An idle rogue?

 After a long time spent in his mid-30s as my fishing and alchemy alt I eventually put the effort into levelling my dwarf rogue and he hit level 60 on 27 December with 9 days, 21 hours and 48 minutes played. I wasn't really sure what to do with him beyond that milestone other than getting him some half decent gear and the easy raid attunements, and in the end both proved much easier than expected.

A PUG run of Stratholme Living aimed at progressing the In Dreams quest line also netted me the Mask of the Unforgiven, and DM jump runs with some guild mates got me the Satyr's Bow on our 5th and final run for that evening. A single run each of Lower and Upper Blackrock Spire gained me Blackhand's Breadth (so nice not to have to agonise of the rewards for that quest!) as well as the Blackwing Lair attunement, and a group with another guild mate who'd reached level 60 at about the same time helped me through the dungeon steps of the Onyxia quest line which otherwise I had planned on avoiding, and also rewarded the rather useful Skilled Fighting Blade. The Clouddrift Mantle was another straight forward quest reward but otherwise I gained greatly from my alt status with my druid crafting me the Primal Batskin Jerkin and the Devilsaur set, and also scrounging the Nightslayer Bracers during a Molten Core bindings run, as well as ensuring I had the funds available for a Shadowfoot Stabber from the auction house and some Mongoose Boots crafted by our guild's feral tank.

I then felt ready to dip my toes into the raiding waters with a guild run of Zul'Gurub, and although that was very profitable for me, with another excellent quest reward of the Belt of Preserved Heads as well as a drop of the Zulian Tigerhide Cloak it was also nearly the end of my rogue's raiding career as my damage output was frankly awful.

A big part of my low damage I'm sure was my daggers spec and its positioning requirement, however I didn't want to change that since to me swords aren't rogue-y enough, and anyway melee should be behind bosses to avoid cleaves and parries. My raiding DPS inexperience went without saying and there was only one way to resolve that. And gear was no doubt a factor - although by pre-BiS standards I was in pretty good gear, for the average ZG raider my gear was a good way below what's typical nowadays and hence the baseline that log reports were comparing me to.

I was slightly taken aback by how steep the gear/damage curve is - our guild's feral tank was in the same raid on his rogue, with markedly better gear than me and performing much better, but still only doing quite average damage.

On advice from one of my guild's better rogues I decided to focus on Molten Core, with its smaller pulls of much larger mobs and hence positioning being more obvious. I also did a fair bit of work cleaning up my UI for things like clearer combat text and better visibility generally, and made use of the enormous amount of resources that are out there nowadays to help improve play.

And improve I did - in my four raids of Molten Core I've done good to very good iLevel parses of melee-friendly bosses such as Shazzrah and Ragnaros, improved noticeably on some less friendly bosses such as Geddon, such that I feel I was actively contributing to the raid rather than along for the ride.

However my current feeling is not to continue his raiding journey - while it's been great to see a side of the game I've not really tried before, with Burning Crusade somewhere on the horizon I feel there is limited mileage in this. I could probably gear up very slightly more and give a reasonable account of myself in Blackwing Lair, however given the limited remaining lifetime of the game and the need for nature and frost resistance gear in later raids I'm nearing the end of what I can achieve without detracting from my main character and focus. 

Still my rogue, having completed Molten Core, Zul'Gurub and the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj has progressed far further in raiding than any of my characters achieved back in the day.

So he will go back to being an idle rogue (with occasional herbing outings).

Wizards, warlocks and bugs

A few weeks ago I was feeling about done until AQ released - my raid gear is missing only a few of the rare bits (rings / trinklets / weapons) so, seeing as one-handed weapons seem better for healers here onward, I was planning to mainly grind some Alterac Valley reputation.

Also, having had a dabble with warlock alts a while back, I also planned to get my level 17 warlock up to level 20 so he could be a summoning taxi for the guild.

But of course, having spent a lot of time PvPing, there was an irresistible temptation to dust off my Horde side. As my shaman is level 16 I tried some Warsong Gulch in the twink bracket, he was of course hopelessly undergeared by comparison but I feel I managed to contribute to some degree to the one game I played. However, having looked into what classes are in demand on the Horde side, and considering what classes I've had at 60 already, I thought I'd try out another Forsaken mage. My original mage became my banker after I totally failed to get my head around the class, but this time I'm enjoying it a lot more - there's a lot to be said for levelling a pure DPS class. Having just done some levels on a warlock I really miss Life Tap, but my attitude to drinking mage water has totally changed and the speed with which he takes down enemies, and the good degree of crowd control, keeps things interesting.

The AQ patch has also brought a load of new content, notably idols for druids and the Sceptre quest which one of our tanks is attempting. On the idol front I've collected the Idol of Ferocity (since the boss who drops it is soloable) and, having collected most of the dungeon set for nostalgia value, I'm now working on the "tier 0.5" upgrade quest mainly to be able to summon Mor Grayhoof who drops the restoration idol.

I'm also trying to help with the carapace fragment collection in Silithus which is sort of fun and an impressive feat of players shaping the world - the hives have gone from being highly dangerous to totally camped by players desperately trying to tag mobs as they spawn. It can be frustrating since there are so many players there, but it's quite a sociable guild activity with the occasional bit of world PvP thrown in.

Planning for the Burning Crusade

The big news of the weekend was the Blizzard survey with the not unsurprising hint that they're thinking of releasing a "classic" version of The Burning Crusade. This set off my alt-itis and initial decision to start a Classic alt (a warrior) to stay at level 60 while my druid would progress to Burning Crusade.

Having thought about this some more I think what I need is... another druid.

I find it interesting to read back and see what I was thinking (or perhaps "what was I thinking?"), so I thought it would be useful to detail out my current reasoning.

First, and most importantly, while expansions offer new content and possibilities (druid flight form and Alliance shaman spring to mind) they also diminish or even destroy older achievements. It may be true "that we'll always have the memories" but some expansion changes were (to my mind) for the worse. One example that still irritates me is the removal of keys for older dungeons - they keys were destroyed in return for a payment which, from memory, was less than the 15 gold that the Scholomance key sets you back. In contrast I still have the non-key keys, such as the Upper Blackrock Spire Seal, in the banks of my shaman and various other characters.

Secondly, and key to my reverse-planning, is that I'm very happy with my decision to have a druid as my Classic character. I've spent a lot on respec costs, and occasionally resented the hybrid tax, but generally I've done very well out of being a versatile and less-played class. I've found it easier than average to find raid and dungeon groups, and had relatively little competition for some drops (caster drops being the exception, but I've had an easier time than, for example, mages). I've also come to really enjoy some of the class perks, especially stealth but also the immunity to disarm and the ability to break out of snares.

So currently the plan is to create a new druid - either fully levelling an alt or, if there's the option to create a level 58 character, taking advantage of that - and having that druid progress into the Burning Crusade. There will be drawbacks and timesinks but it seems to me will offer the best of both worlds.

Diverted in Dustwallow

I really like the melancholy (and slightly threatening, for low level Horde) feel of Ashenvale, with its beauty and its ruins and the waves lapping at Zoram Strand. Blackfathom Deeps nicely carries this through, with a (long) sand-floored cavern introducing the partially ruined temple.

Having recently tanked Blackfathom a couple of times Oswyn had to go to Dustwallow Marsh for Expert First Aid - Under Wraps and (non-violently) crossed paths with a high level Night Elf. It occurred to me that I'd never given the Alliance faction much of a go - although I levelled a druid to (I think) 38 and a hunter to somewhere in the 50s these were always solo characters as alts to my Horde main(s). So, given the comparatively early stage of the game, I thought I should give Alliance a proper go.

My initial plan was for a Night Elf warrior as a straight swap - female, since NE warriors should be female - but that character model is a stand-alone advert for diversity in gaming (seriously, look at the idle animation or sword and shield attack animation) so she only got as far as level 5. I reasoned that if I was going to play a male Night Elf he might as well be a druid, so new Duillnar is now level 31...

Levelling a druid is an odd experience. Up to level 10 it's a question of casting from afar and then when the enemy gets close finishing them off with a stick - familiar as far as I can tell to all casters. At level 10 you get bear form and so can now switch to claws, then at level 20 with cat form the game changes and casting largely goes out of the window (except for healing after fights). The contrast between the durable bear and fragile cat took a while to sink in, and prowl got me into a few situations which then went horribly wrong, but overall I'm really enjoying the class.

To me the class balance in the original game is really quite impressive. Druids have a very broad toolbox but only have access to a fraction of those tools at any one time, and deciding whether to switch forms to access other tools along with the limitations of the associated form takes some getting used to. I'm slowly getting better at those decisions but making many mistakes along the way.

The challenge level of the game is also enjoyable - camps of humanoid mobs are often quite threatening when level appropriate, and often a short-term group or careful planning and use of resources are needed where in the modern game you'd expect to win through alone.

Overall I'm still conflicted about the Alliance - the quests and overall feel are rather more bland, but also have a coherence that the mish-mash Horde lack. It's also much more populated which can be a drawback in some questing spots but holds out hope for more options in the end game.

So far I'm pretty happy with it though. Druids give so many options in any questing group, while for dungeons I've be solidly tanking (Deadmines three times and Blackfathom Deeps once - really enjoying the disarm immunity and snare escapes in the latter!). The limited toolbox but many toolboxes thing is frustrating at times but overall I think I'd now find it hard to give up.

Alliance experiments

I have a level 85 dwarf warrior (formerly Shank) and a now level 86 dwarf shaman ("newly" created with the help of the Mists of Panderia level boost) which I thought would be interesting to try as a somewhat higher level view of the Alliance side than my druid Duillnar could give me. After the usual actionbar pondering and some quick experimentation out in the world I queued them as tank and healer respectively and coincidentally ended up in the Siege of Niuzao Temple both times.

My main observation is that when dungeoneering it's surprisingly non-obvious which faction you're on. Between the pace of the game and the various spell effects and so on you don't really see the other characters like you did in the original dungeons or do at a higher level for example in pauses during a raid.

Otherwise -

• I love Ghost Wolf. I'll use it when there's even half of an excuse, and often it's actually handy!
• Tanking as a warrior is quite enjoyable. Heroic Leap is fun and useful and combined with Intercept gives good mobility. As with my druid, my warrior has good AoE threat abilities and with groups who are still levelling gear imbalance isn't an issue.
• It's become more obviously a computer game than an RPG. While this was always to some degree the case, abilities such as Heroic Leap to me are suspension of disbelief-breaking - while it may be appropriate with the ever-increasing level cap it also highlights the (relative) consistency of the Classic game.

So if dungeoneering isn't an issue, at least as far as my view of my own character impacts me, and given that I find the Alliance side levelling rather mundane compared to my Horde experience, I can mostly see myself sticking to Oswyn and Grulnak. I might visit my dwarf shaman Grumgar occasionally for Alliance tourism, taking advantage of the button familiarity given to me by Grulnak, rather than trying to get my head around any of my former array of characters.

I'm still fundamentally me

Which I think means I can't make my mind up about characters...

Oswyn was chugging along nicely at level 23 - he's a levelling Fury build with a nice new Wingblade from a couple of Wailing Caverns runs, grinding and questing in Hillsbrad with very little downtime thanks to bandaging and Cannibalize. I then get to the Elixir of Suffering quest and having poisoned the toad I'm suddenly not sure whether I want to be Horde anymore. Thinking that if I'm going to swap characters (again) I'm best off doing it as soon as possible I started a tour of my retail game Alliance characters.

My druid Duillnar constantly draws me back due to his versatility, although I also need to remember why I've only got him to level 42 - in the old days they really seemed to have got the jack of all trades, master of none thing right (for example the lack of interrupts made fighting casters a pain). Blimey are they complicated nowadays - with the way specialisations work they're effectively become four different classes.

To limit the number of new spells and action bars I needed to work out I thought to try queuing as a healer until I saw that the demand was for tanks. After some more head scratching and spell book leafing I added tanking as an option, and immediately popped into Maraudon - with the Lord Vyletongue fight already in progress!

Given one fight didn't teach me very much I queued again and found myself in a different group, this time at Earth Song Falls. The group leader was a Go Go Go warrior who seemed to think he should leap ahead and start the pull and have me pick up the pieces. With the tools in the modern tanking box this didn't go as horribly as it could have and after Landslide and the Princess that was another dungeon done.

I'm not quite sure what this has taught me except for the difference between the original and the modern game. My two tanking runs of Wailing Caverns seemed to me chaotic at times, and at the start of the first there was pressure to pick up the pace, but everyone played their roles well, we had no deaths and the healers were happy. To me this says that a lot of the chaos was probably just my perception, although some will have been that everything is the tank's responsibility while for the others - even DPS who have also got crowd control in mind - the focus is much narrower.

I've a couple more Alliance tests planned but probably I'll go back to Oswyn and just not do the quests I'm not comfortable with!