WoW

Learning the Shadow Priest

stargrace September 18, 2010 2Comments

As much as I love my warlock (and I do) she was not my ‘first’ character – that would be Faydai, my priest. I’ve had the character for quite some time, leveled up the ‘regular’ way and feel more connected to this character then any of my others. Yesterday on a suggestion from a friend I decided to do some research into the shadow spec and see how viable it would be for me to have two completely different specs (ie: discipline for healing, and shadow for face melting). Since I’ve never played the priest for anything but healing this was actually quite challenging for me.

The other down side was that my gear is certainly more on the healing side then on the dps side. This would be the first character I have where two completely different sets of gear would be a must have, especially since the two specs require very different gems. After a lot of research I figured out a casting order, as well as which stats I wanted to work towards for my gear. I learned about which gems I should aim for, as well as enchants. I spent the day queued as dps instead of healing (which was far less stressful then healing might I add) and saved up enough emblems to add the a pair of shoulders and gloves to the shadow collection. I also won a neck piece and a few trinket upgrades (because I was still sporting greens). I switched some gems around to my regular set pieces, and when all was said and done I wasn’t doing too badly as far as damage. I’m still below where I’d like to be, but I can hold my own more often than not – especially on group encounters. Single target I have to really work at but I know it will come with time (and more gear).

After much consideration, I also left the guild I was in. They were simply not a good fit for me what so ever and I spent most of my day feeling uncomfortable around one or two of the members. I have NO idea how one goes about finding a guild in WoW and I’m reluctant to take on this endeavor simply because of the sort of community that one finds in game.  Despite my seeming negativity I AM optimistic that I can find a mature guild that I’d be a good match for. Just another adventure I suppose.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I hope everyone has an awesome weekend.

I Believe I can Fly

stargrace September 17, 2010 1Comment

I remember saying in a previous post that I didn’t enjoy WoW for long amounts of time because there was “nothing to do” aside from dungeon grind. A reader suggested that I find other things to do, like collecting companion pets and mounts, working on achievements, those types of things. At the time I sort of shrugged it off and thought nothing of it. Now that a few months have passed and I’ve been playing WoW more often then not – I have to agree with them 100%. WoW may not have player housing (sigh) but there ARE other things for me to do aside from dungeon grind.

That’s not to say I don’t dungeon grind a fair amount. I sure do. Yesterday my warlock managed to reach 5k gs (gear score) which is nice for a non-raider (and I’m not talking about PvP gear which raises your gs by insane amounts but does NOT mean you’ll do well in instances as people have shown me time and time again). I’m at a ‘comfortable’ level in game, no longer a complete liability to my groups, and able to hold my own quite well in the DPS department. I’ve worked really hard on the warlock, and the class is a LOT of fun to play.

When I’m bored / tired of doing dungeons I’ve taken to working on achievements, and completing fun random quests that I never did the first time through. Yesterday I spent the better part of my day working on the ‘keymaster’ achievement, which required me to obtain keys from areas that players barely visit these days, especially with the LFD tool so readily available. I ended up exploring Dire Maul as well as the non-heroic version of Stratholme. The warlock finally got her mining to 450 – and engineering is close behind at a steady 431.

Of course, then there are the alts to worry about. My priest is not exactly under geared but nor is she all that well geared. Sitting at a gs of around 4k or so, there’s a lot of work to be done. I’m saving up emblems for shoulders (75, ugh) as well as a hat. She also needs new trinkets (hers are completely abysmal). I’d really like to be able to raid on the character some day, but I find healing PUGs difficult – well, not difficult so much as a test in incredible patience and leaving me with a lot of frustration. Why play a game if you’re just going to be frustrated all of the time. If I didn’t actually CARE whether or not I did a good job I probably wouldn’t be so annoyed playing the class, but I can’t compensate for everyone else when they decide to do something dumb in a dungeon.

I’ve also taken to collecting recipes. Pictured above, my engineer sporting her latest mount. The thing looks (and sounds) like it’s about to fall apart at any minute, and that just makes me want to fly it even more. It’s great. I love going through my list of recipes and finding out what I’m missing and where it comes from. Working on expanding my collection is a great pass time.

In the end, yes, I’ve found other things to do aside from dungeon grind. It just took a little time. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A Time for Alts

stargrace September 15, 2010 1Comment

Long ago I came to the conclusion that I will never be one of those people who has a ‘main’ or even just one or two characters. No, I will always be one of ‘those’ people who has a whole army of alts, and spend most of my time contemplating the fact that if I spent all my energy focusing on one character instead of the handful that I have well, who knows what wonders I’d have experienced in game. Eventually I go through a phase where I just want to delete all of my alts and concentrate on a main – and then the next day I go and create another alt. It’s still a battle I deal with daily.

In WoW at the moment I have two ‘mains’ and would ideally like more. I have my 80 warlock (who is <this> close to 5k gs and I’m really excited I have to admit) and then the 80 priest who I’ve slowly been trying to gear up. You may recall that I switched my talents around on the priest from holy to discipline and it’s been working out much better for me (more survivability to the group = less healing required). I also changed my warlock spec around to destruction, and learned how to make full use of it.

I’ve got a 70 shaman with a restoration and enhancement build, as well as a 66 death knight, and then two smaller alts, a 34 druid and a 17 paladin. Eventually I’d love to see all of them at 80, but it’s not something I’m rushing towards.

When Cataclysm comes out I’ve also decided I’d really like to try alliance, and will probably make a .. well, who knows. I am in the beta but have refrained from playing the two new races because I’d like to see how the expansion is going to affect my current characters instead. Have to leave some sort of surprise after all!

I hope I’m not the only one out there who has this .. alt habit. I don’t think I am, but one never knows!

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Coin Collector

stargrace September 12, 2010 0Comment

Instead of battling creatures and working on gathering emblems, I spent most of yesterday with my fishing rod and bait, standing by the fountain in Dalaran. I was determined to catch the last few bronze and gold coins I needed in order to finish off my collections, and after raising my fishing to 437 and casting my line more times then I can count, I was rewarded. I finally finished the achievement for finishing all three coin collections, and received the item pictured above in the mail. It’s a neat little role play item that has you flipping a coin to either heads or tails. Useful? No, not really. It’s these little trinkets and achievements that make my character unique to me and a lot of fun to play.

That’s not to say I didn’t run any instances, I did. The warlock found herself in heroic Halls of Reflection, a place I’d never been to even on regular mode with the character. The group was great, and even though I died once on the initial wave encounter, we completed the zone without too many issues. I even won myself a nice ring – and it also granted me enough emblems to purchase a second ring. The warlock is coming along nicely, and I really enjoy the class a great deal.

I also ran through a few dungeons on the priest, working towards finishing her set of gear. She is sporting the gloves and pants, next is the robe. Then hat and shoulders which each take 75 emblems so I’m just really not looking forward to it. Thankfully with each piece of gear upgrade instances also become easier to heal, and the more I run the more I realize that people will die no matter what depending on the situation, and it certainly is not always my fault.

I hope everyone else has been having a great weekend too, no matter where you find yourself. Happy gaming!

Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj and Healing Heroics

stargrace September 11, 2010 1Comment

Continuing on with the ‘lets see what other trouble we can get into’ plan, Toargo and myself decided to try the 20 man raid zone Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj. Neither of us had been there before, but it looked pretty neat. Of course first we went back to Zul’Gurub to try to get the mounts to drop (which they did not). Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj is a fun raid zone, with some neat encounters. It was a lot easier to complete because none of the encounters involved mind control tactics. Our only ‘oh no’ moment was when Toargo decided to ‘see what would happen’ when he dove head first into a pile of slime. Of course, this was right after he told me that the slime would eat him, and then drain his life until he died. I foolishly tried to heal him through this, and we both ended up floating around the inside of a mass of jello.

Live and learn.

Achievement obtained, I decided it was time to brave my fears and work on gathering emblems for the healer. Now that I’ve played through just about every instance on heroic (aside from Halls of Reflection) on the warlock, I’m pretty familiar with all of the encounters.

Heroic Halls of Lightning went as smooth as that zone ever does. No wipes, and no deaths. Heroic Azjol-Nerub was also fairly simple. Heroic Trial of the Champion ended with three people dead but I kept the hunter up just fine and we finished the encounter. I also won a nice cloak that was an enormous upgrade over the one I had been wearing, and a pair of shoes (one of my weakest slots). After that it was time for Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle, and heroic Nexus.

None of these zones are particularly difficult, but I did learn a few things. Number one, it doesn’t matter how good of a healer you are, if someone is under geared and unaware of the fact that they are undergeared (ie: they have no idea how to compensate for it) they WILL die. I have decided it’s a lot easier for me to heal ranged players then it is for me to heal death knights and rogues. Especially rogues. Number two, if players don’t know the encounter, they will die. Not all of the time but I mean for things like – avoiding whirlwind. A disgruntled death knight called me out for “letting him die” on a whirlwind. Of course I let him die, there was no way I was going to heal him through that. Number one I was concentrating on the main tank (always my main goal) and number two – it’s whirlwind! Stop attacking and move out of the way!

Also, I changed my priests talents around. I had always gone two routs, holy and shadow (two builds). Turns out that holy MAY be the best for pure healing, but it does not appear to be the best for instance healing. Whether this is restricted to my play style or not, I have no idea. I switched over to a discipline build (57/14/0) and things are MUCH easier. For one I’m conserving far more mana, and two my groups seem to be far more resistant to damage. Both things have played a huge role in my instance survivability.

When all was said and done I had gathered enough emblems to purchase my set legs, which grants me my two piece bonus. Robe (50 emblems) is next on the agenda, and then 75 emblems for hat and shoulders. Unlike the warlock this time I won’t be going for my four piece bonus (it’s not that great).

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend.