So Friday is the only one this summer I wasn't taking off work this summer, and while glancing through my email at the workshop I was attending, I saw a beta invite email. I assumed it was spam. Nope! Got home and the beta (still labeled alpha) was in my launcher. Apparently it's a stress test? Regardless, I'm in.
Friday it was quite disconnect-y, and it still was much of today, but today was more playable. Here's my notes I made as I played (notes in bold, with commentary).
THIS IS PRETTY SPOILERY FOR TANAAN JUNGLE STUFF IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THEM.
6/28/14
6/5/14
On Role-Playing
So I named my death knight yesterday. Granted, yeah, she's 87, and she technically has a name already, but I popped a less silly one into MRP for her. She's not on an RP server, but most of my high-level toons aren't.
I'm not particularly good in role-playing in that I'm not good at interacting with other people on that level; at the same time, some of my characters do have backgrounds or whatnot in my head which, to some extent, influences how I play them.
So my death knight is, or rather, was Nalaya Stormhoof, who'd been a field medic prior to her unfortunate demise and new career as a death knight.
My warlock was a blood elf who went through a horrible transporter malfunction and is now a goblin. (I apparently wrote this background for her when I did the race change years ago and forgot until I reloaded MRP on my main server.) As a goblin, she's a compulsive salesperson, and she's the only character I'm comfortable doing public channel guild promotion in. She's also a bit obsessed with fire, and as a goblin destro lock, the ancestor quest with Lorewalker Cho was a bit disturbingly spot-on. Other than the whole, you know, transporter malfunction thing.
My original paladin is a refugee from Arathor, currently a resident of Stormwind. (And this is why I no longer create back stories that might require grinding PVP reputation, because that's going to take forever.)
My gnome 'lock thinks her demons are her best friends and her imp (Geltip) is her assistant scribe.
One of my Forsaken hunters (I... I have 13 hunters, okay?) was a watchmaker in Andorhal before joining the war and becoming a marksman.
So it's mostly little things; the character I've got the most concept of background and relationships for is the unnamed human hunter I've used in the fan-fic stories... and I haven't actually a) decided on a name for her or b) made her as a character in-game. I did name a chicken battle pet Ermintrude, though, so that's already set up for her. Maybe one day (when I actually decide on a name)...
I'm not particularly good in role-playing in that I'm not good at interacting with other people on that level; at the same time, some of my characters do have backgrounds or whatnot in my head which, to some extent, influences how I play them.
So my death knight is, or rather, was Nalaya Stormhoof, who'd been a field medic prior to her unfortunate demise and new career as a death knight.
My warlock was a blood elf who went through a horrible transporter malfunction and is now a goblin. (I apparently wrote this background for her when I did the race change years ago and forgot until I reloaded MRP on my main server.) As a goblin, she's a compulsive salesperson, and she's the only character I'm comfortable doing public channel guild promotion in. She's also a bit obsessed with fire, and as a goblin destro lock, the ancestor quest with Lorewalker Cho was a bit disturbingly spot-on. Other than the whole, you know, transporter malfunction thing.
My original paladin is a refugee from Arathor, currently a resident of Stormwind. (And this is why I no longer create back stories that might require grinding PVP reputation, because that's going to take forever.)
My gnome 'lock thinks her demons are her best friends and her imp (Geltip) is her assistant scribe.
One of my Forsaken hunters (I... I have 13 hunters, okay?) was a watchmaker in Andorhal before joining the war and becoming a marksman.
So it's mostly little things; the character I've got the most concept of background and relationships for is the unnamed human hunter I've used in the fan-fic stories... and I haven't actually a) decided on a name for her or b) made her as a character in-game. I did name a chicken battle pet Ermintrude, though, so that's already set up for her. Maybe one day (when I actually decide on a name)...
6/2/14
Tactics #3: Dispels
This tactics post will probably be shorter than the first two, since dispelling isn't something that's particularly difficult; it's more something to be aware is crucial on some fights, and what your character can (if anything) dispel.
Wowpedia has a good table for who can dispel what; if your class and/or specialization can dispel, and you aren't already running a healing addon that tells you about it, a nice non-healer-specific addon for tracking friendly/defensive dispels is Decursive. An addon isn't necessary for dispelling if you're good at watching buffs/debuffs on health bars, but if you just can't seem to keep track of them, Decursive has its own little tiny health bars that you can plop somewhere you can keep an eye on them. I switched over to Decursive during Cataclysm after three expansions of healing as a priest without an addon, simply because I got tired of juggling Dispel Magic targets.
So what's the deal with dispelling? Some fights you'll run into have bosses or other monsters that will put a debuff on some or all of the characters in your group. These debuffs may do massive damage to their targets, or if they may have a debilitating effect if left on too long. Some debuffs can just be healed through, but if your group is dying repeatedly to them, focusing more on dispelling than keeping everyone's health topped off may prove to be more effective.
Dispelable debuffs come in four flavors: magic, poison, diseases, and curses. Different classes can dispel different debuffs, but most healing classes can dispel at least two. If you're not sure what you can dispel (if anything), check out that Wowpedia table or just browse through your spellbook. If you're coming back to the game after a relatively long break, dispels underwent a major overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, so they may have changed since you last played.
Some points to remember:
Wowpedia has a good table for who can dispel what; if your class and/or specialization can dispel, and you aren't already running a healing addon that tells you about it, a nice non-healer-specific addon for tracking friendly/defensive dispels is Decursive. An addon isn't necessary for dispelling if you're good at watching buffs/debuffs on health bars, but if you just can't seem to keep track of them, Decursive has its own little tiny health bars that you can plop somewhere you can keep an eye on them. I switched over to Decursive during Cataclysm after three expansions of healing as a priest without an addon, simply because I got tired of juggling Dispel Magic targets.
So what's the deal with dispelling? Some fights you'll run into have bosses or other monsters that will put a debuff on some or all of the characters in your group. These debuffs may do massive damage to their targets, or if they may have a debilitating effect if left on too long. Some debuffs can just be healed through, but if your group is dying repeatedly to them, focusing more on dispelling than keeping everyone's health topped off may prove to be more effective.
Dispelable debuffs come in four flavors: magic, poison, diseases, and curses. Different classes can dispel different debuffs, but most healing classes can dispel at least two. If you're not sure what you can dispel (if anything), check out that Wowpedia table or just browse through your spellbook. If you're coming back to the game after a relatively long break, dispels underwent a major overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, so they may have changed since you last played.
Some points to remember:
- Healers have the most dispel options, but caster classes in general often can do at least one, even if it's only to dispel offensively (for example, if the boss puts a heal-over-time spell on itself). If your healers are getting overwhelmed, see what your options for spreading out the load are.
- If you're in a group that has multiple healers, divide up the work. Most dispel abilities have an 8-second cooldown, and frequently two or three targets will need dispelling at the same time. All the healers should probably be watching for them.
- Priests have a mass-dispel ability on a longer cooldown; this can be helpful when everyone is grouped up, but it doesn't work on all effects. It's also mana-intensive when used repeatedly, so it's not really effective as a crutch in a large group if the other healers aren't helping.
- Dispelling is similar to shield effects in that it frequently prevents damage rather than heals damage taken. A healer with a lot of dispels in a dispel-heavy fight may have a lower healing throughput on a meter than the other healers in the group, but similar to shielding, they may be making up for that with the dispels.
- Some fights may require a diverse healing roster due to the variety of debuffs involved; if you're missing a dispel type, it may be harder for your group to kill that particular boss.
5/28/14
Hearthstone
Once upon a time, I played M:TG. Back when, you know, I still lived around other people I knew who play. So getting into Hearthstone hasn't been terribly hard. I have a hunter deck I like, a rogue/murloc deck that works for the quests (and murloc swarming is always hilarious), a warlock deck that's fun (and not just because getting screwed over by your own demons is awesome), and a priest deck I made for the daily quest to summon something like 30 minions that cost 5 or more... that turned out to be fairly decent for casual play, as well. And of course the mage deck with Archmage Antonidas and his endless fireballs never fails to disappoint for the "deal 100 damage to enemy characters" daily quest.
So why am I playing Garrosh, damn it?
I set the deck up thus, with a Gorehowl at the bottom that's below the scroll:
I wanted to make a deck that would play off the Knife Juggler, Violet Teacher, and Imp Master, which meant also pulling in the Frothing Berserker, Cult Master, and Flesheating Ghoul to play off the deaths of all those little minions you're hopefully summoning. Questing Adventurer got thrown in because, well, why not? It's a fairly light deck mana-wise, and it's easy to bump him up fast.
Warrior decks seem okay for buffing minions if they can survive a little damage. And a Frothing Berserker hitting for 20 points in round 5 is just... impressive. A bad draft means you lose pretty fast, but if a couple cards come out in combo and your opponent doesn't or can't knock off the dangerous ones (mainly the Berserker, Ghoul, and Adventurer) in a timely manner, they can quickly become overwhelming. The Warsong Commander to give them charge when they first come out, the Cruel Taskmaster and Rampage to quickly ramp them up even more...
It's not a perfect deck, but it's making the non-class-specific dailies go pretty fast.
So why am I playing Garrosh, damn it?
I set the deck up thus, with a Gorehowl at the bottom that's below the scroll:
Warrior decks seem okay for buffing minions if they can survive a little damage. And a Frothing Berserker hitting for 20 points in round 5 is just... impressive. A bad draft means you lose pretty fast, but if a couple cards come out in combo and your opponent doesn't or can't knock off the dangerous ones (mainly the Berserker, Ghoul, and Adventurer) in a timely manner, they can quickly become overwhelming. The Warsong Commander to give them charge when they first come out, the Cruel Taskmaster and Rampage to quickly ramp them up even more...
It's not a perfect deck, but it's making the non-class-specific dailies go pretty fast.
5/1/14
Alt Leveling Plans
So I've got nine toons at 90 right now, one hovering at 88, one at 85, and a slew of lower ones. Someone linked this (plans for no flying at all in Draenor) today on an alt guild's Facebook page, and my gut reaction to it is that my druid is going to be abandoned.
I love flight form. Seriously, it was my impetus for rolling a druid at all. If you've seen the most recent Captain America movie, the scenes with the Falcon pretty much epitomize why I love it for my druid. (Sitting in the theater, going, "That! That is what I love about my druid!")
But she's 90, and, well, high level alts get leveled. It just happens. Some of them will be through questing, some through dungeons, some through... other means. But not being to to use flight form in post-90 content, basically ever? Druid's probably getting leveled through dungeons and then probably parked unless I like the new druid healing enough to do raid finder on her. Sure, all my characters will be grounded, but travel form isn't as fast as ground mounts. Cat stealth is weak compared to rogues'. Since soloing content isn't what I like about her, it's not what I'm going to do on her.
This train of thought led to other alt leveling thoughts. My main had all the pre-Wrath Loremaster pieces done before Wrath (and achievements) hit, and she got Seeker before hitting 80; it's kind of obvious she's going to be questing out all the zones. But my alts get narrower subsets of content.
(In the order they're on my character screen):
Rogue: I may see what I can do with leveling her through archaeology again, probably combined with herbalism. I used to stealth through Azshara picking herbs for hours on her in vanilla. There's a reason she's Subtlety. (I maxed her herbalism at 85 long before I started actually leveling her to 90.)
Warrior: Mix of questing and probably trying dungeon tanking again. The warrior is usually the 3rd or 4th I level. She's a swordsmith.
(Main)
Priest: More dungeons (healing), some questing, because I always like seeing how well Disc solos in the questing environment. Plus disenchanting quest rewards helps for enchanting materials. The priest is usually the 2nd leveled. (Although 4th in Mists.)
Baby Hunter 1: This is my jewelcrafter & scribe, and she tends to get leveled in parallel with the warrior. Because of how well hunters solo, I frequently quest again on her.
Shaman: Probably mostly dungeons as Elemental and some questing to open up phasing/zones. Since she's a leatherworker, I'll likely open up content I need for skinning, too - I went back and did Vashj'ir on her at 85 because I needed the skinning there.
Warlock: I did all of the Lorewalker discoveries on her pre-90 (which means yes, on a ground mount), then found out I couldn't get the quests from the scrolls until 90. This is the character that got taken on the road trip to Dalaran at 43 (to be parked there to summon people there until I got around to leveling her). She tends to get leveled around 5th or 6th, in parallel with the shaman, so I'll probably do more map discovery/herbalism/some question/some dungeons with her. She's my transmuter.
Baby Hunter 2: This is my flask alchemist; I'll probably level her alchemy long before she's leveled. She's 88 right now. I'll finish getting her to 90 probably in the next couple months.
Paladin (bank): My bank is 76; I've hardly touched her in terms of leveling since Mists started, partly because she's not in my main guild, and partly because I haven't gotten around to learning the paladin changes. One day!
Druid: Like I said before: probably mostly through dungeons. She was leveled mostly through mining, herbalism, and pet battles from the 60s on, with some dungeons thrown in.
Death Knight (on a connected realm): My death knight is 85, my second transmuter, and I've leveled her mostly through dungeons, with a smattering of herbalism and pet battles. I really like tanking on her; I just have to get back into it for Mists content, which is a bit intimidating despite doing it on my warrior.
I have a lot of baby alts (Catnome, goblin & troll hunters, orc mage) that I want to level, and have started slowly doing so, but I don't know where they're going to fit into the mix. I also want to make an orc hunter after the new models come out. Then I'll have one of all of them Horde-side except Pandaren, because I'm not doing the Pandaren starting zone again.
I really wish all my alts were on connected servers, because I've got about 15 others I want to level, but just am not as likely to get to without my guild. Maybe one day.
I love flight form. Seriously, it was my impetus for rolling a druid at all. If you've seen the most recent Captain America movie, the scenes with the Falcon pretty much epitomize why I love it for my druid. (Sitting in the theater, going, "That! That is what I love about my druid!")
But she's 90, and, well, high level alts get leveled. It just happens. Some of them will be through questing, some through dungeons, some through... other means. But not being to to use flight form in post-90 content, basically ever? Druid's probably getting leveled through dungeons and then probably parked unless I like the new druid healing enough to do raid finder on her. Sure, all my characters will be grounded, but travel form isn't as fast as ground mounts. Cat stealth is weak compared to rogues'. Since soloing content isn't what I like about her, it's not what I'm going to do on her.
This train of thought led to other alt leveling thoughts. My main had all the pre-Wrath Loremaster pieces done before Wrath (and achievements) hit, and she got Seeker before hitting 80; it's kind of obvious she's going to be questing out all the zones. But my alts get narrower subsets of content.
(In the order they're on my character screen):
 |
| This was taken before I know about alt+z |
Rogue: I may see what I can do with leveling her through archaeology again, probably combined with herbalism. I used to stealth through Azshara picking herbs for hours on her in vanilla. There's a reason she's Subtlety. (I maxed her herbalism at 85 long before I started actually leveling her to 90.)
 |
| This is how I leveled 85-90 |
Warrior: Mix of questing and probably trying dungeon tanking again. The warrior is usually the 3rd or 4th I level. She's a swordsmith.
 |
| Questing as Prot |
(Main)
 |
| It's not like I don't have ground mount options |
Priest: More dungeons (healing), some questing, because I always like seeing how well Disc solos in the questing environment. Plus disenchanting quest rewards helps for enchanting materials. The priest is usually the 2nd leveled. (Although 4th in Mists.)
 |
| I swapped her offspec back to Shadow, alas |
Baby Hunter 1: This is my jewelcrafter & scribe, and she tends to get leveled in parallel with the warrior. Because of how well hunters solo, I frequently quest again on her.
 |
| She does have the coolest cat |
Shaman: Probably mostly dungeons as Elemental and some questing to open up phasing/zones. Since she's a leatherworker, I'll likely open up content I need for skinning, too - I went back and did Vashj'ir on her at 85 because I needed the skinning there.
 |
| She has the best orc hair! |
Warlock: I did all of the Lorewalker discoveries on her pre-90 (which means yes, on a ground mount), then found out I couldn't get the quests from the scrolls until 90. This is the character that got taken on the road trip to Dalaran at 43 (to be parked there to summon people there until I got around to leveling her). She tends to get leveled around 5th or 6th, in parallel with the shaman, so I'll probably do more map discovery/herbalism/some question/some dungeons with her. She's my transmuter.
 |
| Apparently goblins have problems with Pandaren furniture |
Baby Hunter 2: This is my flask alchemist; I'll probably level her alchemy long before she's leveled. She's 88 right now. I'll finish getting her to 90 probably in the next couple months.
 |
| I took ALL my 85+ through Karazhan for the pets |
Paladin (bank): My bank is 76; I've hardly touched her in terms of leveling since Mists started, partly because she's not in my main guild, and partly because I haven't gotten around to learning the paladin changes. One day!
 |
| Stalled out bank toon? You get the BEST ride |
Druid: Like I said before: probably mostly through dungeons. She was leveled mostly through mining, herbalism, and pet battles from the 60s on, with some dungeons thrown in.
 |
| In the Zangarmarsh |
Death Knight (on a connected realm): My death knight is 85, my second transmuter, and I've leveled her mostly through dungeons, with a smattering of herbalism and pet battles. I really like tanking on her; I just have to get back into it for Mists content, which is a bit intimidating despite doing it on my warrior.
 |
| They took my scourgestone :( |
I have a lot of baby alts (Catnome, goblin & troll hunters, orc mage) that I want to level, and have started slowly doing so, but I don't know where they're going to fit into the mix. I also want to make an orc hunter after the new models come out. Then I'll have one of all of them Horde-side except Pandaren, because I'm not doing the Pandaren starting zone again.
I really wish all my alts were on connected servers, because I've got about 15 others I want to level, but just am not as likely to get to without my guild. Maybe one day.
4/9/14
I was promised a pony!
... and I got like 36 gazillion. My tauren (not the paladin, and obviously not the warlock) now has access to:
Not counted:
- Argent Warhorse
- Black Skeletal Horse
- Blue Skeletal Horse
- Brown Skeletal Horse
- Celestial Steed
- Fiery Warhorse
- Forsaken Warhorse
- Green Skeletal Warhorse
- Headless Horseman's Mount
- Hearthsteed
- Ochre Skeletal Warhorse
- Purple Skeletal Warhorse
- Red Skeletal Horse
- Red Skeletal Warhorse
- Swift Zhevra
- Tyrael's Charger
- White Skeletal Warhorse
Not counted:
- Camels
- Hippogryphs ("hippo" being for horse... even if they gave them deer features)
- Talbuks (their horns and skeletal warhorses' horns were confusing me)
- Windsteed (because... um... I'm really not sure what it is, taxonomically)
- All the Alliance pony mounts my night elf has access too
4/6/14
Timeless Armor
The Timeless Isle was an interesting addition to the Siege of Orgrimmar raid patch - non-raid content (mostly) that included parts of the legendary cloak quest, some world bosses with current tier for both PVE and PVP, and a reputation grind for another Pandarian dragon mount.
It also brought us Timeless armor tokens, account-bound tokens that we could use to gear up alts and fill in gaps until we got something better. Lots and lots of Timeless armor tokens.
And you know what? That's okay. Timeless armor tokens have some uses beyond just vendoring once you've kitted out your alts.
New character on a new server? No cash? Send them a couple tokens! Five gold a pop.
Short on sha crystals? Send your extra tokens of the appropriate armor type to your enchanter, make a piece of gear, crush.
Now I'm working on the Bigger Bag achievement, so I'm getting tokens more again. I should be able to restock my sha crystals, and I can gear up my death knight when she finally hits 90. It's going to take a while - I got Huolon's mount on the wrong character.
It also brought us Timeless armor tokens, account-bound tokens that we could use to gear up alts and fill in gaps until we got something better. Lots and lots of Timeless armor tokens.
And you know what? That's okay. Timeless armor tokens have some uses beyond just vendoring once you've kitted out your alts.
New character on a new server? No cash? Send them a couple tokens! Five gold a pop.
Short on sha crystals? Send your extra tokens of the appropriate armor type to your enchanter, make a piece of gear, crush.
Now I'm working on the Bigger Bag achievement, so I'm getting tokens more again. I should be able to restock my sha crystals, and I can gear up my death knight when she finally hits 90. It's going to take a while - I got Huolon's mount on the wrong character.
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