This just in, Heroic LK 10 Still Hard (and other random things)

So, there was stuff this week. 

And yes, I did go on a ICC drake run. My opinion is as follows...

everything before PP, easy-peasy even on heroic and while trying for the achieves. Someone may have died on heroic lootship, but I was too busy going "WHEE! CANNONS!" to notice. I like the cannons :)

PP, plague still kills, but we killed him fast enough it didn't matter (if you've never done PP on heroic, there's a plague he gives you that you have to pass around). We soulstoned one healer, passed it to them, then the second go-round did the same thing, except with a battlerez. PP didn't last long enough for a third.

Dreamwalker: wow, I remember this being really hard on heroic, and now it's easy. Sadly, we didn't get the achieve

Sindy: same as Dreamwalker

LK: This is the only heroic fight I'd never seen in ICC 10. Yeah, after several wipes on heroic, we did it normally so the people who'd never been that far before could get Kingslayer. It's still difficult, and there's a ton of stuff going on. It reminds me more of a Cataclysm raid, really. Just a ton of stuff, not all of it happening at once, but enough stuff overall that the fight doesn't make much sense until you see it a time or two. We're going back on Sat, and hopefully we can get the achieves for Dream and Sindy and down LK on heroic.

Shaman-leveling: is coming along. The walrus people dailies continue to give good XP, so I'm trying to remember to log in to do them, even if I don't plan on working on her that day. She's also started the Tournament stuff. I still don't like the tournament at all, but a) good XP, and b) Lyllea and/or Garetia will need to go back to do it to get the mounts and pets. So might as well get some practice jousting (which I am fail at). Profession-wise, her tailoring's hit embercloth, and her leatherworking continues to lag due to lack of mats. Which leads me to my next topic...

Other leveling: Oddly enough both the pally and the hunter leveled this week. I got bored of Northrend, so I played around on the pally and discovered that I want Deepholm to end, NOW. I love the dailies there, I just really really HATE having to do the entire zone to unlock them. Why can't they be like the Uldum daily, just a short questchain and then you get to hit pygmies with mallets? Especially given that the enchants aren't BOA, this is extremely annoying. The pally's my 3rd toon to do Deepholm, and I've got two more on the way. I don't want to do that zone twice more, I really don't!

As for Garetia, I decided to drop herbalism and pick up skinning. I need a high level skinner to feed mats to the shaman, so she can make gear for herself, the druid, and Garetia. The pally can make gear for herself and weapons for everyone else, and I just picked up a couple of JCing recipes for rings and neck pieces, so in theory I can trick my alts out without running heroics till I want to stab things. In practice, I'll probably end up running heroics till I want to stab things for rep and chaos orbs but at least I'll be doing it on the shaman, right? Garetia's getting leveled in the slowest way possible by leveling skinning while waiting for the dungeon finder, then leveling archeology (vial of the sands, I will have you!) while waiting for the dungeon finder, and possibly doing old rep grinds while waiting for the dungeon finder.  There's going to be a lot of waiting. 

Of course, that does lead to a problem. I have no idea how to hunter with focus. Seriously, I'm just button-mashing over here. I know MM is supposed to be a bit underpowered, and Garetia's UI is having issues, but I'm pretty sure that I should do more damage now than I did in ICC, right? Right? I think my priority's probably wrong, that I shouldn't be using SS, then Chimera, Arcane, Aimed, and SS as filler, but EJ is not being helpful on that front. It's not horribly urgent, but I don't wanna be a huntard! I also am really rusty at CC, which is the reason I was planning on leveling via the dungeon-finder. Lots of practice is a good thing, especially since now we need hunters (both ours decamped) for Magmaw. Not that Garetia's going to be 85 and raid-ready any time soon, but I want to be prepared.

I guess I just like having a certain amount of competence with my alts. I expect to die as melee dps, and I'm not very good at it, but as ranged dps or heals? I have some clue what I'm doing, and I want to do it well no matter which toon I'm on. 

Thus I have my list of things to learn/figure out this week:

1. BoT fights for raid

2. how to mm hunter with focus

3. multi-target elemental dps

4. what mats I need to get leatherworking into Cat levels, and get them

5. if the shaman and hunter can be completely raid-ready with only crafted and rep gear, and if so what reps and what mats? This is probably going to be a hit Mr Robot for a bit question.

Taking Stock of the toons

I figured it was time to make a "where am I going and why am I in this handbasket" post, also known as wth am I doing in game and what's up with the alts? Since it's a new year, it makes sense to take stock.

Maxed Toons:

Garetia is doing transmutes. That's it. No merrymaker, no dailies, no farming, no raiding, just transmutes. There are grinds I'd like to do on her, but I have only so much tolerance for grinding stuff, and the stuff I need to grind on other toons is more important.

Lyllea is doing way too many heroics, trying to get all of her gear up to purples, and doing titansteel and icy prisms. She's also raid healing.

Level 60-62 Toons:
Monera (the druid) is doing minor inscription research, the occasional lap of Hellfire for herbs, and generally slowly leveling herbalism and inscription. She can now mill Northrend herbs. She gets all the herbs I pick up on any toon to mill.

Adowa (the pally) has been dual-speced ret/holy. I am currently trying to get blacksmithing and engineering up to Outlands levels. Once I do that, I'm stealing the plate heirlooms from whichever toon happens to have them and taking her to at 68.

Llonya (the DK) has been respeced to a tankish spec, and I figure I'll try my hand at tanking with her. She's also the one farming up all the ore to level Adowa's professions. Occasionally I invest a bit of gold to further level her enchanting.

Level 20-30 Toons:
Aidelyn (the rogue) is now level 20, mounted, and ready to be pushed to 30.

Eiunn (the shammy) is sitting at 21, and I have no idea what to do with her. She's more or less on hold till I figure that out.

Angetia (the mage) is hanging out at 25. I'm pondering swiping the cloth heirlooms off Monera to get her to 30.

Tyrosia (the horde warlock) is still in a "I don't like this server" holding pattern.

Level 15-20 Toons:

Cywair (the warrior) has been run to Loch Modan, and is set to level. I'm hoping that I can get him to 20 at least. Plus, leveling him's a nice change from the squishies. He's got two gathering professions, herbalism and skinning, and I see no reason to change that, especially since the herbalism self-heal is really useful for him. Yay panic button!

And here we have Cywair all decked out in heirlooms on the loading screen. Now, why are his shoulders bigger than his head? Blizz, wtb a turn off shoulders option please!

The Alt Project

I have given myself a challenge. One of each class (except the DK) to at least level 20, but mount level prefered. I am calling it the Alt Project, since well, it's a project involving alts.

Now, not only must I get these baby alts to 20/30, but I must also do a dungeon run where they play a proper role (instead of just getting run through by a high-level character). Extra points if I manage to get to perform more than one role (healing one run, tanking the next, for example).

And one more thing...
I must get their professions (not counting fishing, cooking, and first aid) also up to at least 150.

So where do I stand so far?
Pally's lvl 24 and has healed a Shadowfang run.
Mage is 21. I don't want to level her, so I may save her for last. Stupid fragile glass cannons.
Rogue is 11 (I leveled her some this weekend), and I got a rogue past 10! Go me! She's wandering around Teldrassil, and having fun.
Shaman is 11 as well, and I am slowly pulling her off bank toon duty.
Warrior is 0 (I kinda need to roll one)
Warlock's 21? 22? Somewhere in there.
Priest is 10 or 3, depending on which priest.
Druid is level 2.


I've got lots to go, but I think it's not a bad start. Hopefully doing this will give me a sense of how each class plays, as well as how all the various professions work. Plus, if I ever get tired of my hunter, I'll have a bunch of baby toons to choose from.

A little Pally love

My main's basically been running around Ironforge trying to get the pet and dress and picnic basket, so I've been showing the alts a little love, especially my pally (and the DKs, but for them it's just craft leveling). I've used up all her rested xp, got her to 24, and started the pally weapon quest. Now I have to find people to run Shadowfang Keep, Blackfathoms, and Deadmines with.

It's a nice change from the hit it, run away method of the hunter, and if I don't run oom, I don't die. Ideally I'd like to have her as a main tank healer, but I'm currently spec'ed in a weird combo of holy (so I can heal myself easier), prot (for blessing of the kings), and ret (for dps).

I have the following comments..

I LOVE consecrate. Best spell ever.
Once I got used to the seal change it was lovely.
I still want ranged attacks. Stupid gnolls keep fleeing.

And a bit of eye candy, because I can...

My Belf DK (Linaev) in her purple dress. Why the dresses look so much better on the elves I dunno, but they do.

And yes, I got the pet. Now back to leveling, I guess. At least she's got more rested xp now.

Why do we love the alts we love?

I started thinking (always a dangerous thing) about why I play the alts I play. I have two baby hunters, and I haven't touched either one in a month. I love my main hunter, so why no baby hunter love?

One, I'm mostly playing my main. When I play an alt, I want a break, and the same playstyle isn't really a break.

Two, I miss the feeling of power I have with my main.

Three, I don't like looking at the troll. This is sad, since I went to all that time and trouble to get her a moth. It would be really silly to turn her into a blood elf just so she'd be pretty.

On the other hand, looks aren't everything. I adore the way my mage looks, but she's languishing at 21, and has been since November. I find the gameplay annoying (apparently there is a trick to playing a mage, and I don't know it. A friend's offered to watch me play and give tips, so we'll see what I think after that)

I think the most important thing is the break. Combine a different way of playing with the power and the pretty and that may be why I am starting to fall in love with my DKs, especially Linaev. Unholy spec is INSANE. INSANE! I took down all the servants of Omen and ended the fight at FULL HEALTH. I'm still trying to figure out how I managed that. Plus my minion, though not attractive, does make funny noises. Now if I could just get the mining to Outland levels so I can start leveling her...
On that note, This is a DK tutorial, covering all 3 specs. Well-worth the read.

And the bugs in Love is in the Air continue... so far I am aware of..
1. DO NOT TRY THE STORMWIND HARBOR GUARDS. You get nothing.
2. The achievement for getting the 3 cities things doesn't work Alliance-side. No clue on Horde.
3. The ice thing is still repeating randomly.

Here's hoping Blizz fixes them soon, and hey, why do you guys play your alts?

A web of professions

I have alts. I get bored with them and play them more or less depending on where I am with Garetia. I also have this lovely web of crafting because, well, I did it in LotRO and I'm going to do it in WoW.

I give you my web of professions on SC.

The main is an Alchemy/Herbalist. I don't use the potions much on her, but I like herbalism. I'm not sure what the max-level stuff is for alchemy, so I may end up changing to something else. What, I have no idea, but something.
The DK on SC is a miner/blacksmith. I like mining, and I think I'll like bs once I get it to a decent level. The grind right now is a little annoying.
The Pally is a miner/engineer. I heart engineering but omg the extra stuff I need is annoying beyond belief. But things go BOOM! :)
The rogue of squishiness is a skinner/leatherworker because, well, all my rogues are skinners/leatherworkers, but I didn't have one on SC. I've never gotten it past apprentice because I've never gotten a rogue past 10, but I've been in a roguey mood lately. Plus her ponytail goes swish.
The much-neglected mage is a miner/jewelcrafter because she's a space goat. I liked jewelcrafting a lot to begin with, but she's run smack into the bronze/iron gap and I don't like playing her. Apparently there's a trick to mages and I don't know what that is or can't manage it.
And the bank toon/shaman is a tailor/enchanter. I just leveled her tailoring to her max (she's only lvl 10) and I had fun and now I want to level her to 25 so I can level her tailoring more. I had leveled her to 10 to get her enchanting up, and enchanting, while nice to keep bags clear, is an eh prof. Tailoring is fun cause I can make pretty things and bags and then they sell. Hmm. Maybe I should switch the main? Must ponder more.

I don't have an inscriptionist because it was like watching all my herbs disappear into this huge black hole and wow, what a time/money sink.

And yes, I have more or less the same web on horde side, or will. Main's an enchanter/herbalist, hunter's a miner/blacksmith, priest's a tailor/skinner, rogue 1 is a skinner/leatherworker, and the DK is a miner/engineer. Since most of the toons are squishy-city, I've not gotten very far.

Oh, and last but not least, I give you, My Belf DK. I'll be adding her to the sidebar too. She's going to be used mostly to feed shiny gear to my other characters (mostly the priest and warlock) and to get gold.