Friday 31 July 2009

Been a while...

It has been a while since I last posted, but I've been rather busy both in Real Life and in-game.

A quick summary would include me levelling my paladin to 73, hunter to 74 and starting a deathknight - now sat in Hellfire Penninsula. He's going to be a skinner/miner until level 80, so I really need to go back to the starting areas and get their skills to 300 before I start levelling up.

As for Everwrath, he's also been busy - getting achievements such as For the Alliance; Heroic: Archavon the Stone Watcher; Heroic: Emalon Storm Watcher; and Molten Core.

Both Everwrath and Settled have now got Black War Bears, and surprisingly, settled in her level 72 healing spec only died once during the attempt, and that was on the way OUT of Ogrimmar.

Adding Molten Core to the "done" pile means all I have left to do on the Classic Raider achievement is C'Thun in The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj. I'm joining any achievement/rep run groups announced in Trade just to get the content done. Although we did AQ20 and 40 in the guild, there weren't enough of us to down the final boss. I think it needs more than 8 people to be honest... We gave it a good go though, getting all the way through The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj with only 2 wipes, and they were caused mainly by OOM healers as we learnt the Twin Emperors fight.

Recent additions on the loot front are: Shroud of Luminosity, Conqueror's Deathbringer Leggings and Furious Gladiator's Slippers of Salvation - very nice iLevel 226 PVP shoes, taking me to 9 pieces of "epic" loot for the desirable achievement.

Lastly, I've now switched Guilds. Although I hate to leave the , and will be keeping in touch with everyone through my alts, I feel Everwrath needs to be in 25 man content more and more. Ulduar beckons and I really need the higher level gear and achievements to get anywhere. It is for this reason, I've joined a few friends (ex CoS) in and will hopefully be raiding more often.

Wishlist for Naxxramas 25
  • Waist: Cincture of Polarity; Belt of False Dignity
  • Neck: Thunderstorm Amulet; Cosmic Lights
  • Chest: Digested Silken Robe; Heigan's Putrid Vestments
  • Offhand: Surplus Limb; Accursed Spine
  • Ring: Lost Jewel
  • Ring: Signet of Manifested Pain
  • Trinket: Dying Curse
  • Trinket: Extract of Necromantic Power
  • Wand: Touch of Horror (holy)
  • Back: Cape of the Unworthy Wizard
  • Tier: Breastplate of the Lost Conqueror

Monday 20 July 2009

Current Gear

Quick update on "current" gear...

Cowl of the Absolute
Chain of Latent Energies
Valorous Plagueheart Shoulderpads
Ebonweave Robe
Sash of Mortal Desire
Leggings of Lost Love
Saltarello Shoes
Wraps of the Astral Traveler
Gloves of Token Respect
Signet of the Malevolent
Ring of Holy Cleansing
Sundial of the Exiled
Embrace of the Spider
Dark Shroud of the Scourge
The Turning Tide
Watchful Eye
Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians

Friday 17 July 2009

The fall of Naxxramas

Was asked last night to join a raid to Heroic Naxxramas with Offline and a few members of my guild, the Champions of Silvermoon. Thought it'd be good experience to raid with 24 other people and I might have a chance at some loot - and boy, was I right!

First up was Patchwerk and the Construct Quarter. I love Patch, it's just a case of tank-n-spank, no running around and a great chance to compare my DPS with the rest of the group. Compared to a fully geared mage I was pitiful, but still kept in the top 10 all through the raid. Will have to work on progression as I get into Ulduar and improve on my gear. We downed him in 3 mins 2 seconds, 2 seconds off the achievement.

Similar success on the rest of the wing and all of a sudden, Thaddius is on the floor and the construct quarter is cleared. No loot, but a close roll or two, however not many of the items were HUGE upgrades. Gluth dropped the Saltarello shoes which aren't a massive improvement over mine.

Next was the Military quarter - the only wing I still haven't had chance to complete on 10 man, but having been up to the trash before the four horsemen I was confident I could stay upright and provide solid DPS for the group. Which I did. Loads of plate dropped throughout the raid, and a fair bit ended up disenchanted, but nothing caught my eye. The next achievement flashed up as the horsemen were zerged one by one...

The Spider Wing got me my first epic loot of the night. Anub'Rekhan was kind enough to drop the Gemmed Wand of the Nerubians and a very nice pair of trousers. Compared to my Leggings of Lost Love they're nothing special for an already hit-capped warlock, but as we had loot rules of 1-item-per-boss all the casters were holding back for the trousers - so I stole the wand without much competition ;-)

We moved quickly on to Grand Widow Faerlina and added Heroic: Momma Said Knock You Out to the ever-growing list of achievements, shortly followed by the clearance achievement.

Lastly, we downed the Plague Quarter, doing the Safety Dance along the way. Can't remember what bosses dropped things I rolled on, as I was completely buzzing from the wand - but thanks Loatheb for the Tier 7.5!
Sapphiron's Demise came quickly after, as I experienced my first death of the night. Others had already been hugging the floor, so I didn't ruin an undying attempt - which would have been a terrible burden. I don't know WHY I died, as I was hugging the back of an ice block. Must have had a toe stuck out or something. Really disappointed as I'd done really well up to this point. That's when it went downhill.

Kel'Thuzad was interesting, starting slow and meaningful, downing the banshees quickly at long range - until someone pulled the lot. Anyway, we managed to gain control and AoE them all down quickly, spreading out for phase 3 and starting to chip away at the boss's health, I got tunnelvisioned on the threat meter and by the time I realised I was in a void zone it was too late. Wow locked up as I started to run away and I was dead before I could move. Still, my 3.5K DPS wasn't missed, as the achievements rolled in. Heroic: Kel'Thuzad's Defeat and Heroic: The Fall of Naxxramas flashed up on the screen and I waited to be resurrected.

One final bonus... a cracking roll on The Turning Tide gave me my final piece of loot. Haven't stopped smiling since! Now without any blue items, and 7 pieces of "epic" gear, I'm ready to tackle Ulduar. Need to get the +63 Spellpower enchant (27 dusts short) and get the shoulder enchant from Hodir now I'm exalted with them.

Wednesday 8 July 2009

Level 68 flying in Northrend?

Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process.

Well, this is a great big help... Hopefully all my alts will be in Northrend before patch 3.2, or at least high up in Outland and preparing to travel coldwards.

Settled, my ret-pally is a couple of bars off level 54 at the moment, and was ripping through mobs like a hot knife through butter. As the questlines reward better gear, I'll start replacing the old stuff, and should notice a vast improvement. Had a lucky drop last night, some Hydralick armour dropped off a swamp lord in Un Goro tar pits. This replaced the shining silver breastplate I made myself at level 24 :-) 30 levels from one piece of armour? yeah, I think it got it's use! Next, it's the level 37 helm and the level 41 boots...

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Biting the bullet

Last night I saw an absolute-ly gorgeous epic hat on the AH. Well, to tell the truth, I've been seeing them for weeks now, but all listed at around 7.5-8K which is way too much money to spend on a hat that'll quite possible be replaced in Patch 3.2 with attainable Tier9 gear. That said, it was listed under 5K which I was about to blow on Treeleaf's epic flight and epic mount... whoops. Don't give a Warlock your gold! LOL

Monday 6 July 2009

More choices...

Settled popped into Eastern Plaguelands yesterday and had a quick buzz around on the starter quests. Managed to do "Clearing the way" and the first cauldron, but bearing in mind that the mobs rapidly change from 50-52 to 55-56 and start coming in packs of at least 2, it's highly mana-inefficient to kill them, especially as it only adds a few xp to each grind. I'm going to head back to Tanaris tonight and potter between there, ungoro and silithus until I'm around 55-56. That should make the plaguelands a little more bearable.

I've also been looking at some gear upgrades for Treeleaf. As I'm getting great xp in Nexus and Utgarde Keep at the moment with an 80 priest and 3x 71-73s (was over 2,000 per elite last night) I'm going to try for the Prince's gauntlets and Anomalus' boots. Then I'll press on into Dragonblight and try for Wrynn's Leggings of Foresight. Nice upgrades. Ormorok's offhand fist weapon is also going to be a nice piece to pick up, with agility and hit rating - both of which I need to improve as much as possible.

Lastly, as I'm doing less on my own and more grouped at the moment I've researched a little into misdirection macros. The following is a nifty way to get some instant threat onto the tank, giving them a nice head start - and spend much less time having to feign death...
/cast [nomodifier, target=focus, nodead, exists, help] Misdirection
/cast [modifier:shift, target=pet, nodead, exists] Misdirection
/cast Misdirection
In a nutshell, when you /focus on your tank, click misdirect and the next three ranged attacks will go straight onto his threat table. That's without having to target him/her and then go back to your original target. The other benefits with the macro are: When SHIFT is held or no focus target exists, threat is transferred onto your pet; If you CTRL+Click or ALT+Click the button behaves like the standard spell, allowing you to quickly boost threat on an offtank who is struggling.

Friday 3 July 2009

Fun levelling...

Had a LOT of fun levelling Settled last night, got to level 51 in about 3 hours, solo in Searing Gorge. Dropped a Flurry Axe which I may pass to Stólen if I ever level past 20. As he's my banker/auctioneer it's unlikely - but hey, a level 42 offhand that would see him to Outland is a nice investment. I guess it'll all depend on how much I want to level a rogue, and how much they sell for on the auction house. Some say it's a nice twink weapon for a combat rogue. If they're right, it might just get sold!

I still have to do Tanaris, Un Goro & Silithus; Blasted Lands, Both Plaguelands and Felwood - so that should be enough content (and quests) to get me to level 60. To be honest, I can't wait to get into Plaguelands and go crit-mad on the masses of undead. For now, I'll spend the weekend getting my rested xp up and go grind more leather on Treeleaf and get a few quests done. Once she's 74 there's some nice gear in the bank!

Thursday 2 July 2009

Dropping Tailoring...

...for Engineering.

Makes sense really, as I can no longer MAKE stuff better than badge gear and loot. I really don't see the point in hunting for recipes for stuff that people won't buy, and after level 72ish there's nothing crafted that's BoP or requires specialisation.

So, hunting around on the Internet, I came across a guide that suggests to get from 1-450 I need the following materials:
  • 40 Rough Stone
  • 100 Copper Bar (5 stacks)
  • 50 Weak Flux
  • 15 Coarse Stone
  • 39 Linen Cloth
  • 120 Bronze Bar (6 stacks)
  • 5 Moss Agate
  • 40 Heavy Stone
  • 80 Wool Cloth
  • 20 Medium Leather
  • 4 Steel Bar
  • 180 Solid Stone (9 stacks)
  • 140 Mithril Bar (7 stacks)
  • 12 Mageweave Cloth
  • 40 Dense Stone
  • 130 Thorium Bar (6 stacks +10)
  • 20 Runecloth
  • 95 Fel Iron Bar (5 stacks -5)
  • 20 Mote of Earth
  • 10 Mote of Fire
  • 40 Adamantite Bar
  • 30 Netherweave Cloth
  • 284 Cobalt Bar (14 Stacks +4)
  • 8 Frostweave Cloth
  • 43 Crystallized Water
  • 10 Crystallized Earth
  • 26 Borean Leather
  • 13 Eternal Shadow
  • 479 Saronite Bar (24 Stacks -1)
  • 25 Skinning Knife
  • 25 Minning Pick
  • 25 Blacksmithing Hammer
My miner has a lot of the low end bars and stones, so may be able to kickstart things. Cloth is very quick to grind, and I have a big stack of motes and eternals already. The only thing I'll struggle with is bars from thorium onwards. There's always the Auction House though... and a LOT of the stuff I make will either sell or disenchant so it shouldn't cost very much.

Think I might price up the mats tonight :-)

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Sucky upgrades in Patch 3.2

Enchant Ring - Greater Spellpower now increases spell power by 23. (Up from 19)

That's 8 Spellpower from 2x rings, assuming you have Greater Spellpower on BOTH of them. Not a great bonus really from a profession that's been neglected for a LONG time.

Lightweave Embroidery now gives you a chance to increase your spell power by 295 (up from 250) for 15 sec.

An equivalent 11.25 extra Spellpower IF it procs once per minute, which is probably over the average...

so, while it isn't technically a nerf, it's certainly not that much of a buff! Maybe I should drop tailoring for engineering?

Coliseum Bosses - Interesting!

Fresh from the PTR a little datamining has revealed that the fight with Argent Confessor Paletress involves memories of previously defeated foes, including Hogger!

It's been a joke for a long time, substantiated by people hacking private servers and displaying clips on youtube about Heroic Hogger, but this time it looks like it's going to come to fruition.

The following "mini-bosses" are rumored to exist so far:

World of Warcraft
  • Chromaggus
  • Hakkar
  • Herod
  • Hogger
  • Lucifron
  • Onyxia
  • Thunderaan
  • Edwin VanCleef
  • Vek'nilash
  • Mutanus
The Burning Crusade
  • Delrissa
  • Entropius
  • Gruul
  • Illidan
  • Malchezaar
  • Kalithresh
  • Archimonde
  • Lady Vashj
Wrath of the Lich King
  • Algalon
  • Cyanigosa
  • Eck
  • Heigan
  • Ignis
  • Ingvar
  • General Vezax
All of whom have got people in 2 mindsets:

1) wow, nice, a chance to best the things that caused me so much pain, and all at Level 80 and in endgame content with decent loot!

2) Blizzard sucks, we don't pay $150M/month for them to reuse old skins. Lets QQ on anyevery forum until our opinion is heard by the developers, who will put their plans on ice and create new content for us.

Personally, I'm a 1!