Trio Stylin' and Mounted

My multi-box trio is about to hit level 40.  It’s happened very quickly in my opinion.  So much so, that I stopped trying to complete each zone.  I started skipping around to the quests I remembered liking most and have only farmed mobs here and there for crafting materials.  My Warlock does tailoring for the trio to fill in their gaps in gear.  When I needed silk to make them all new boots and sashes, it was easier to have the trio farm the cloth so they’d get XP for the effort as well as the materials.  I like seeing big fat ogres go boom, as they drop with an earth rumbling thud at my feet.

Scarlet Monastery (SM) is one of my favorite instances.  For me, it was the first of the lowbie instances you run multiple times for the rewards – gear for yourself, cloth for crafting or to sell, sellable Bind-on-Equip items for the Auction House and vendor trash (gold).  It’s the first introduction to what end gaming raid feels like in World of Warcraft.  It’s the first time I recall needing to know the intricacies of each instance wing.  It’s the first piece of instanced content that has an attunement of sorts – you need to loot the Scarlet key from the box in Doan’s Chamber, to gain entry into the Cathedral and Armory wings.   And it was the first time as a Warlock, I was told to cast certain de-buffs (Recklessness) on the mobs to prevent them from running away and returning with additional combatants.   The instances before SM were pretty much spank-n-tank.  SM is the one I recall waking me up to how instanced content, as well as the coordination and planning required, manifested itself in WOW.

I visited SM with my trio just to complete the content since doing 5-man content is my goal.  I boxed in a level 43 Paladin I had abandoned on Whisperwind a few years ago, as the 4th player.  The first time through, I divided up the BOE loot and gave all the BOPs to the Mage since she’s the trio’s tank/DPS.  She came out of that first run looking pretty good and I called it a day.  Later in the week I decided that the run had gone so smoothly that I’d run it twice more, in hopes of getting the same drops for the two priests.  Favor smiled on the two runs and by the time it was all over, my trio was back to looking like triplets.  I must admit that I enjoy it most when they are dressed identically – down to the weapons.  *Smile*

With the trio nicely geared, I decided to bail on Southshore, Hillsbrad and Arathi Highlands.  I’d already done the slay quests I liked.  I’m a fan of killing Defias and Pirates in WOW.  I tucked my head into Dustwallow Marsh while doing a couple of Mage quests but wasn’t enamored of that zone either.  With the XP coming easy and no need to complete zones to level, I went to where I wanted to be next, which was kicking more pirate-ass in Stranglethorn Vale.  I’m not an admirer of STV per say, but yeah, I love the pirate quests so that’s where I’m calling home until they’re all dead, the dirty bastids.

After parking the trio in the Booty Bay Inn, I jumped on my Druid to go farm up some gold for mounts.  It took three different sessions to mine, skin and cook my way into enough Auction House revenue to purchase the three mounts.  It was three different mini sessions to get it done.  All in all, in a couple of hours I had 250 gold to send to the mage, who shared the earnings with her two sisters.  I’d never rolled a Draenei past Westfall so I’d forgotten that I’d be getting that big Elk mount.  *hehe*  They sure do look pretty cute trotting their way across Azeroth.

Comments

[Solidstate]

Gz in advance on when you hit 40, a milestone in terms of talents and IMHO interesting areas (I personally like the areas 45 and up much more than the areas 30-45).

I'm not sure I understand though, are you saying your mage tanked SM? Or was that your level 40 paladin?

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

Oops, sorry that was unclear. I box in my 43 Paladin to tank. I'm really considering your idea of the Moonkin if I get to level 60 5-man content. I was looking into the Warlock spec and man, they've gotten the real nerf bat since I left. I'm sure they're still decent in raids but the subtle changes over time make their talent trees rather ho-hum.

The problem with making that changes is that my Druid is in full feral gear. She doesn't have a single piece of Balance gear.

[RomaGoth]

SM is also one of my favorite instances. I love killing the humans (pirates, scarlet types, and defias). I also like killing undead, but other than my pally (level 30 this weekend, woot, mount for him hehe), my DK is the only toon I have that is effective against undead.

As for zones, I am also not a big fan of STV.

[We Fly Spitfires]

Personally I hate the big ugly elephants :) Still, Draenei look awesome on cat or goat mounts :)

[Solidstate]

> "I'm really considering your idea of the Moonkin if I get to level 60 5-man content."

If? Don't you mean "when"? :)

> "I was looking into the Warlock spec and man, they've gotten the real nerf bat since I left. I'm sure they're still decent in raids"

Extremely decent, especially in caster-friendly fights (of which there are plenty). Even in non-caster friendly fights involving a lot of movement and/or interruptions, a strong Affliction spec is pretty incredible. In fact the first guild to get Yogg-Saron down without any helpers said that Affliction Warlocks were the most important DPS in the fight and they would have stacked even more of them if they had them (they had 5 I believe). Granted that's rather an extreme example :)

> "but the subtle changes over time make their talent trees rather ho-hum."

That depends on the purpose. For 5-mans which you want to do (as for raids), this level 80 destruction spec should really bring home the good in terms of sheer damage:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IcoZbh0hZEbhqMhuVsAfot

A level 60 variant might look like:

http://www.wowhead.com/?talent#IZZEbhqMhuVsAboz

Although I would try hard to get Suppression from the Affliction tree for the added hit, depending on your gear.

> "The problem with making that changes is that my Druid is in full feral gear. She doesn't have a single piece of Balance gear."

Gear will come, especially when you farm instances. That should *really* not be a consideration :) The only factors I advise you to consider are fun - which both warlocks and druids are - and synergy/benefits with/to the group. Here maybe druid has a slight edge, IMHO.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Solid - Thanks for the additional info! I haven't played the Warlock regularly in over two years. She was my first and only main for a straight 2.5 years of leveling and raiding. When I burned out on her I did my Priest which I leveled and logged when she hit max level. Oh the pain of healing PUGs and trying to heal stupid alliance players in BGs who refuse to guard or defend.

From her I went to the Druid and that's all I played until I left WOW altogether. 2+ years of no Warlock and my the landscape on them changed. I guess all the screaming about them in PVP has done the trick. I hear that the Warlock class is in sharp decline and under represented in Arenas now.

I'm starting to lean in my ideas toward the Druid for the reasons you've stated and something new. But the something "new" also means learning a play style that I don't know while trying to do something new too (5-box). Druids get screwed with those dumb ass looking forms they've barely changed even with the new boring ass skins. All their great armor is masked by a static form.

One thing I was thinking that is good about the Warlock is the soulstone wipe recovery. Guess I can look into whether or not you can soulstone but not be in the group.