A nice and easy kill of High King Maulgar on the second attempt had us all confident going into Gruul. And we then just wiped over and over.
To start with we were losing dps, presumably to Cave Ins and Shatter, but once that was sorted out we started losing tanks early in the fight, well before Growths should have been a problem.
Hopefully we now know Maulgar well enough that we can get to Gruul quickly, and we'll get him down eventually. I just wonder if, after this slightly demoralising wipe night, we'll fill the raid so easily next time.
Saturday, 23 February 2008
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Drawn to the Alliance
I'm quite keen to establish an Alliance character I feel comfortable with. My younger stepson was in Deadmines the other day with his dwarf paladin, in a group with 2 other dwarf pallies, a Nelf hunter and someone else. A couple of things struck me -
On the other hand there's something a bit sappy about the Alliance. Strength and Honour!
- Being in a group with a bunch of dwarfs is just much more appealing than a motley collection of undead and trolls. This is really down to my paper-based RPG background than anything else, but it just feels more right.
- I really like the way the camera height reflects your character, so as a dwarf a Nelf is really tall.
On the other hand there's something a bit sappy about the Alliance. Strength and Honour!
To Hunter, or not to Hunter?
As I mentioned in the comments to a post about alts over on Kinless's blog, I find there's something slightly unengaging about hunters. You're slightly above the action, as you have little sense of danger, which makes things less fun somehow.
On the other hand this is one of the great strengths of the class. My hunter is currently level 49, and just starting on the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialisation quest. For this he needs 10 worn dragonscales, which drop off level 50+ elite dragonkin. The quest is red to him, but I'm currently on 4/10 scales and haven't yet died. He can flat out-dps the casters, or if feeling cautious use a combination of aggro sharing and Viper Sting to take practically no damage. The melee are a bit more time consuming, but with some good kiting they're equally killable. This ability to do stuff solo which would be painful or downright impossible on most other classes tells me he's worth sticking with.
My current thinking is to get to level 50 and then go to Sunken Temple with a same-level guild group (if possible) to do the class quest. Hopefully this will give me an idea of how I feel about instancing with a dedicated DPS class, and also how well I enjoy being a hunter in a decent group.
On the other hand this is one of the great strengths of the class. My hunter is currently level 49, and just starting on the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialisation quest. For this he needs 10 worn dragonscales, which drop off level 50+ elite dragonkin. The quest is red to him, but I'm currently on 4/10 scales and haven't yet died. He can flat out-dps the casters, or if feeling cautious use a combination of aggro sharing and Viper Sting to take practically no damage. The melee are a bit more time consuming, but with some good kiting they're equally killable. This ability to do stuff solo which would be painful or downright impossible on most other classes tells me he's worth sticking with.
My current thinking is to get to level 50 and then go to Sunken Temple with a same-level guild group (if possible) to do the class quest. Hopefully this will give me an idea of how I feel about instancing with a dedicated DPS class, and also how well I enjoy being a hunter in a decent group.
Monday, 11 February 2008
Curator glove token
finally drops...
... and I roll last out of the two other shaman and the paladin in the raid.
Relying on drops really sucks, although I shouldn't complain too much after winning the t4 shoulders the other day. The Prince didn't cooperate either - another priest / warrior / druid token, but I did get the healing mail legs from the Chess event, another reason not to grumble. I'm going to keep going to Kara for at least another 18 badges, and either the t4 gloves or helm, to get the first set bonus, but I've definitely farmed the fun out of it now. Or maybe I just shouldn't raid when I'm tired.
Badge loot is a much happier solution, although it tends to reduce the variety a little. But then again, that'd come down to another "kill 10 fozzles" type quest again, if all there was was badge loot.
... and I roll last out of the two other shaman and the paladin in the raid.
Relying on drops really sucks, although I shouldn't complain too much after winning the t4 shoulders the other day. The Prince didn't cooperate either - another priest / warrior / druid token, but I did get the healing mail legs from the Chess event, another reason not to grumble. I'm going to keep going to Kara for at least another 18 badges, and either the t4 gloves or helm, to get the first set bonus, but I've definitely farmed the fun out of it now. Or maybe I just shouldn't raid when I'm tired.
Badge loot is a much happier solution, although it tends to reduce the variety a little. But then again, that'd come down to another "kill 10 fozzles" type quest again, if all there was was badge loot.
Saturday, 9 February 2008
Progress at last
After a long lay-off from 25 man raiding my guild finally made another visit to Gruul's Lair on Thursday night. With High King Maulgar it's all in the pull, and we generally weren't doing that part well. In the first hour we had one attempt that at least seemed to go OK at first, however after the Seer was down and the Warlock was below 50%, it all started to go wrong. We knew it was going to be a wipe but the DPS managed to kill Olm too. All the other attempts had failed much more quickly, and for a while it looked like the attempt with two adds down out of four would be the high point of the evening. The rest of the time we always seemed to lose either the main tank or the mage tank early on, at which point we were doomed.
Finally after re-clearing the trash we had an attempt were the mage tank and MT stayed alive, and although we lost the Olm tanks we managed to kill him and after that it all became simple. Adds three and four went down very fast and we were onto Maulgar. We were a bit worried about our mana levels, and that we had less than 20 of the raid still standing, but he also went down nice and smoothly. Much rejoicing in Vent and guild chat, tinged with a slight hint of disbelief.
Just to top off my evening I won my t4 shoulders with a roll of 100, so that's my luck used up for a while. I forget how many times I've killed the Curator, with never a sign of the shaman gloves, so I'm amazed I got the shoulders on the first kill.
We went on to Gruul, with two attempts (54% and 8%) before we had to break for the night, so his days are definitely numbered assuming we can get more consistent with the High King.
Looking forward to more guild first kills!
Finally after re-clearing the trash we had an attempt were the mage tank and MT stayed alive, and although we lost the Olm tanks we managed to kill him and after that it all became simple. Adds three and four went down very fast and we were onto Maulgar. We were a bit worried about our mana levels, and that we had less than 20 of the raid still standing, but he also went down nice and smoothly. Much rejoicing in Vent and guild chat, tinged with a slight hint of disbelief.
Just to top off my evening I won my t4 shoulders with a roll of 100, so that's my luck used up for a while. I forget how many times I've killed the Curator, with never a sign of the shaman gloves, so I'm amazed I got the shoulders on the first kill.
We went on to Gruul, with two attempts (54% and 8%) before we had to break for the night, so his days are definitely numbered assuming we can get more consistent with the High King.
Looking forward to more guild first kills!
Sunday, 3 February 2008
Finally!
Attumen gave up his Whirlwind Bracers, so I'm slightly less bitter about Karazhan.
Still no token for me from the Curator though, so the grudge is still there. It was a good run - a paladin tank, two mages and a warlock made short work of the trash, and Nightbane was a good, challenging and ultimately successful fight, everything a boss should be. I was really enjoying my role as a healing shaman, with chain heal working its wonders on Nightbane and the Curator, and Nature's Swiftness, Bloodlust and my fire elemental all helping along the way.
Meanwhile my NE hunter is up to level 48, with a shiny new bow and 227 points in leatherworking. On balance I'm still for the Horde, although my biggest tie is to my guild. The Alliance definitely have things going for them though - Aerie Peak and other dwarf architecture, and the temple in Darnassus which I had to visit at the end of a quest are particularly cool, and you don't get time to appreciate them when you visit as a Hordie.
Still no token for me from the Curator though, so the grudge is still there. It was a good run - a paladin tank, two mages and a warlock made short work of the trash, and Nightbane was a good, challenging and ultimately successful fight, everything a boss should be. I was really enjoying my role as a healing shaman, with chain heal working its wonders on Nightbane and the Curator, and Nature's Swiftness, Bloodlust and my fire elemental all helping along the way.
Meanwhile my NE hunter is up to level 48, with a shiny new bow and 227 points in leatherworking. On balance I'm still for the Horde, although my biggest tie is to my guild. The Alliance definitely have things going for them though - Aerie Peak and other dwarf architecture, and the temple in Darnassus which I had to visit at the end of a quest are particularly cool, and you don't get time to appreciate them when you visit as a Hordie.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Still an altoholic
My shaman still isn't getting out much. Real life must come first! I managed to get together enough honour to buy myself the Gladiator's Salvation in time for Christmas, and then spent a fair while grinding primals for the nice healing enchant. Since then I've done one night in Karazhan which netted some nice Badges of Justice but still not Attumen's bracers or the tier token from the Curator.
Meanwhile my alts have had a few outings, which mostly just show I can't make my mind up...
My (retri) BE paladin went to Black Fathom Deeps as a healer to my stepson's (balance) druid. I'd rather have been tanking but as he was 3 levels higher than me it didn't make sense at the time, even though our specs would have better suited us being in opposite roles. I love being able to do the "I can tank or heal" thing, but I'm fairly sure I'll retire this paladin just because he's a blood elf. I don't like their overall manga feel, or their casting animations, and I've learned from my troll priest that if I spend a lot of time with a character these will irritate me more rather than less. My thought instead is to level my rogue to partner his druid which will make instancing more difficult in terms of finding a group, but the character suits me more. Stealthing, lockpicking and sapping continue to exert a pull over me.
I started a human paladin on another server, and got him to level 6 (woot!). I'm going to have to find some space on my main server and restart him on there, with some minor twinking in the form of bags and perhaps a whole gold piece to start him off. If I had my WoW time over again I'd have a paladin perhaps not as my first character but certainly in the top 4 or 5. I'm glad I've got a high level orc with a big axe; I'm glad I got to tank back when warriors were the only real tank; and who can resist creating a mage when you first see one toasting their enemies from long range, unleashing arcane missiles, or AoEing 5+ mobs at once?
My NE hunter is now level 45, and I've got his leatherworking roughly up to where it should be. This guy's my main alt at the moment - he's in a good guild and I'm looking forward to getting into Outlands and doing some instances in a DPS and CC role, rather than shouldering the burden of tanking or healing.
And finally (and perhaps foolishly) I've taken my undead warrior out of retirement and up to level 61. I tanked Hellfire Ramparts still in my Azeroth gear (about 20 minutes after stepping through the portal), and without the level 70 healer we had we wouldn't have made it. It was classic PUG tanking with DPS starting way to early, and general chaos with only the boss fights going to plan. I'm still hankering to be an orc instead of an undead warrior (the big axe again), although on reflection the undead look better in full plate than an orc does. I'm not sure I've got the patience to tank many more PUGs, or the time to gear up a tank, but on the other hand when I hear one of our guild druids lamenting that the PUG he's healing has a tank who only cares about one mob in the pull I get an urge to switch characters and pull out my sword and board.
Meanwhile my alts have had a few outings, which mostly just show I can't make my mind up...
My (retri) BE paladin went to Black Fathom Deeps as a healer to my stepson's (balance) druid. I'd rather have been tanking but as he was 3 levels higher than me it didn't make sense at the time, even though our specs would have better suited us being in opposite roles. I love being able to do the "I can tank or heal" thing, but I'm fairly sure I'll retire this paladin just because he's a blood elf. I don't like their overall manga feel, or their casting animations, and I've learned from my troll priest that if I spend a lot of time with a character these will irritate me more rather than less. My thought instead is to level my rogue to partner his druid which will make instancing more difficult in terms of finding a group, but the character suits me more. Stealthing, lockpicking and sapping continue to exert a pull over me.
I started a human paladin on another server, and got him to level 6 (woot!). I'm going to have to find some space on my main server and restart him on there, with some minor twinking in the form of bags and perhaps a whole gold piece to start him off. If I had my WoW time over again I'd have a paladin perhaps not as my first character but certainly in the top 4 or 5. I'm glad I've got a high level orc with a big axe; I'm glad I got to tank back when warriors were the only real tank; and who can resist creating a mage when you first see one toasting their enemies from long range, unleashing arcane missiles, or AoEing 5+ mobs at once?
My NE hunter is now level 45, and I've got his leatherworking roughly up to where it should be. This guy's my main alt at the moment - he's in a good guild and I'm looking forward to getting into Outlands and doing some instances in a DPS and CC role, rather than shouldering the burden of tanking or healing.
And finally (and perhaps foolishly) I've taken my undead warrior out of retirement and up to level 61. I tanked Hellfire Ramparts still in my Azeroth gear (about 20 minutes after stepping through the portal), and without the level 70 healer we had we wouldn't have made it. It was classic PUG tanking with DPS starting way to early, and general chaos with only the boss fights going to plan. I'm still hankering to be an orc instead of an undead warrior (the big axe again), although on reflection the undead look better in full plate than an orc does. I'm not sure I've got the patience to tank many more PUGs, or the time to gear up a tank, but on the other hand when I hear one of our guild druids lamenting that the PUG he's healing has a tank who only cares about one mob in the pull I get an urge to switch characters and pull out my sword and board.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)