8/31/08

damn - I suck

I always hear about how Resto Druids are OP in Arenas. Well, not this Resto - I suck, I really do. Now granted, I don't spend a lot of time PvPing and I don't really like the Arenas as much as I like the Battlegrounds. I don't spend hours min-maxing my spec and gear and I only have some Season 2 and BG reward pieces. Maybe my senses are dulled and I just don't react fast enough. I really don't know but I'm not very good at it.

The good part is that, for the most part, my team doesn't seem to care all that much. It does get frustrating when we lose 7 or 8 out of 10 every week, but we don't yell at each other about it. We get the gear we can buy and we keep trying. And it makes our wins that much more exciting.

That's positive thinking at work right there!

8/30/08

Now what?

I did it, I got Okole to level 70. This is my second 70 and it went a lot faster than the first time around. I'm guessing partly because I knew what the quests held and because I had another toon to raise money with to get the things I needed. Oh yeah - and I followed a leveling guide. I have noticed a lot of people using Quest Helper lately, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

I'm wondering what to do now. I am scoring the wikis and various gear sites to find out where the upgrades to my Elemental set are and where to get some decent Resto pieces for when I am needed to heal. I'm also looking very closely at putting together a Feral tanking set for Bumwaller and learning how to tank. Then I, the real me, should be able to fill any spot the guild needs with those 2 characters. 2 Healer, 1 Tank, 1 DPS and numerous hybrid build to choose from.

But, the first thing I'm gonna do is go get a flying mount, off to Shaowmoon Valley.

8/29/08

A final push for the Shaman

Okay - so I've been pounding away with my Shaman to make sure I can get him to 70 before the Lich King shows up and forces me to level some more. I have been using Jame's Leveling Guides to help my optimize my play time and I am now only 50% of a level away from dinging the big Seven-Oh.

I am really digging the Elemental spec. I played my Druid as Moonkin when he was DPS so I guess that is defines my play style. Nuke 'em at range and melee/instant cast when they get close. It is pretty easy for me to switch to healing when needed to patch myself up or for group quests. I am going to try to keep the Shaman as DPS, but I am collecting some healing pieces in case I need to main heal.

Trying to gather all the mats I can to level my leatherworking and get the Netherstrike and Netherfury sets for the move into Northrend and maybe to make a Clefthoof set for the Druid to try some tanking - just for fun and to let our tanks run instances with their alts.

8/26/08

WoW - Big news!

So - it looks like Wrath of the Lich King might be closer than we think. I say might because with Blizzard it's hard to tell what they are up to as far as fixed dates. But we got this post in the official Warcraft forums from Eyonix:

With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade's release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions.

We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:

New class spells and talents
Stormwind Harbor
Barbershops in capital cities
Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
Guild calendar
Hunter pet skill revamp
New profession: Inscription

As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights. We’ll post the full patch notes as soon as they’re available. Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.

That is pretty freaking cool - but what can we learn from that? Let's look at what's going on in the coming weeks.

  • Sept 8-13 - Harvest Festival
  • Sept 18 - Warhammer online release
  • Sept 20-Oct 4 - Brewfest
  • Oct 10-11 - Blizzcon
  • Oct 18-Nov1 - Hallow's End
In the past the Harvest festival and Brewfest content were in the same download patch. That could be a very convenient place to put the download for the new stuff. This could be a really slick marketing move by Blizzard to keep wandering eyes from looking at Warhammer too much. I will admit I was thinking of trying the beta, but now...not so sure. This also gives those players who are getting a little bored something to do in the way of "fluff" content. Two special events with associated trinkets and goodies and some of the new content to experiment with.

That takes us to Blizzcon which is just foaming at the mouth for a major announcement. A release date maybe? Or an upcoming world event that has been speculated upon? If it's the world event leading to Lich King, Hallow's End could be a good time to unleash the Scourge on Azeroth. Or at least the content could but stuck into the Hallow's End patch, ready and waiting for the big event.

It is an exciting time and it looks like the boredom may be coming to an end. The Lich King is approaching!

8/22/08

must...post...

gah - nothing interesting to post about.

I am trying to finish leveling my Shaman to 70.

I haven't logged into my resto Druid in over 2 weeks, but probably should to do a couple dailies.

Having a little bit of fun with my noob Warrior, but am not leveling terribly quickly and I'm falling behind in the "leveling contest". The contest is essentially me getting my ass kicked by the guild's co-leader who levels faster than anyone I personally know.

And that is about it - I haven't been keeping up with all the beta news, but I think I'll try to wade through my RSS reader and see if there is anything that jumps out at me.

I'm so bored, I'm thinking of PUGging some instances just to do something different. Maybe a respec?

Our guild is dead quiet - I hope people come back to playing now that Summer is ending and the expansion is on the horizon.

But maybe that is the problem, too much information about the expansion. People are just not wanting to do much of anything as far as instance runs or even Kara raiding. Maybe they don't want to work on gear that is just going to get replaced, but damn I'm starting to feel a bit rusty at the skills I will need to run things in the future. I like some of the new talents and skills that I am seeing and I want to try them out, but that time is not here yet. Hopefully this will all get better in a couple months when I can hang out in Northrend. I sure hope so, because this kinda sucks right now.

8/9/08

Some Shaman changes in Wrath

I'm not a terribly experienced Shaman, but here is my take on the new changes that are in the latest Beta build.

Eye of the Storm (Rank 3) Gives you a 70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Burst and Hex spells. Finally a pushback defense for Lightning Bolt, this should make a lot of people very happy. It's the one thing that I notice most when switching from my Druid to the Shaman.

There are also really awesome glyphs - Here are the ones that really caught my eye, but there are more out there.

Glyph - Healing Wave 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Healing Wave also heals you for 20% of the healing effect when you heal someone else. A nice side effect heal for PvP or group questing. Maybe not as useful in instances, but still pretty cool.

Glyph - Chain Lightning 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Chain Lightning strikes 1 additional target. An extra target hit is a good thing, sometimes it's a very good thing

Glyph - Chain Heal 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Chain Heal heals 1 additional target. Even better, this one will be awesome for raiding Restos.

Glyph - Water Shield 01 (Shaman) (Class: Shaman) - Your Water Shield has 3 additional charges. As an Elemental I have this up all the time, more charges means less refreshing.

I am really intrigued by the glyphs that we have seen so far. I don't know if it's enough to make me pick it up as a profession, but it looks pretty darn cool.

8/7/08

Olympics time

Now this is pretty cool, an in-game Olympic themed tabard and pet. According to reports:

To get the new tabard, you only have to play one battleground. Winning or losing doesn't matter, if you stay for the duration of the battle you will be mailed a Competitor's Tabard.

To get the new pet, you must defeat your rivals in any of the Battlegrounds. With every victory, there is a chance that a Gold Medallion will be mailed to you.

I'm thinking I will be going after these on all my characters that are able to enter a battleground. Looks like the Gold Medallion can be used to summon a Chinese dragon pet. Definitely worth a shot at getting a free pet, and chances are this will be a pretty limited release, or at least only every 2 years at Olympics time - and the pet will be different if they do it again.

ready...set...go!

To have a little bit of fun I am putting together a leveling contest over at Limited Warranty. I hope to keep people interested and retain some guild continuity while maybe filling some gaps that we currently have in the guild. I have encouraged people to pick classes that they normally do not play so hopefully we'll end up with some options for healers and tanks in the end.

It's gonna be a race from 20 to 60 with rewards at every 10 level increment. At that point maybe the person will want to keep going to 70 and we will have them as an option in Wrath.

Out recruiting efforts seem to be going nowhere, which is depressing. Ultimately I want 12-15 players that have a mix of toons that can fill multiple roles. That should allow us to do instances and 10-man raiding and keep the small unit dynamic going. Maybe I am hoping for too much, but that is my vision.

8/3/08

Spell power and "hybridness*"

*Hybridness - (adjective) - source: Alex Ziebart, apparently this a measure of the quality of being a hybrid.

The post I linked to discusses the use of spell power as a gear stat in the Lich King beta. Basically the Spellpower stat combines and replaces the separate Spell Damage and Healing statistics that we currently have. This is of great interest to me since the two classes I play the most are Druid and Shaman, 2 0f the 3 hybrid classes in the game. It appears that the coefficients of the spells have been changed so that the damage or healing output stays approximately the same as they were with the 2 sets of stats, and possibly even a little higher although the increase may be based on changes to talents and not on the coefficients. Unfortunately, I do not have a beta key so I just have to rely on the information of others.

What this all really means is that a number of players and classes can increase their "hybridness*" without having multiple sets of gear to do so. I currently have a spell damage set and a healing set for my toons and the need for those may go away. I say may because I'm not sure it really will as far as raiding gear goes, but it will certainly make questing and grinding easier without changing gear. My concern is other stats on the gear and enchants that you apply to the pieces. The enchants may be changed to reflect this as well, but I'm thinking of Golden and Runic Spellthread as I write this. You might even find yourself with two of the same piece of equipment and just enchant them differently based on the intended use.

This will probably increase the competition for drops in raids between the specs, but it also might decrease the amount of gear that gets sharded in a run. My other hope is that it increases the amount of gear that is available for my toons - Leather and Mail with Spellpower. The bad part is that we all might start looking like carbon copies of each other, unless there is so much gear with similar stats that it allows us to customize our looks.

Ding 67!

Okole managed to ding 67 while questing in Terrokar Forest, much earlier than I did with Bumwaller. I'm not sure if it's because I've done these quests before or what, but the leveling has seemed pretty easy from 65 on. I got a little discouraged between 60 and 65, maybe because of the the accelerated leveling from 20 to 60 ending and the XP requirements going up, but that seems to have passed now.

My gear is still not great, I really haven't run any dungeons for upgrades lately due to our lack of tanks and the guild shrinkage. I've got some ideas on how to improve this that I'm mulling over in my head and I just haven't put them into action yet. I need to dwell on them for a few more days to make sure it really is what I want to do and then I'll give it a shot.

8/2/08

Doing a little Shammy healing

I have been working on putting together some pieces for Okole's healing set. These have been mostly quest rewards or drops that I get while questing. I've been doing some spot healing in the battlegrounds and while running groups quests, but haven't tried an instance yet. I'd like to get a bit more gear before I try that - unless it's with guildies that will cut me a little slack if things don't go well.

I do miss the HoT of the Druid style of healing, the Shaman heals are bigger but seem a bit more wasteful if you are trying to keep a tank topped off. Maybe it's just me and I'm not used to it yet, but it seems I have more options at my disposal with the Druid style of healing. I'm not giving up on it yet and will continue to do the Ele-Resto build for a while. I'm trying to keep my eyes and opinion open and watch the upcoming changes in Wrath for both of the specs.