Have a great Holliday. Give out some candies or be a scrooge and turn off your light. Whatever you do, enjoy the day! Watch scary movies and give yourself cavities (not cavity searches unless you are into that kind of thing).
If you are playing WoW, eat sweets until you spray vomit on everyone and kick the shit out of the HH.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
More Scourge Invasions means more fun
I finally got the necrotic runes I needed to get my quest done and the argent dawn tabard. I also saw 3 epics drops and I picked up the plate chest for my warrior.
It was so much easier, as I had a group of 4 and most others out there were doing it solo. I just tanked everything and they burned crap down. I am hoping to take my Druid to an invasion point this weekend and maybe be able to obtain some epics.
It was so much easier, as I had a group of 4 and most others out there were doing it solo. I just tanked everything and they burned crap down. I am hoping to take my Druid to an invasion point this weekend and maybe be able to obtain some epics.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wow Domestic Disputes (Part 2)
Most WoW players arent the stereotypical geek who has no friends, job, or chance at a woman (or man). I for one have a job, a fiance, and some very good friends. All of my friends play WoW, but my fiance does not understand the game at all. It is the one thing that we usually fight about despite the fact that my WoW playing schedule is based on what is best for her. I have did a previous post about some of the things you may hear if you have a non-WoW playing significant other here http://darraxusthewarrior.blogspot.com/2008/09/wow-domestic-disputes.html.
I think I won a small battle last night in the fight for WoW. My fiance hates the game irrationally. I only play on 3 designated nights, which are Weds, Sat, and Sun. All three of those days I only play when she is asleep. I play sporadically at other times when she is not there. I for one think that I have made a great compromise in an effort to spend all waking moments together, but for some reason she did see it this way. I used to play every single night. Then I cut it back to 4 days....then to its current 3. She tried to get me to play only 2 nights but I refused.
She said that she loves our "snuggle" nights, and she feels like I would rather play the game than "spend time" with her. My retort was that I was not "spending time" with her when she is sleeping. I am laying next to her doing absolutely nothing just so she wont get pissed off.
On WoW nights, I lay down with her for about 30 minutes then get up to play. Without fail, she usually gets an attitude about it. She tried to tell me that she doesnt have the same kind of outlet that I have with WoW. I countered that all of her stupid TV shows are her outlet (I didnt say stupid, but you know what I mean). She countered that I play WoW by myself and that she watches her shows with me. My arguement is that:
a) I only watch the shows with her because I know it will make her happy. I dont like watching Grey's Anatomy, The Practice, The Hills, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, etc. for my health. If not for her, I would never watch a single one. I also watch them with her because I am making an effort to do an activity that she likes. We are both awake during this time and I want to spend as much time together as possible. If I got up and went to the computer during this time she would throw a fit.
b) If I treated her "outlet" the way she treated mine, we would spend no time together. I dont want to make her come sit and watch me play WoW for hours at a time. Hence why I play on designated nights when she is sleeping. Everyone enjoys differend mediums of entertainment. Mine is video games. I wouldnt watch anything besides sports or G4 if it was my choice.
I think that I got her to understand my point of view for once (even if it was reluctantly). My daily routine consists of go to work, come home, run, make dinner, watch crappy tv shows while eating dinner, and either go to bed with my fiance, or play WoW when she falls asleep depending on the night. You will notice that we do her "outlet" every single day. I do mine alone a few nights a week. Who is the person who really isnt willing to compromise. I even stopped any and all raiding to keep the peace at home.
Im sure alot of people out there share the same experiences. Sorry for the rant :)
I think I won a small battle last night in the fight for WoW. My fiance hates the game irrationally. I only play on 3 designated nights, which are Weds, Sat, and Sun. All three of those days I only play when she is asleep. I play sporadically at other times when she is not there. I for one think that I have made a great compromise in an effort to spend all waking moments together, but for some reason she did see it this way. I used to play every single night. Then I cut it back to 4 days....then to its current 3. She tried to get me to play only 2 nights but I refused.
She said that she loves our "snuggle" nights, and she feels like I would rather play the game than "spend time" with her. My retort was that I was not "spending time" with her when she is sleeping. I am laying next to her doing absolutely nothing just so she wont get pissed off.
On WoW nights, I lay down with her for about 30 minutes then get up to play. Without fail, she usually gets an attitude about it. She tried to tell me that she doesnt have the same kind of outlet that I have with WoW. I countered that all of her stupid TV shows are her outlet (I didnt say stupid, but you know what I mean). She countered that I play WoW by myself and that she watches her shows with me. My arguement is that:
a) I only watch the shows with her because I know it will make her happy. I dont like watching Grey's Anatomy, The Practice, The Hills, Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill, etc. for my health. If not for her, I would never watch a single one. I also watch them with her because I am making an effort to do an activity that she likes. We are both awake during this time and I want to spend as much time together as possible. If I got up and went to the computer during this time she would throw a fit.
b) If I treated her "outlet" the way she treated mine, we would spend no time together. I dont want to make her come sit and watch me play WoW for hours at a time. Hence why I play on designated nights when she is sleeping. Everyone enjoys differend mediums of entertainment. Mine is video games. I wouldnt watch anything besides sports or G4 if it was my choice.
I think that I got her to understand my point of view for once (even if it was reluctantly). My daily routine consists of go to work, come home, run, make dinner, watch crappy tv shows while eating dinner, and either go to bed with my fiance, or play WoW when she falls asleep depending on the night. You will notice that we do her "outlet" every single day. I do mine alone a few nights a week. Who is the person who really isnt willing to compromise. I even stopped any and all raiding to keep the peace at home.
Im sure alot of people out there share the same experiences. Sorry for the rant :)
The Lich King Offers his apologies.
I got this from Tobold and it made me laugh. http://tobolds.blogspot.com/
"My deepest apologies. It is my understanding that my invading forces, in their attempts to besiege your cities and snuff out all life on Azeroth, have inconvenienced the activities of common civilians. In the future, I will ensure that your commanding officers are informed well in advance of planned invasion times so that they may properly fortify themselves. I have also looked into the issue of my plague being too quick in its purpose and too difficult to cure. Please be reassured that I have taken the matter up personally with my top necromancers and that any further incarnations of said plague should be only a slight challenge for your natural immune systems to overcome. Please forward any additional complaints to either Kel’thuzad or Anub’arak. Regards, the Lich King Arthas."
"My deepest apologies. It is my understanding that my invading forces, in their attempts to besiege your cities and snuff out all life on Azeroth, have inconvenienced the activities of common civilians. In the future, I will ensure that your commanding officers are informed well in advance of planned invasion times so that they may properly fortify themselves. I have also looked into the issue of my plague being too quick in its purpose and too difficult to cure. Please be reassured that I have taken the matter up personally with my top necromancers and that any further incarnations of said plague should be only a slight challenge for your natural immune systems to overcome. Please forward any additional complaints to either Kel’thuzad or Anub’arak. Regards, the Lich King Arthas."
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Zombies, Arena, and Kara OH MY!
Finally got to get my warrior his Brutal Chest this weekend. Stole Mura and let him carry me to over 1600. We actually started 10-1 before dropping two in a row to a Rogue-Ret Pally combo that we had beaten earlier for 24 points. It was still laggy as hell, but his burst damage with my CC abilities worked pretty well.
We went to Kara as per usual and took on the optional boss. I got the bat pet and the Arcanite Ripper from him. For those who havent seen it, the Ripper turns you into an undead Guitar player upon use. I also picked up the Hallowed Helm and the Horseman's Helm over the weekend. Yay for novelty items.
As far as the Zombies go, I am glad that they finally changed it. It was annoying getting infected by griefers. The event was kinda cool as a whole, but there were too many people who did nothing but become a zombie and infect people. The most annoying thing for me was when a scourge attack came up, I could never get any runes because whole groups of people with AOE were going out there and farming them. I think I have gotten 1 rune in 3-4 trips.
We went to Kara as per usual and took on the optional boss. I got the bat pet and the Arcanite Ripper from him. For those who havent seen it, the Ripper turns you into an undead Guitar player upon use. I also picked up the Hallowed Helm and the Horseman's Helm over the weekend. Yay for novelty items.
As far as the Zombies go, I am glad that they finally changed it. It was annoying getting infected by griefers. The event was kinda cool as a whole, but there were too many people who did nothing but become a zombie and infect people. The most annoying thing for me was when a scourge attack came up, I could never get any runes because whole groups of people with AOE were going out there and farming them. I think I have gotten 1 rune in 3-4 trips.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Plague is upon us and Arenas are borked
So the new plague event started and I was actually the first in my guild to spot it. I first saw it in the Blasted Lands while killing stuff for weapon skill on my now ret pally.
I also tried out an arena skirmish and it is too laggy at this point to reliably do any real arena. I think we will be moving up when we do though.
I also tried out an arena skirmish and it is too laggy at this point to reliably do any real arena. I think we will be moving up when we do though.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I have turned to the dark side.
I respecced my pally as ret. I took him to the blasted lands to level up my weapon skill. Since the unkillable mobs no longer give points for it, I actually ran around killing mobs. I cant give an accurate account of how much DPS I will do since I was basically killing all of the mobs immediately. I am wearing horrible gear which includes a green or 3, some pre 70 blue items, some leather gear, some mail gear, and Gorehowl. With BoM up, I have over 1800 AP. Once I max out my weapon skill im gonna give the target dummies a try and see what I can do.
On another Paladin related note, did Galoheart's blog just up and disappear? It doesnt seem to be in the blog rolls anymore unless I am blind.
On another Paladin related note, did Galoheart's blog just up and disappear? It doesnt seem to be in the blog rolls anymore unless I am blind.
Raiding is now trivial
Raiding has become EZ mode. While I appreciate the opportunity to be able to see more content, it also can leave you with a feeling of emptiness. That boss that took you months to defeat is now being downed by pugs in one month.
My Guild is planning on going back and taking out Vasjh and Kael this week after never having done it before. We went into BT and cleared the 3 bosses we had already beaten and took down Gorefiend on our first night of attempts. I would imagine that other bosses will be falling soon.
Blizzard made things easier in several ways:
1) They reduced the HP of all Raid bosses and mobs by 30 percent. On a boss with 3 million hit points, that takes him down nearly one million HP. That is huge.
2) Bosses dont hit as hard as they previously did. This means that less healers are needed and you can stack more DPS.
3) DPS has been boosted for everyone but Warlocks. One of our Warriors did over 2k DPS in BT. Mura, our ret pally is capable of 2k plus DPS. Even tanks are doing double the DPS they were previously doing.
All of this really adds up to about a 60 percent nerf on bosses at least. I have read of people making their first trip into Sunwell and downing the first two bosses after having only downed Illidan once. People are going into SSC for the first time and clearing it. I remember how hard Tidewalker was for us. I remember having to have resist sets for the tanks. Now one tank with no resist is able to tank Hydross the entire fight.
While I am not sad about the changes, I could see how some people would be. Some people will feel like they have been kicked in the teeth. To those people: Dont worry about it. The highest raiding guilds felt the same way when they removed the attunements, allowing players into MH and BT without even defeating Kael or Vasjh first. The expansion will be here soon and BC will become a fond and distant memory.
My Guild is planning on going back and taking out Vasjh and Kael this week after never having done it before. We went into BT and cleared the 3 bosses we had already beaten and took down Gorefiend on our first night of attempts. I would imagine that other bosses will be falling soon.
Blizzard made things easier in several ways:
1) They reduced the HP of all Raid bosses and mobs by 30 percent. On a boss with 3 million hit points, that takes him down nearly one million HP. That is huge.
2) Bosses dont hit as hard as they previously did. This means that less healers are needed and you can stack more DPS.
3) DPS has been boosted for everyone but Warlocks. One of our Warriors did over 2k DPS in BT. Mura, our ret pally is capable of 2k plus DPS. Even tanks are doing double the DPS they were previously doing.
All of this really adds up to about a 60 percent nerf on bosses at least. I have read of people making their first trip into Sunwell and downing the first two bosses after having only downed Illidan once. People are going into SSC for the first time and clearing it. I remember how hard Tidewalker was for us. I remember having to have resist sets for the tanks. Now one tank with no resist is able to tank Hydross the entire fight.
While I am not sad about the changes, I could see how some people would be. Some people will feel like they have been kicked in the teeth. To those people: Dont worry about it. The highest raiding guilds felt the same way when they removed the attunements, allowing players into MH and BT without even defeating Kael or Vasjh first. The expansion will be here soon and BC will become a fond and distant memory.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tanking as a Warrior, Weekend update etc.
Well, I solo tanked Kara on Saturday, and I must say WOW!. I finished 5th in damage (though my DPS was only in the 400s.). I basically pulled everything like a paladin, thunder clapped, hit them with a shockwave, and did a pretty standard rotation with Thunderclap being used every time it was up (on multi mob pulls). Mobs were going down so fast that I was in a state of shock. We did all of Kara with one tank and one healer (a pally healer at that) and had zero wipes. Alot of our DPS was sub-par as far as gear and pugs to boot.
Second place in DPS was a Shadowpriest with 800 plus. My arena partner, Ret pally beast Muralyon ran up 1400 DPS for the entire run and got over 2k on some boss fights. He also died 9 times as he couldnt control his aggro and was regularly hitting for over 5k.
All told, we cleared the entire instance in around 2 hours. For the last few bosses we had to switch healers, and brought in a severely undergeared Holy Pally wearing greens and blues. We killed Maiden in under a minute, and our longest boss fight didnt even hit 5 minutes.
Tanking has become very easy and much more fun. Damage shield is an awesome ability. Every time you are struck in combat by melee or block something, you damage (or have a chance to damage, cant remember off the top of my head) whoever hit you for like 30 percent of your shield block value. This is like a built in thorns/ret aura on steroids.
I got a chance to try out a few of the Tanking Glyph's and they are pretty cool. Glyph of Sunder armor applies a sunder to another nearby mob (it does work with devastate), and Glyph of Revenge makes your next Heroic strike free on a Revenge crit. I like Glyphs. They are generally very cheap too!
I did several runs with my Resto Druid this weekend and got him to 64 before I logged off last night. I just got lifebloom and cant wait to use it. I got Mura to run me thru Underbog. It really didnt take very long, and neither of us was ever in danger of dying. He put out 1700 dps for that run.
I spent a bit of time trying to get the exploration achievment on my Warrior. I did not realize how much I skipped while leveling way back pre-bc. I literally never even stepped foot into either Azshara or Burning Steppes, but somehow managed to have most of Sillithus discovered. Achievements are pretty neat, but they are going to be extremly time consuming I think.
Second place in DPS was a Shadowpriest with 800 plus. My arena partner, Ret pally beast Muralyon ran up 1400 DPS for the entire run and got over 2k on some boss fights. He also died 9 times as he couldnt control his aggro and was regularly hitting for over 5k.
All told, we cleared the entire instance in around 2 hours. For the last few bosses we had to switch healers, and brought in a severely undergeared Holy Pally wearing greens and blues. We killed Maiden in under a minute, and our longest boss fight didnt even hit 5 minutes.
Tanking has become very easy and much more fun. Damage shield is an awesome ability. Every time you are struck in combat by melee or block something, you damage (or have a chance to damage, cant remember off the top of my head) whoever hit you for like 30 percent of your shield block value. This is like a built in thorns/ret aura on steroids.
I got a chance to try out a few of the Tanking Glyph's and they are pretty cool. Glyph of Sunder armor applies a sunder to another nearby mob (it does work with devastate), and Glyph of Revenge makes your next Heroic strike free on a Revenge crit. I like Glyphs. They are generally very cheap too!
I did several runs with my Resto Druid this weekend and got him to 64 before I logged off last night. I just got lifebloom and cant wait to use it. I got Mura to run me thru Underbog. It really didnt take very long, and neither of us was ever in danger of dying. He put out 1700 dps for that run.
I spent a bit of time trying to get the exploration achievment on my Warrior. I did not realize how much I skipped while leveling way back pre-bc. I literally never even stepped foot into either Azshara or Burning Steppes, but somehow managed to have most of Sillithus discovered. Achievements are pretty neat, but they are going to be extremly time consuming I think.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Getting my toons organized
Yesterday I got a chance to play a bit and mostly spent it speccing my characters. There was alot of crap to distribute. I kept them all the same basic specs, but there are obviously new abilities in every tree.
I did Ramparts on my Rogue yesterday. I ended up 4th in damage done in what was essentially a 4 DPS and lvl 70 pally tank group. I still dont really know what my DPS rotation should be. I have been getting slice and dice up then using eviscerate after that. Anyone who has any tips for a rotation, it would be appreciated. I am combat swords.
On a side note, my fiance got me a Wii for my birthday! My B-Day isnt actually until tommorow, but she is terrible at holding surprises. She got me the last Wii in the area, another controlled, the rechargable battery/charger system along with a baseball game and Mario Kart! My shoulder hurt a bit when I went to bed last night, but the Wii is sooooo much fun.
I did Ramparts on my Rogue yesterday. I ended up 4th in damage done in what was essentially a 4 DPS and lvl 70 pally tank group. I still dont really know what my DPS rotation should be. I have been getting slice and dice up then using eviscerate after that. Anyone who has any tips for a rotation, it would be appreciated. I am combat swords.
On a side note, my fiance got me a Wii for my birthday! My B-Day isnt actually until tommorow, but she is terrible at holding surprises. She got me the last Wii in the area, another controlled, the rechargable battery/charger system along with a baseball game and Mario Kart! My shoulder hurt a bit when I went to bed last night, but the Wii is sooooo much fun.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Warrior tanking with the new patch
So far I havent got to play around with it very much. I went and tried out a few new abilities. Rage shouldnt be much of an issue anymore. Shockwave is cool, and Shield Slam is doing A LOT of damage. When I run kara this weekend I will give some more updates. As of right now my defense as dropped to 470....that is alot of defense missing that im going to have to make up somewhere.
I cant wait for this weekend.
I cant wait for this weekend.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Ran my first Outlands instance with my Druid.
Healing was very easy....mainly because i had a level 70 pally tank who took very little damage. I literally just put a regrowth up on him most of the time. I am excited to start healing like level tanks. I like the healing style of my druid a bit better than that of my Pally.
Oh, and I got one shotted on the dragon boss when the pally tank didnt pick him up fast enough :(
Oh, and I got one shotted on the dragon boss when the pally tank didnt pick him up fast enough :(
Monday, October 13, 2008
I did it.
I got my Druid to 60 and my Rogue about a bubble and a half away. It was alot of running around, and some friends helping with instances that got me there. I started the weekend at 50. On Saturday night, I ran around getting all of the quests for Sunken Temple and then Sohlam ran me thru. On Sunday, I gained a level via questing before getting a couple of guildies to run me thru scholomance and stratholme.
Between the instance XP and the 40k plus quest turn-ins, I went from 56-60 in those instances. I am not looking forward to healing Outlands instances with my druid. It should be alot of fun since I really havent used tree form at all. This puts me in very good position with the new patch coming up. I will try to get my Druid to 70 by the expansion, then go from there.
Between the instance XP and the 40k plus quest turn-ins, I went from 56-60 in those instances. I am not looking forward to healing Outlands instances with my druid. It should be alot of fun since I really havent used tree form at all. This puts me in very good position with the new patch coming up. I will try to get my Druid to 70 by the expansion, then go from there.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Have you ever wished you could use WoW abilities in real life?
There are so many WoW abilities that would be cool to have in real life. I wont go over the "violent" abilities, but here is a list of one I think would have a cool and practical use.
Mage Table: The mage table is wonderful in game, but imagine the possibilites out of game. You and your buddies have been out most of the night drinking. Instead of a drunken late night run to Jack in the Box or Taco Bell, summon your own table of food. Best of all, it is free!
Fear: Everybody loves to hate this ability in PVP. Imagine the use for it in the real world. Your boss at work is breathing down you neck....what do you do? Queue up a fear and watch as he run screaming around the facility. Bonus points if he gets stuck in the environment.
Misdirect: You are trying to watch the game (or Grey's Anatomy for the ladies), and your significant other keeps on bugging you. Can you do the dished/take out the trash/blah blah blah. Misdirect them onto their friends....or their parents. Nagging is now out of the picture!
Stealth: Besides millitary and perv uses, this could be extremly useful in many situations.You can use your imagination on this one.
Teleport: Teleporting yourself and friends around the world would be tremendous fun. Go have lunch in Paris followed by messing with cool tech in Japan. Be home in time for dinner. If someone you dont like asks you for a port, you can send them to Siberia.....or Los Angeles.
Polymorph: What better way to entertain yourselves that turning your friends into a sheep, turtle, or penguin. Sheep prefered if you are from Arkansas ;) Could also you Polymorph: Cow on Murderers and Rapists to help end world hunger.
Anyone else have any good examples?
Mage Table: The mage table is wonderful in game, but imagine the possibilites out of game. You and your buddies have been out most of the night drinking. Instead of a drunken late night run to Jack in the Box or Taco Bell, summon your own table of food. Best of all, it is free!
Fear: Everybody loves to hate this ability in PVP. Imagine the use for it in the real world. Your boss at work is breathing down you neck....what do you do? Queue up a fear and watch as he run screaming around the facility. Bonus points if he gets stuck in the environment.
Misdirect: You are trying to watch the game (or Grey's Anatomy for the ladies), and your significant other keeps on bugging you. Can you do the dished/take out the trash/blah blah blah. Misdirect them onto their friends....or their parents. Nagging is now out of the picture!
Stealth: Besides millitary and perv uses, this could be extremly useful in many situations.You can use your imagination on this one.
Teleport: Teleporting yourself and friends around the world would be tremendous fun. Go have lunch in Paris followed by messing with cool tech in Japan. Be home in time for dinner. If someone you dont like asks you for a port, you can send them to Siberia.....or Los Angeles.
Polymorph: What better way to entertain yourselves that turning your friends into a sheep, turtle, or penguin. Sheep prefered if you are from Arkansas ;) Could also you Polymorph: Cow on Murderers and Rapists to help end world hunger.
Anyone else have any good examples?
Thursday, October 9, 2008
More warlock tips
There are a lot of things you can do in arenas to become a better player. One of them is pet management. Sometimes people will completly ignore your pet. Sometimes, they try to gank it, then gank you. Most of the time, this is done by either a rogue or a warrior.
If you encounter this situation, what do you do?
Well, if you are facing a two dps team especially, use fel domination to resummon a Void Walker. The Void Walker sucks for PvP for the most part, but there are a few advantages to this method. My voidwalker has over 10k health and a bunch of armor. This will make it much more difficult to get rid of your Soul Link. Time they spend on your VW is precious time that you will be beating on them.
If they do decide that the want to kill your Blueberry, you can sacrafice it for a nice bit of damage mitigation at the last second. Bringing in the blueberry instead of another felhhunter can be the difference between life and death against a well geared Warrior or Rogue.
Another good tip is to learn how to fake cast. There is an in depth article about this by Horns at Yet Another Warlock Nerf http://www.locksucks.com/.
In general, these should be the only two pets you ever use in an arena. The Succubus CC is nice...except that most classes can two shot her. The imp just plain sucks. The Felguard is a very nice option, but then you arent an SL/SL lock if you have a Felguard out now are you?
If you encounter this situation, what do you do?
Well, if you are facing a two dps team especially, use fel domination to resummon a Void Walker. The Void Walker sucks for PvP for the most part, but there are a few advantages to this method. My voidwalker has over 10k health and a bunch of armor. This will make it much more difficult to get rid of your Soul Link. Time they spend on your VW is precious time that you will be beating on them.
If they do decide that the want to kill your Blueberry, you can sacrafice it for a nice bit of damage mitigation at the last second. Bringing in the blueberry instead of another felhhunter can be the difference between life and death against a well geared Warrior or Rogue.
Another good tip is to learn how to fake cast. There is an in depth article about this by Horns at Yet Another Warlock Nerf http://www.locksucks.com/.
In general, these should be the only two pets you ever use in an arena. The Succubus CC is nice...except that most classes can two shot her. The imp just plain sucks. The Felguard is a very nice option, but then you arent an SL/SL lock if you have a Felguard out now are you?
Inching closer......
I gained two more levels yesterday in pretty limited play time, and Im only 1 runecloth turn in from hitting 51. I granted my dwarf huntard 17 levels, so now he is level 50. I will grant him the rest of the levels when my rogue hits 59. I can realistically see getting to 60 this weekend. I already have a bunch of outland greens sitting in my bank waiting.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Hope to hit 60 this weekend.
The recruit a friend XP buff is fantastic. I only got to play about 45 minutes yesterday, but I got from 47 to 48. I should be finishing up Tanaris soon. This weekend Im going to see if I can pay my buddy a large amount of gold to run me thru Mauradon, BRD, and Scholomance. That should get me a large way towards level 60. Once I get to 60, I am going to start instance grinding with my druid.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Arena as an SL/SL lock
TThis is from the perspective of having a ret pally as a partner, but a lot of this probably applies to any combo with an SL/SL lock. This way of playing may change a bit come the next patch, with people possibly trying out Haunt, but SL/SL will still most likely be very viable. For lots of great information on arena as a Warlock check out Megs at http://outofmana.blogspot.com/
First thing is first. Prep before the arena starts. While in the starting area, you will be very busy. First, summon a healthstone and trade with your arena partner. While you are trading, beging summoning your pet. You can summon your Imp, give both of you fire shield, then summon your Felhound. Make sure you put up Fel Armor as well as Soul Link. Make yourself a cookie as well. Then cast detect lesser invisibility and underwater breath on both of you. The invisibility buff helps with Mages, and the underwater breath is just more crap that has to be dispelled/eaten.
Make sure you take your Felhunter's silence off of auto cast. Auto-cast is for the 1300 bracket. You may get lucky sometimes, but you lose alot of the importance of your pet.
When the arena starts, depending on the team, you may be the utility (like my Warlock/Paladin combo. I do damage nice and slow while the Ret Pally blasts opponents to bits.
Be smart with your abilities. Death Coil is one of the abilities that Locks really like to misuse. Do not use it as an oppener. It is better used as an OH SHIT button later, or even as an interrupt at the last second. Depending on your opponent, you will use different strategies.
Paladin: There are different methods for Ret and Holy Paladins. You should DoT up a ret paladin and do your best to stay away from him. Once he bubbles, he will be easy pickins. Ret Paladins dont usually bother with cleansing themselves of your dots which is very convenient. Holy Paladins are a whole different animal. They will often times cleanse your DoTs, which means that Corruption and Siphon Life go bye bye. Instead of using Curse of Agony, you should keep curse of tongues on his as all times. Since every Pally heals besides Holy Shock has a cast time, this gimps them severely. While your partner pounds away at the Paladin's partner, you should keep him feared, and silenced whenever you can. This will generally force him to blow his bubble without even taking any damage. Once his bubble is up, you should switch to the pally and burn him down. Most often see them with: Ret with a Resto Shaman, Holy with a MS Warrior or Warlock.
Druid: Druids are a tricky animal, but hey can also be blasted down possibly faster than any class if done right. They key is to find the Druid in stealth kitty form. You DoT everything in sight and got to work on the Druid. A nice fear, silence, death could, fear combo is very handy right here. If you dont give them a chance to heal, they arent very good to anybody. I have had several matches where the Druid got burned so fast that they didnt even get a heal off. If you can burn them down super quick, at least you get them to use Nature's Switftness. You should treat Boomkin Druids in much the same way. Boomkins have cast times on many of their spells which makes the silence that much more effective. You probably arent going to see Ferlol Druids in 2v2 above the 1500 brackets. Most Often see them with: MS Warriors, Warlocks, Rogues. Boomkin can be found sometimes with Mages.
Warriors: Warriors can be very easy or very difficult depending on their skill level. You basically want to DoT them up and line of sight them so that they can intercept you. Warriors also have alot few anti-fear abilities that makes it hard to keep them off of you. Curse of Exaustion can be good option if you have it. Play keep away as much as possible, and use your CC on their partner to put the pressure on. Most Often See them with: Resto Shaman, Resto Druid.
Rogues: I hate Rogues so much that I am leveling one. They have Cloak of Shadows and Evasion, which can give pretty much every class fits. They also have a number of stuns which can take you out of the fight. If you get the drop on them (if you have perception and find them), DoT them as quickly as possible and run away. This makes it so that they cant Sap you. If their partner is another Rogue, try to get him dotted up as well. This will make them blow their cloak of shadows before they are ready.....or else they will be at less than half health when your DoTs are done. When they blow cloak of shadows, run far away. It wont last long, but if they stunlock you it wont matter. When it is up, reapply dots. You should save your trinket for either a 5 point kidney shot or a blind if they are focusing on your partner. I used to think Rogues were unbeatable, but they are very beatable with the right strategy. If they are using a Priest as a partner, it is that much harder. Most Often See them with: Rogue, Discipline Priest, Resto Druid, Frost Mage.
Priest: Perhaps the most squishy class in PvE, they are also one of the most difficult to kill in PVP (at least as discipline). They can heal, mana burn, and sheild. One decent method is to DoT and CC them while you focus on their partner. If they waste their Pain Supression on their partner, do the Ole Switcharoo and blast the Priest to bits. Make sure to try and fear him first chance you get to burn his fear ward. After that, it becomes a bit easier if you time it right. Be careful not to ignore them as they can burn off all of your mana in a hurry. Shadowpriests are another story. Just DoT them, then fear and silence when you can. They are especially hard to drop like a Discipline Priest is, but can do ridiculous amount of damage if you dont kill them. Most often see them with: Rogue and Hunter.
Hunter: I have not seen a Hunter in weeks while doing arenas. They arent represented in higher brackets, but they can be a royal pain if you meet them (especially if they are running with a Discipline Priest in a drain team). Hunter strategy is pretty straightforward. DoT them and their Pet and run away. If they are on a drain team, they will be using the ridiculous Viper Sting on you. You may find yourself wondering where you mana is very quickly. Dont get out in the open against a Hunter if you can help it. They can do a large amount of damage, but not so much if they can see you. They usually have to be standing still a well. You could see all three specs of Hunter in Arena, though I think that MM is the most popular. If a Hunter is BM, kill his pet. This is easy to figure out when his pet becomes big and red. They will both be doing increased damage, so to slug it out is suicide. LoS and drain the pet while he beats on you. If you kill their pet, they have been effectively gimped. Most often see them with: Discipline Priest and Resto Druid.
Shaman: The Shaman is often the first focused on. I rarely see any Shaman who arent Resto. I have seen a few Enhancement Shaman but they go do quickly. The Shaman is very easily crowd controlled, but you need to stop them from Ghost Wolfing around pillars. Most of their spells have cast times, so they are very easily silenced. Another good idea is to kill the totems. There is a macro that makes your pet go and kill the totems. Windfury can be dangerous if coupled with a Ret Pally or a MS Warrior. Take down the totems and take away any advantage they have. Most often seen with MS Warriors.
Mage: The mage is a royal pain to melee classes, but can be handled fairly easily as a warlock. Get your DoTs off on them and LoS. They will eventually have to Ice Block. Reapply DoTs. If they get into your LoS, fear them. Watch out for counterspell. If they use it on you shadow spells, either run away or use immolate and then run away. Save silences for when they try to Polymorph or use a shatter combo on you. You can banish their Elementals, but I recommend just killing them. They have a very low number of hit points. Most often seen with Mages and Rogues.
Warlock: The mirror of yourself. Against a Warlock, just do what you do. Make sure to keep your Shadow Ward up whenever possible and keep them dotted. Fear and drain them whenever you get the chance. This will come down to who is the most skilled. Most often seen with Druids and Shadow Priests.
First thing is first. Prep before the arena starts. While in the starting area, you will be very busy. First, summon a healthstone and trade with your arena partner. While you are trading, beging summoning your pet. You can summon your Imp, give both of you fire shield, then summon your Felhound. Make sure you put up Fel Armor as well as Soul Link. Make yourself a cookie as well. Then cast detect lesser invisibility and underwater breath on both of you. The invisibility buff helps with Mages, and the underwater breath is just more crap that has to be dispelled/eaten.
Make sure you take your Felhunter's silence off of auto cast. Auto-cast is for the 1300 bracket. You may get lucky sometimes, but you lose alot of the importance of your pet.
When the arena starts, depending on the team, you may be the utility (like my Warlock/Paladin combo. I do damage nice and slow while the Ret Pally blasts opponents to bits.
Be smart with your abilities. Death Coil is one of the abilities that Locks really like to misuse. Do not use it as an oppener. It is better used as an OH SHIT button later, or even as an interrupt at the last second. Depending on your opponent, you will use different strategies.
Paladin: There are different methods for Ret and Holy Paladins. You should DoT up a ret paladin and do your best to stay away from him. Once he bubbles, he will be easy pickins. Ret Paladins dont usually bother with cleansing themselves of your dots which is very convenient. Holy Paladins are a whole different animal. They will often times cleanse your DoTs, which means that Corruption and Siphon Life go bye bye. Instead of using Curse of Agony, you should keep curse of tongues on his as all times. Since every Pally heals besides Holy Shock has a cast time, this gimps them severely. While your partner pounds away at the Paladin's partner, you should keep him feared, and silenced whenever you can. This will generally force him to blow his bubble without even taking any damage. Once his bubble is up, you should switch to the pally and burn him down. Most often see them with: Ret with a Resto Shaman, Holy with a MS Warrior or Warlock.
Druid: Druids are a tricky animal, but hey can also be blasted down possibly faster than any class if done right. They key is to find the Druid in stealth kitty form. You DoT everything in sight and got to work on the Druid. A nice fear, silence, death could, fear combo is very handy right here. If you dont give them a chance to heal, they arent very good to anybody. I have had several matches where the Druid got burned so fast that they didnt even get a heal off. If you can burn them down super quick, at least you get them to use Nature's Switftness. You should treat Boomkin Druids in much the same way. Boomkins have cast times on many of their spells which makes the silence that much more effective. You probably arent going to see Ferlol Druids in 2v2 above the 1500 brackets. Most Often see them with: MS Warriors, Warlocks, Rogues. Boomkin can be found sometimes with Mages.
Warriors: Warriors can be very easy or very difficult depending on their skill level. You basically want to DoT them up and line of sight them so that they can intercept you. Warriors also have alot few anti-fear abilities that makes it hard to keep them off of you. Curse of Exaustion can be good option if you have it. Play keep away as much as possible, and use your CC on their partner to put the pressure on. Most Often See them with: Resto Shaman, Resto Druid.
Rogues: I hate Rogues so much that I am leveling one. They have Cloak of Shadows and Evasion, which can give pretty much every class fits. They also have a number of stuns which can take you out of the fight. If you get the drop on them (if you have perception and find them), DoT them as quickly as possible and run away. This makes it so that they cant Sap you. If their partner is another Rogue, try to get him dotted up as well. This will make them blow their cloak of shadows before they are ready.....or else they will be at less than half health when your DoTs are done. When they blow cloak of shadows, run far away. It wont last long, but if they stunlock you it wont matter. When it is up, reapply dots. You should save your trinket for either a 5 point kidney shot or a blind if they are focusing on your partner. I used to think Rogues were unbeatable, but they are very beatable with the right strategy. If they are using a Priest as a partner, it is that much harder. Most Often See them with: Rogue, Discipline Priest, Resto Druid, Frost Mage.
Priest: Perhaps the most squishy class in PvE, they are also one of the most difficult to kill in PVP (at least as discipline). They can heal, mana burn, and sheild. One decent method is to DoT and CC them while you focus on their partner. If they waste their Pain Supression on their partner, do the Ole Switcharoo and blast the Priest to bits. Make sure to try and fear him first chance you get to burn his fear ward. After that, it becomes a bit easier if you time it right. Be careful not to ignore them as they can burn off all of your mana in a hurry. Shadowpriests are another story. Just DoT them, then fear and silence when you can. They are especially hard to drop like a Discipline Priest is, but can do ridiculous amount of damage if you dont kill them. Most often see them with: Rogue and Hunter.
Hunter: I have not seen a Hunter in weeks while doing arenas. They arent represented in higher brackets, but they can be a royal pain if you meet them (especially if they are running with a Discipline Priest in a drain team). Hunter strategy is pretty straightforward. DoT them and their Pet and run away. If they are on a drain team, they will be using the ridiculous Viper Sting on you. You may find yourself wondering where you mana is very quickly. Dont get out in the open against a Hunter if you can help it. They can do a large amount of damage, but not so much if they can see you. They usually have to be standing still a well. You could see all three specs of Hunter in Arena, though I think that MM is the most popular. If a Hunter is BM, kill his pet. This is easy to figure out when his pet becomes big and red. They will both be doing increased damage, so to slug it out is suicide. LoS and drain the pet while he beats on you. If you kill their pet, they have been effectively gimped. Most often see them with: Discipline Priest and Resto Druid.
Shaman: The Shaman is often the first focused on. I rarely see any Shaman who arent Resto. I have seen a few Enhancement Shaman but they go do quickly. The Shaman is very easily crowd controlled, but you need to stop them from Ghost Wolfing around pillars. Most of their spells have cast times, so they are very easily silenced. Another good idea is to kill the totems. There is a macro that makes your pet go and kill the totems. Windfury can be dangerous if coupled with a Ret Pally or a MS Warrior. Take down the totems and take away any advantage they have. Most often seen with MS Warriors.
Mage: The mage is a royal pain to melee classes, but can be handled fairly easily as a warlock. Get your DoTs off on them and LoS. They will eventually have to Ice Block. Reapply DoTs. If they get into your LoS, fear them. Watch out for counterspell. If they use it on you shadow spells, either run away or use immolate and then run away. Save silences for when they try to Polymorph or use a shatter combo on you. You can banish their Elementals, but I recommend just killing them. They have a very low number of hit points. Most often seen with Mages and Rogues.
Warlock: The mirror of yourself. Against a Warlock, just do what you do. Make sure to keep your Shadow Ward up whenever possible and keep them dotted. Fear and drain them whenever you get the chance. This will come down to who is the most skilled. Most often seen with Druids and Shadow Priests.
Tanking next patch
Just a reminder to all the tanks out there. When the next patch comes out, our added defense abilities in our talent trees our going bye-bye (such as anticipation). To prepare, make sure to keep you defense trinkets handy. You may also need to re-enchant some gear to stay uncrittable.
Good luck with raiding in the next patch. People should be seeing bosses going down in short order.
Good luck with raiding in the next patch. People should be seeing bosses going down in short order.
Monday, October 6, 2008
I'm a leveling machine.
This weekend, I only did two things WoW related. I did some arena and leveled by Rogue and Druid.
As far as arena goes, we went 7-3 and our rating is over 1700. We took down a double mage combo (one of them had the Gladiator title) and we got 23 rating for it. Our team is really clicking now, and I am very interested to see how 3.0 does for us.
As far as leveling, I started out at level 28 on Friday morning. I was level 47 on both my Rogue and Druid by Sunday night. It helps that these toon are on my home server where I can get run thru instances. I did three wings of SM, Uldaman, and ZF over the weekend. I literally got 30k experience for the Ghazrilla quest.
While leveling this fast, I have skipped huge chunks of zones I would normally complete. I didnt touch the Wetlands, half of STV, most of Dustwallow Marsh, and I doubt Im going to be going to Ungoro (thank god). I think after I am done with Tanaris, I will head to the searing gorge and perhaps finsh up in WPL.
Recruit a friend has been awesome. Im only at 1 day 7 hours played on my Rogue at 47.
As far as arena goes, we went 7-3 and our rating is over 1700. We took down a double mage combo (one of them had the Gladiator title) and we got 23 rating for it. Our team is really clicking now, and I am very interested to see how 3.0 does for us.
As far as leveling, I started out at level 28 on Friday morning. I was level 47 on both my Rogue and Druid by Sunday night. It helps that these toon are on my home server where I can get run thru instances. I did three wings of SM, Uldaman, and ZF over the weekend. I literally got 30k experience for the Ghazrilla quest.
While leveling this fast, I have skipped huge chunks of zones I would normally complete. I didnt touch the Wetlands, half of STV, most of Dustwallow Marsh, and I doubt Im going to be going to Ungoro (thank god). I think after I am done with Tanaris, I will head to the searing gorge and perhaps finsh up in WPL.
Recruit a friend has been awesome. Im only at 1 day 7 hours played on my Rogue at 47.
Friday, October 3, 2008
I hate working night shift
Im covering night shift for a co-worker tonight, so got to play a bit this morning (since I cant just up and change my sleeping schedule). I got my Rogue/Druid combo from level 28 to level 34. I may try to gain another level or two when I get home as well.
I read somewhere that the new patch will be the end of season 4. If that is true, that reall sucks. I was looking forward to trying our some new abilities this season. It also means that I am basically just playing for a title at this point unless I want to pick up the season 4 gloves.
I read somewhere that the new patch will be the end of season 4. If that is true, that reall sucks. I was looking forward to trying our some new abilities this season. It also means that I am basically just playing for a title at this point unless I want to pick up the season 4 gloves.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wow can make for some good comedy.
I know that everyone has likely had moments in WoW that made them actually laugh in real life. This may have been some ridiculous Guild Chat, a devious plan taht failed to come to fruition, or a friend (or yourself) dying in a particularly comic way. I thought I would share a few of these with you and would like you to share back whether it be in a comment on my blog, or in a post on your own.
1) Nobody likes gold beggars. I was running around in outland one day when a very low level character asked me for 5 gold. I told the newbie that I could give him 15 gold, but he would have to come to me. First off, I told him he would have to destroy his hearth stone because you get a new one in outlands. Then I gathered two of my other devious friends and headed out to the floating Ogre Island in Zangarmarsh. I then proceeded to try and summon the newbie to said Island. He then told me that he didnt have the expansion...DOH! So I didnt get to finish my devious plans, but there is hope one day.
2)Getting friends killed while they are AFK. This is a fun passtime that I would recommend to anyone. Someone goes afk.....kill them. And when they come back on vent and say "WHAT THE HELL", everyone giggle at once. We have done this one a few times. The first time was when one of out long time Aussie friends went AFK. His AFKs were notorious for being long, and him sometimes not coming back for an hour. We waited around 15 minutes and nothing. He had his toon on follow with another one of our instance buddies who happened to be a priest. We were in Shadowlabs, just before starting the Inciter's room. Everyone else left while the priest stripped off all of his clothing, ran into the room and phsycic screamed. He died fairly quickly, but our Aussie friend was next. A while later, our Aussie friend went offline due to inactivity. When he logged back on an hour or two later, we of course got the mandatory "I hate you guys" as he logged in to find his toon dead.
A second one occured when a priest went AFK in a Heroic Bloodfurnace run. Our Hunter misdirected the next set of mobs to our priest and feigned death. We the priest came back, he put the Hunter on ignore and left the group. Some people just dont know how to take a joke. This was even after we offered to pay his repair bill lol.
What stories do you have about some WoW shenanigans?
1) Nobody likes gold beggars. I was running around in outland one day when a very low level character asked me for 5 gold. I told the newbie that I could give him 15 gold, but he would have to come to me. First off, I told him he would have to destroy his hearth stone because you get a new one in outlands. Then I gathered two of my other devious friends and headed out to the floating Ogre Island in Zangarmarsh. I then proceeded to try and summon the newbie to said Island. He then told me that he didnt have the expansion...DOH! So I didnt get to finish my devious plans, but there is hope one day.
2)Getting friends killed while they are AFK. This is a fun passtime that I would recommend to anyone. Someone goes afk.....kill them. And when they come back on vent and say "WHAT THE HELL", everyone giggle at once. We have done this one a few times. The first time was when one of out long time Aussie friends went AFK. His AFKs were notorious for being long, and him sometimes not coming back for an hour. We waited around 15 minutes and nothing. He had his toon on follow with another one of our instance buddies who happened to be a priest. We were in Shadowlabs, just before starting the Inciter's room. Everyone else left while the priest stripped off all of his clothing, ran into the room and phsycic screamed. He died fairly quickly, but our Aussie friend was next. A while later, our Aussie friend went offline due to inactivity. When he logged back on an hour or two later, we of course got the mandatory "I hate you guys" as he logged in to find his toon dead.
A second one occured when a priest went AFK in a Heroic Bloodfurnace run. Our Hunter misdirected the next set of mobs to our priest and feigned death. We the priest came back, he put the Hunter on ignore and left the group. Some people just dont know how to take a joke. This was even after we offered to pay his repair bill lol.
What stories do you have about some WoW shenanigans?
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