Ice in Northrend

Another alt has made it through Outlands, and so arrives in Northrend, ready to kick some ass and take some names.

I think I spoke once about how everyone takes the obligatory going through the Dark Portal picture of their toons, but no one does a going to Northrend picture. Well, here ya go.

I'm on a boat!

Viva leveled through Borean Tundra with Totallytotem. Ice is going through Howling Fjord with Torq. We’re quite the odd couple. He’s a gnome, I’m a draenei. Why don’t I have any screenshots with him? Oh, that’s right. She’s too fabulous to include anyone else in her pictures, it would just mar her image.

Having landed at Valgarde with supplies.

I’ve been questing questing questing, because I’m kinda scared to tank yet. WTB replacements for my crappy starter DK gear. I figure I’ll wait until I hit 70 and then see whats on the AH. I’m finding that there are way too many quest rewards that are purely for Holy Paladins. What did Blizzard think, we’d end up with no Holy Pallies if they didn’t bombard them with gear?

Most fun quest in Howling Fjord so far?

Harpoon Surfing!

 

 

Ashwynn’s Big Day Out: Take Two

Some of you may have noticed that Ashwynn is no longer level 69. That’s right ladies and gents, the prodigal warlock has been sent out on a mission, to gain a level.

The interesting thing about all of this is that I actually enjoyed leveling her for that one level. I specced her out in a sexy Destruction build, gave her some very Warlock-ish BOAs, and went out and started some fires.

Ashwynn in her Sexy BOAs

Now, before you start asking why I bothered doing any of this, well, its rather an embarrassing story… You see, Ashwynn is my tailor, and I thought it fitting if she had a flying carpet. So I got the mats together and at great expense she made herself a lovely little flying carpet… that she couldn’t use. The tooltip on the carpet told me that I needed to be level 70 to use this item. So, you see, this was my reasoning behind leveling Ashwynn to 70.

There was only one thing that I forgot. Ashwynn already has flying skill, and there is a lesser flying carpet that I should have made for her first. I had crafted the epic flying carpet instead of the regular one. No chance I am wasting 5,000 gold to give her epic flying. Maybe if some day I have gold to throw away, but that isn’t the case right now.

So I wound up gathering the less considerable mats for the lesser flying carpet, and celebrated with Spellpower at Krasus Landing.

Carpet Surfing with Spellpower

Afterwards, I took her out for a little spin with Spellpower to visit the Baron in Stratholme. Old Rivendare just isn’t what he used to be. Yet, he still refuses to give up that steed.

Hello Baron

All in all, a fun little adventure for Ashwynn, and a lesson for me. Perhaps Ashwynn will not be stuck in Ironforge forever.

 

 

Fail Death Knights are Fail (and other fun stuff)

I ran a heroic CoS a few days ago, and it was good fun. The group was great, except for that one DK. You know the one, the one who can’t beat the tank in DPS. But there’s something seriously wrong when they can’t even beat the healer in DPS.

I’ve been working on Viva quite a bit lately. I spent a fair amount of time in Sholazar Basin recently, and I still love it! The quest chains are fabulously fun, plus I get to skin all the critters I kill.

 

Croc Surfing!

There’s nothing better than the petty war between the Frenzyheart and the Oracles and those quest chains. Ama is a Mercenary of Sholazar, and while it was a bit excrutiating towards the end, it was so worth it. I only wish it was a title.

 

Boomkin on a Mammoth?

Where else can you do this, but in Sholazar? It’s just wrong!

And now for something completely different!

This was several PuGs ago in a random Blood Furnace. I’m still not exactly sure why he had to let her out of the house.

At last!

At long last, Ama has finally gotten her Reins of the White Polar Bear! After many hundreds of dailies and much torment, Lady RNG has seen fit to bless Ama with the mount she’s been wanting since she first saw it with the release of Wrath.

Squee!!

I will love him and squeeze him and cuddle him and feed him and call him George! Oh wait. George is my Shadowfiend’s name. Ummm…

~thinks~

Jerry! His name is Jerry!

~Grateful bear dances with her new polar bear~

In which Viva goes to Northrend and turns 70!

As beautiful as Northrend is, there are no perfect “Now Entering Northrend” locations in which to take that first screenshot as you enter. Going through the Dark Portal is such a key moment in a character’s leveling progression. Going to Northrend for the first time is no less of an occasion. Yet how many of us take a screenshot upon arrival?

I opted to take a screenshot of Viva at level 70 from the character selection screen. Yes, I cheat!

I'm too sexy for my goggles.

I changed her hair color to purple a while back because I was sick of looking at the black kitty form. It wasn’t long after that I decided to switch to Boomkin. I’m sticking with the purple hair anyway. The blue hair reminded me too much of Jezz anyway.

Anyway…

Viva really did go to Northrend and turned 70 while there.

And she ran her very first Northrend dungeon.

Utgarde Keep is a lot harder at appropriate level than I remember. Maybe it’s because when Ama did it she was wearing BC epics, or maybe it’s because Discipline Priests are the perfect 5 man healer.

The tank died a few times. I was trying my hardest to keep him alive. I don’t know whether to blame it on lack of skill on my part, lack of gear on my part, or lack of those same in the tank. He was a DK in mostly dps gear though.

We managed to get through the dungeon, though, and that’s what matters. Right?

And Viva got her very first emblem.

Go go Druid power!

I am Boomchicken!

While I do really like Feral Kitty DPS for leveling and questing, I’ve found it is far more conducive to solo leveling. Since I am running with my bestfriend and his shaman it was much more difficult to get in my damage before he had nuked the mobs into oblivion.

So I’ve switched to Boomkin for my offspec, and I’m having a blast! I’m actually able to do about as much damage on mobs as he does. ROFLStarfall (as my GM calls it) is the most fun spell ever! Plus I get this:

Obligatory Boomkin Dance Screenshot

 

Another one goes through the portal

One of my favorite quests is in Winterspring is the one to find out what the deal is with the owlkin. It begins with the quest to gather feathers, then you have to find Ranshalla and escort her as she attempts to reactivate the altar of Elune.

After spending far too much time in Winterspring, Vivacious finally hit 58 and headed for the Dark Portal.

I’ve never been so happy to see Hellfire in my life! Outlands, here comes trouble!

Alt Envy

Do you ever feel jealous of other people’s alts?

I know I do.

I’m pretty slow at leveling up alts. I need to go slowly in order to learn the new class/spec. I’m kind of a slow learner. It takes me time and repetition to learn new boss fights. It takes me time and repetition to learn a new class/spec.

I’ve said that I’m an altoholic, but I’m more of a low level altoholic. I get toons to somewhere in their 20s and delete them and start all over. I only have two 80s. I only have three toons above 60.

My guild is full of real altoholics, some with as many as eight 80s. Many of them I have watched now level an alt from 60-80 in a few days, then get geared into decent gear in another few days. I am so jealous.

I wish I could move faster. I wish once I hit 80 with that alt that I’d have the motivation to gear them up. I really hope that I wind up enjoying Vivacious enough that I can keep motivated with her, even after level cap.

My paladin was pure disappointment once I hit level cap. Of course, I leveled her up solely by questing too, so that may be a good part of my problem with her. I think having the Dungeon Finder available as a tool to find groups for low level dungeons is invaluable. If it had been around when I was leveling Levity, perhaps I’d be singing a different tune right now.

Here’s hoping this Lowbie Altoholic can move it on up into end game.

RAFing creates bad players, WTB attunement?

In which I respond to Alas and The Anorak

I don’t think the RAF program is at fault here. It is the attitude of the player that is at fault. RAF is all well and good if you have a mentor that will work with you and help you learn your class (if you truly are brand new to the game). Unfortunately, many mentors may not stick with you. If you end up on your own, what do you do?

Even leveling up at a normal pace, I did not understand all of my abilities completely when I hit max level. There were things I never used and didn’t have hot-keyed, until a friend said, “Hey, you can do X.” At which point, I said, “I can?” And began learning.

If you find that you don’t understand all of your abilities when you hit max level, then you read or ask other players or learn by experience in 5 mans or BGs. I am still learning, as changes are made, about my class. The learning never stops. If you refuse to learn you will not raid (much). We all did and continue to do this.

5 mans and the easier raids (see Naxx) are the training raids.

I actually do prefer the attunement that was required in BC to the current lack, but I also have time to get attuned. Apparently most casual players do not.

As a new player to WoW I started leveling up, took my time, enjoyed leveling. When I hit max level I asked myself, “Now what?” Raiding? So I asked people around me about raiding and got myself some friends who were moving in the same direction at the same pace that I was. Granted this may be easier or harder depending on where you are in expansion progression when you are ready for this kind of move.

The good thing about WoW is that it is not static. If you hit 80 today you do not have to do ICC right away. You can, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

In BC, when attunements had to be done, there were guilds running Karazhan to the bitter end. You could always find groups willing to run lower content. Maybe this was in part due to the fact that every raid boss dropped a badge (emblem). Maybe this was also in part because of the required attunement.

Bottom line: RAF doesn’t make bad players, bad players make bad players. If you refuse to learn your class, ask questions, do research, make friends, then you can’t seriously expect to raid.

Reroll Woes

Blizzard has made the beginning areas way too easy. Every mob in the starting zone is neutral now. From the imps in the Valley of Trials to the moonkin and blood elves in Ammen Vale. I’m sorry, but logically, these mobs should be aggressive. I understand not wanting to hurt new players and get them instantly killed, but this is a bit too much hand-holding.

Even at level 1, it is unlikely that a level 3 mob is going to kill you before you kill it. You have more health and probably hit harder than it does. Pull 3 of those mobs? Oh, maybe I should have done the level 1 quests before wandering over here. This is how people learn. This is how I learned to position myself to pull single targets instead of launching myself into several and getting myself killed. I know, because I leveled my priest this way before all the nerfs to the starting areas were made. I died a lot, but I learned.

Do not get me started about the mana and health regen before level 10 either! Does coddling players until they reach level 10 really help them or make them want to continue to play? If anything, I would think it would make getting to level 11 a huge hurdle.

It seems that the developers are agreeing with the attitude that the game is all about end-game content. I couldn’t disagree with this more! I love leveling. I love the time it takes to see the world and learn the lore. I love leveling even more, since I have seen end-game content.

You gave people heirloom items to make re-rolling easier. Making the starting zones themselves easier, in my humble opinion, is only making the game more difficult for the new player, as it is delaying the reality of the game.

Here’s hoping the changes to the old world and questing makes things much better with Cataclysm. My fear is that things will only get dumbed-down more.