We have a week to go before the 5.0.4 patch drops and about a month before Mists of Pandaria is finally released. Between then and now we have to do two things: relearn how to play our characters with the new MoP talents and secondly, decide if the new game changes have made the game more or less fun. Hopefully most of you are in the more fun category but I know that for a few of you, the game has lost its grasp on your interest. Don't worry my dear readers, I have played the beta and am firmly in the still fun category. I look forward to seeing everything Pandaria has to offer and having a great time with my guild running new dungeons, raids, and scenarios.
With so many new and exciting features like pet battles and scenarios, I believe that there is enough to keep me interested and playing WoW until the next expansion. I know some people are looking forward to one feature above all others, the pet battles! For others they are looking forward to Pandas and monks.
But as I said, for some the game has taken a turn that they don't like. For some of these people the game is not the same game they fell in love with. For some real life has intruded (as it does) and while they sadly would love to play the game, they are unable to do so because of real life. Perhaps some have found a different game that now holds the place in their heart that WoW once used to occupy. They have decided to jump ship and are not looking back.
Showing posts with label Cataclysm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cataclysm. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Full Circle
I believe the old saying goes "Some claim that life here began out there." With the 4.2 Firelands patch we've received a new raid instance, new daily quests, new arena gear, new valor/tier gear, and several new achievements. The biggest feature of the patch is the Firelands Raid instance where the last boss is Ragnaros. Yes...the very same Ragnaros that we fought oh so many years ago in Molten Core(but this time he is clearly stronger and more on fire. I guess beating him up and killing his numerous sons kind of pissed him off.
Last week my guild and I took a step into the Firelands to try our luck against the new raid bosses and to see if we could kill a boss or two. What we found was that there is TONS of trash along the way to any boss. There are also some nice BoE epic pieces that drop and a lot of rep to be gathered just by killing trash. In other words, this raid felt like Molten Core part 2. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of raiding Molten Core when it was relevant, let me tell you that it was a long and tedious raid at first. Most people entered MC wearing blues if you were lucky and greens if you had horrible luck with drops. Back in those days, green gear wasn't anywhere close to being as good as the greens of this expansion(Go go "of the eagle gear" for my mage!) Because the developers knew this, they made most of the trash you ran across in MC pretty simple to kill. Granted each type of mob had a special ability that made killing it unique. Lava surgers required you to either spread out or stack in melee(depending on your how your guild did it), Firelords spawned little fire adds that had to be killed quickly or they would spawn more adds, Corehounds had to be turned away from the raid so you wouldn't die from its fire breath or even worse they would fear you into other mobs and Molten Giants required the tanks having their back against a wall or they would get launched when the giant did its stomp.
Well that turned into a wall of text for explanations sake. Why did I go through all that typing to explain how mobs acted in a vanilla raid? Well as we were clearing trash in the Firelands I kept looking around and reminding myself that we were indeed NOT in MC. The zone had an MC feel to it and some of the trash was even the same trash from MC! First mob we pulled was a giant that had a stomp just like in MC, Corehounds still did the same thing, and Surgers are still a pain in the ass for healers. At first I didn't realize the clear connection between the two raids because I was so busy trying to hold agro since I was tanking on my pally but when we cleared our way to Lord Rhyolith there was a gauntlet event at the end of which we had to fight a some large fire elementals. After we wiped due to pulling the entire gauntlet to the fire elementals I realized that my chat was being spammed with a lava spawn splitting into another lava spawn. I watched that fill up my chat for a few more seconds before I realized that I wanted to yell out "Spawn Spawn!" This being what we used to yell out in MC when a Firelord spawned adds. I was so giddy with excitement that I ran into the living room and told my fiancee who laughed because she remembered what an annoyance the spawns were. I started looking at the add packs we skipped and realizing that they were bigger, stronger versions of trash mobs from MC.
It wasn't until these mobs that I realized that the Firelands felt like an updated Molten Core. Even though we didn't down anything that night, I had such a great time that raid. I know that eventually I will get tired of the Firelands but at least for now I will enjoy the raid because it reminds me of even better times raiding. I give the Firelands my seal of approval due to its fun and interesting fight mechanics, its awesome atmosphere, and its connection to MC. I can't wait until we get to Ragnaros and when I do...you can bet I'll let out a fanboy squee. This has happened before and this will all happen again. What was once old is now new and shiny.
So how is the 4.2 patch treating you all?
Last week my guild and I took a step into the Firelands to try our luck against the new raid bosses and to see if we could kill a boss or two. What we found was that there is TONS of trash along the way to any boss. There are also some nice BoE epic pieces that drop and a lot of rep to be gathered just by killing trash. In other words, this raid felt like Molten Core part 2. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of raiding Molten Core when it was relevant, let me tell you that it was a long and tedious raid at first. Most people entered MC wearing blues if you were lucky and greens if you had horrible luck with drops. Back in those days, green gear wasn't anywhere close to being as good as the greens of this expansion(Go go "of the eagle gear" for my mage!) Because the developers knew this, they made most of the trash you ran across in MC pretty simple to kill. Granted each type of mob had a special ability that made killing it unique. Lava surgers required you to either spread out or stack in melee(depending on your how your guild did it), Firelords spawned little fire adds that had to be killed quickly or they would spawn more adds, Corehounds had to be turned away from the raid so you wouldn't die from its fire breath or even worse they would fear you into other mobs and Molten Giants required the tanks having their back against a wall or they would get launched when the giant did its stomp.
Well that turned into a wall of text for explanations sake. Why did I go through all that typing to explain how mobs acted in a vanilla raid? Well as we were clearing trash in the Firelands I kept looking around and reminding myself that we were indeed NOT in MC. The zone had an MC feel to it and some of the trash was even the same trash from MC! First mob we pulled was a giant that had a stomp just like in MC, Corehounds still did the same thing, and Surgers are still a pain in the ass for healers. At first I didn't realize the clear connection between the two raids because I was so busy trying to hold agro since I was tanking on my pally but when we cleared our way to Lord Rhyolith there was a gauntlet event at the end of which we had to fight a some large fire elementals. After we wiped due to pulling the entire gauntlet to the fire elementals I realized that my chat was being spammed with a lava spawn splitting into another lava spawn. I watched that fill up my chat for a few more seconds before I realized that I wanted to yell out "Spawn Spawn!" This being what we used to yell out in MC when a Firelord spawned adds. I was so giddy with excitement that I ran into the living room and told my fiancee who laughed because she remembered what an annoyance the spawns were. I started looking at the add packs we skipped and realizing that they were bigger, stronger versions of trash mobs from MC.
It wasn't until these mobs that I realized that the Firelands felt like an updated Molten Core. Even though we didn't down anything that night, I had such a great time that raid. I know that eventually I will get tired of the Firelands but at least for now I will enjoy the raid because it reminds me of even better times raiding. I give the Firelands my seal of approval due to its fun and interesting fight mechanics, its awesome atmosphere, and its connection to MC. I can't wait until we get to Ragnaros and when I do...you can bet I'll let out a fanboy squee. This has happened before and this will all happen again. What was once old is now new and shiny.
So how is the 4.2 patch treating you all?
Friday, January 14, 2011
How to succeed at Cataclysm Heroics
So I was thinking about my previous post about how much bad luck I was having running heroics at the time and like usual my mind started wandering all over the place. I eventually thought up a few things that puggers can do to ensure that their group succeeds or at least so that their run doesn't end in total failure. Keep reading after the break to find out how you too can succeed in heroics!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Archaelogy is the DEVIL
As anyone who has leveled Archeology past 100 can tell you...its the Devil! Just like football, Ben Franklin, girls, and the robot Devil. It is a good source of supplemental experience while leveling but once you are 85 and have to fly all over the world repeatedly...it loses a little bit of it' fun. Stupid profession sending me from STV to EPL then BACK to STV! The bright side is that I have gotten the raptor mount and pet and both are very, very, very smexy. Now if only Tol'vir digsites would stop being such a tease and give me more locations I would be happy. Damn Kitty people keeping their canopic jars to themselves instead of filling them with dragon recipes for me to dig up!
Moving on from frustration to something a little better. Heroics! Guild has had a lot of people hit 85 so we've been running a lot of guild groups which are the best thing since sliced bread. Oh and to add to the list of the most obvious things ever: the sky is blue, wow is addicting, and pie is delicious. My mage is thankfully sporting a nice 340ish item level which would be higher except that I have been also running heroics on my shaman who is also sporting a 340ish item level. I think my warrior will hit 85 this weekend and then I'll have to get him up in item level so that I can get him some sexy gears.
Speaking of the Guild, we are currently at level 9 which is pretty awesome! We have gotten our first feast recipe from guild achievements (feast) and now that it is no longer bugged and giving out the wrong buff to people I'll be farming up more mats to make with the dropping them for groups. The lowering of the guild flask achievement was a very smooth move by blizzard. Before most guilds had no chance of getting 10k flasks made before they started raiding and actually needed them but now that it has been lowered to 1k and 3k it is a lot more doable. Woots for a development team that listens to us every now and then.
Well I've almost exhausted my extensive list of topics that I wanted to rant a little about so I think I will end this post now. Well before I do that I just wanted to say that I noticed that I started my blog in January of 2010. At the end of a month I will have spent a year rambling and ranting about random things that pop into my mind. I'll see about posting something special for the 25th which is the actual anniversary date. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should write about?
Moving on from frustration to something a little better. Heroics! Guild has had a lot of people hit 85 so we've been running a lot of guild groups which are the best thing since sliced bread. Oh and to add to the list of the most obvious things ever: the sky is blue, wow is addicting, and pie is delicious. My mage is thankfully sporting a nice 340ish item level which would be higher except that I have been also running heroics on my shaman who is also sporting a 340ish item level. I think my warrior will hit 85 this weekend and then I'll have to get him up in item level so that I can get him some sexy gears.
Speaking of the Guild, we are currently at level 9 which is pretty awesome! We have gotten our first feast recipe from guild achievements (feast) and now that it is no longer bugged and giving out the wrong buff to people I'll be farming up more mats to make with the dropping them for groups. The lowering of the guild flask achievement was a very smooth move by blizzard. Before most guilds had no chance of getting 10k flasks made before they started raiding and actually needed them but now that it has been lowered to 1k and 3k it is a lot more doable. Woots for a development team that listens to us every now and then.
Well I've almost exhausted my extensive list of topics that I wanted to rant a little about so I think I will end this post now. Well before I do that I just wanted to say that I noticed that I started my blog in January of 2010. At the end of a month I will have spent a year rambling and ranting about random things that pop into my mind. I'll see about posting something special for the 25th which is the actual anniversary date. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should write about?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
My request of Heroic Puggers
So I dinged 85 on my mage on Wednesday of last week and since then I've grinded the gear that I needed to run heroics. Now as soon as I was able to run heroics I queued up and waited to get into a run. I have yet to down more then 2 bosses in a heroic and that was pure luck that I even got past one boss. In each heroic I have noticed the same things happening: tanks don't mark targets for CC and just rush in, people don't understand the fights clearly, CC'ed mobs are broken by non-tanks and the tank doesn't pick them up in time so someone dies, healer ignores the group and only focuses on healing the tank so dps dies, dps stands in bad stuff and die, healer doesn't heal himself then stands in bad stuff and then dies.
People don't understand that in heroics even though the boss looks the same, their abilities are stronger and not quite the same. My request is a simple request and it is that people realize that they are playing Cataclysm and not Wrath so you can't just steamroll through content like you previously could. Please mark for CC, please don't break said CC, please don't stand in bad stuff and expect healers to keep you alive, please don't go emo and leave a group after one wipe especially if you were the cause of said wipe. Also just remember that just because you didn't CC when you did the instance in regular and lived does not mean that you can do the same in heroic mode.
All I want for Christmas is to run a heroic at least once and down the final boss. I don't even care that I get loot from any bosses along the way. Yes that is how frustrated I am about this situation. WTB Guildees getting their item score up faster so that I can run in guild groups and not worry about fail pugs. So how is everyone else enjoying heroics?
People don't understand that in heroics even though the boss looks the same, their abilities are stronger and not quite the same. My request is a simple request and it is that people realize that they are playing Cataclysm and not Wrath so you can't just steamroll through content like you previously could. Please mark for CC, please don't break said CC, please don't stand in bad stuff and expect healers to keep you alive, please don't go emo and leave a group after one wipe especially if you were the cause of said wipe. Also just remember that just because you didn't CC when you did the instance in regular and lived does not mean that you can do the same in heroic mode.
All I want for Christmas is to run a heroic at least once and down the final boss. I don't even care that I get loot from any bosses along the way. Yes that is how frustrated I am about this situation. WTB Guildees getting their item score up faster so that I can run in guild groups and not worry about fail pugs. So how is everyone else enjoying heroics?
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Cataclysmed!
So it has been two days since we had our little digital world rocked. Two days of a brave new world to explore and reshape as we see fit. Two days and yet I've managed to play only a few hours on my mage :(. Why have I not been able to get past 81 you may wonder. Well Tuesday night I got the worst toothache that I have ever had in my entire life. I'm talking about a toothache that left me unable to do anything but close my eyes and try to shut the pain out. Thankfully my fiance managed to get me an appointment with a dentist early yesterday morning and I was able to get in and have a wisdom tooth taken out so that I could come back next week and get a root canal done. Yeah I was not a happy camper.
Well yesterday was mostly spent eating soft crackers, soup, and drinking lots of water. When I felt up to it I played a little and got my mage up to 81 in between sleep breaks, pill breaks, and random world spinning headache breaks. I have managed to replace a large chunk of the my icc10 gear with greens and a few blues. My spell power and mastery have gone up while most of my other stats have gone down. So far I am loving this expansion! I know that I have already seen it in the beta and all but it is still fun and being able to play with my guildees makes it even more fun. I should hopefully be 85 by the end of the weekend but if I'm not then I'm not. I am going to take my time and enjoy this expansion and all of the awesome wonderful things that it has brought us.
Well yesterday was mostly spent eating soft crackers, soup, and drinking lots of water. When I felt up to it I played a little and got my mage up to 81 in between sleep breaks, pill breaks, and random world spinning headache breaks. I have managed to replace a large chunk of the my icc10 gear with greens and a few blues. My spell power and mastery have gone up while most of my other stats have gone down. So far I am loving this expansion! I know that I have already seen it in the beta and all but it is still fun and being able to play with my guildees makes it even more fun. I should hopefully be 85 by the end of the weekend but if I'm not then I'm not. I am going to take my time and enjoy this expansion and all of the awesome wonderful things that it has brought us.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Bring out the gnomes
I am going to start out this post with a truth: Gnomes are awesome! This weekend was spent doing two things, eating and playing a lot of WoW. I leveled my gnome priest Wellesley to 49 and I also got suckered into rolling a feral druid with my fiance, which I got to 29. Questing in the old world was very fun and most quests are not as boring as they used to be. Punching Deathwing in the face is...epic. With under a week to go, Cataclysm can not get here fast enough! I know I wont be able to hit 80 on my priest in a week...at least not without taking some serious time off of work.
The Blizzard developers have done an amazing job with the old world changes and I honestly cant wait to get into the new zones on my mage. I've decided that I am going to level in Vash'jr, or however its spelled, instead of Hyjal. The reason for this? Two words. Sea Horse. Riding around on my seahorse in the beta was awesome! Also awesome was the underwater running animation. It was like I was on the moon and I took huge strides when I would run anywhere.
I have also decided that my little druid is going to be race changed to a Worgen as soon as it is enabled because a wolf that can turn into a cat is pretty hilarious to me. I also still plan on rolling a Worgen rogue so I can experience the Gilnean starting zone. I did enjoy it during the beta but it was still missing cinematics at the time so it felt incomplete. I'll probably make a goblin somewhere along the way to check out the goblin starting zone since I never got a chance to see it in the beta. Seriously though, Cataclysm can not come soon enough! Stupid work making me take time out of my WoW playing to do silly things like my job.Don't these people know that I have digital monsters to slay and gold to loot?!
The Blizzard developers have done an amazing job with the old world changes and I honestly cant wait to get into the new zones on my mage. I've decided that I am going to level in Vash'jr, or however its spelled, instead of Hyjal. The reason for this? Two words. Sea Horse. Riding around on my seahorse in the beta was awesome! Also awesome was the underwater running animation. It was like I was on the moon and I took huge strides when I would run anywhere.
I have also decided that my little druid is going to be race changed to a Worgen as soon as it is enabled because a wolf that can turn into a cat is pretty hilarious to me. I also still plan on rolling a Worgen rogue so I can experience the Gilnean starting zone. I did enjoy it during the beta but it was still missing cinematics at the time so it felt incomplete. I'll probably make a goblin somewhere along the way to check out the goblin starting zone since I never got a chance to see it in the beta. Seriously though, Cataclysm can not come soon enough! Stupid work making me take time out of my WoW playing to do silly things like my job.Don't these people know that I have digital monsters to slay and gold to loot?!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
I have been Shattered!
So the Shattering is among us! I thankfully was at work all day yesterday when 4.0.3a was pushed through the servers so I did not have to sit staring at my computer wondering why the servers hate me so much that they refuse to come back up. I instead sat at my computer at work and wondered how long it would be until I could go home and stare at my computer. Luckily for me servers started coming back to life about 45 minutes to quitting time for me so I could start playing in the new Azeroth as soon as I got home.
First thing I did was log into my mage and run around Stormwind and see some of the devastation. The city looks at nice as it did on the beta. After sight seeing I went and did the cooking daily so that when Cata hits I'll have a nice amount of cooking recipes ready. Then I took a gryphon to the Hinterlands and ran over to Hillsbrad so I could do the famous Plants vs Zombies game although in game its called Peacebloom vs Zombies. I gotta tell you that the last two levels of it are tricky as hell! I had a hard time on it and then I decided to finish it later and I made a Gnome Priest.
Now I spent all of yesterday trying to come up with a good name for both my Gnome Priest and my Dwarf Shaman. I finally came up with a name for both and... both of my picks for my shammy were unavailable! Well I spent a few more minutes coming up with a suitable replacement name and thankfully it was available! Welcome to Azeroth Wellesley the Gnome Priest and Moltke the Dwarf Shaman! For anyone who gets the two names...yes I am a huge history nerd for picking those two names but I don't care! I leveled my Gnome through the starting zone and it is pretty fun, especially compared to the old starter zone that Gnomes and Dwarves shared. I ended the night with my Gnome at level 14 and a half and spec'ed as Disc(Penance is OP). My goal is to get him as high a level as I can before Cata because I'll be really busy leveling to 85 then. So what did you do last night in the post shattered world?
First thing I did was log into my mage and run around Stormwind and see some of the devastation. The city looks at nice as it did on the beta. After sight seeing I went and did the cooking daily so that when Cata hits I'll have a nice amount of cooking recipes ready. Then I took a gryphon to the Hinterlands and ran over to Hillsbrad so I could do the famous Plants vs Zombies game although in game its called Peacebloom vs Zombies. I gotta tell you that the last two levels of it are tricky as hell! I had a hard time on it and then I decided to finish it later and I made a Gnome Priest.
Now I spent all of yesterday trying to come up with a good name for both my Gnome Priest and my Dwarf Shaman. I finally came up with a name for both and... both of my picks for my shammy were unavailable! Well I spent a few more minutes coming up with a suitable replacement name and thankfully it was available! Welcome to Azeroth Wellesley the Gnome Priest and Moltke the Dwarf Shaman! For anyone who gets the two names...yes I am a huge history nerd for picking those two names but I don't care! I leveled my Gnome through the starting zone and it is pretty fun, especially compared to the old starter zone that Gnomes and Dwarves shared. I ended the night with my Gnome at level 14 and a half and spec'ed as Disc(Penance is OP). My goal is to get him as high a level as I can before Cata because I'll be really busy leveling to 85 then. So what did you do last night in the post shattered world?
Monday, November 22, 2010
The Shattering
I have a little bit of time this morning so I'm gonna post a quick blog. According to those in the know tomorrow the famous 4.0.3a patch, also known as "The Shattering" patch, is going to be launched. What does this mean for you? Well it means that you will be able to:
Play as new race/class combos like Dwarf shaman, Troll druid, Gnome Priest, Tauren Pally, etc.
Explore the newly shattered old world.
Do all of the new and awesome quests in the old world like the Plants vs. Zombies chain.
Experience the newly retuned 1-60 instances.
See the new Cataclysm log in cinematic/log in screen.
Now I don't know about you but I am REALLY looking forward to this patch because I got the opportunity to play a Gnome priest in the beta and I loved it. The coolest thing about this patch being released tomorrow is that I get a nice long weekend to play in the new world because of the Thanksgiving holiday. While I would LOVE to have the expansion already this patch will go a long way to keeping me occupied until then.
Now...what am I going to name all the characters that I am going to create tomorrow???
Play as new race/class combos like Dwarf shaman, Troll druid, Gnome Priest, Tauren Pally, etc.
Explore the newly shattered old world.
Do all of the new and awesome quests in the old world like the Plants vs. Zombies chain.
Experience the newly retuned 1-60 instances.
See the new Cataclysm log in cinematic/log in screen.
Now I don't know about you but I am REALLY looking forward to this patch because I got the opportunity to play a Gnome priest in the beta and I loved it. The coolest thing about this patch being released tomorrow is that I get a nice long weekend to play in the new world because of the Thanksgiving holiday. While I would LOVE to have the expansion already this patch will go a long way to keeping me occupied until then.
Now...what am I going to name all the characters that I am going to create tomorrow???
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Cataclysm Dungeons/Raids and You!
So...I'd like to start out by apologizing to all of my faithful blog readers for the long, long, long absence. Work has been beating me up so hard that by the time I get home I usually make it to my chair before falling asleep and when I do wake up I barely have the energy to even log on to WoW let alone to write a blog post. :( But anyway I am able to write something now so enjoy!
So by now everyone has heard how hard heroics are in the cataclysm beta and how cc will be king and all that. Well there are more changes to running heroics at 85 then just that so I figured I would write a little for you guys who aren't in the beta or aren't as in the know as others. In the current expansion you ding 80 and start running heroics right off the bat for badges and maybe a piece or two of gear so that you can start raiding. After you hit 80 you don't ever queue for a regular instance because the gear is not as great as anything that drops from heroics and you don't get any justice points/badges in them after doing the daily regular dungeon.
In cataclysm things are not like this at all. Yes the gear from heroics is still better then what you are going to be getting from regulars and it'll be tons better then what you are wearing at 85. So what's different you may ask? Well first off each instance has a minimum average gear level requirement and if you aren't at or above that number then you can't queue for those dungeons. The first two dungeons that you can actually queue for at 80 are going to be Throne of Tides and Blackrock Caverns. Neither of these has a minimum gear requirement so you can start queuing for them after you run to each instance entrance and "discover" the entrance area. Each instance in cata requires you to have run to the entrance and discover it before you can queue for it. I guess blizz got tired of people complaining about others who would die in an instance and release just to get lost trying to get back to the instance. Anyway back on topic, since these two dungeons have no gear level requirement you can run them over and over until you ding.
At 81 you can keep on queueing for these two instances and you unlock two new ones, the Vortex Pinnacle and the Stonecore. Now these two instances require you to have an average gear level. At 80 in full ICC10 gear you'll be sitting in the 251ish range and in full ICC25 gear you'll be around 270ish. You can check out what your gear level is now ingame since they added it on to your character screen in 4.0.1 so you don't need an addon to find out what your average gear ilevel is. If I remember correctly VP and Stonecore require a 272 score so you will have to start replacing at least a few pieces of gear with new cata gear to get in to these. Why the hell did they do this average ilevel crap? Well I guess it is because they don't want people to have grinded up to 85 and then attempt to run heroics in ICC gear that they started the expansion with.
When you unlock the next set of instances, Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, and Lost City of the Tol'vir, they require 305 ilevel score. There is no way that you can get to 305 with all of your level 80 gear so expect to either run a lot of instances before this or to do A LOT of quests for gear rewards. Now if you do nothing but run intances...you have a chance of getting your gear level score to where it needs to be but I recommend mixing in some questing for gear as well as money.
Now you hit 85 and you are ready to queue for heroics...well just wait a second there. Heroics also have a minimum gear level...329. Now to get your gear level to this number you will have to farm regular instances to up your score. When raids were first opened on the beta servers new premades were released as well. The gear level for those premades was 350. This means that after running heroics and full heroic gear you will have a 350 gear level. You can probably start running raids slightly before this I am sure so I would say that mid 340s would probably be passable for raids. Once Cata comes along we'll know for sure what we'll need to raid. I hope this post helps at least one person prepare for Cata instancing. I am pretty sure my math is right but if someone has correct information please feel free to post it. =D
So by now everyone has heard how hard heroics are in the cataclysm beta and how cc will be king and all that. Well there are more changes to running heroics at 85 then just that so I figured I would write a little for you guys who aren't in the beta or aren't as in the know as others. In the current expansion you ding 80 and start running heroics right off the bat for badges and maybe a piece or two of gear so that you can start raiding. After you hit 80 you don't ever queue for a regular instance because the gear is not as great as anything that drops from heroics and you don't get any justice points/badges in them after doing the daily regular dungeon.
In cataclysm things are not like this at all. Yes the gear from heroics is still better then what you are going to be getting from regulars and it'll be tons better then what you are wearing at 85. So what's different you may ask? Well first off each instance has a minimum average gear level requirement and if you aren't at or above that number then you can't queue for those dungeons. The first two dungeons that you can actually queue for at 80 are going to be Throne of Tides and Blackrock Caverns. Neither of these has a minimum gear requirement so you can start queuing for them after you run to each instance entrance and "discover" the entrance area. Each instance in cata requires you to have run to the entrance and discover it before you can queue for it. I guess blizz got tired of people complaining about others who would die in an instance and release just to get lost trying to get back to the instance. Anyway back on topic, since these two dungeons have no gear level requirement you can run them over and over until you ding.
At 81 you can keep on queueing for these two instances and you unlock two new ones, the Vortex Pinnacle and the Stonecore. Now these two instances require you to have an average gear level. At 80 in full ICC10 gear you'll be sitting in the 251ish range and in full ICC25 gear you'll be around 270ish. You can check out what your gear level is now ingame since they added it on to your character screen in 4.0.1 so you don't need an addon to find out what your average gear ilevel is. If I remember correctly VP and Stonecore require a 272 score so you will have to start replacing at least a few pieces of gear with new cata gear to get in to these. Why the hell did they do this average ilevel crap? Well I guess it is because they don't want people to have grinded up to 85 and then attempt to run heroics in ICC gear that they started the expansion with.
When you unlock the next set of instances, Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, and Lost City of the Tol'vir, they require 305 ilevel score. There is no way that you can get to 305 with all of your level 80 gear so expect to either run a lot of instances before this or to do A LOT of quests for gear rewards. Now if you do nothing but run intances...you have a chance of getting your gear level score to where it needs to be but I recommend mixing in some questing for gear as well as money.
Now you hit 85 and you are ready to queue for heroics...well just wait a second there. Heroics also have a minimum gear level...329. Now to get your gear level to this number you will have to farm regular instances to up your score. When raids were first opened on the beta servers new premades were released as well. The gear level for those premades was 350. This means that after running heroics and full heroic gear you will have a 350 gear level. You can probably start running raids slightly before this I am sure so I would say that mid 340s would probably be passable for raids. Once Cata comes along we'll know for sure what we'll need to raid. I hope this post helps at least one person prepare for Cata instancing. I am pretty sure my math is right but if someone has correct information please feel free to post it. =D
Monday, October 4, 2010
It's about time
So today Blizzard has officially announced that The Cataclysm will launch on the 7th of December...WOOOOOOOOOTS! It's about time that we have heard something official from them about a date. I honestly figured that they would just let us know at Blizzcon as part of their show or something but hey this works too. I know that everyone and their mother had made a guess about when the game would launch and that there were several people who said that blizzard hid clues in the game about when it would launch so having a final date means no more crazies making guesses!
Now this does mean that the 4.0.1 patch will drop soon so everyone has less time to get their achievements done before Azeroth is changed. MMO-Champion is claiming next week, which if true will give me a week before I have to relearn how to play my classes. This means that I am going to be farming the living daylights out of ZG for rep and a chance at a mount that is sadly disappearing with the patch. Seems I will also need to farm up more badges so I can buy my gnome priest some boa gears as I already bought the rogue stuff for my worgen rogue and my dwarf shaman is already covered boa wise. So much to do and so little time!
So what are you going to be doing before the Cata patch goes live in a week or so?
Now this does mean that the 4.0.1 patch will drop soon so everyone has less time to get their achievements done before Azeroth is changed. MMO-Champion is claiming next week, which if true will give me a week before I have to relearn how to play my classes. This means that I am going to be farming the living daylights out of ZG for rep and a chance at a mount that is sadly disappearing with the patch. Seems I will also need to farm up more badges so I can buy my gnome priest some boa gears as I already bought the rogue stuff for my worgen rogue and my dwarf shaman is already covered boa wise. So much to do and so little time!
So what are you going to be doing before the Cata patch goes live in a week or so?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
More thoughts on Cataclysm
Last night I managed to ding 81 on both my mage and my premade shaman. The funny thing is while my mage got most of his xp in Vashj'ir and just a little bit in Hyjal, my premade shaman got 80% from one quest chain...in Northrend. Even though he is a premade character and transferred with exalted Northrend factions...I had to do the Sons of Hodir chain to unlock them so I could get my shoulder enchants. I got one million xp from the sons of Hodir chain and that is only counting non daily quests. I stopped doing quests for the sons after I got Thorim his hammer and I decided to make my way to a new zone to explore a little bit.
Now my mage has been questing with my fiancee, who was playing her shadow priest. We dominated every quest we had and I love my mage even more! We only played the last two nights on these alts and each session was around 2 hours or less. Now if you are questing by yourself you will of course get more xp and move quicker so if xp rewards stay the same you should be able relatively quickly, at least to level 81/82. After that I don't know how much xp is required. So with it being relatively easy to level my mage should be 85 pretty quick, followed by my pally. After that I am am going to be forced to decide who I want to level! I haven't tried out healing on my shaman yet but I plan on it tonight and if it goes well maybe my shammy will be next up. I still plan on leveling a Gnome priest, Worgen rogue, AND a Dwarf shaman. Yes...I like to level. The new quests and areas are pretty cool so far so I don't think that I will have any issues leveling quickly. Gonna be fun times ahead that's for sure.
I'll probably post tomorrow how tonight's beta adventure went and hopefully I'll have some fun adventures to share. By the way, for you readers out there, is there anything you guys would like to know about the beta? I don't mind checking stuff out on the beta server. I don't plan on posting spoilers or anything but testing out game mechanics and so on is fine. Please post a comment with your questions.
Now my mage has been questing with my fiancee, who was playing her shadow priest. We dominated every quest we had and I love my mage even more! We only played the last two nights on these alts and each session was around 2 hours or less. Now if you are questing by yourself you will of course get more xp and move quicker so if xp rewards stay the same you should be able relatively quickly, at least to level 81/82. After that I don't know how much xp is required. So with it being relatively easy to level my mage should be 85 pretty quick, followed by my pally. After that I am am going to be forced to decide who I want to level! I haven't tried out healing on my shaman yet but I plan on it tonight and if it goes well maybe my shammy will be next up. I still plan on leveling a Gnome priest, Worgen rogue, AND a Dwarf shaman. Yes...I like to level. The new quests and areas are pretty cool so far so I don't think that I will have any issues leveling quickly. Gonna be fun times ahead that's for sure.
I'll probably post tomorrow how tonight's beta adventure went and hopefully I'll have some fun adventures to share. By the way, for you readers out there, is there anything you guys would like to know about the beta? I don't mind checking stuff out on the beta server. I don't plan on posting spoilers or anything but testing out game mechanics and so on is fine. Please post a comment with your questions.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Impressions of the Beta
*This is will not be a spoiler filled post! This will be about my experience on the beta so far! I will do my best to avoid spoilers!*
So...I got in the Beta about two weeks ago...and only a few gnomes were lit on fire and launched at the Blizzard offices. I actually got in not through Blizzards random key handout but through a website contest that was giving out keys to the beta as the prize! Now I rarely win things and for me to win a beta key...I was so shocked. It sadly made for a LONG day at work on the day I won since I got the email with the key in the morning before I left for work. Being the huge geek that I am I left it downloading so that when I got home it would be ready to play.
So...I got in the Beta about two weeks ago...and only a few gnomes were lit on fire and launched at the Blizzard offices. I actually got in not through Blizzards random key handout but through a website contest that was giving out keys to the beta as the prize! Now I rarely win things and for me to win a beta key...I was so shocked. It sadly made for a LONG day at work on the day I won since I got the email with the key in the morning before I left for work. Being the huge geek that I am I left it downloading so that when I got home it would be ready to play.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Drops in the Bucket
So for those of you who have been following my bucket list progress, I have good news to share! I can now cross off another item from the list. The other day my mage picked up his new and sexy tabard from the mailbox. That's right, after many long and boring hours farming for rep and honor I was finally able to get 25 tabards! This makes the second item from my bucket list that I have gotten, with the first being Hail to the Chef.
I am still working on the rest of my list and with any luck loremaster will be the next one I can cross off. I am currently 117/140 quests complete in icecrown and that is the last one that I need to finish. The only problem is that I am reaching the point in icecrown where the remaining quests are all group quests and worse yet, they are phased, which is a huge pain to get a group for. I am also working on getting exalted with 40 factions on my mage as well. I started getting a lot of rep while farming for tabards, mounts, and vanity pets. I am at 34/40 at the moment and it seems that all of my easy faction grinds are out of the way so I am left with some difficult grinds ahead of me. Fun times ahead.
I am still working on the rest of my list and with any luck loremaster will be the next one I can cross off. I am currently 117/140 quests complete in icecrown and that is the last one that I need to finish. The only problem is that I am reaching the point in icecrown where the remaining quests are all group quests and worse yet, they are phased, which is a huge pain to get a group for. I am also working on getting exalted with 40 factions on my mage as well. I started getting a lot of rep while farming for tabards, mounts, and vanity pets. I am at 34/40 at the moment and it seems that all of my easy faction grinds are out of the way so I am left with some difficult grinds ahead of me. Fun times ahead.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
To Beta or not To Beta?
First off I want to state that I still don't have a beta key. I know, it's a crime that I have not received one yet. But as I sit at my computer reading WoW.com and MMO-Champion, I can't help but lust over all the pictures of worgen running around, all the old world flying being done, and of course all the sexy new talents that I have not been able to allowed to interact with. I have to take a moment and seriously ask myself...do I really want to play in the Beta?
Do I really want to spoil all the awe inspiring newness that the Cataclysm is sure to bring? Do I really want my first hand impression of cataclysm to be a buggy and incomplete beta? Do I really want to deal with the frustration of the beta client crashing midway through stuff constantly? Do I really want to not experience the joy of downing instances with my guildees?
But...on the other hand all the information coming out of the beta makes it look really amazing and I really, really, really want to try it. Worgen look so awesome and flying in the old world looks so incredible. Seeing all of the new content before anyone else dos would definitely be so cool. Playing around with the new talent trees would also let me get used to them before they go live so I could totally have an advantage over everyone else.
Right now all of this has just been a silent argument in the back of my head but if I get a beta invite...expect some serious back and forth arguments about whether I should do it or not. What would you guys do? Would you beta it up or would you wait for the finished product?
Do I really want to spoil all the awe inspiring newness that the Cataclysm is sure to bring? Do I really want my first hand impression of cataclysm to be a buggy and incomplete beta? Do I really want to deal with the frustration of the beta client crashing midway through stuff constantly? Do I really want to not experience the joy of downing instances with my guildees?
But...on the other hand all the information coming out of the beta makes it look really amazing and I really, really, really want to try it. Worgen look so awesome and flying in the old world looks so incredible. Seeing all of the new content before anyone else dos would definitely be so cool. Playing around with the new talent trees would also let me get used to them before they go live so I could totally have an advantage over everyone else.
Right now all of this has just been a silent argument in the back of my head but if I get a beta invite...expect some serious back and forth arguments about whether I should do it or not. What would you guys do? Would you beta it up or would you wait for the finished product?
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Plans for the remaining time left in Wrath
As the clock slowly ticks away until the expansion finishes beta and is finally amongst us, people seem to be either checking out of the game until it launches or they are dong their darnest to keep busy. I happen to be in the second group. Like a presidential administration trying to get out as many eleventh hour pardons out as possible, I'm getting together a list of things that I want to get done before the expansion comes along and ties me down with new stuff to do. I've put together a bucket list that I plan on completing as fast as I possibly can.(whenever I remember)
What is in my bucket list you ask? Well it's elementary my dear Watson...
What is in my bucket list you ask? Well it's elementary my dear Watson...
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Silly Blizz
So...Blizzard has found itself in a shit storm due to the whole RealID situation. While I am one of those people who don’t care one way or another about it, I am shaking my head in disapproval at how such a neat and interesting concept was implemented so horribly. I honestly thought that the RealID concept could have been pretty awesome, I could chat with friends who are on different servers, factions, etc without having change servers to do so. I have several friends who play on different servers if nothing is happening on our server so that would be really helpful to me when putting together a raid, 5man, failed WG group, etc. Does it matter to me that they would all know my real name? Not really. I have several people in my facebook friends list who I only know through WoW and when they friended me, they got access to my real name.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Remininscing about the last few years Part: Two
What is it about thinking back on days of old that makes people want to say "well back in my day...?" I suppose that times have changed and things have indeed gotten easier with time. I was sitting at work staring at the computer trying to keep busy and sadly failing at it when I started thinking about how vanilla WoW asked so much of players, at least in PvE situations. Well everyone should take a seat as Grandpa Jed goes on and on about how things are so easy mode now compared to when I started playing.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Remininscing about the last few years Part: One
Recently it was announced that the friends and family alpha has finally begun which means that soon enough the beta will start and we will be inundated with tons of information about the new expansion and all of its smexy goodness. I was thinking of that and drooling over soon to be released beta info (which probably wont start for a month or so...I think) when I realized that suddenly everything is going to change!
I know, I know...welcome to months ago when they first announced the expansion which was going to change Azeroth. It's one thing to say that a year and some change from now something is going to happen but when you say in a few weeks something is really going to happen that people like me start taking notice. I've been playing WoW for 5 years so I've spent a lot of time in Azeroth either leveling, pvping, farming, or just running around the continents. For anyone who doesn't know (and if you're reading this I am going to assume that you either play WoW or have some knowledge about the game) the new expansion that is being released this year, Cataclysm, is going to revolve around a huge world event that will cause the landscape of the game to change. Volcanoes will erupt, lands will flood, plague filled lands will be cleansed, new zones will be opened, lore characters will change, factions will grow more factious.
So why the blog topic you may ask. Well...when you've played as long as I have, Azeroth is like a kid brother or sister and the cataclysm is like watching said sibling go to their first dance or start driving. It's watching a caterpillar that you've been following turn into a butterfly before your eyes. It's like a generic metaphor for something changing. So I've decided to post about some of my experiences in the old world as Azeroth is known as now. With so many changes to Azeroth, I'll go ahead and split this into two posts so people don't have to sit through a wall of text.
I know, I know...welcome to months ago when they first announced the expansion which was going to change Azeroth. It's one thing to say that a year and some change from now something is going to happen but when you say in a few weeks something is really going to happen that people like me start taking notice. I've been playing WoW for 5 years so I've spent a lot of time in Azeroth either leveling, pvping, farming, or just running around the continents. For anyone who doesn't know (and if you're reading this I am going to assume that you either play WoW or have some knowledge about the game) the new expansion that is being released this year, Cataclysm, is going to revolve around a huge world event that will cause the landscape of the game to change. Volcanoes will erupt, lands will flood, plague filled lands will be cleansed, new zones will be opened, lore characters will change, factions will grow more factious.
So why the blog topic you may ask. Well...when you've played as long as I have, Azeroth is like a kid brother or sister and the cataclysm is like watching said sibling go to their first dance or start driving. It's watching a caterpillar that you've been following turn into a butterfly before your eyes. It's like a generic metaphor for something changing. So I've decided to post about some of my experiences in the old world as Azeroth is known as now. With so many changes to Azeroth, I'll go ahead and split this into two posts so people don't have to sit through a wall of text.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Cataclysm is making me pee my pants in excitement
Seriously though...I am looking through the screenshots that MMO-Champion posted and I am having to keep from screaming out loud in excitement!!!!! The redone zones look awesome! WPL...made my jaw drop when I saw it. The bulwark looks like more then just a bunch of sticks dug into the ground, dalson's tear and felstone field look so different without the plague, and then there is Andorhal...just WOW! Uther's tomb looks so dignified and stately, just like the tomb of a great alliance hero should look. Man I can't wait to see what else is posted! I seriously wish I wasn't in school at the moment so I could squeal like a school girl at all the amazing stuff being posted!!!!
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