If you're thinking about dipping your toe into BGs with the new random finder, DO IT! And use this helpful, if extremely basic, guide to make your BG experience fun!
Step 1: Accept you're probably going to die. Make bestest friends with the Resurrection Angel, and move on.
Step 2: The first time you enter any BG you will likely have NO idea what's going on or what to do. This is okay. Following the crowd is not a bad strategy. It's not ideal, but it's not bad. Once you've seen all the BGs at least once, I would highly HIGHLY recommend finding a good guide for each and reading it. Heck, you can do that before you even set foot in any BGs, but that doesn't work well for me personally. It doesn't make a lot of sense till I see them.
Step 3: Put any idiot QQing on ignore. You know, the people who start before the game has even started and keep saying how Alliance/Horde sucks, how this group sucks, how this or that person is an idiot for a piece of green gear. Yeah, IGNORE. They never have something useful to say about what's happening in the battle, so save your sanity.
Step 4: Rogues are evil, as are kitty druids. EVIL! Just saying. Especially if you're a caster, a rogue can shut you down so thoroughly that you go from full health to dead before you get a cast off. If you're playing a rogue or kitty, go forth and have fun (but if you see a baby shammy named Eiunn, please leave her alone. She's developing a kitty druid phobia from being ganked so often by kitties. They were even graveyard-stalking her!)
Step 5: Kill the enemy or heal your allies or both. If you're not a horribly mobile class, I would suggest finding something to guard (like a tower in Eye or Stables in Arathi). You won't get as much honor this way, mind, but it's generally far less overwhelming.
Step 6: Avoid flag-running and vehicles the first time. It is really annoying when someone picks up a flag and has no idea what to do with it, and ditto with a vehicle. Ranged and healers might want to grab a ride on a vehicle though, because healing/pew-pewing is much easier from cover.
step 7: Losses happen, as do wins. The queue for a new random in my battlegroup is darn near instant right now, so go try again. And either way you get honor and with enough honor you can get nifty nifty mounts. Plus epic gems and pvp gear to make you harder to kill! And given the honor boost (Garetia got 5k for an Arathi this morning), it's a pretty quick grind.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Leveling: Because variety makes it less painful...
My guildies podcast will be talking about leveling 58-80 (so um go listen, okay), and that got me thinking about leveling (which I do WAAAY too much of) and ways to switch it up.
First, the random dungeon finder. It's the only way I like playing my mage, and it really does give you a break. Just, um, have some clue before you zone in. Doing things like giving the healer water (and the tank if it's a pally), or soulstoning the healer, or switching out your tanky pet (or blueberry) for a dps one, it generally sets a better tone for the pug. It may not make things run any smoother, but it does tend to put people in a better mood, plus it starts good habits you'll want at 80.
Second, pvp. I just hit WSG on my shaman and well, I hated it with a burning passion. I dunno if the 30-40 bracket is a bad one for shammies, if low-level elemental stinks in pvp, or if I just have no idea what I'm doing. Probably all of the above. But it was a break from questing, and on other toons I've had a blast in BGs, so try it. Worst thing that happens is that you die a lot, get frustrated, and swear off pvp on that toon. And even then, it might be worthwhile retrying later after you get some new abilities or a new BG unlocks for you. I can't stand doing WSG on my priest (required mobility+disc heals=fail), but Eye of the Storm or Arathi, those are great cause I can pair up with a dps and guard things.
Third, the grind. Not grinding for levels, grinding for other things. Rep grinds, rare drops, mounts, and other shinies. It's not the most fascinating way to level, but you can turn off your brain for a couple of hours and just mindlessly slaughter. Things you might want to consider grinding...
Minipets that drop. Granted this list also includes things like the fishing daily pets, but I can't figure out how to filter it. At least it gives you a starting point.
Rep grinds aren't going to be great till you're in the 50s, really. You can use rep beforehand to decide where to quest, but it's not that useful. But once you're ready to hit Plaguelands and/or Silithus, a rep grind isn't a bad way to level. Slaughter undead or cultists and see your Argent Dawn or Cenarion Circle rep rise along with your XP level. Heck, go from Silithus to Zangermarsh, do some grinding and turn-ins (and read wowwiki) and you could hit Northrend with the sexy title Guardian of Cenarius!
Mount grinds tie in pretty closely with rep grinds, but a mount's better motivation than just an exalted rep, really. Get to 70 and hit up Skyguard or Netherwing if you already have epic flight, or go gather beads in Nagrand for talbulks or get the Cenarion Expedition to love you for a hippogryph mount.
Rare drops, well, those could be many different things. Recipes or cloth farming (yes, cloth isn't rare, but it's useful) or a shiny blue axe that twinks love. Maybe even a piece of RP gear or two.
Fourth, dailies. Yes, dailies. While leveling. They offer a good chunk of XP plus some gold, and once you learn them you can generally burn through them quite quickly. Go help the walrus people in Northrend or run the Isle of Quel-danas. You can even pick up some nice gear and get a headstart on those level 80 rep grinds.
So, go forth and do something other than quest! And do listen to the podcast because I know they're covering far more than I am, and will have more tips too!
First, the random dungeon finder. It's the only way I like playing my mage, and it really does give you a break. Just, um, have some clue before you zone in. Doing things like giving the healer water (and the tank if it's a pally), or soulstoning the healer, or switching out your tanky pet (or blueberry) for a dps one, it generally sets a better tone for the pug. It may not make things run any smoother, but it does tend to put people in a better mood, plus it starts good habits you'll want at 80.
Second, pvp. I just hit WSG on my shaman and well, I hated it with a burning passion. I dunno if the 30-40 bracket is a bad one for shammies, if low-level elemental stinks in pvp, or if I just have no idea what I'm doing. Probably all of the above. But it was a break from questing, and on other toons I've had a blast in BGs, so try it. Worst thing that happens is that you die a lot, get frustrated, and swear off pvp on that toon. And even then, it might be worthwhile retrying later after you get some new abilities or a new BG unlocks for you. I can't stand doing WSG on my priest (required mobility+disc heals=fail), but Eye of the Storm or Arathi, those are great cause I can pair up with a dps and guard things.
Third, the grind. Not grinding for levels, grinding for other things. Rep grinds, rare drops, mounts, and other shinies. It's not the most fascinating way to level, but you can turn off your brain for a couple of hours and just mindlessly slaughter. Things you might want to consider grinding...
Minipets that drop. Granted this list also includes things like the fishing daily pets, but I can't figure out how to filter it. At least it gives you a starting point.
Rep grinds aren't going to be great till you're in the 50s, really. You can use rep beforehand to decide where to quest, but it's not that useful. But once you're ready to hit Plaguelands and/or Silithus, a rep grind isn't a bad way to level. Slaughter undead or cultists and see your Argent Dawn or Cenarion Circle rep rise along with your XP level. Heck, go from Silithus to Zangermarsh, do some grinding and turn-ins (and read wowwiki) and you could hit Northrend with the sexy title Guardian of Cenarius!
Mount grinds tie in pretty closely with rep grinds, but a mount's better motivation than just an exalted rep, really. Get to 70 and hit up Skyguard or Netherwing if you already have epic flight, or go gather beads in Nagrand for talbulks or get the Cenarion Expedition to love you for a hippogryph mount.
Rare drops, well, those could be many different things. Recipes or cloth farming (yes, cloth isn't rare, but it's useful) or a shiny blue axe that twinks love. Maybe even a piece of RP gear or two.
Fourth, dailies. Yes, dailies. While leveling. They offer a good chunk of XP plus some gold, and once you learn them you can generally burn through them quite quickly. Go help the walrus people in Northrend or run the Isle of Quel-danas. You can even pick up some nice gear and get a headstart on those level 80 rep grinds.
So, go forth and do something other than quest! And do listen to the podcast because I know they're covering far more than I am, and will have more tips too!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Things I'd like to see in Cat: Turning Dailies into Weeklies
Honestly, I am not enamored of the daily system. It feels too much like a chore, which might explain why Lyllea is not drowning in Frost emblems and why I don't have a ton of epic cuts.
Quite frankly I don't always have time to run the Jcing daily, much less the daily random. So I started thinking this weekend, and I came up with a solution that I kinda like...
Weekly Dailies. You get frost emblems for the first seven random dungeons you run. You get 7 quests from the jcing trainer, or the fishing trainer, and you have till server reset on Tuesday to get all or some of them done. Of course, you don't have to pick up all seven at once, you can get one, do it, and then get the next, but all seven are there, waiting for you to do them.
I'd also extend this to profession research. You can do it seven times a week. Whenever. Once you do it seven times, you must wait till server reset to do it again.
And for someone like me, who is a fit and spurt gamer (meaning that I play intensely for a bit, then wander off, then repeat), this allows me to do that. I can set aside a couple of hours and bang out all my "chores" for the week, then wander off to level an alt or work on Loremaster or even go knit.
Blizz does seem to be moving more to a weekly model, so I can hope they'll do something like this.
Quite frankly I don't always have time to run the Jcing daily, much less the daily random. So I started thinking this weekend, and I came up with a solution that I kinda like...
Weekly Dailies. You get frost emblems for the first seven random dungeons you run. You get 7 quests from the jcing trainer, or the fishing trainer, and you have till server reset on Tuesday to get all or some of them done. Of course, you don't have to pick up all seven at once, you can get one, do it, and then get the next, but all seven are there, waiting for you to do them.
I'd also extend this to profession research. You can do it seven times a week. Whenever. Once you do it seven times, you must wait till server reset to do it again.
And for someone like me, who is a fit and spurt gamer (meaning that I play intensely for a bit, then wander off, then repeat), this allows me to do that. I can set aside a couple of hours and bang out all my "chores" for the week, then wander off to level an alt or work on Loremaster or even go knit.
Blizz does seem to be moving more to a weekly model, so I can hope they'll do something like this.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Pally Loves Outlands (because if I don't spice up the leveling my brain is going to ooze out my ears)
I've been doing a lot of leveling lately, with brief breaks to get further in Black Temple and convince the Netherwing that they really, really like Garetia. And I started thinking about maybe leveling slightly differently. Both Garetia and Lyllea hit Northrend at 68 and both of them have done far more Northrend quests than Outlands. In fact, Lyllea's only seen Terokkar and Hellfire, while Garetia's a bit more travelled, with Hellfire, Zangermarsh, Nagrand and a dash of Terokkar.
So why not level my next alt exclusively in Outlands till I can't level there no more? There are still green mobs for Garetia at 80 (granted these are mostly elites, but they exist!), and it'd give me a change of location and lore. Plus it'd give me a bit of a roadmap for Loremaster of Outlands, which is the part of the Loremaster achievement that is giving me fits.
Thus, the Pally Loves Outlands idea. Adowa, my pally, is 65 and has just about finished Hellfire (1 or 2 quests from the Loremaster achieve). I'm going to keep her in Outlands until one of two things happens... either a) she gets Loremaster of Outlands, or b) she runs out of ways to gain XP. I'm currently pondering which zone to go to next (between Blade's Edge, Zangermarsh, or Nagrand). I'm going to avoid instances because, well, I don't really like to run dungeons on her. Melee dps not my thing, and pally healing is not fun for me. So no XP from instances, all from questing and killing things. Ideally I'll get enough gold to buy her epic flight before the Netherwing quest line no longer gives XP, but she'll still grind with them to exalted because I can think of nothing more epic than a paladin on a Netherwing drake.
So why not level my next alt exclusively in Outlands till I can't level there no more? There are still green mobs for Garetia at 80 (granted these are mostly elites, but they exist!), and it'd give me a change of location and lore. Plus it'd give me a bit of a roadmap for Loremaster of Outlands, which is the part of the Loremaster achievement that is giving me fits.
Thus, the Pally Loves Outlands idea. Adowa, my pally, is 65 and has just about finished Hellfire (1 or 2 quests from the Loremaster achieve). I'm going to keep her in Outlands until one of two things happens... either a) she gets Loremaster of Outlands, or b) she runs out of ways to gain XP. I'm currently pondering which zone to go to next (between Blade's Edge, Zangermarsh, or Nagrand). I'm going to avoid instances because, well, I don't really like to run dungeons on her. Melee dps not my thing, and pally healing is not fun for me. So no XP from instances, all from questing and killing things. Ideally I'll get enough gold to buy her epic flight before the Netherwing quest line no longer gives XP, but she'll still grind with them to exalted because I can think of nothing more epic than a paladin on a Netherwing drake.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
I both love and hate wow_ladies
Okay, so it's mostly love. wow_ladies on LiveJournal is my go-to place for wow stuff, but they have this weekly thing... UI Monday.
And every Tuesday I go look at the post and the responses and the pictures and get the urge to redo my ui. Every single week. Some weeks I resist the urge, some weeks not so much. This week, well, hello new unit frames and lunar sphere.
this week's post is here and just look at all those gorgeous uis. Good thing I like to tinker, or I would if the server ever comes back up. Here server server server!
And every Tuesday I go look at the post and the responses and the pictures and get the urge to redo my ui. Every single week. Some weeks I resist the urge, some weeks not so much. This week, well, hello new unit frames and lunar sphere.
this week's post is here and just look at all those gorgeous uis. Good thing I like to tinker, or I would if the server ever comes back up. Here server server server!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Silly RPness
Dear Garrosh Hellscream,
We have a mutual problem in these blue spacegoat people. Darnassus was smug in its superiority as the only Alliance capital in Kalimdor, content to watch these idiot humans, dwarves, and gnomes complain about really long flight paths while they paid out the nose for the privilege of doing so. And now, now, another city threatens our monopoly!
These arrogant drain goats must be stopped. I understand there is some sort of long-standing enmity between them and your people, something about a massacre? Or possibly leading your race to its doom? I confess, I wasn't paying attention when it was explained to me.
Perhaps we could come to some arrangement? You get rid of the drains, I'll kill all the sindorei. Mana-addicted pansy deviants, the lots of them.
Sincerely,
Fandral Staghelm
PS- Good luck removing your current leader. I have lots of morrowgrain, and while the strong poison concocted from it does not work on priestesses, I have had some success using it on shamans.
We have a mutual problem in these blue spacegoat people. Darnassus was smug in its superiority as the only Alliance capital in Kalimdor, content to watch these idiot humans, dwarves, and gnomes complain about really long flight paths while they paid out the nose for the privilege of doing so. And now, now, another city threatens our monopoly!
These arrogant drain goats must be stopped. I understand there is some sort of long-standing enmity between them and your people, something about a massacre? Or possibly leading your race to its doom? I confess, I wasn't paying attention when it was explained to me.
Perhaps we could come to some arrangement? You get rid of the drains, I'll kill all the sindorei. Mana-addicted pansy deviants, the lots of them.
Sincerely,
Fandral Staghelm
PS- Good luck removing your current leader. I have lots of morrowgrain, and while the strong poison concocted from it does not work on priestesses, I have had some success using it on shamans.
Blog Azeroth topic: If you were given the option, would you post a link to your blog in your main's armory profile?
Anea, from Oh Look, an Alt posed this question in Blog Azeroth's Shared Topics this week. So I decided to ramble on about it...
Answer:
I'd be torn.
The good: more readers, more publicity.
The bad: more spam comments, more trolling
The neither good nor bad: attaching a link to my priest might give the impression that this is a priest blog. I don't want people coming here just for priest stuff, because, as we all know, I write about whatever pops into my head. Granted, playing a priest means priest stuff tends to pop into my head more, but I'm still not a really reliable source of all priest info. I can suggest a few good blogs for that sort of thing though.
In fact, linking to a particular character could cause all sorts of misconceptions. If the toon has all sorts of raiding achieves, but the blog is about leveling alts or ui customization or hardcore rp, well, that could be bad or at least confusing. And what about those who don't really have a main, per say?
And then there is the idea of more readers. I like it when people read what I write, I really do. But I'm not sure I have a thick enough skin to deal with some of the stuff the popular bloggers do. And then there's the problem that I write for myself. I learned that a long time ago with fiction writing, if it makes me laugh it did its job. Anyone else enjoying it is just a lovely lovely bonus. Now I've modified this a bit with blogging. I try to make sure that my topics are interesting to other people, but I still talk only about stuff I find interesting, and I don't choose my topics based on what I think others might like. This is why I don't have a set topic for my blog, because I am interested in lots of stuff in wow, and I hate being limited.
I think it'd also depend on how much control I have over it. Can I set permissions so that you only see it if you're logged into battlenet, or only if you're a guildie or play on my server? I'd be much more likely to do it if I had some control over who saw it. In fact, I don't think I would do it unless I had some way to set permissions. So, probably not.
Answer:
I'd be torn.
The good: more readers, more publicity.
The bad: more spam comments, more trolling
The neither good nor bad: attaching a link to my priest might give the impression that this is a priest blog. I don't want people coming here just for priest stuff, because, as we all know, I write about whatever pops into my head. Granted, playing a priest means priest stuff tends to pop into my head more, but I'm still not a really reliable source of all priest info. I can suggest a few good blogs for that sort of thing though.
In fact, linking to a particular character could cause all sorts of misconceptions. If the toon has all sorts of raiding achieves, but the blog is about leveling alts or ui customization or hardcore rp, well, that could be bad or at least confusing. And what about those who don't really have a main, per say?
And then there is the idea of more readers. I like it when people read what I write, I really do. But I'm not sure I have a thick enough skin to deal with some of the stuff the popular bloggers do. And then there's the problem that I write for myself. I learned that a long time ago with fiction writing, if it makes me laugh it did its job. Anyone else enjoying it is just a lovely lovely bonus. Now I've modified this a bit with blogging. I try to make sure that my topics are interesting to other people, but I still talk only about stuff I find interesting, and I don't choose my topics based on what I think others might like. This is why I don't have a set topic for my blog, because I am interested in lots of stuff in wow, and I hate being limited.
I think it'd also depend on how much control I have over it. Can I set permissions so that you only see it if you're logged into battlenet, or only if you're a guildie or play on my server? I'd be much more likely to do it if I had some control over who saw it. In fact, I don't think I would do it unless I had some way to set permissions. So, probably not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)