My latest project is to level up a shaman to 80. I enjoyed playing the hybrid class when I levelled up my paladin - mostly because being able to heal yourself makes such a HUGE difference. Pallys and druids are, I think, the ultimate hybrids - they can heal, DPS, and tank all in one character.
I hear that when WOW first came out, shamans were designed to be able to tank as well, but blizz scrapped the idea due to balance issues. So now their role is limited to DPS and healing.
I guess I chose a shaman due to a relatively simple reason - they seemed to be in high demand. I often see trade chats asking for a shammy because of their ability to bloodlust. To be honest I think a good group doesn't need that last-ditch bloodlust boost but I guess people like having that safety net. Anyways they seemed like a fun class to play, what with high armor from mail and being able to use totems and such. So I made a troll shaman (I love trolls, I don't know why).
I got to level 50 as elemental, decked out in heirlooms of course. And I have to admit, it was a really tough grind. Tough in terms of being able to keep my interest in the character. I absolutely hate casting delays! Having to wait 2.5 secs to cast a lightning bolt?? My generation was raised on instant gratification and microsecond attention spans, I could not deal with that casting time.
I guess I only picked elemental because the gear requirements for elemental and restoration are very similar, and I wanted to be able to heal eventually. Everyone loves utility! But elemental was just not my style, I must admit. I found myself meleeing more and more often, and relying on my shock spells rather than channeled casts or lightning spells.
Well, so I struggled my way to 50 playing like an enhancement shaman, with the talent build of a elemental shaman, and it finally hit me - respec! I moved all my talent points into enhancement, and WOW. Suddenly I was a one-woman wrecking machine. With slow 1-hand dual wielding, amazing crits, windfury weapon, improved shock spells and + attack power, I could mow through mobs nonstop. When using only shock spells and instant melee spells, my mana barely dipped. If it started going down after a big pull, I just switched to water shield. With points into maelstrom weapon, I could pretty much instantly heal myself with my healing wind spells during big pulls. My crits were amazing - whoever has heard of a 900 crit at level 54?? I'm pretty sure my rogue didn't pull that much at level 60. Basically, I felt invincible.
I have 3 levels to go till outland, and all I can say it...I wish I had respecced a lot sooner. I might already be at 80 if I had been enhancement all the way.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
All the Single Ladies...
All the nooby raiders
All the nooby raiders
Now put your hands up
Up in Icecrown, we got a boss down
I got my eyes on the loot
You went AFK, and now you wanna say
Hey bro I really needed that
I rolled need, you rolled greed
You didn't pay any attention
cuz I've been sapped and feared, for three good years,
Ya can’t be mad at me
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
Don't be mad when you see me DE it
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
All the nooby raiders
Now put your hands up
Up in Icecrown, we got a boss down
I got my eyes on the loot
You went AFK, and now you wanna say
Hey bro I really needed that
I rolled need, you rolled greed
You didn't pay any attention
cuz I've been sapped and feared, for three good years,
Ya can’t be mad at me
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
Don't be mad when you see me DE it
Cuz if you liked it then you should've rolled need on it
Monday, July 19, 2010
Help, I'm an alt-aholic
I rarely play on my main these days. Sure, I'll try to squeeze in the weekly raid, and of course I raid on the 2 nights a week that the guild attemps ICC (although attendance has been quite spotty of late). If WG happens to be going on I'll jump in on that too. But stuff like daily quests, daily heroics, getting achievements and titles just don't appeal to me anymore. I certainly don't need any more frost badges and with 20k gold saved up, I don't feel the need to spend an hour doing dailies for a measly 100g. Ah, yes, it's good to be rich.
Although I do enjoy doing classic/BC dungeons just for fun. Who doesn't like to solo those and feel totally OP?
But anyways, my playing time has been drastically reduced on my rogue. I don't even log into my paladin anymore now that she's finally hit 80. I had all these grand designs to pimp her out in awesome tanking gear and get insta-queues and invites left and right, but once I started the long and gruelling process of gearing up...*shudder*. The idea of running 100+ heroics and tanking raids with idiots was just too daunting. But hey she's at least all ready to go once Cata hits the market.
These days I play my shaman (lvl 49), and I have mixed feelings about it. I figured it would be a fun hybrid class to play but it gets so frustrating that the cast times seem so long. I guess if you want to be a caster long cast times are something you just have to get used to (at least until you can start stacking spell haste). And I suppose I could play enhancement shaman, but then you're really reliant on your totems and I find totems to be very, very annoying. I see shammies in raids who have to run to the front of the group, slap down 4 totems, run back to the rear to start dpsing, etc etc. It just seems like such a nuisance to be honest.
When I've had enough of my shammy I like to play my mage for a bit. She's only level 15, which is when levelling is still fun and not so much of a grind so I like it so far. Decked out in heirlooms she packs quite a wallop! And being a pure DPS class means I have to be a little more cautious about pulling a group of mobs which adds a little more challenge and excitement.
When my mage bores me, that's when I start new characters willy-nilly. I have like 5 alliance characters on a PVE realm that I've gotten to level 10 and lost interest in. Recently I started a night elf rogue which is kind of fun because the night elf starting zone is the only one I've never quested in before. In fact, I've never quested in any of the level 20ish alliance zones so maybe that's something to work on.
It's tough to focus on one character and level it all the way to 80. I have all these great ideas - I'll start a character and try out herbalism, thinking "this will be great, I can send all these herbs to my main and level up her alchemy when cata comes out". Or try Skinning, thinking, "this will be great, I'll save this leather and give it to my leatherworking alt and make money off the rest I can sell". Of course none of this has yet to come to fruition since all of these alts are nowhere near enough high level to be useful to my main or to make any significant money through gathering professions. My hope is to someday have a giant gathering system set up to where my mains can get whatever they need from the alts - but I fear that will be the day I become pimply and eat hot pockets all day in front of the computer.
Starting an alt is irresistably fun for me. I can't really explain why, but I just love creating a new character, customizing the look, giving her a name, then outfitting her in all the best heirlooms I can get my hands on. My new rogue I just started already has heirlooms shoulders, chest, two daggers, trinket, and a gun. It's pretty ridiculous how fast I can kill those level 5 tigers. And when you first start, the quests are so easy and you gain a new level every 5 minutes, and you get to start a new profession and watch the skill points go up quickly, and there's always something to look forward to with every level gain. And that sort of continues until 20-ish, and things start slowing down.
I think the biggest hurdle is the level 30-50 range. That's when it really feels like a grind and levelling is slow. Once you get past 50, you sort of feel "invested" in that toon. Plus you've got most of your talent tree mapped out by then and there's Outland to look forward to in just 8 levels, so things are not quite so tedious.
I have all these alts that I managed to get to level 25-30 ish and then just gave up - my druid, who's still sitting there in her heirlooms looking at me with sad cow-eyes. My belf hunter who got deleted because I just hated having to send my pet in before I could do anything. My warrior that was well, just plain old boring to play. I've tried every class except for a priest. Perhaps in cataclysm I'll make a goblin priest...
Everyone likes to start alts, right? Or is that just me?
Although I do enjoy doing classic/BC dungeons just for fun. Who doesn't like to solo those and feel totally OP?
But anyways, my playing time has been drastically reduced on my rogue. I don't even log into my paladin anymore now that she's finally hit 80. I had all these grand designs to pimp her out in awesome tanking gear and get insta-queues and invites left and right, but once I started the long and gruelling process of gearing up...*shudder*. The idea of running 100+ heroics and tanking raids with idiots was just too daunting. But hey she's at least all ready to go once Cata hits the market.
These days I play my shaman (lvl 49), and I have mixed feelings about it. I figured it would be a fun hybrid class to play but it gets so frustrating that the cast times seem so long. I guess if you want to be a caster long cast times are something you just have to get used to (at least until you can start stacking spell haste). And I suppose I could play enhancement shaman, but then you're really reliant on your totems and I find totems to be very, very annoying. I see shammies in raids who have to run to the front of the group, slap down 4 totems, run back to the rear to start dpsing, etc etc. It just seems like such a nuisance to be honest.
When I've had enough of my shammy I like to play my mage for a bit. She's only level 15, which is when levelling is still fun and not so much of a grind so I like it so far. Decked out in heirlooms she packs quite a wallop! And being a pure DPS class means I have to be a little more cautious about pulling a group of mobs which adds a little more challenge and excitement.
When my mage bores me, that's when I start new characters willy-nilly. I have like 5 alliance characters on a PVE realm that I've gotten to level 10 and lost interest in. Recently I started a night elf rogue which is kind of fun because the night elf starting zone is the only one I've never quested in before. In fact, I've never quested in any of the level 20ish alliance zones so maybe that's something to work on.
It's tough to focus on one character and level it all the way to 80. I have all these great ideas - I'll start a character and try out herbalism, thinking "this will be great, I can send all these herbs to my main and level up her alchemy when cata comes out". Or try Skinning, thinking, "this will be great, I'll save this leather and give it to my leatherworking alt and make money off the rest I can sell". Of course none of this has yet to come to fruition since all of these alts are nowhere near enough high level to be useful to my main or to make any significant money through gathering professions. My hope is to someday have a giant gathering system set up to where my mains can get whatever they need from the alts - but I fear that will be the day I become pimply and eat hot pockets all day in front of the computer.
Starting an alt is irresistably fun for me. I can't really explain why, but I just love creating a new character, customizing the look, giving her a name, then outfitting her in all the best heirlooms I can get my hands on. My new rogue I just started already has heirlooms shoulders, chest, two daggers, trinket, and a gun. It's pretty ridiculous how fast I can kill those level 5 tigers. And when you first start, the quests are so easy and you gain a new level every 5 minutes, and you get to start a new profession and watch the skill points go up quickly, and there's always something to look forward to with every level gain. And that sort of continues until 20-ish, and things start slowing down.
I think the biggest hurdle is the level 30-50 range. That's when it really feels like a grind and levelling is slow. Once you get past 50, you sort of feel "invested" in that toon. Plus you've got most of your talent tree mapped out by then and there's Outland to look forward to in just 8 levels, so things are not quite so tedious.
I have all these alts that I managed to get to level 25-30 ish and then just gave up - my druid, who's still sitting there in her heirlooms looking at me with sad cow-eyes. My belf hunter who got deleted because I just hated having to send my pet in before I could do anything. My warrior that was well, just plain old boring to play. I've tried every class except for a priest. Perhaps in cataclysm I'll make a goblin priest...
Everyone likes to start alts, right? Or is that just me?
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Da lich king & recruitment
We are now 11/12 in ICC normal, meaning we have but just one boss remaining - The Lich King, the Prince formerly known as Arthas Menethil. (HA! Puns.)
In the last 2 weeks since Sindragosa's demise, we've given a handful of attempts at the Lich King. He's pretty tough, as we all expect him to be - I mean, he is like, THE big bad boy of WoW, at least for the time being. Once Cataclysm comes out, I'm sure a team of 2 paladins and a druid will be "farming" him for the mount...sad but true. I mean, look at me, I run ZG and Kara every week for mounts with an uber raid consisting of a rogue tank/dps and a pvp disc priest.
Anyways, yes he is tough. The fight is complicated and it seems pretty stressful for the healers, since they really need to be on the ball about dispelling and topping people off and such. Then again, he hits the tanks like a truck so I'm sure it's stressful for them as well to watch their 60k HP dip into the triple digits every now and then. Come to think of it, it's really stressful for the DPS to kill all the adds that spawn constantly. Damn, the fight is stressful for everyone, it seems!
I'm happy to report that we seem to be making progress. We were able to get him to phase 2 and killed a Valkyr before she could drag our paladin off the ledge. I'd say maybe in another 30-40 wipes we may be able to get this.
Unfortunately our main tank is leaving us after this week, so we'll have to get someone else in who will need to learn the fight over again. Sigh. The biggest roadblock to raid progression is not skill or gear, it's the number of people who can consistently raid. Frailty thy name is the casual raider!
So we shall see how things go. We have a couple more attemps scheduled before our MT leaves. After that I might switch guilds yet again. You see, I was recruited during a pug! It was ICC25 and man, was I on it. I was on steroids or something, pumping out 14k dps on saurfang. My name was #1 on the charts starting from the first trash pull all the way up to festergut (where we wiped twice and everyone left). The raid leader, another rogue, just came right out and said it - "I want to steal you from your guild". His guild had the kingslayer, was 9/12 in heroic mode, so yeah I was about to say "take me, take me now!". Until he mentioned that they raid starting at 7pm... >.> Living on the west coast sucks.
But I'm still thinking it over. I mean, if I really wanted to, I could make that raid time. My work schedule is flexible, I'd just need to get my ass in early. But it can be done. Plus their 25man group runs a little later so I could definitely do that. I guess what's holding me back really is laziness. Switching guilds mean you start at the bottom of the food chain again. There's the stress of trying to impress people, the potential of clashing personalities or annoying 14 year olds on vent, loot drama, awkwardness between ex-guildies, etc etc. So much to take into consideration.
Although next week I might ask if I can raid with them for the 25man. If they seem like nice folks I'll seriously consider switching. But nowadays I'm a lot more picky than I used to be. I hope I haven't become a gear snob/elitist jerk. I'm still in touch with the common man, I swear! My pally alt is only at 3k GS so I know what it's like guys!
In the last 2 weeks since Sindragosa's demise, we've given a handful of attempts at the Lich King. He's pretty tough, as we all expect him to be - I mean, he is like, THE big bad boy of WoW, at least for the time being. Once Cataclysm comes out, I'm sure a team of 2 paladins and a druid will be "farming" him for the mount...sad but true. I mean, look at me, I run ZG and Kara every week for mounts with an uber raid consisting of a rogue tank/dps and a pvp disc priest.
Anyways, yes he is tough. The fight is complicated and it seems pretty stressful for the healers, since they really need to be on the ball about dispelling and topping people off and such. Then again, he hits the tanks like a truck so I'm sure it's stressful for them as well to watch their 60k HP dip into the triple digits every now and then. Come to think of it, it's really stressful for the DPS to kill all the adds that spawn constantly. Damn, the fight is stressful for everyone, it seems!
I'm happy to report that we seem to be making progress. We were able to get him to phase 2 and killed a Valkyr before she could drag our paladin off the ledge. I'd say maybe in another 30-40 wipes we may be able to get this.
Unfortunately our main tank is leaving us after this week, so we'll have to get someone else in who will need to learn the fight over again. Sigh. The biggest roadblock to raid progression is not skill or gear, it's the number of people who can consistently raid. Frailty thy name is the casual raider!
So we shall see how things go. We have a couple more attemps scheduled before our MT leaves. After that I might switch guilds yet again. You see, I was recruited during a pug! It was ICC25 and man, was I on it. I was on steroids or something, pumping out 14k dps on saurfang. My name was #1 on the charts starting from the first trash pull all the way up to festergut (where we wiped twice and everyone left). The raid leader, another rogue, just came right out and said it - "I want to steal you from your guild". His guild had the kingslayer, was 9/12 in heroic mode, so yeah I was about to say "take me, take me now!". Until he mentioned that they raid starting at 7pm... >.> Living on the west coast sucks.
But I'm still thinking it over. I mean, if I really wanted to, I could make that raid time. My work schedule is flexible, I'd just need to get my ass in early. But it can be done. Plus their 25man group runs a little later so I could definitely do that. I guess what's holding me back really is laziness. Switching guilds mean you start at the bottom of the food chain again. There's the stress of trying to impress people, the potential of clashing personalities or annoying 14 year olds on vent, loot drama, awkwardness between ex-guildies, etc etc. So much to take into consideration.
Although next week I might ask if I can raid with them for the 25man. If they seem like nice folks I'll seriously consider switching. But nowadays I'm a lot more picky than I used to be. I hope I haven't become a gear snob/elitist jerk. I'm still in touch with the common man, I swear! My pally alt is only at 3k GS so I know what it's like guys!
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