I finally hit level 80 yesterday on my first ever character in world of warcraft. I was pretty excited to get there – and then once I was there I looked around wondering ‘what now?’ The thing is I don’t know anyone on my server. Thanks to the LFD tool there’s no reason to actually talk (or even group) with anyone, and there’s rarely anyone in my dungeons from my own server any how. I don’t belong to a raid guild, and I don’t know anything about ‘end game’ in world of warcraft, aside from it being a gear grind. Manos has been 80 for a little while now, and had a few suggestions for me. I’m obviously not geared well enough to go jumping into heroic dungeons, even though I do have some available to me.
What we did for the majority of the night was run the Trial of the Champion instance, which is a three part ring event that rewards one epic loot the first round, two the second, and two the third. It’s notorious for it’s trinkets – and bad groups. It seems like after 2am EST all of the groups went significantly down hill. I suppose that’s to be expected on a Thursday night, but I wasn’t prepared for it.
There was the group that wanted to vote someone out simply because they had never been there before. One incredibly impatient person started the event before the new 80 even had time to know what was going on, and then he spent the next little while dying through no real fault of his own. The impatient person screamed for him to be voted off, and in fact a second member of the group /spit on the new player. I decided this was not a group I wanted to heal for, because lets face it I’m just as new, and I left.
The first event can be confusing for any new player. You’re required to grab a lance from the sidelines of a huge arena, and then mount up on a warhorse. The main event is jousting, and you’ve got to run around charging the enemy and knocking them off of their mounts. If players know what they’re doing it can be quite fun, and it’s relatively painless. If you notice your mount is dying the best thing to do is to move to the sidelines and grab a fresh one. A few times I didn’t get there in time and once my mount ‘died’ I was pummeled to death by the enemy, which wasn’t fun. The revive point is very close by, thankfully.
The second event compromises of two different names, it’s random which one you get. The female encounter is the more difficult of the two, but the male is quite simple, you just have to face the other way while he’s blinding everyone. Literally, look towards the wall.
The last encounter is great if you’ve got the dps, and painful if you do not. Since this is one of the entry level dungeons for level 80, you’ll end up with a lot of under geared players very easily.
Needless to say, I started the evening with a gs (gear score) of 2700 and ended with a 3250 or so. Ideally, I’d like 4-5k – and higher than that requires raiding. I ran the instance 6-7 times, and obtained three pieces of gear. A huge upgrade over what I had been wearing, though it quickly became too late for me to test it out and see if dungeons were any easier. I’m attempting to gather shards for both gear (myself) and heirloom (the alts) and in the mean time I’m pondering creating an alliance character on another server simply to experiment with that side of things. I’d rather it not be on my ‘regular’ server because – well because (for those who don’t know, I play on Ravenholdt). That will require some research on my end, maybe I can find myself a good home.
Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself.
@Endelon – I suppose my point was there’s nothing to do except gear grind that will benefit my character (looking for pets, and mounts, achievements). Where as in EQ2, I’d be working on aa and gathering master spells. There’s nothing to inspire me to go back through older content, unless I want achievements that are only for bragging rights. In EQ2 I could happily choronomage down to a lower level and still obtain the same aa that I would at level 80 doing instances.
Now, of course that does eventually run out, soon as you hit 250 aa, but it’s enough of ‘other stuff’ to do to satisfy me for a good few months.
I too would suggest not using gearscore, even for the reason you listed. You can get a raid-level gearscore just by using PVP gear…which isn’t at all equal in PVE to raid gear. I would suggest becoming familiar with the different tiers of armor and using those to get a sense of where you should be. For example, as someone already mentioned, the emblems you get from running heroic dungeons will allow you to purchase Tier 9 which is the current “entry level” tier (even though it’s there is older, lesser gear that’s available for purchase as well). A full set of 4 pieces of Tier 9 plus the 245 shoulders or hat (all of which is purchased off the triumph emblem vendor) should be your current goal.
If you’re interested in trying some of the raids, I would actually suggest posting a message on your realm forums as well as the guild recruitment forum. You’ll probably get flamed (on your realm forum anyway), but you’ll probably also get a response either on the forum or in-game from a guild that might fit you. Despite the rabid community WoW has, there are a lot of people playing that would be open to helping out a newbie. They might also not be the best at the game, but there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to do some of Icecrown Citadel once you get the emblem gear.
I have to disagree with your statement about WoW having only the gear grind at 80. Yes, the gear grind makes up most of the game, but there is a lot of optional stuff to do too (although not as much as EQ2, I have to admit). You can work on collecting non-combat pets and getting the rare ones. You can work on collecting mounts and getting the rare ones. There are achievements, although I only like doing ones that give a reward (the rewards are titles, pets, mounts) and I don’t do achievements just to get more points.
I also really suggest playing through some of the level 80 stuff before moving on to an alt because in a few months all of the leveling zones will be totally revamped and will contain all new quests that are “cooler” and similar to Northrend quests (more involved that just killing 10 of something) and it will be a lot more enjoyable to go through 1-60 than it is now. Especially because if you would like to see any of the current content, you need to do it now. Once the expansion comes out no one will be doing any of the current raid zones except for the rare PUG raid to get achievements.
Anyways, hope my suggestions are helpful. It’s funny, I play EQ2 to take breaks from WoW…you do the opposite :P
@Dril – In EQ2 once you reach ‘end game’ it’s not a gear grind, but a different grind. It’s to get max aa, master spells, and you can do it in any zone you wish (aside from master spells which require the newest ones) you’re not forced into doing dungeons at all. There’s still progress to be made. Since WoW doesn’t have an aa system, just talent points and spells that you purchase, once you reach level 80 *all* there is is dungeons to run over and over. In EQ2 I could mentor and do older zones and still benefit from it. Or work on housing. Etc.
Also, I like gear score. NOT because I think everyone needs a certain number or because I hold myself to it, but because it DOES allow me a frame of reference on where I need to improve.
Thank you guys for the info on what comes next!
Question: what’s the EQ2 endgame if not a gear grind?
With regards to your gearscore: pay it no heed. Seriously, uninstall the addon right now and try and find a raiding guild that’s got flexible raiding attendance if you so desire. GearScore is NOT something you want to aim for. You want to aim for feeling ready: an arbitrary number CANNOT tell you that. Find Pick up raids that don’t require a GS or where the raid leader is a sane human being and not a dipshit and gearscore is a total irrelevance to raiding. Also, when looking for a guild don’t be drawn in by “social raiding,” I’ve been there, and let me tell you unless you know the people really well, social raiding is a pain in the arse if you’re a good player with a good character.
With regards to emblems of triumph, if you really are starting from scratch I suggest get the t9 first then aim for the 245 pieces: you need a good rate of good gear, not great gear.
The worst thing about WoW groups with the LFD tool is how people rush. I can somewhat understand if it was a heroic, as you are somewhat expected to have been around the block already, but people are just too impersonal and impatient with that thing. Sorry the experience was a bad one for you. Please understand that there are some decent WoW players out there. I am one of them. So, don’t lose all hope. :)
ToC is a rough place to jump into right at 80 I would think. It is one of the harder hitting dungeons for that level I believe. Plus, the joust mechanics are completely new if you haven’t been spamming the tournament dailies yet. BUT, the place is absolutely overflowing with great gear. My recommendations for gearing up for heroics would be to grab the add-on called Atlas Loot Enhanced. It will provide you with a little ring icon around the outside of the mini-map. Clicking on this opens up the interface where you can look up any raid or dungeon and see what gear the bosses drop. Find upgrades you want and try to get them. Once you are able to earn triumph badges ( mostly through random heroics unfortunately ) you can spam those and very quickly earn your full tier 9 armor set. There are triumph emblem vendors in Dalaran that sell tier 9 ( they are also outside the Tournament grounds in Icecrown) and also ones that sell fantastic rings, trinkets, etc for triumph emblems. Also, keep in mind that lower level emblems ( heroism and conquest ) no longer drop in the game. However, you can still buy stuff from these type vendors ( they are located near the Triumph emblem vendor ) by trading in your Triumph emblems for an emblem of the lower kind ( Triumph -> Conquest -> Heroism )
** protip: You can shift click on the things you buy to buy a stack of them. So when you are trading down emblems, shift click on them to trade down batches at a time.
Other than dungeon instances though, you should be able to start doing daily quests. The area you will want to focus on is the tournament grounds in Icecrown. You can do the dailies ( all but 2 or them are soloable. Once you gear up a lot you may even be able to solo those two ). These dailies will earn you tournament marks ( cant remember what they are called). These marks can be traded in for a variety of different things like tabards, mounts, pets, etc, but some of the vendors sell trinkets and weapons that are probably really good for your level. Check out what they have.
The dailies are also an AWESOME source of gold, which will help since you can use gold to buy materials for Crusader Orb level gear. Crusader Orbs drop the ToC level raids, but can be traded and sold. They are used as materials for armor pieces roughly equivalent to tier 9 armor. Buying a few of these pieces can REALLY give you a good boost to be ready for heroics ASAP. Some of the crusader level gear pieces are gear slots that are not part of the tier 9 armor. For example, you can have crusader level bracers and boots crafted that will match well with your tier 9 armor, but are not part of the tier 9 armor set.
I realize that that was a mountainous wall of text and I hope it helped at least a little. It is a lot to take in, but it isn’t too bad. Kind of a grind, but what isn’t a grind about any MMO endgame? Good luck and happy hunting/healing!