Mystic Worlds

Vael Goes Down!

This isn't a good picture. I was too tired to care.  We started the raid at 8:15 PM CST, trying to kill Rag.  Lag and other unfortunate events caused several wipes.  By the time we killed Vael is was almost 12 AM.  This is only the 2nd time Clan Imbrium has been able to down this vicious beast.

I had an early day at work today - meeting with my boss first thing so I had to drag my ass out of bed, even though I was exhausted.  No gaming tonight for me.  I'm going to kick-back with a Mike's Hard Lime, a bowl of chili and some cable TV.

 

My New Home - The Desolace

At level 35, I finished my active quests in Southshore and Refuge Point, signaling that it was time to move on to Desolace.  On my Warlock I found Desolace and okay place to level.  There are lots of slay quests and areas of mobs that are clustered together.  However, I do get bored by the barren and dusty terrain and the loooooooong jaunts between the mob areas and town.  Being on foot in Desolace is not fun.

The run to reach Desolace is long and can be fraught with Horde dangers.  My journey started in Auberdine where I ran south to Ashenvale.  From there I found the cave that leads into Stonetalon Peak. I rested inside the cave, ate some buff food and feed my pet.  As a final precaution, I drank and Elixir of Defense.  My plan was simple - run!  Avoid aggro, don't fight, don't engage - just run your ass off.  If you see horde drop a freeze drop, shadowmeld and stealth the cat.  There's no shame in hiding for the greater good of getting to Nigel's Point in one piece.

I exited the cave and hugged the mountains as I continued my run.   I did frogger moves through the spiders and continued forward.  When I reached the Charred Valed I drank a potion of Fortitude and continued my dodging and weaving through mobs.  After about an hour I reached the barren lands of Desolace. I uncovered key areas on my map as I traveled to Nigel's Point.  Then finally I could see it in the distance.  I was tired and eager to arrive.  Sheena and I broke into a faster run as we cruised unscathed into hour new port of call.

I ate dinner then decided to stretch my luck and make the run/swim to Feathermoon.

Phat Loot

Onyxia gave us a hard time last week. We're blaming it on game-lag and the various mob and ui glitches taking place since the 1.9 patch.  We've been killing Onyxia without issue for months. After four attempts she finally died and I'm glad that I was there.  The Nemesis Skullcap dropped and I won the bid!  I've seen it drop four times and was out-bid, but the other night was my turn.

Nemesis Skullcap
94 AR
+26 Stamina
+16 Intellect
+6 Spirit
+20 Frost Resistance
+10 Shadow Resitance
Classes: Warock
Equip: Restores 3 health every 5 sec
Equip: Increases damage and healing done by magical spellsand effects by up to 32

Where's the PVP?

...Unfortunately, only in battlegrounds.  I'm not much of a PVP-player even though I'm on a PVP server.  Crazy uh?  I agree.  I came with my AC2 guild and this is where the majority decided to go.  Even so, I miss the in-world PVP that existed before the battlegrounds launched.  I was looking forward to being level 60 and joining the free-for-all wars taking place in Southshore.  I loved racing to Duskwood to beat back the Horde invaders. Landing in Lakeshire to take the bridge and defend the town was also fun and exciting.

I just can't get into doing battlegrounds.  It feels too contrived - like another long ass instance, and raiding already gives me more than I need of that grind.  And the queues??? Sorry, can't be bothered with that.  You get summoned up when you're in the middle of dungeons, helping people, questing or whatever else you went on to do. 

In my opinion, add the BGs ruined the spontaneity of in-world battles.  I think they should have stopped with Warsong. Lots of people do like AV so perhaps AV and AB or AV and WS but NOT all three.  They cannibalized their own PVP player pool and often don't have enough players of each level for any BG which results in the long queues.

It feels strange to be able to AFK anywhere in Soutshore without fear of being ganked while the town is besieged.  Sure, there's open PVP on occassion, but nothing like it used to be.

Gotta Love EPL - Not

The battle rages on in Eastern Plaguelands (EPL).  It's one of the best places to farm for loot and gold.  As a result, it's frequented by farmers and offeres constant contention between Horde and Alliance.  Like it or not, I need to spend some time there to get more gold on Saylah.  As I mentioned in a previous post, raiding is expensive.  Until my Hunter alt can make my potions, I have to buy herbs and to have my potions, or buy the potions themselves.  I also need lots of bandages and buff food.  I can make my own food but have to spend time fishing.  So buying the potions is faster than just the herbs and hooking up with an alchemist for now since I play Saylah on  limited basis.

Some days in EPL go well. I solo it and make around 10g in a couple of hours.  Other times, I end up doubling with a farmer to make it go faster and keep a wandering Horde at bay.  Then sometimes, its brutal - over run by Horde happy to gank and camp you to death.

Non-Raid Gear Sets

Mark of the Wild has posted some commentary about possible non-raid instance gear upgrades.  I think it would be a great idea.  Not every player has the time nor the inclination to do weekly raids.  I've officially retired Saylah from Molten Core.  I can't take that grind on a Warlock anymore.

As an MMO, the term massive should always be concerned.  This game shouldn't just reward so-called hardcore players.  More casually players pay the same fees and should have a more equaly opportunity to upgrade armor.  Not to mention people who are in guild that aren't large enough to raid yet or having problems doing multi-guilded raids.  All players need gear love!

Pet Advice

I need some advice and alternative view points.  I can't decide if I want to bother with getting another pet.  I know that I want a white cat for my end game so I can have prowl.  I wish I'd selected a white cat from the start.  I had considered getting a Raptor for my 30s but why bother with using a pet that you have to acquire skill points for when you know you're going to change back to a cat?

Should I just stick with the one I have now who has spare talent points until the end?  Should I try to find a white cat now and deal with getting the talent points rather than at the end?  Or just keep my current Saber and forego the appearance??  And I wanted to try a Gorilla but is there any point if my end-game pet is going to be a cat?  Too many choices. I can't make up my mind.

Expense of Raiding

For the past few weeks I haven't done much with Saylah beyond skilling up her profressions and raiding.  I noticed last night that my gold is getting lower and lower.  I hate that you have to stand around and spam to do enchants so I've been giving them away when they give me a skill-up.  I'll be glad when I hit 300 and I can just do the high-end enchants and actually make a profit.

Raiding puts a huge dent in your funds.  If you're not level 60 yet, you'd better realize that right now.  First there's the cost of potions which are steep!  If you're not an alchemist or herbalist, you'd better get real friendly with someone who is.  If you don't you'll be spending around 25G for 5 Greater Fire Protection Potions, 15G for Greater Shadow Protection and  15G for Shadow Power.  Then there is the buff food, bandages and other specialty consumables you might like to have for your particular class.  And this is going to last you for 1 successful raid.  If you wipe a few times you'll need more and then there are the repair costs.

Getting epics is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.  You're going to spend hours farming just to prepare and in most cases, you'll have to buy some of what you need each week.  So at 60 you need Fire Resist gear to deal with MC, gold for you epic mount and lots of gold or hours farming to do weekly raids.  That's alot for a single toon.  I'd have been better off if I hadn't selected tailoring as my primary profession.  I wish they'd fix it so that the higher end items weren't BOPs.  They should also doing something to make cooking more viable or even one of the primary professions.

I'll have to spend some time farming this weekend - gold and comps, so I can stop spending my saved gold to do the weekly raids.

Toon Updates

Wow - no put intended but I have lot of progress to report with both of my toons. This is going to be a long post.  For the last month or so, I’ve taken a break from playing Saylah.  At times I felt guilty about not raiding or working on her professions. Playing my Warlock felt fun for a while but would quickly deteriorate into feeling like a grind.  Raiding with her back-to-back-to-back was just more than I could stand.  I don’t feel “too” bad anymore when I don’t play her, as I’ve noticed quite a few other guild members are now seriously playing alternate toons.  I suppose a year of playing one character would get to anyone.

As you know, I put Saylah away for a while to work on my Hunter.  By not playing her much, she feels fun when I do raid with her.  I’m settling into running Blackwing Lair twice a week and Onyxia.  I still can’t bare the thought of doing Molten Core, and consider myself officially on MC hiatus.  On raid-days I come on a couple of hours early to work on enchanting and make oils, then I fish and make buff food.  In doing so, I’ve gotten cooking, enchanting and fishing to Artisan.  I can’t wait to max out these skills, which close me out on my professions, as I’m already a 300 Tailor.  Performing these few tasks before raids is interesting and makes me feel like I’m helping my guild.

The bulk of my time has been dedicated to my hunter who reached level 30 yesterday. WOOT!  I really like playing my Night Elf Huntress.  Even the contested areas haven’t been too bad.  Much of the in-world PVP has disappeared into the Battlegrounds.  I don’t miss the needless extra ganking but there is a small element of excitement missing – especially in Southshore.

A few other guildies, aka Team Melt Face, are also seriously rolling new toons.  I’ve been able to do a few quests with them.  We blew through Stockades several times getting XP and upgrades. My son’s Hunter took me through Deadmines.  His Paladin helped me to finish a Defias quest that was 5 levels over me but I was determined to complete.  Now at 30, new quests have become available and I’m looking forward to hitting 40.  My only concern is racing ahead too quickly and finding myself in a grind all over again.

Illianah and guildies run Stockades in Stormwind

Visiting Sven for the first of several quests in Duskwood

Saylah waits with others to the the LBRS fire buff before doing BWL

Off to Lakeshire

At level 18, I chucked on over my first contested area, Lakeshire.  I tried Deadmines twice with pick-up groups that sucked.  Rather than waste anymore time in Westfall, I left.  When I rolled Saylah, my priest and helped my son, I didn’t bother with this instance much.  My son went back a lot after I helped him complete it the first time.

VC groups tend it be very bad.  It’s the first instance for low-level toons so the new players don’t know how to do participate in this type of group.  They don’t play their classes very well, are under armored, over anxious, can’t control aggro, etc.  Many of them have been soloing until this point and cooperation is at a low.  Two wipes is enough to make me look elsewhere for XP and loot.

After setting my hearthstone to the Lakeshire Inn, I went to the herbalist trainer.  When I walked into the hut, it reminded me of what I’m still missing in MMOs – housing.  The quaint cottage, chickens and garden would be perfect.  I want to kill mobs, raid, grow/harvest and decorate. And no, I’m not crazy.  EQ2 has player housing, SWG has housing and the ability to plant/harvest your own resources.  I know that’s completely outside of what the average WOW players is looking for but it sure would make me happy.