WoW Update I

Some quick thoughts before the jump…

  • The Blood Elf noob zones are amazingly well designed.  They have continuity, great quest synergy and are beautiful and full of unique flavor.
  • Starting over from scratch is tough to get used to.   I ran out of cash because I trained all of the weapon skills at L10, forgetting that I still have to pinch pennies.  Compared to my Twink alliance alt that I started for the 10-19 battlegrounds, who had 2000 gold sitting in her mailbox when she got to the very first mailbox in Goldshire.
  • Warcraft, with all of its many flaws is still an amazing game, and nothing can compare to the incredible population levels available in every zone.  Many games have whole swaths of territory vacant after the first leveling rush passes, but no matter your level, you can always find others in WoW, no matter where you are or what you are working on.

We have started over on Shattered Hand.  I wanted to stay in the Ruin Battlegroup, so that I could still bump into my old friends and  from Magtheridon inside the BGs.   Also, there is a long list of people who really need to get ganked, but their being on the same faction got in the way of it before.

We have been cruising through the quests and levels around Silvermoon City and in the Ghostlands, and finished the night last night close to L18.   I am playing a Paladin named Cyndre and my wife is playing a Warlock named Narielle.   She keeps commenting on how utterly amazing and fun the Warlock class is, which comes as no surprise to me after three years playing the class as my main.   I am enjoying the Paladin, and frankly, this combination is grossly overpowered for the level.   Presumably, that will be the case straight through, and that class combo in the Arenas is very strong.

The other project I have started working on, is a Twink rogue to play in the 10-19 battlegrounds bracket.   I rolled a female human on my old server, Magtheridon named Cyndrea.   I mailed her 2000 gold to get started and quickly leveled past the Northshire Abbey zone and went straight to Stormwind.   I purchased a number of very nice items for the L19 cap, grossly overpaying to the delight of some lucky salesperson.   400 gold later, I had cllected about 80% of the items I would need for my final build.  

Last night I finished leveling to 10, started the Van Cleef questline to eventually get the Tunic of Westfall, but was stopped short after the third quest due to a level restriction.   I will return to that when she gets to 14.   I decided to try a speed run through the Deadmines, so I logged my L70 Warrior, Sunzu, on and put her on auto-follow, and destroyed the instance in about 30 minutes.   In the end, all three nice rogue daggers dropped, including Cruel Barb, which will compliment the Shadow Fang that I bought.   

Tonight, I plan to do a speed run to the murlock boss in Wailing Caverns for the shoulders, and then I have gathered every drop I need.   Once I get to L16, its back to Deadmines to finish that quest line, and then my final task is to complete the ‘Unsent Letter’ quest line to get the Seal of Wrynn.   After that my Warlock will enchant everything, i’ll finish leveling and start the slaughter.

Fun, fun…

~Cyndre 

7 thoughts on “WoW Update I”

  1. I have tried the Rogue level 19 twink. Its fun, but you really have to get the items enchanted. I have yet to get most of my items enchanted so my HP are on the low side. Its tough going in there with 700 hp when the other team has rogues with 1200 or more. But I’m sure you knew all that lol.

  3. Oakstout, I enchanted everything right away. +15 agi on both weapons, +100hp on head and chest, minor speed on boots (and I plan to get a second pair to put stam on with a macro to swap them) stam on bracers, agi on gloves etc…

    I put all of the best enchants available on the items. Since I have two retired L70 toons on the server and about 10,000 gold, one toon being 375 warlock with every enchant available and tons of mats, it is really quite simple to do for me.

    I played a match at L10 with no real gear equipped at the time due to the level restrictions, and I was absolutly decimated by the other players. 10-19 is really a serious pvp bracket and without top level twink gear and enchants and lots of practice, it is very hard to compete.

  4. “but no matter your level, you can always find others in WoW, no matter where you are or what you are working on”

    I’m possibly the last person in the world to have started WoW, and find that it takes rather a long time to get a PUG for the low level instances – it took about an hour and a half to get a group that was capable of making progress in Ragefire Chasm, and that’s starting from two of us. Our Alliance characters have picked up the Blackfathom Depths quests but not managed to get a suitable group yet.

    (this is on Eonar server)

    I too am planning a l19 PVP Undead Rogue, but I’ve not got anything like that amount of gold and so am planning to equip him from PvP reward gear. Is this at all a workable plan?

  5. Peter, it is not possible to completely gear up through honor rewards. When you are capped at L19, the reward selections are not complete, and need to be supplimented with lots of world or instance drops.

    If you are serious about playing long term at that level bracket, researh the gear you can get before you level past 10, so that you have enough xp time to obtain what you need.

    As horde, you will want to get Blackened Defias Chestplate and Cruel Barb off of Van Cleef in Deadmines, Shoulders from Wailing Caverns, you can get a decent offhand from either the shredder or Smite in Deadmines as well, and the two PvP reward weapons are also pretty good.

    You’ll need to pick up boots, bracers, pants, gloves, neck, and head from other sources as those can not be obtained in PvP. I suggest engineering got the Goggles at skill 135, Deviate Scale Pants, which can be made by a leatherworker, Forest Leather Bracers which are very cheap on the AH and any ‘of the monkey’ for the remaining slots.

    Your biggest issue will be gear enchants, but you can add those later or over time. Don’t get discouraged if you get rolled by a twink pre-made the first few fights. Its very hard to compete before you’ve gotten everything in order.

    As for RFC troubles and PUGs, I suppose we are lucky to have chosen a high population server. We were able to put a group together for Ragefire in about 15 minutes and blew through it in just over 30 minutes. It was our first time there since we played Alliance these past years.

  6. WOW has two things that have kept me there even when I’m on the hate side of my feelings for Blizzard.

    1. Amazing leveling zones. Even when you consider the ones we think stink, they are still miles above the competition in ease, diversity and solo ability.

    2. Life everywhere. With 9.3 million players the zones are alive and the major cities bursting with activity. I may solo but I LOVE seeing the bustling activity of others. It adds a dimension to the game play that conole RPGs and games with small populations can’t match or simulate.

    I hate the end-game blah-blah but the ride there is really amazing, and I’ve done it times 3 now to 70. I have a Warlock and Paladin. The Warlock was my main at day one, and it is now the undisputed OP class in the game so sure, leveling will be fantastic. That wasn’t the case when I was leveling mine. Paladin is huge fun too and once you hit around mid 20s check into AOE grinding with the protection spec and spiked shield. It’s a total adrenaline rush!! Lock and Pally together – nuf said on uberness. The only other combo that could be as sweet would be Lock and Druid.

    Good luck and have lots of fun!!

    P.S. to Peter: forget the instances until Outlands. Very few people are doing any of them in Azeroth. However, at least on Illidan, I constantly see people looking do to the Outland instances. Not so much the Hellfire ones but those are optional. I ran a few PUGs in the beginning, got pissed and skipped them Hellfire ones afterward and still hit 70 just fine. I had decent gear from PVP, quests and my tailoring professions so you’re not missing out on much.

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