Jed Still Wants You!

Finally got around to making this so I'm gonna post it and link to the previous post regarding recruitment:

Now make with the applying peoples!!

Jed wants YOU!

As the title says...I want you! By which what I mean is that my Guild Avengers of Azeroth (US-Ursin PVP Alliance side) is looking for new members! I know, I know. How dare I use my blog to pimp out my guild, blah blah blah ethics blah blah immoral blah blah roleplaying crap. My answer to that is...I am not forcing anyone to join my guild, I am not forcing anyone to read my blog, and I am not doing anything other then letting anyone interested in joining a guild that mine is looking for more peoples. If anyone is interested they can read on after the break for more information and if you're not interested then don't click to read more.

Let's do the Totem Warp again!

So...my darling shaman Rhommel is finally in Northrend! I know I haven't been posting much but it's because I've been busy with writing papers for school, looking for a job, and leveling Rhommel. Leveling in Outlands was fun and pretty easy but the LFD tool kind of sucked. I say this because it kept placing me in lower level instances like Ramps and Slave Pens, even though I was 67 and was eligible for higher level instances. I suppose there are more lowbie groups running ramps and sp then there are groups running the other instances.

The truth about Totems!

So I haven't been able to really post too much about my sexy shaman Rhommel lately because I've been so busy leveling him and also because of RL getting in the way. But I'm a mere 3 levels from being able to enjoy the wondrous, amazing, spectacular zones of Outland, with its amazing quest rewards that put anything I am wearing to shame! GO GO GRIND FASTER!!!!

Well in between the last shaman post and this one I've run...a lot of random dungeons...A LOT! I've been in some pretty fun groups with people who made the runs fun and I've been in groups with complete morons pulling everything by accident and wiping us for no reason other then the fact that they claimed to be bored.

More class previews

So...how bout those class previews...that I didn't get around to reviewing...at least I have a good excuse! I was busy dinging 53 on my shaman Rhommel! Clearly that should buy me a little slack! Anyway back to the previews:

Warriors:
Heroic Leap = jumping charge + thunderclap + warstomp = content Jed on his warrior!! MOAR PLXX!
Heroic Strike no longer on next swing = yays! Heroic strike doing more damage the more rage you have is even better.
Dual wielding one handers as fury = interesting, its a nice throwback to burning crusade days and it will help arms warriors actually get a 2h over a fury warrior.

Rogues:
Redirect = Woots for not losing combo points on a mob about to die! Nothing worse then losing a 4 or 5 combo stack because a mob dies before you can do something with those points.
Smoke bomb = Nice and sexy new tool to help tanks pull casters without having to run up to them and manually interrupt them. Should be interesting to see how this is balanced in arenas too.
No more weapon specialization talents = bold move by blizzard.

Death Knights:
Outbreak = Awesome for getting agro on a mob that is beating on a healer or dps who are too quick to generate threat/dps, especially when your taunts are on CD.
Dark Simulacrum = DK's are now blue mages? Being able to copy and steal a casters next spell sounds pretty cool but it'll be interesting to see it actually work.
Only having blood tanks = sad Jed. I love my frost DK and wouldn't trade him for anything and this move seriously makes me sad. Guess blizzard is tired of trying to make all three trees tank viable.

Hunters:
Cobra shot = yays for BM getting a new ability to spam instead of steady shot!
Trap launcher = kind of lazy there blizzard, taking an ability hunters already have(freezing arrow) and making it usable with all traps.
Camouflage = A new FD/shadowmeld type of ability. Could be cool or could only be useful for pvp, gonna have to wait and see on this one.
Pet management changes = WOOTS for not having to go back to town to change out a pet if your Call Stabled Pet ability is on cd. Even better because now my hunter can actually get some more spirit beasts to show off in dal!

Druids:
New abilities are kind of blah so far but at least they aren't as bad as the new lock abilities. The change to Tree of Life make me sad face. I LOVE my tree form in raids and only being able to use it when I pop a cd doesn't make me happy.

Mages:
Flame Orbs = Can't wait to see this move in use! It sounds pretty cool.
Time Warp = HEROISM or BLOODLUST if you're horde. WOOTS! Not every raid has a shaman but most will have one or more mages so giving them a heroism type ability is awesome! I plan to make a Rocky Horror Picture Show macro for when I use my Heroism!
Wall of Fog = Who needs a knockback when you can slow down anything agroing onto you so the tank can get it back before it kills anyone. This will seriously piss off people in BG's.
The changes to food at lower levels is kind of dumb to me but at least mages will be able to make an all in one food/drink to save on bag space.


Well that's about it for the class previews until tomorrow when Paladins get their review. So far I am looking forward to my shaman and mage the most with my warrior and rogue coming up after them. I really hope they don't screw up my paladin or I'll be a sad panda.

Oh and after the paladin preview I'll probably have another lowbie instance rant to post so all my blog readers(all 3 of you) can have something to look forward to!

- Jed

First class previews

So now that the priest preview was finally posted, we have had the first three of ten class changes previewed. Priests, shaman, and warlocks each had their post explaining what players can look forward to if they play these classes in the next expansion. I read each preview and cheered for some talents and boo'ed for others. So far of the three classes posted, Shaman looks to have made out like a bandit with priest coming up second and warlock being last. I suppose that is probably because shamans and priests have two class roles, dps and healer, so they need slightly more work then the single role warlock.

I am looking forward to Shaman's new abilities:
Unleash weapon - having weapon buffs like windfury, earthliving, and flametongue have an extra effect when you use this ability seems pretty cool.
Healing Rain - YES! FINALLY AN AOE HEAL!! Nuff said.
Spiritwalker's grace - being able to move and still cast a huge heal? yes plxx! Before people start claiming that this move is OP please keep in mind that it only lasts 10 seconds and has a 2 minute cd so you can't just spam it and then run around the room spam healing.

Priest's new cool moves:
Mind Spike - Yay something we can use when a mob is going to get killed before we can get a full rotation done on it. Nothing worse then having low dps because your dots didnt tick fast enough on the mob before it died.
Leap of faith - Hello deathgripping a party member who is too focused on killing a boss to realize he is standing in fire! I can see this being really popular in arenas. It has a 45 second cd so people cant just stand in fire while dpsing and expect a priest to pull them out of it.
Power word barrier - Group wide shield? Can you say awesome?! Toss it up on aoe damage heavy fights and it'll make healing just a little bit less hectic. Can't wait to see it in use.

Warlock's new awesomeness:
No more soul shards!!! Their new use is interesting but I am just happy that I wont have to spend my time farming for shards before a raid or make bag space for said shards.

Well...those are the things I'm looking forward to for the three classes. Yes I am aware that warlocks had more stuff posted for them but honestly most of it sounds kind of weak to me. I just couldn't get excited over green fire : /

Warriors, rogues, and  death knight class previews are scheduled for today and I know warriors were posted as I was writing this post. I'll probably post either tonight or tomorrow on the previews. Cataclysm is looking to be pretty fun so far and I can't wait to start seeing info from the beta!

Totally Totems

So...thirty...the big three oh. Obviously Rhommel hit 30 tonight...and picked up the awesomeness that is WINDFURY! Oh how I missed thee windfury for you are the epic enhancement ability. Oh I do love you so windfury. Have I mentioned that I <3 windfury?

Well onto the nitty gritty, leveling to 30 was interesting. I say it was interesting because I did it with very little random LFD rewards. Why did I do this you may ask? Well...it's because I HATE gnomer. It is the bane of my existence and has been since my mage first went into it way back in vanilla WoW. I hate it so much I have never gone back into the instance since then...ever. Until the other day when it randomed me into a group that was on the last boss. After a wipe and a run back we killed it...and I decided to just avoid the random LFD for a few levels. I just manually queued for specific instances which worked well.

Now the fun part is getting the remaining rep that I need to get exalted with SW so I can pick up an epic horsey at level 40. Fun times indeed!

Talking Totems

Hmmm still working on that title but I'll get it eventually. For the moment: Rhommel is now 20! I've been questing AND using the LFD tool to get the xp I need. The LFD tool has produced some...odd group compositions. From tanks who chain pull like it's a heroic to hunters who melee and don't have a pet. It has definitely been interesting but I've gotten to 20 without any serious issues. I am gonna complain about the free satchel you get for running a random, it's supposed to give you a random blue piece of gear but it seems that all I got from it was belts for the 5 levels I've been randoming instances.

Oh well, such is life. I am really looking forward to 30 because that's when I get my air totem...and soon after I GET WINDFURY!!!!! <3 Windfury! Bag space is still an issue as I haven't had the luck to get another bag to drop off random mobs so I've had to juggle items in my inventory. I am also putting off getting a mount because I am not a fan of the elekk mounts draenei have access to. Since I am doing quests in human territory I am also accumulating SW rep so I'll end up getting a human eventually. Until then I can go go ghost wolf form! Well back to the grind I go!

Totems, Totems, Totems!

Hmm still working on a good title for blogs about my little shaman. I suppose I'll eventually stumble across a title I like. Well on to the meat of the matter: my shaman is the awesome. That is correct ladies and gentleman, my shaman has run his very first dungeon using the LFD tool. Honestly...it was a very interesting experience.

After waiting for like 15 minutes(I know, 15 whole minutes ew!) I finally got placed into a group. I zone in and find that I am in Ragefire Chasm with 4 other lowbies. The tank a paladin...could not for the life of him hold agro, the hunter ended up tanking more often then not, the healer ditched the group after a few pulls. We then requeued for another healer...who then joined the group for 10 seconds before ditching the party. After another healer did the same thing, we ended up with a shaman healer who apparently had taken a graveyard rez and therefore had rez sickness. Since his mana was reduced due to the sickness, he was constantly oom and bailed on the group after a few pulls...even after his sickness had gone away.

Finally we got a priest healer who was able to not only heal the pally "tank" but he was keeping up the hunter and his pet, who were doing the real tanking. We downed the demon boss and got the achievement for completing the instance but we were going to go kill the other boss for a chance at some more loot. The pally left the group and we 4 manned our way to the boss who went down faster then Toyota stock. I got a nifty belt from the lfd random reward bag and some xp. I had a good time honestly, even with the bad tank and constant stream of pugged healers.

And so concludes my first instance. It was definitely a good time and I will continue to use the LFD tool along my way to 80.