Now that I have my main over on ER, I've had a more relaxed experience. Earthen Ring is much more active than Malygos. On average, I would guess that there is usually about twice the number of active players on ER and there is a lot more activity at all levels of the game.
This has been helpful, as pickup groups and pugs have been pretty easy to get into (at least they were last week). But is also results in some very wierd and unstable auction-house pricing, and more competition than I'm used to.
Since I haven't been pushing myself to level anything in particular, this also means that I ran out of stuff to do last week. On my mage I ended up doing: VOA-10, VOA-25, TOC-25, Uldaur-10, ICC-25, TOGC-25. Essentially I only missed Ony (not really a loss there), and ICC-10.
I also started looking into guilds, making contacts with people that I could. I didn't seem to make much progress until this week though, when tuesday I was flooded with people returning my messages. I got into a TOGC-25 group as a 'trial run' which didn't go well. Their requirements were for a mage that can hold 8.5k DPS (I can only hold 6.5k under normal conditions with my gear). In the end, I ended up being lower than normal (holding about 5.5k), dying twice during the twins (the way they did it was just to clump together and ignore the balls; my health was just too low for that I guess). And I was pretty much ignored after that. As a raid they seemed like good enough folks; but obviously I'm not at the gear level they need. I thanked them for the invite and decided not to even bother apping.
So right now I still have two other prospects. I got a trial run with another guild in ICC-25 last night which I preformed much better in even on the bosses I had not seen before yesterday. My average for the night was around 7.5k DPS, and I had 2 deaths (one on Marrowgar, due to his whirlwind), and one on Lady Deathwhisper at the very end due to a frostbolt literally right as she died. I was much more comfortable with that performance even if I did end up around 11th place in the DPS chart. And the group seemed pretty nice and friendly. And I got 24 Frost Badges in the process.
After that I replaced 3 pieces: I got the next level of the Ashen Verdict Ring; I went ahead and purchased T9.5 legs with a trophy I got from that TOGC run Monday; and I went ahead and purchased T10 chest for 95 Frost Badges. This upped my SP by about 50, my haste by about 30, and my crit by about 20. Overall, I nice upgrade and one that I hope reflects on my DPS the next time I get to run something.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
For the Horde!
Well, it's been a few weeks. I got my horde mage to 71...and then generally hit the brick wall that is WOTLK grinding. It's certainly not pretty...or worth it. So I decided to go ahead and move my main mage over. I had to do a name change, but now I know a way to switch things back relatively quickly so that's the plan for this point for me.
I'm still not entirely sure about the guild. But the large number of people certainly seems to suggest that there will be more opportunities to get into pickup groups. I've also started looking into joining one of the 25 man groups in the guild...we'll see how that goes too.
Since I've been out of it a while, I'm started to do a bit more research into gear for Arcane. I find myself in an awkward position--I'm heavily specced for Crit when I think I should be haste. My base crit rating is over 50% with my main spells, which is way too high. My haste rating is still OK (around 600), but my goal is to get haste to around 900. My SP is also too low, I'd like to get it over 3K if I can.
Of course, I really don't have much ICC gear. I have 51 frost badges, and hopefully now a better chance of getting them. There are several off-set pieces that look well worth purchasing, but I'm leaning against doing that and instead saving badges until I can buy 2 T10 pieces. However, if I can get into a consistant 10 man group I can certainly make some serious headway there and the badges become less of an issue. To be honest, I'd love to get the belt, or the back piece.
I'm still not entirely sure about the guild. But the large number of people certainly seems to suggest that there will be more opportunities to get into pickup groups. I've also started looking into joining one of the 25 man groups in the guild...we'll see how that goes too.
Since I've been out of it a while, I'm started to do a bit more research into gear for Arcane. I find myself in an awkward position--I'm heavily specced for Crit when I think I should be haste. My base crit rating is over 50% with my main spells, which is way too high. My haste rating is still OK (around 600), but my goal is to get haste to around 900. My SP is also too low, I'd like to get it over 3K if I can.
Of course, I really don't have much ICC gear. I have 51 frost badges, and hopefully now a better chance of getting them. There are several off-set pieces that look well worth purchasing, but I'm leaning against doing that and instead saving badges until I can buy 2 T10 pieces. However, if I can get into a consistant 10 man group I can certainly make some serious headway there and the badges become less of an issue. To be honest, I'd love to get the belt, or the back piece.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Mage Part 2: The Sequel
It seems wierd writing this post. I've spent a lot of time in WOW, but lately there hasn't been much to do since my old guild stopped raiding. Well, they didn't really stop raiding I guess...but they pretty much have stopped raiding with me. I decided to stay with the guild because their plan was to continue with casual 10 man groups, etc...but in practice there were too many people interested and I am not in that close circle of friends and so I find myself completely left out. The only thing worse than not raiding is to spend your time online hoping you might get an invite sometime.
My other RL friend in the guild is also not in that group and has gotten pretty ticked about it (he takes these things more seriously than I do). And he convinced me to check out this other 'tent pole' guild on another server. It happens to be horde and is apparently comprised of over 2,000 active members with over 20 active raiding groups.
'm not used to this sort of guild, and honestly I'm pretty leery of it. So I decided to create a new character on that server to check it out. So I created a new Mage as a Blood Elf. The guild's level requirements are low (level 10, lol), and they suggest creating a low-level alt to join with just so you can get a feel for the guild before you transfer. So that's what I did.
By origional plan was to just create a character, get to level 20 or so, going the guild and hang out there for a while. However, that was before I discovered that this guild only recruits during the first week of every month so I ended up having more time on my hands. And I ended up spending quite a bit more time with this character than I'd origionally intended.
So now, my Blood Elf Mage is level 45 and has about 700g to her name. She's a level 255 Enchanter, and level 275 Jewelcrafter. I had done the blood elf quests before, but otherwise I hadn't really leveled a horde character before. I don't think I'd call it 'fun' but it has been interesting to see the differences. Horde questlines are not as tight as the alliance side--there's much more moving around and they are more scattered. In that regard its more frustrating to level horde. It gets much better after level 30, though.
Mage leveling isn't much different than it used to be. It's still one of the slowest classes to level, IMO, with too much time required for eating and drinking. I've spent some time with both fire and frost leveling. When I originally leveled Mage I did it as fire. And I started with fire on this character, but I've now switched to frost and am finding that it is better in many ways. It requires more spell casts than Fire, but uses slightly less mana even though you cast more spells and is certainly more survivable. By the time 50 rolls around, Frost is clearly better than fire while leveling (especially now that you can have your water elemental up at all times with a glyph).
My other RL friend in the guild is also not in that group and has gotten pretty ticked about it (he takes these things more seriously than I do). And he convinced me to check out this other 'tent pole' guild on another server. It happens to be horde and is apparently comprised of over 2,000 active members with over 20 active raiding groups.
'm not used to this sort of guild, and honestly I'm pretty leery of it. So I decided to create a new character on that server to check it out. So I created a new Mage as a Blood Elf. The guild's level requirements are low (level 10, lol), and they suggest creating a low-level alt to join with just so you can get a feel for the guild before you transfer. So that's what I did.
By origional plan was to just create a character, get to level 20 or so, going the guild and hang out there for a while. However, that was before I discovered that this guild only recruits during the first week of every month so I ended up having more time on my hands. And I ended up spending quite a bit more time with this character than I'd origionally intended.
So now, my Blood Elf Mage is level 45 and has about 700g to her name. She's a level 255 Enchanter, and level 275 Jewelcrafter. I had done the blood elf quests before, but otherwise I hadn't really leveled a horde character before. I don't think I'd call it 'fun' but it has been interesting to see the differences. Horde questlines are not as tight as the alliance side--there's much more moving around and they are more scattered. In that regard its more frustrating to level horde. It gets much better after level 30, though.
Mage leveling isn't much different than it used to be. It's still one of the slowest classes to level, IMO, with too much time required for eating and drinking. I've spent some time with both fire and frost leveling. When I originally leveled Mage I did it as fire. And I started with fire on this character, but I've now switched to frost and am finding that it is better in many ways. It requires more spell casts than Fire, but uses slightly less mana even though you cast more spells and is certainly more survivable. By the time 50 rolls around, Frost is clearly better than fire while leveling (especially now that you can have your water elemental up at all times with a glyph).
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Chuck Season 3!
Now, I'm sure by this point everyone I know is aware of my love of Chuck. Sure it's not the greatest show on TV, but I happen to like action comedies and spy shows, so Chuck really fits the bill for me. And while the show has it's problems at times (the title character sometimes seems a bit TOO incompetent) it's been a show I've liked since I started watching it at the beginning of Season 2.
Season 2 of Chuck ended in a bang, and by the end everything had changed in a big way. The end of Season 2 was all about growing up, finding out who you were, and living up to your dreams and expections. Chuck got the Intersect out of his head, decided to have a life with Sarah, quit the Buy More, and finally move on. Until at the end he decides to download Intersect 2.0 in his head and learn kung fu.
The way season 2 ended, it was hard to tell how Season 3 would start. Was the Buy More Gone? What could happen with Chuck and Sarah after where their relationship went? What would happen to most of the supporting cast?
To tell you the truth, I really had a hard time wrapping my head about where they could go without really changing the dynamic of the show, it's look, and its setting. And Season 3 answers this question by...simply reverting everything back to the status quo (minus Anna Wu).
In some ways it was almost painful to watch Chuck's regression. Sarah's anger and coldness. Even Morgan's failure was just annoying. By the end of the episode, Chuck was back at the buy more; the team was back together...but everything was reset except for a sense of anger and resentment in 'team bartowski' about being put back into the field after everything that had happened.
I have to admit, that really took me out of what was actually a fairly good episode that went a lot of places very fast. I ended up watching it again the second time, and now more prepared for it's contents, found the episode much more enjoyable in its second viewing. It's just jarring. It's like having sex with your girlfriend, almost climaxing, only to have your grandmother walk in the room on you in her underwear.
To me Chuck is always at its worse when the Chuck/Sarah relationship is on it's downside. And Season 3 makes a strong case that their relationship is really over this time. Sarah isn't just a little annoyed. She's coldly pissed off and feels betrayed; and seems to actively be trying to hurt him. And the reasons behind it, while they make sense, also seem to fly in the face of everything before it. Admittedly, it has been stated many times on the show that Sarah has a hard time with relationships and with her emotions; I guess in some ways it shows just how much Chuck got under her skin--Sarah cannot be coldly emotionless with him even when she is mad at him.
And, of course, by the end of the second episode, we get a better explanation for why Chuck didn't run away with Sarah that makes real sense (and Sarah even learns it for herself, though it doesn't seem to make any difference). So at least for now, Sarah and Chuck's on again/off again relationship is squarely on the 'off again'. I have a feeling it won't stay that way forever, but we'll see. Personally I think the writers risk damaing both characters if they draw this out much farther. They either need to get together; or break up for good. And considering the first two seasons, I just don't see them NOT together.
Apparently the first 5 episodes have been shown to reviewers and the general consensus seems to be that the show starts off well and consistantly gets better every episode from here own out. Having seen the first three, I have to mostly agree. Ep 1 is OK, but has all the problems I listed above. Ep 2 is better over all (even if Chuck is at his most incompetent and annoying...it's the first time I really just wanted to slap him through the TV). And Ep 3 was all around good and full of fun things.
Still, I'm glad that my favorite show on the air right now is back and I'm looking forward to a mostly full season of 19 episodes.
Season 2 of Chuck ended in a bang, and by the end everything had changed in a big way. The end of Season 2 was all about growing up, finding out who you were, and living up to your dreams and expections. Chuck got the Intersect out of his head, decided to have a life with Sarah, quit the Buy More, and finally move on. Until at the end he decides to download Intersect 2.0 in his head and learn kung fu.
The way season 2 ended, it was hard to tell how Season 3 would start. Was the Buy More Gone? What could happen with Chuck and Sarah after where their relationship went? What would happen to most of the supporting cast?
To tell you the truth, I really had a hard time wrapping my head about where they could go without really changing the dynamic of the show, it's look, and its setting. And Season 3 answers this question by...simply reverting everything back to the status quo (minus Anna Wu).
In some ways it was almost painful to watch Chuck's regression. Sarah's anger and coldness. Even Morgan's failure was just annoying. By the end of the episode, Chuck was back at the buy more; the team was back together...but everything was reset except for a sense of anger and resentment in 'team bartowski' about being put back into the field after everything that had happened.
I have to admit, that really took me out of what was actually a fairly good episode that went a lot of places very fast. I ended up watching it again the second time, and now more prepared for it's contents, found the episode much more enjoyable in its second viewing. It's just jarring. It's like having sex with your girlfriend, almost climaxing, only to have your grandmother walk in the room on you in her underwear.
To me Chuck is always at its worse when the Chuck/Sarah relationship is on it's downside. And Season 3 makes a strong case that their relationship is really over this time. Sarah isn't just a little annoyed. She's coldly pissed off and feels betrayed; and seems to actively be trying to hurt him. And the reasons behind it, while they make sense, also seem to fly in the face of everything before it. Admittedly, it has been stated many times on the show that Sarah has a hard time with relationships and with her emotions; I guess in some ways it shows just how much Chuck got under her skin--Sarah cannot be coldly emotionless with him even when she is mad at him.
And, of course, by the end of the second episode, we get a better explanation for why Chuck didn't run away with Sarah that makes real sense (and Sarah even learns it for herself, though it doesn't seem to make any difference). So at least for now, Sarah and Chuck's on again/off again relationship is squarely on the 'off again'. I have a feeling it won't stay that way forever, but we'll see. Personally I think the writers risk damaing both characters if they draw this out much farther. They either need to get together; or break up for good. And considering the first two seasons, I just don't see them NOT together.
Apparently the first 5 episodes have been shown to reviewers and the general consensus seems to be that the show starts off well and consistantly gets better every episode from here own out. Having seen the first three, I have to mostly agree. Ep 1 is OK, but has all the problems I listed above. Ep 2 is better over all (even if Chuck is at his most incompetent and annoying...it's the first time I really just wanted to slap him through the TV). And Ep 3 was all around good and full of fun things.
Still, I'm glad that my favorite show on the air right now is back and I'm looking forward to a mostly full season of 19 episodes.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Priest @ 80!
Last Sunday I managed to hit level 80 on my Priest, which wasn't that hard considering I was only about 6 bars short. I discovered a few interesting things about leveling this character, which I leveled pretty fast (probably faster than any other character I leveled from 70 to 80).
1. The LFG tool is great for supplementing XPs assuming you are willing to go as a healer.
2. XPs gained from dungeons in the midrange aren't necessarily worth it because of just how short those instances can be. DK is an example of that...a single run through that instance may net you only about 1 bar of XP. As a result, questing is actually faster in some of these instances.
3. A combination of cherry-picking quest lines, skipping annoying quests, and supplementing with instances is definitely the best option for leveling.
4. It's also important to try to hit quest lines that net rep rewards with the various WOLK factions. Sure you can pick up that rep later doing L80 instances and heroics, but that's pretty slow going.
Now that I've hit 80, I've started doing dailies (hodir rep is now maxed, thanks to having saved hundreds of Ulduar Relics). I've also made back around 3k of the 7k I spent on the character just through leveling. I started doing some normal L80 instances, and this time since I'd been doing instances since 80 the transition was smoother. Most of my gear was comprised of questing and instance blues, with only a few green items. I spent a few hundred gold buying a few cheap purples (an inscription offhand piece, and a pair of moonshroud gloves), both of which I got for about 100g each.
Healing as Priest is a little more interesting than Shaman, and I've had less problems with it overall. Priest has some good AOE healing spells, and a few fast-reaction spells in addition to more normal casting spells. The combination seems better to me, though I can still see the value of a shaman healer.
Sunday I spent the better part of the day doing instances and had very bad luck with getting gear. I did TOC5 non-heroic at least 9 times, nothing useful dropped it was all plate and mail gear. I then tried a few specific heroics just to see how I'd do...turns out not that bad as long as the tank was well geared. So I also started doing some random heroics which also went OK. Still, the only piece of gear I got was a pair of gloves from DK that were virtually identical to the gloves I'd paid 100g for (the difference being 1 point of spirit lower)...fuck blizzard. So while I got a lot of experience, I came up with nothing gear wise even after 6 hours.
Yesterday went better, though. I also had a bad forge of souls run which I just could not keep people alive (though we completed the instance without any wipes, during the last fight the only two alive was me and the tank by the end of it). Still I started getting some gear. I picked up T9 Shoulders, socketed it with Haste and put on the hodir shoulder enchant. I also picked up a healing staff, which replaced my mace/book combo. And I picked up a spell DPS wrist which had haste, hit, and SP which I went ahead and equipped because it was still far better than the green wrist piece I was wearing (hit be damned!). By the end of the night, my SP had gone from 1300 to 1800. My haste had gone up by over 100, and my crit from 5% to 10%. My mana pool is also now over 15k, much better than the 9k I'd been stuck at for such a long time. I'm definitely interested to see how well I perform now. Hopefully some of those fights I was barely keeping up with will be easier to heal through and I'll stop feeling so mana starved.
After that, I got into a ICC10 man with my mage, which went OK. I kept dying though, mostly due to me not really knowing the encounters well enough to predict threats in the first place. I did pick up a a nice belt which had much better stats than my old piece. I lost crit about 50 crit, but gained around 90 haste and about 70 SP in return so overall I think it was a great upgrade. My haste rating is now sitting around 550, though my base crit is now only 36%. Still, for arcane haste trumps crit so I think that's a worth while trade off.
Not sure what's happening for the rest of this week. I might be online tonight, and if I am I'll probably spend much more time in instances and doing random heroics instead of TOC 5 man. I still don't think I'm geared enough for TOC5 + ICC heroics though, so I'm a bit leery of the random. Still, I'd like to get enough badges to get my next T9 piece (probably gloves?). So we'll see.
1. The LFG tool is great for supplementing XPs assuming you are willing to go as a healer.
2. XPs gained from dungeons in the midrange aren't necessarily worth it because of just how short those instances can be. DK is an example of that...a single run through that instance may net you only about 1 bar of XP. As a result, questing is actually faster in some of these instances.
3. A combination of cherry-picking quest lines, skipping annoying quests, and supplementing with instances is definitely the best option for leveling.
4. It's also important to try to hit quest lines that net rep rewards with the various WOLK factions. Sure you can pick up that rep later doing L80 instances and heroics, but that's pretty slow going.
Now that I've hit 80, I've started doing dailies (hodir rep is now maxed, thanks to having saved hundreds of Ulduar Relics). I've also made back around 3k of the 7k I spent on the character just through leveling. I started doing some normal L80 instances, and this time since I'd been doing instances since 80 the transition was smoother. Most of my gear was comprised of questing and instance blues, with only a few green items. I spent a few hundred gold buying a few cheap purples (an inscription offhand piece, and a pair of moonshroud gloves), both of which I got for about 100g each.
Healing as Priest is a little more interesting than Shaman, and I've had less problems with it overall. Priest has some good AOE healing spells, and a few fast-reaction spells in addition to more normal casting spells. The combination seems better to me, though I can still see the value of a shaman healer.
Sunday I spent the better part of the day doing instances and had very bad luck with getting gear. I did TOC5 non-heroic at least 9 times, nothing useful dropped it was all plate and mail gear. I then tried a few specific heroics just to see how I'd do...turns out not that bad as long as the tank was well geared. So I also started doing some random heroics which also went OK. Still, the only piece of gear I got was a pair of gloves from DK that were virtually identical to the gloves I'd paid 100g for (the difference being 1 point of spirit lower)...fuck blizzard. So while I got a lot of experience, I came up with nothing gear wise even after 6 hours.
Yesterday went better, though. I also had a bad forge of souls run which I just could not keep people alive (though we completed the instance without any wipes, during the last fight the only two alive was me and the tank by the end of it). Still I started getting some gear. I picked up T9 Shoulders, socketed it with Haste and put on the hodir shoulder enchant. I also picked up a healing staff, which replaced my mace/book combo. And I picked up a spell DPS wrist which had haste, hit, and SP which I went ahead and equipped because it was still far better than the green wrist piece I was wearing (hit be damned!). By the end of the night, my SP had gone from 1300 to 1800. My haste had gone up by over 100, and my crit from 5% to 10%. My mana pool is also now over 15k, much better than the 9k I'd been stuck at for such a long time. I'm definitely interested to see how well I perform now. Hopefully some of those fights I was barely keeping up with will be easier to heal through and I'll stop feeling so mana starved.
After that, I got into a ICC10 man with my mage, which went OK. I kept dying though, mostly due to me not really knowing the encounters well enough to predict threats in the first place. I did pick up a a nice belt which had much better stats than my old piece. I lost crit about 50 crit, but gained around 90 haste and about 70 SP in return so overall I think it was a great upgrade. My haste rating is now sitting around 550, though my base crit is now only 36%. Still, for arcane haste trumps crit so I think that's a worth while trade off.
Not sure what's happening for the rest of this week. I might be online tonight, and if I am I'll probably spend much more time in instances and doing random heroics instead of TOC 5 man. I still don't think I'm geared enough for TOC5 + ICC heroics though, so I'm a bit leery of the random. Still, I'd like to get enough badges to get my next T9 piece (probably gloves?). So we'll see.
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