World of Warcraft

[suzumebachi]

Sucks, I'm having the same problem with Scarlet Monastery. I can't find a SM group for the life of me. Also, I bought my mount, and had literally 15 copper left over. Funtimes. I've since dropped engineering and picked up herbalism as a means of making more of teh moneys. More money = better gear = easier to level = life doesn't suck quite so much.

[The Author]

Sucks, I'm having the same problem with Scarlet Monastery. I can't find a SM group for the life of me. Also, I bought my mount, and had literally 15 copper left over. Funtimes. I've since dropped engineering and picked up herbalism as a means of making more of teh moneys. More money = better gear = easier to level = life doesn't suck quite so much.

I think I may be able to run you through most of scarlet. What's your class/level?

[suzumebachi]

Wrong server bubs. I'm talking about Illidan Horde, though I do have a few toons on Bloodscalp Alliance (but none are at SM yet and I haven't played them in a while).

[The Author]

Wrong server bubs. I'm talking about Illidan Horde, though I do have a few toons on Bloodscalp Alliance (but none are at SM yet and I haven't played them in a while).

Well... I could run you through SM anyway... if you can get through the door...

Hell, if I had time to convince him I could have a tier 2 mage to help. If she still played I'd invite a tier 2 priest as well

[The Author]

So I made it, I am now 50 with my mage. I decided to grind somewhere where there is runecloth, and decided on sorrow hill. I gained about 400 rep (I alternated between the skellies there and the beasts around the bulwark to avoid farmer infestations and horde infestations. Level 50 was good for me, new frostbolt and new cone of cold, and some new water (filling up about 5000 mana on 1992 mana water is LONG). I am digging the mage gameplay like I used to at first. I still think and plan like a rogue, but I can hit ennemies without getting hit. And now I can finally open a portal to Darnassus, YAY useless!!!

My rogue will swing back into action by teh time burning crusade comes out. With some friends, we will build up a 5 man team so that we can hit most instances there.

[OceansAndrew]

So I made it, I am now 50 with my mage. I decided to grind somewhere where there is runecloth, and decided on sorrow hill. I gained about 400 rep (I alternated between the skellies there and the beasts around the bulwark to avoid farmer infestations and horde infestations. Level 50 was good for me, new frostbolt and new cone of cold, and some new water (filling up about 5000 mana on 1992 mana water is LONG). I am digging the mage gameplay like I used to at first. I still think and plan like a rogue, but I can hit ennemies without getting hit. And now I can finally open a portal to Darnassus, YAY useless!!!

My rogue will swing back into action by teh time burning crusade comes out. With some friends, we will build up a 5 man team so that we can hit most instances there.

Good to hear you are digging mage. In my opinion, it is the most fun class because of all your potential escape options. It sucks to get hit, but there are so many ways to avoid getting hit, you can always be thinking.

[The Author]

I play a "try and get to me" frost mage. I used to have an "oh, instant wool" mage, but the poorly built arcan tree finally got to me. Frost is just aggravating. I don't put any points in fire or arcane, because I will still have very good skills either way. I can always ice barrier and go arcane explosion. There are not that many frost immune mobs out there. Those that are frost immune still have to deal with my damage mitigation. Ice block always works.

Fire is nice, but frost is sweet. "So you have combustion, that increses yoru crit rate once every 3 minutes?" "Every time my target is frozen, my crit rate goes up 50%." (well, by 60 it will, I invested in higher crit damage before the crit frequency. Not sure it was the best choice, but the mental math says that 50% more crits is the same as 100% more crit damage.

[OceansAndrew]

Exactly what mage I have. I have 2 points in arcane to reduce resists (though they dont happen often anyways) and the rest are frost, and at 70, i'll be adding more frost.

Playing as a keep-away mage makes it almost a different game in pvp, and though i have 3 other 60's, my mage is the only one I bother PVPing with (rogue and 2 priests).

As for the upcoming stuff, the water elemental is awesome, especially with the way warcraft pvp revolves around skirmishes with a little bit of downtime. It does about 550 per attack (slow attack time), and having a second nova is really nice. My one complaint with the elemental is that you can't have it nova when you are casting, which I suppose would be overpowered, effectivly making it impossible for people to even get near when you are casting.

nova > coc > frostbolt > fireblast > water elemental nova > frostbolt > coc > fireblast is just an obscene combo chain, and frost mages will be one of the best 2v2 or 3v3 arena classes, especially paired with an elemental shaman.

[The Author]

Exactly what mage I have. I have 2 points in arcane to reduce resists (though they dont happen often anyways) and the rest are frost, and at 70, i'll be adding more frost.

Playing as a keep-away mage makes it almost a different game in pvp, and though i have 3 other 60's, my mage is the only one I bother PVPing with (rogue and 2 priests).

As for the upcoming stuff, the water elemental is awesome, especially with the way warcraft pvp revolves around skirmishes with a little bit of downtime. It does about 550 per attack (slow attack time), and having a second nova is really nice. My one complaint with the elemental is that you can't have it nova when you are casting, which I suppose would be overpowered, effectivly making it impossible for people to even get near when you are casting.

nova > coc > frostbolt > fireblast > water elemental nova > frostbolt > coc > fireblast is just an obscene combo chain, and frost mages will be one of the best 2v2 or 3v3 arena classes, especially paired with an elemental shaman.

Shadow Priest, Elemental Shamy, Frost mage. "Get the hell away from me" team. Using a grounding or windwall totem would keep ranged attacks limited. The priest fear incapacitates, and the frost mage immobilizes.

[The Author]

3 levels in 3 days, and I only had like 2 bubbles of rest exp today... I don't think I'll make it to 52 tomorrow. Still, going from early 48 to 51 in 3 days... damn I'm good.

[OceansAndrew]

Just in time for the expansion!

Don't worry too much about gear, you basically get a 6 piece tier 1 set by completing the first quests in hellfire peninsula, including a nice staff.

I gotta say I am impressed with your levelling skill. I spent an hour today running ragefire a few times to get lowbie mail items for my future BE paladin.

[The Author]

Just in time for the expansion!

Don't worry too much about gear, you basically get a 6 piece tier 1 set by completing the first quests in hellfire peninsula, including a nice staff.

I gotta say I am impressed with your levelling skill. I spent an hour today running ragefire a few times to get lowbie mail items for my future BE paladin.

I just did tons of level 50 quests and I took care of annoying quests that were just way too easy at my level. I could try to go for it again tonight but that would be stupid. So I'll probably do it...

[The Author]

I have to ask, and I'm assuming you are in the beta, will the Tier 2/tier 3 no life player be pissed at the quality of items available in BC?

I mean, will it be easy to have tier 2 equivalent items?

[TaVeRnErO_RuDd]

I have to ask, and I'm assuming you are in the beta, will the Tier 2/tier 3 no life player be pissed at the quality of items available in BC?

I mean, will it be easy to have tier 2 equivalent items?

yes...i've heard lvl 61-62 greens from quests will be better than lvl 60 epics

[Kanthos]

Yes, the quest items will probably be better than epics. But there will be more and better epics in the level 70 raid instances, so it won't be a problem.

You mages might want to consider a build that puts 10 points in arcane and the rest in frost or fire, so that you get Arcane Concentration. A 10% chance of clearcasting does a lot to save you mana in the long run, and more mana means more damage.

[The Author]

Yes, the quest items will probably be better than epics. But there will be more and better epics in the level 70 raid instances, so it won't be a problem.

You mages might want to consider a build that puts 10 points in arcane and the rest in frost or fire, so that you get Arcane Concentration. A 10% chance of clearcasting does a lot to save you mana in the long run, and more mana means more damage.

Look at the new frost tree. It is seriously hard to not put everything in it, I have never seen a tree balance damage, defense, and combat control so well.

Not one talent that I do not like in there.

[Sporknight]

I'm a 60 gnome lock on Staghelm. I've been using an SM/Ruin build for a while, but I decided to respec and give Soul Link a shot. It's...interesting, I must say. I figure with the release of 2.0, talent points are gonna be refunded, and I haven't respecced that much, so I figure why not? Talent points are gonna be refunded when they move to 2.0, so if I dont like it, I can just play my alts until then.

I must say, though, I am really looking foreward to BC talents. Felguards are wrecking machines, supposedly, and I saw a video of an affliction spec lock DoT (that's right, DoT, not AoE) grinding with a priest on healing. He would load up mobs with DoT's, do an instant howl of terror, and by the time they got back to them, they'd be dead. If not, he'd just re-DoT them up and it wouldn't be long. With the priest healing him after he life taps, he was a perpetual motion machine. The video was 20 minutes long - I'll see if I can find the link for it, if anyone is curious.

[OceansAndrew]

Yeah, i'm in the beta and for real, you get upgrades fast and furious in the first area, just from quests. They are all level 60 greens, and are all about as powerful as T1. The drops from the first dungeon are even better, and it escalates from there.

By 70 your gear will easily equal and most likely surpass T2 gear. Once you start hitting the high end dungeons (5 mans, not raiding), you'll get to the T3 and beyond level of gear. I have seen some insane weapons on some of the level 70 players on the server, and it's all from 5mans.

I took one of my priests through Hellfire peninsula who was a fresh level 60 (about 11 hours played at 60), wearing stuff from Mara, Sunken temple, and even some from Scarlet monestary, and literally within 3 hours of questing I had upgraded my staff, pants, robe, shoulders, and hat. It was all +damage and healing except the hat, which was a level 60 trash green drop with +20 int, spi, stam and +44 healing.

Tier 4 drops from hard mode of the 5 man dungeons, along with Kharazan, and it is about the 110% strength of T3, but it also has sockets.

You're damn right a lot of hardcore raiders are going to be pissed.

The ones who raid for the experience rather than the loot won't care, but the lootwhores are going to have a brain hemmorhage.

[The Author]

You, sir, have made my day. If you ever chose to come to bloodscalp, I promist to run you through any instance up to SM at least once.

...

Hmmm... I think my mage deserves a little Dead Mine vacation.

If I was game, I would go for a Rage Fire Chasm run, but for now, only my NE rogue has done so. (well, my tauren shammy too but that's kinda too easy).

Anyone else do that? Taking high level characters through low level instances just for the hell of it?

[Citris]

My cousins are really into this game, so I had a chance to play it over Thanksgiving. I made a troll rogue.

Pros: The controls took a little getting used to, but once I did the fighting was rather enjoyable. I actually had to pay attention to what was going on, rather than point and click. I also liked the menu system for all the skills. (My cousin had a mod so all of his 50+ priest skills were on screen at once)

I never got to see a raid, but those sound epic. Also if loot becomes easier to get in BC, that may get me into it. I like how the characters look when they get all their gear.

Speaking of looks. Beautiful game. All the character models and environments I saw were great. It definatly helps me get into character.

Cons: One of the things that really put me off though was the traveling. Like I said, I'm short on time. I want to play my game, not sit back and watch a bat's ass for 20 minutes while it flies across a continent.

Also server stability was a big problem. In the short time I played with my cousins they were kicked twice and 3 of the servers were down.

Verdict: Not really for me. It seems like a game that really favors the hardcore gamer. I just don't have the time to put into it for it to be worth my $15 a month.

[The Author]

Errr... No queues nor kickings here in about a year. Everything worked fine.

You get used to the flight time. Usually, I stick to one region for a while, then I move. During the flight, I get up and go to the bathroom or something.

Raids would be epic, if it were not for the fact that90% of the time people are either drinking for mana, or arguing about drops and strategies.

I would go for another couple of Onyxia fights though. These are amazing. Not even Ragnaros comes close to the Onyxia fight. Especially since Ragnaros only has like 1 phase and 1 special move where he submerges and sends his sons.

And most guilds now down him before the first submerge.

[suzumebachi]

Anyone else do that? Taking high level characters through low level instances just for the hell of it?

I used to run my mage through Ragefire Chasm to farm for linen (I'm not actually sure WHY I needed linen; I gave it to new tailors and such). Sometimes I'd run a group of newbies through, since I could usually clear it solo in ten minutes or less. It was fun dragging every trogg into one big group and then killing them instantly with Blast Wave.

Same with Shadowfang Keep, which is still one of my favorite instances. I love the atmosphere of that place.

I went to the Stockades on my druid at around lvl 55. It was fun. Well, getting to the Stockades was fun. Sneaking around Stormwind trying my best to avoid lvl 60's and the elite stealth detection guard patrols. Stockades itself was disappointing though. Quite possibly the lamest instance in the game.

Also, my brother has a method of farming RFC with his mage. He can clear pretty much the whole instance in about a minute. Near the beginning is a wall you can climb up, and if you attack a mob on the other side of the wall, the mob will run around through the entire instance and pull every other mob along the way, then when they all reach him, he mana shields and AoEs them all down in about 10 seconds. Then it's just a matter of looting 70 corpses before they start disappearing.

[Darth Lime]

Skullcrusher (PvP only)/Darth Lime/Amraith/Undead/Warrior

[The Author]

And, for the fourth night in a row, I gained a level.

I would like to thank the crystal spires of Ur Goro, for their free 10000 XP really helped. I now have very serious doubts about being able to do it a fifth night in a row...

[The Author]

2.0 comes out this week. Free respecs for all and new talents. And the hunters mechanics are getting overhauled.

A lot...

I have no clue if its for the best or not.

However, once I hit 55, I'll get a water elemental on my mage.

Which is like, next level. So maybe wednesday.