was tough at first because of you killed a dark iron a gnoll was fighting it would come after you.
From helping the engineer the next stage of the zone led to a group of Explorers League members who were finding the dinosaur fossils had come to life, and there were angry earth elementals to boot. After helping to gather some bones and tools, the focused shifted to a near by Dragonmaw orc camp. The Dragonmaws show up again in the following Night Elf section of the zone as you help to rescue some black dragon whelps. This seemed like an interesting tie into the bigger story of the Cataclysm expansion with these orca and their relationship with different types of dragons. I thought this could have been a nice tie into visiting Grim Batol which is near the border of the zone between The Wetlands and the Twilight Highlands.
There were no follow up quests, however, and it was on to Thandol Span to help Thargas Anvilmar thwart the ascending Dark Iron incursion of Twilight Cultist. It ends with a lead up that suggests an epic showdown with the leader of the cultists, but it ends pretty abruptly without much of an epic payoff. I would have liked a more epic battle maybe or more of a lead up about who the big bad cultist leader was. Or even more time with Anvilmar. They elude to his prior history working with King Varian, but not much else. I mean he’s the descendant of a High King of the dwarves for crying out loud.
The zone overall was fun, and it flowed nicely from one place to the other. I would have liked to have some quests around Ironbeards Tomb. I was surprised they didn’t revisit that, and I would have liked more of a connection to the black dragons and the neighboring twilight highlands. Maybe something involving Cho’gall similar to the Zul’Gurub allusions in Stranglethorn.
Next I’m off to Kalimdor. I’m going to level my Void Elf Warlock through there. Looking forward to seeing how the story plays out over there. The full video of me questing through the zone is linked below.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2206697002718938&id=1242017209308617
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Trying to Solo Gnomeregan, and some PVP on my Ret Paladin BFA
Now that I’ve completed the quests in Stranglethorn, my hunter had a couple of quests from the dungeon Gnomeregan that have been nagging my quest log since level 30, so I made the trek there and tried me hand at soloing the trash mobs so I could get to the dormitory and turn in the grim encrusted object. After not using my hunter pet for a lot of my leveling, I pulled out my trusty Talboc and gave it a try. Since mobs scale in dungeons now, I had to be sure to kite and use my pet to take the brunt. I died a couple of times, but eventually made it to the point where I could complete the quest. There was a follow up quest in Ironforge, so I took that as an opportunity to get the heck out of there.
Then the question was what to do now. I haven’t pvped on my human paladin in a whil, I thought, so let’s give that a go. I mined for ghost iron while waiting on the queue, and had some fun playing ret, helping to heal, returning some flags, and capping one to boot. It reminded me of when I used to play that paladin more in Wrath of the Lich King as a twink. I twinkled at 39, 60, and 70, and had such a fun time. While I wasn’t as dominant as I was then, this time still gave me the feeling of supporting my team while delivering justice to the filthy horde.
This was especially fun because I have such fond memories of playing this paladin in battlegrounds. He was my very first character, and I loved pvping on him and dominating. Recently, though, I've been reviewing classic wow ret paladin game play, and I've realized that the paladin is meant to be more supportive. I remember when I used to play, I'd pretend to be a warrior, and I'd often forget to heal myself, and rarely would I think to heal or buff someone else.
In playing in a more supportive role, I'm enjoying that more versatile role, and I think I'm going to try playing as holy and prot in battlegrounds more, just to mix it up. Plus it'll help with group balance since it seemed like the horde always had a bunch of healers while the alliance had one if that many. Also, if I don't select healer when I queue it won't let me swap to holy before the battleground has begun, so selecting those specs will help me be more flexible.
I also enjoyed the new Warsong Gulch. The updated graphics and models looked really good, and that is probably the battleground I've played the most, so to see it all new and shiny is awesome.
After the quest turn in, it was off to the Wetlands. I run from Thelsemar, and when I came to a fork in the road I chose the road less traveled. It was between safely going through the Algaz tunnel, or make a jump for it and hopefully time disengage before hitting the ground. I jumped, and because I didn’t get far enough from the side of the cliff I disengaged too soon and my screen went gray. I didn’t feel like running all the way to my corpse so Rez sickness it was, and I logged out at the first quest hub in the zone.
Then the question was what to do now. I haven’t pvped on my human paladin in a whil, I thought, so let’s give that a go. I mined for ghost iron while waiting on the queue, and had some fun playing ret, helping to heal, returning some flags, and capping one to boot. It reminded me of when I used to play that paladin more in Wrath of the Lich King as a twink. I twinkled at 39, 60, and 70, and had such a fun time. While I wasn’t as dominant as I was then, this time still gave me the feeling of supporting my team while delivering justice to the filthy horde.
This was especially fun because I have such fond memories of playing this paladin in battlegrounds. He was my very first character, and I loved pvping on him and dominating. Recently, though, I've been reviewing classic wow ret paladin game play, and I've realized that the paladin is meant to be more supportive. I remember when I used to play, I'd pretend to be a warrior, and I'd often forget to heal myself, and rarely would I think to heal or buff someone else.
In playing in a more supportive role, I'm enjoying that more versatile role, and I think I'm going to try playing as holy and prot in battlegrounds more, just to mix it up. Plus it'll help with group balance since it seemed like the horde always had a bunch of healers while the alliance had one if that many. Also, if I don't select healer when I queue it won't let me swap to holy before the battleground has begun, so selecting those specs will help me be more flexible.
I also enjoyed the new Warsong Gulch. The updated graphics and models looked really good, and that is probably the battleground I've played the most, so to see it all new and shiny is awesome.
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Questing in Stranglethorn, Saving Booty Bay
This morning I completed the Stranglethorn Vale quests, which culminated in the defense of Booty Bay against a combined assault from the Bloodsail and Brashtide Pirates. While doing the normal killing of Bloodsails just off the southern coast of the Cape, you find that they are planning an attack. The Bloodsails on their own aren't a very formidable foe, so what is up their sleeves?
You're tasked with infiltrating their ranks by faking the death of Fleetmaster Seahorn, by killing a local cow and tossing her head around. That was a pretty funny part of the quest chain, since human pirates think all cows look alike.
Once you're in their ranks you work your way up to captain one of the three main ships in their fleet. As the captain you're able to thin out the ranks by claiming mutiny, and you sabotage their cannons, gun powder, and grog. Getting back to Booty Bay, you find the full force of the Worgen and Bloodsail pirates attacking, and after some killing and bombing you help save the day.
It's a fun quest chain, and most of the gameplay is below. The stream disconnected about half way through, but you can see the finale, which was fun times swinging from boat to boat and dropping bombs from above.
Now that I've finished with Stranglethorn, I'm moving on to the Wetlands. I'm already level 58, which means the combined quests in both Northern and Southern Stranglethorn gained me over 10 levels. I'll probably reach beyond 60 before finishing the Wetlands, and once I do that, I'll work on Kalimdor on either my Void Elf Warlock, my Kul Tiran Druid, or my Pandaren Monk. I'm leaning warlock at the moment. I haven't really played a lock for any considerable amount of time ever, so it should be fun to give the class a try.
You're tasked with infiltrating their ranks by faking the death of Fleetmaster Seahorn, by killing a local cow and tossing her head around. That was a pretty funny part of the quest chain, since human pirates think all cows look alike.
Once you're in their ranks you work your way up to captain one of the three main ships in their fleet. As the captain you're able to thin out the ranks by claiming mutiny, and you sabotage their cannons, gun powder, and grog. Getting back to Booty Bay, you find the full force of the Worgen and Bloodsail pirates attacking, and after some killing and bombing you help save the day.
It's a fun quest chain, and most of the gameplay is below. The stream disconnected about half way through, but you can see the finale, which was fun times swinging from boat to boat and dropping bombs from above.
Now that I've finished with Stranglethorn, I'm moving on to the Wetlands. I'm already level 58, which means the combined quests in both Northern and Southern Stranglethorn gained me over 10 levels. I'll probably reach beyond 60 before finishing the Wetlands, and once I do that, I'll work on Kalimdor on either my Void Elf Warlock, my Kul Tiran Druid, or my Pandaren Monk. I'm leaning warlock at the moment. I haven't really played a lock for any considerable amount of time ever, so it should be fun to give the class a try.
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Getting to the Gurubashi Arena
I am very excited to have access to the classic beta stress test realm today. After a stressful stress test, I was glad that I spent the evening playing Overwatch last night. The realm was offline for most of the night, and it sounded like a significant number of people had trouble logging in.
Thankfully the realms are still open until tomorrow, which means I can test out my trek to the Gurubashi Arena in the Cape of Stranglethorn Vale. I decided to try it out on a dwarf priest. Since the test realm only has a max level of 5, I wasn't interested in leveling. No, my real goal is to get a bank alt to the Gurubashi Arena to get a chance at the chest that spawns there every three hours. Vendoring the items from the chest can yield a nice chunk of gold, and since that character would primarily be in a major city working the auction house anyway, I might as well put him to good use (at least at the beginning of the server). Even if the character is only level two, if I can get lucky a couple of time when most people are asleep, I think it'll be worth it.
I found that it took just over an hour to make it all the way to the arena. The trek from the dwarf starting zone to Ironforge was no problem. I could have saved some time if I would have caught the Deeprun Tram in time. Running through Elwynn and Westfall was no problem, and my first death didn't come until I was about to leave Westfall. As I was crossing the bridge that leads into Duskwood, a high level shredder ended me life. Then a Venture Co. Drone got me as I was following the river south into Stranglethorn. I managed to die about 16 times, which meant that many corpse runs to make the incremental progress towards the arena.
I didn't see anyone else in the zone, but as the chest event is nearing there are some more level fives in the area. So I anticipate more people having this idea when the game launches in August.
What I am going to try next is the time to get to level 5, to see if it would be worth it to get to level 5 before making the run, so that I'll have a little more armor and health, as well as the ability to level trade skills, since this character will be meant to be my disenchanter.
Also, I tried to stream my numerous deaths, but the streaming capability seems only for retail.
PS. As I typing this I saw a level 5 Tauren also in the arena, so my hopes of getting the chest this morning have decreased mightily. Might get to level 5 to improve my odds this afternoon if I get the chance.
Thankfully the realms are still open until tomorrow, which means I can test out my trek to the Gurubashi Arena in the Cape of Stranglethorn Vale. I decided to try it out on a dwarf priest. Since the test realm only has a max level of 5, I wasn't interested in leveling. No, my real goal is to get a bank alt to the Gurubashi Arena to get a chance at the chest that spawns there every three hours. Vendoring the items from the chest can yield a nice chunk of gold, and since that character would primarily be in a major city working the auction house anyway, I might as well put him to good use (at least at the beginning of the server). Even if the character is only level two, if I can get lucky a couple of time when most people are asleep, I think it'll be worth it.
I found that it took just over an hour to make it all the way to the arena. The trek from the dwarf starting zone to Ironforge was no problem. I could have saved some time if I would have caught the Deeprun Tram in time. Running through Elwynn and Westfall was no problem, and my first death didn't come until I was about to leave Westfall. As I was crossing the bridge that leads into Duskwood, a high level shredder ended me life. Then a Venture Co. Drone got me as I was following the river south into Stranglethorn. I managed to die about 16 times, which meant that many corpse runs to make the incremental progress towards the arena.
I didn't see anyone else in the zone, but as the chest event is nearing there are some more level fives in the area. So I anticipate more people having this idea when the game launches in August.
What I am going to try next is the time to get to level 5, to see if it would be worth it to get to level 5 before making the run, so that I'll have a little more armor and health, as well as the ability to level trade skills, since this character will be meant to be my disenchanter.
Also, I tried to stream my numerous deaths, but the streaming capability seems only for retail.
PS. As I typing this I saw a level 5 Tauren also in the arena, so my hopes of getting the chest this morning have decreased mightily. Might get to level 5 to improve my odds this afternoon if I get the chance.
Sunday, May 19, 2019
Day 2 of Streaming in Stranglethorn
Today the goal was to test out my microphone. I found an old head set in the garage, and gave it a try. The first attempt, I didn't have the headset set as the microphone and must've been using my computer mic, which was real quiet. That stream was interrupted by a renegade kitten who was climbing up my leg, so I took a break and then came back to try out the mic on the headset.
The headset showed it's age, and the result was a crackly audio. It wasn't too bad, and I could be heard more better. It was better at certain parts of the stream, so I might continue using them, but I also could stand to get a new headset anyway.
Highlights from today include falling into a really cool whirlpool formed by the Cataclysm. That part was cool because I had never seen that part of the zone before. I also found two rare spawns which is always fun. I was also lucky enough to have gotten the Grubashi Arena chest. It spawns every three hours, and I happened to be in the area right around 9. It helps that the zone is pretty empty.
The headset showed it's age, and the result was a crackly audio. It wasn't too bad, and I could be heard more better. It was better at certain parts of the stream, so I might continue using them, but I also could stand to get a new headset anyway.
Highlights from today include falling into a really cool whirlpool formed by the Cataclysm. That part was cool because I had never seen that part of the zone before. I also found two rare spawns which is always fun. I was also lucky enough to have gotten the Grubashi Arena chest. It spawns every three hours, and I happened to be in the area right around 9. It helps that the zone is pretty empty.
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Starting to Stream in Preparation for Classic WoW
I am beyond excited for the release of classic wow, and I want to try my hand at streaming as I play. Facebook seems like the easiest platform as it's already integrated into the Battle.net client.
So I'm going to stream as I try to complete the Loremaster achievement for Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. I never did all of the quests during Vanilla wow, and I've only accidentally done the quests since the Cataclysm. So my goal is to complete the achievement before I venture back in time and begin questing and leveling in Classic WoW. I'm got the Cape of Stranglethorn and Wetlands left on Eastern Kingdoms, and Kalimdor is completely undone.
I'll post all of the streams to Sevo's WoW Time on Facebook , and I'll try to keep up with this blog as it goes.
This first video is just a test of me trying to see how the tool works trying to take down some orcs. It ends with an epic fail on disengage in an orc cave, and in hindsight Feign Death would have been helpful.
I'm looking forward to playing with ya'll
So I'm going to stream as I try to complete the Loremaster achievement for Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. I never did all of the quests during Vanilla wow, and I've only accidentally done the quests since the Cataclysm. So my goal is to complete the achievement before I venture back in time and begin questing and leveling in Classic WoW. I'm got the Cape of Stranglethorn and Wetlands left on Eastern Kingdoms, and Kalimdor is completely undone.
I'll post all of the streams to Sevo's WoW Time on Facebook , and I'll try to keep up with this blog as it goes.
This first video is just a test of me trying to see how the tool works trying to take down some orcs. It ends with an epic fail on disengage in an orc cave, and in hindsight Feign Death would have been helpful.
I'm looking forward to playing with ya'll
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