Archive for the 'World of Warcraft' Category

Karazhan

Published at July 16, 2008 in Kara, Tankadin and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

Its been a while since my last raiding update.. I think my last Kara post was back in December when I was still raiding on my mage.

Since then I’ve retired the mage and replaced it with my Paladin as my main.. I burnt out pretty bad on the mage to a degree that I refused to raid on it anymore. Spamming Frostbolt for four hours  just wasn’t doing it for me (slight exaggeration but that’s how it felt back then)

It took some convincing and a 7 mob pull in heroic Mech, but I was given a shot at tanking Kara for one of our guild runs after a long period of inactivity…

…long story short, alongside another burnt out DPS who had also re-rolled a Prot Paladin, we went back into Kara determined to rock the place and rock it we did!

My last post, we could only drop Attumen, Moroes, and the BBW opera event.. 3 weeks ago, right before I went away to America we cleared the full instance in two nights with the majority of the bosses downed on the first night!

This week will be my first time tanking Kara in 3 weeks, we hope to clear it in one night.. updates to follow :)

Preform AV enabler or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Alterac Valley

Published at March 17, 2008 in Combat Medic, PvP and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

strangelove Sooooo, I spent a lot of time in AV on Saturday.. to the tune of about 10k honour so as you can imagine, my "I hate AV" tee-shirt was thrown away for the time being!

Id like to say I enjoyed it cos’ I kicked some ass, or that my feelings towards the map size and being zerged by 40 people at once have changed for the better.. but they haven’t so I wont, however the main thing I’ll sing praises for is the "AV Preform Enabler" addon.

Going into AV with a local 40 man team, with tic-tacs laid out in chat before even entering the BG, and every group sticking to the orders given to them is a sight to be seen.. (well it is if you haven’t seen it anyway ;) )
I went in multiple’s of these preform groups on Saturday, skipping Bal, taking every tower, not a scratch on Galv due to solid defence, rolling in 500/600 honour every game. One game was taking about 20 min’s or so iirc.. maybe even less at times.

So yeah, grab http://wow.curse.com/downloads/details/5418/ and keep an eye out for any premade AV requests and have a go.

I’ll preempt any complaints here and say its a ballache getting an addon just to join a BG (2.4 will let you premade AV without addon though so its not for long), its a ballache waiting for 40 people to actually open the damn thing so the RL can queue everyone up.. but once it gets going and your racking up 500/600 honour a game it seems less of a hassle ;)

EDIT: It seems Tobold has also been experimenting with this addon with success - Alterac Valley premade - Tobold’s MMORPG Blog

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Online Diary: Through the Dark Portal

Published at January 11, 2008 in Tankadin and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

My tankadin turned 58 last night and took his first steps through the Dark Portal.

I had originally intended to fully clear Azeroth before moving on but as usual the lure of Outlands, new gear, rep, and big XP got the better of me.

I threw my mage out there as soon as she turned 58 but was planning on that. I’d all but given up questing on that toon as I was having more fun AoE grinding and instance running at the time. My shammy got to 58 in Winterspring (same as the Tankadin) and I took him through the Dark Portal right away to gear him up and ready for the switch to resto to instance run his way to 70.

It was tough to give up Azeroth as I had set a few goals for myself. I wanted to hit Exalted across the board with all major factions and to clear every zone (or at least quest in every zone) before moving on. I had ventured into Plaguelands on my main but never to quest, and my time in Silithus was limited to grinding essences to craft an Epic robe I wanted (and got). I’m assured I’m not missing much but that’s not really the point. I’ve paid for the content, seems a waste to bypass it.

I’m not too worried however as I have a druid sitting in the sidelines at level 36 I plan on maxing out to PvP with. My main aim with the Tankadin was to level him as fast, efficient, and as profitable as I could, which I have done I think… plus it makes sense to move into BC content ASAP as I can level faster out there than I can in the old 50 to 60 content and get some great gear to go with it. I’ve already replaced my epic shield, dungeon set gloves, Sapphiron’s boots, and random blue chestpiece with some sweet BC gear in just 3 quests and 2 AH purchases.

The druid will be levelled nice and casual I think. I’m in no rush to plough through all that content again. Much as I enjoyed it, I’ve been up and down Azeroth three times now.. I’ve been ganked more times in STV than I care to mention. Enough is enough I think.

The problem I have now is my mining never hit 300 in old world areas. Now I’m faced with the dilemma of going back to grind out the last 60 nodes I need to hit, or dropping the profession altogether for a crafting profession like Smithing. I make a nice wedge on the AH (see future post on Auction Flipping), certainly enough to power-level any profession I see fit to do so that’s not an issue. I’m more thinking of things to do at 70..

I originally had a plan all worked out for level cap… I planned to still play the AH heavily, to do the daily quests as much as possible, fly around farming mining nodes, and I have my fishing and cooking skills ready to be maxxed out soon which gives me more daily quest options to do the cooking stuff. I hear high level fishing can be fairly profitable in the right areas and cooking just makes sense for the great food buffs available. I have JC as a second profession that I hope to make some good money with by cutting gems. All this combined should make me some big coin but the mining is going to hold me back I think.

Everything else I can do as I’m levelling, gaining XP and loot at the same time. Mining is going to see me back in Azeroth doing laps around Burning Steppes or somewhere like that which takes me away from my goals for set amounts of time. I guess the alternative isn’t much better though as another crafting profession is going to eat into my pile of gold whereas mining costs me nothing but my time. Decisions decisions… For the time being I’ll stick to my original plan I think.

Anyway, that’s all for now.. check back soon for more Tales of a Tankadin.

Online Diary: Tankadin

Published at January 3, 2008 in PC, Tankadin and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

My lvl 49 Protadin Whilst I created the Tankadin with the aim of providing more tanking options to the guild at end game, I levelled it to the mid 40’s, rarely stepping foot in instances and with a guild boost when I did. Speedy levelling was the order of the day so I set my goals and got to it.

It then occurred to me, this alt is level 46, specced tank, geared tank, aiming to be tank at level 70… and yet I have never tanked an instance with similar levelled players. How the hell could I expect to tank any high level instance with no understanding of my abilities within an instance with people attempting to pull aggro off me?

At that I did some reading, made a macro for Righteous Defence to make it work like a ranged taunt (via target of target), set my bars out and adjusted my play style to a more mana conserving, JoC/SoR/Holy Shield/Consecrate standard with the idea of tanking ZF perhaps. After few days of trying to find the time to commit, checking LFG to find no-one available, or being asked to join groups as healer.. I was questing in STV, all thoughts of ZF at the back of my mind when I received a tell from someone asking to heal ZF.

I replied with the standard “would love to but specced prot/geared prot so doubt I’d be much use, thanks anyway” response and got on with my quest. Same person whispers back saying they also needed a tank.. a quick boat ride and a gryphon and I’m at the ZF summoning stone readying up to enter the first instance I have done in months without trusted guildies at my side.

Group is comprised of a Retadin/Rogue/Priest/Warlock and myself as Tank. Starts out well and I manage to get initial aggro on the first few 3/4 mob pulls and hold them down. As soon as I sit to regain some mana the rogue stealth’s and passes me to sap a target in the next group. Mostly this worked ok and I got some experience manoeuvring mobs around to a suitable position to consecrate without breaking CC. At this point it starts going wrong..

Every time I sit to drink this rogue gets faster and faster at the sap despite me asking for a mana break to get at least a manageable amount back to tank with. Eventually the rogue moves from just hindering mana users to regain any, to pulling aggro from bad sap targets. At this point I am painfully aware how much harder this would be had I not made my ‘taunt’ macro. It was already hard enough to tank with zero mana without having to chase mobs around and reign them in.

Despite this, the group works fairly well, the lock see’s the problem and busts out some solid AoE and the Retadin picks up any adds I cant.. we progress in this manner from start to finish with only one or two deaths from the Retadin (which I don’t mind as he ninja’d a one handed mace from me on the first boss and some tanking plate shoulders from the last)

When over I thank the group and HS back to STV and drop out of the group glad to be done with it to a degree. 30 min’s later I get a tell from a level 43 mage asking me if I’m prot specced. I reply yes and he asks me back over to tank ZF. Judging that this guy was 3 levels lower than me I thought I’d give it a go, hoping my higher level would help my tanking somewhat.

This group had another Retadin, two mage’s, shaman healer, all 2/3 levels lower than myself. Right from the go this run looks better. The Frost Mage has a 70 Protadin and knows to wait a second or two for consecrate to go down and the Shaman healer was well on top of his game with a nice amount of +healing. As predicted this run goes infinitely smoother than the last attempt, even the stairs event provided little problems to us……. till I accidentally threw a very idiotic consecrate down before the little goblin bloke opens the gates and we killed him leaving them locked. Everyone has a laugh about it thankfully and we agree to rerun the instance.

One mage and the Shaman has to drop however so we find a feral druid who was prepared to heal for us and a hunter who had never been in ZF before. Again, the run goes well, I got my mace from the first boss thanks to some kind words from the mage to the Retadin convincing him that I should get it (and earning the mage a solid place on my Friends List).. however when we reach the stairs event, the frost mage echoes something I said almost a year ago running ZF for the first time on my mage.. “I bet we can AoE the lot at the bottom”

I smile to myself and agree, as does the Retadin.. all 3 of us charge down the stairs and plow into the mobs, AoE spells blazing.. at that moment the druid exclaims in chat.. “DAMMIT! I wasn’t ready!” and down we go :)

On our return we take the mobs down via AoE in manageable pulls and kill the sub-bosses, but the NPC guys must have died on the stairs as the gate remained locked and no-one to open it so we agree to call it for the night.

All in all I had a great laugh, made some friends, and gained some loot and valuable experience tanking 5-mans. If only all PuG’s could be like that….

Kara Update

Published at December 10, 2007 in Kara, Online Diary, PC and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

Another Kara update. I actually got to go in, saw the first boss go down and had a few attempts at Maiden this time!

We were scheduled to raid it last Sunday but our MT and one DPS class had gone in with a PuG and were saved to another groups ID so we had to call it.. last night, despite missing our off tank we managed to find a replacement and get everyone inside Kara within an hour of the start time. First attempt at the trash clear leading to Attumen, an unlucky aggro on a patrol led to a wipe, then again on the last set of mobs and when we ran back and zoned in.. trash had respawned.

Half of us zoned out and headed for Stoneard for a repair, the other half stayed for summons.

Once we got back in there, we cleared the Attumen trash on the first attempt, then dropped Attumen without any deaths, neither healer went /oom, no-one pulled aggro from the tanks.. for our troubles, 2 epic healing bracers dropped. One for the Shammy MH, one for the Pally offhealer! Very pleased with the performance, had a lot of fun, and progressed the healers kit a little which is great..

From there we decided we would try Maiden next as for some reason people thought Moroes might be too much trouble. After losing our way at first (and clearing out a lot of spider trash mobs) we return to the entrance hall and go up the stairs for Maiden.

Trash pulls were easy and caused us little problems. Maiden was a little different :-)

First attempt, someone got too close while the kill strat was being explained, starting the event before we were ready.. everyone wipes, rezz’s and runs back. Second attempt, as the kill strats are being finalised in chat, someone else gets too close and starts the event. Some people try to run out of the room to reset the encounter but not everyone sees the call for reset go up in chat. Third times a charm, strats laid out, positions taken, we start the encounter.. everything was going well at first but then repentance knocks out ranged, I Ice Block out of it and nuke, pull aggro and wipe hard. Meanwhile, both healers are silenced, the pally didn’t get chance to BoS anyone to break the stun effect, offtank goes down to the Holy Ground thing, main tank goes down soon after.

We tried it twice more after that but couldn’t get the rhythm of going up a step so Holy Ground broke Repentance, then back down again, so called it right as the spawns came back.

All in all, great run, I had a lot of fun plus saw Kara for the first time, and pleased with our Attumen kill. Wont be long till we get Maiden dropped with any luck..

Kara updates

Published at November 28, 2007 in Kara, PC and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

So, last night was our first Kara run. Or at least it was for everyone but me. Was supposed to be online for 7:50 for invs and to get started, at around 6ish my internet cut out, never to return for the rest of the night.

Spent an hour on the phone with some idiot at BT with no satisfactory conclusion so had to concede defeat and give up which really put me in a bad mood for the night.

On the plus side, our virgin raiders reached Attumen, whom they then proceeded to down on the first attempt with only one death as I understand it.

Yes, its a gear check, yes its only the first boss, But considering no-one had any raiding experience I thought they did very well to get the first boss down on the first night in the place.

Disappointed  I missed the guild first though. So frustrating to have months of planning and work blown at the last minute by outside interference beyond my control.

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Attunement Progress

Published at November 15, 2007 in Kara, PC and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

KaraFinally completed my Kara attunement last night with a day of the deadline left so that’s a relief. Was starting to think I wouldn’t get it done in time. Took a while to get a group up (why so little people going in CoT:Dark Portal?) but eventually, with the help of two guildie’s and two randoms (mage/tank) we got going.

Little sketchy at first, I got overconfident on one of my trash-runs and pulled too many mobs in the clearing stage which resulted in a wipe for me. Got enough AoE off for the group to clear up and rez me though so no biggie.

Starting the event was a worry for me. Last time we tried this I was on add detail and in the second phase (after the first boss) an add slipped past me unnoticed. As I was burning the next mob down I realised the shield was dropping and fell back to Medivh to pick the add up, during this time another (mob) had popped and I was out of range of the healer, so once I’d blown my cool-downs and gathered the adds, I was a sitting duck and fell soon after. Released as fast as poss and ran back but the adds were too many, 2 portals were then open and I couldn’t get back on top of the adds. When the shield hit 47% we gave up and called it.

Determined not to mess up this time, I said I’d pick adds up again. Filled my bag with water, buffed the group, made all my mana gems and readied myself.

No idea how the run went for the other 4 guys but come the last boss that shield was at 100% and not one single add had got anywhere near Medivh so I was happy with a job well done. Its a micro-managing feat playing a mage in BM at times. Popping the pet every 3 min’s, trinkets every time the cool-downs up, Racial berserker bonus, timing mana gem/evocations.. so much to do and so little time to get anything wrong.

One thing I noticed and was pretty happy about.. my DPS wasn’t that far off the fire mage, and in some areas (pre-event trash clear) was higher. Given that he was focus firing the elite the tank was holding and I was swapping targets every 30 secs and didn’t cast a single spell on any of the elites/bosses till the last one, I don’t think that’s bad for a frosty. To be fair, he /tell’ed me asking if I needed the shoulders from the second boss (still no idea what shoulders they are), which I didn’t as I already have my Shadoweave set, so I assume I was better geared which would account for the DPS.

 All in all a great run with minimal fuss and the added benefit of getting two more of us attuned taking the total up to 12 now I believe.

Kara update

Published at November 9, 2007 in Kara, PC and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

KaraBrief update.. Attunement Deadline is today and I still need Black Morass for my key.

Blasted through Arca for the last key fragment I needed, didn’t do a full run just punched a hole through to the Guardian, quick kill/loot then back down for a tank-less take-down of the first boss.

From there we piled into the first CoT instance, Escape From Durnholde where we continued to punch holes in anything in front of us.. great run, all clear in what I thought was a quick time. Problem came as everyone zoned out of the instance and our guild-leader/main healer asks in chat if I had spoken to Taretha in the inn and I got that sinking feeling.

In my defense, and yes, it is a weak one I realise… I was busy drinking after the encounter at the top of the inn and by the time I realised I could speak to Taretha, someone started the event. No problem I thought, usually when we do stuff like this it auto updates your log same as when we escort and someone else initiates the encounter. Not for me… :(

Back in we go, smooth run again.. Taretha encounter all worked, quest updated/completed and BM unlocked.

That’s when it started to go pear shaped. Lag was DC’ing our hunter every 2 minutes so the first 8 waves or so we 4 manned with some difficulty but not too bad.

On Temporus (not sure of the name at the mo) our Tank DC’ed twice dropping aggro right on my frail frosty lil’ mage, wiping the group twice. By that point a ton of extra portals were open, shield at 47% and dropping.. a reset was discussed but it was getting late and the Hunter and Tank needed to go so we called it. Shame too as we were steamrolling everything up to that point.

Still, great night.. comms helped a lot and restored some of the fun back to the game for me. hearing the trademark banter from the guild was great fun :)

Note of Absence…

Published at October 22, 2007 in Monster Hunter, Rant and World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

Sick Note excusing me from WoWOver the last month or so I’ve taken a much needed break from World of Warcraft and turned back to console gaming to fill the gap, which has been a nice change. Been able to switch a game on and get something out of it within 30 mins is something I missed when playing Warcraft and the main reason I took a step back for a while.

I like the game and enjoy playing with friends in the guild but lately, looking at the prices for items I’d like, the rep grind needed for heroics, attunement to get into kara, the sheer volume of mats needed for professions and the incurred costs that go along with it, it all boils down to one thing.. grinding.

Want more money? Go grind. Need some rep? Go grind.. Need mats for professions? Go grind… Want to start raiding? Go grind dungeon ‘xyz’….

Now, 1-70 the grind is tolerable. Items drop you can use or sell, you gain mats for professions, you gain XP, learn new abilities, visit new zones, learn about some lore. All good. Get to level 70 and suddenly the game has very little outside of raiding to offer.

Fine.. go start raiding then? First you need to grind your gear which means repeated runs of dungeon ‘xyz’ all the while hoping your group doesn’t have another member in need of the item you want. Even if your the only mage in the group, you then have to contend with the ‘luck’ factor. Then you need to grind some rep/dungeons to continue which is a lengthy process.

In a game like Monster Hunter, no matter what level I am. If I want ‘x’ armour, I go kill ‘x’ monster and the parts I need drop from it. The luck factor is still involved as the high end gear requires specific items and you may have to grind the monster over and over, but by and large the system is more skill based than some. Most armour requires common materials that drop reliably each run, you just need set amounts of it. Therefore your avatar is only as good as the last monster you killed and to proceed you need some skill to take down the next hardest monster using the last monsters armour. That’s the skill and joy of Monster Hunter. In a game like WoW, your character is only as good as the random loot table in each drop.

You could argue that these systems are very similar in that you have to kill say, 10 Rathalos in Monster Hunter to obtain armour crafted from its parts.. but you also may have to run a dungeon 10 times in WoW before ‘x’ boss drops the item you require. The difference is, for every Rathalos run completed I can check my bags and see how many more items I need to craft my armour, there is no mechanic in WoW to say, you downed this boss 8 times, 3 more and he’ll drop the item you want. Its all luck based and you get nothing to show for an unsuccessful run.. MH is luck based but rewards you for every run you complete by visibly pushing you closer to obtaining the item you desire.

For me, WoW is fun but the bottomless well that is the level cap sucks the fun out of the game for me. If I see very little reward for hour after hour of gaming then before long my interest dips and fades completely. However, keep dangling that visible carrot under my nose and I’ll keep running.

Its these points that further enforce my belief that the reason WoW is such a time-sink is not because Blizzard wanted to provide a really lengthy game to keep you occupied long past other games, its simply a business model to keep you paying. The ones who tire of the grind soon cancel accounts and move on to pastures anew. No biggie, subscriber numbers keep going and the regular expansions are sure to draw new players into the game so they can afford to lose a few minority players. For the ones who don’t see it as that much of a grind, the ones who see it as a continuation of the game, the truly hardcore who will sink hour after hour into the game for side-grades that add tiny increments to stats, those are the people this game caters too. The longer it takes to do something, the longer that player is paying Blizzard a monthly fee and ultimately I believe that’s the reason it takes so damn long to do so little in this game.

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Shadow Labs

Published at August 23, 2007 in World of Warcraft. 0 Comments

Excellent guild run in Shadow labs on Tuesday night! Four clothies, one resto shaman, 7 mob pulls = Great Fun! :)

Had a really easy run all the way through using one lock as a tank and a LOT of AoE!

No deaths till the corridor leading to Murmur where we wiped hard due to a large pull but as you can see in the vid, Murmur had his way with us front and back, although to be fair, everyone was experiencing huuuge lag. I was getting 2 second delay from hitting a key and the spell going off, and from what he was saying our resto shaman was getting worse delays than that! Amazing that he kept us all up through the instance to be honest, hats off to you Daneel!

Re-watching it that first wipe on Murmur was caused by me no doubt :)

I’d been told to, back off when he puts the curse on you but with the lag and the excitement I didn’t even notice I’d been hit with it till a 4/6k hit wiped me in one shot and the lock next to me in one go so apologies for that guys..

I wasn’t much use on that boss at all.. by the time my lag caught up and my cast bar started going I’d been knocked down, or cursed, or had to run from a sonic boom, or hit with a knock-back or pull. Never seemed to end. I’m told he’s an easy last boss which I can quite believe.. shame we were let down by lag in the end really but still a lot of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVEtKQpQwGU

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