Friday, April 29, 2011

Hyjal Complete 83 now, long road ahead

Well, I hit 83 last night, got some nice new pieces for Mhorgrim, and Hyjal is finished. It was the epic hero questline, I loved it. Now its over. I have to get back to Vash'Jir. I can't say I'm too excited to go back to Sea World, but I know it's got to get done. I'm a land lubber what can I say? Funny since in the RL I'm a Scorpio. Now I grant, I haven't given Vash'Jir much of a chance, I think I've completed maybe 15 quests in it. I'm just not big on the whole underwater thing. Guess we will see where that leads. I have to say, the epic battle against Ragnaros was pretty fun, I almost felt like I was in a mini raid even though I was solo. If I ever do retire Mhorgrim, I think I'll head back over to Hyjal and park him there. There is something about those awe inspiring mountain landscapes that appeal to me.

On another note, I am looking forward to the 4.2 questlines. I know, I have barely scratched the end questlines for Cata but still, the whole figuring out what happened to Thrall and seeing advancement is kinda cool. Asides, Going to the Firelands looks pretty epic as well. In the meantime, I am also enjoying the Winterspiring cub that my wife sent me the other day. Hopelessly non progression related, but I like the lil fella, kinda cool and better than a regular mewling cat.

Most of this is just rambling but hey I get to talk about what's been happening so umm ya. Have a great day out there!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I must recant a previous statement....

So yesterday I got Mhorgrim up to level 82 and then the inevitable Steel wall of slow xp to 83. It was a Blast though. I really enjoyed the hell out of Hyjal and I see subtle changes in the environment as a reward for my efforts. I pay attention to that you know. The neat thing was when the Spirit of the Ancients gave me that speech of cool guyness and how I am now charged with protecting Hyjal. I felt like I accomplished something. I know primarily it was solo work but I got pretty immersed within the storyline and its effects. I used to bitch about how I hated the phasing for quest lines. Here is the thing though, phasing allowed me to see changes in the environment that previously I didn't see. It meant I affected something with all of my questing. I know I was one of many that gave a bad rap to phased quests. I recant that statement from the past. After carefully reviewing the areas post quest line, I saw definitive effects on the environment. Why is this important? It meant I didn't live in a completely static environment. I think that's a big bonus. Now it does wreak hell on partners or groups. I got that, but really, just about every single quest is easy enough to complete. It aint that hard. In the end, despite a few flaws with phased quests, I am over all very happy with the immersive storyline.

On to other stuff,

I have learned everything I am able to learn from the Blacksmith trainers in the Major cities. I hit 82 really easy but is pretty tough getting to 83. Ran 4 dungeons last night with the guild which was very good for us as a guild. The fun thing was, my wife and I started running instances again together. I am used to her primarily being a healer so was a bit nervous when we had a member I hadn't worked with before heal for me as a newbie tank for the instances. Point is, it was a blast that we both had toons high enough to run together as a team again. She is enjoying her Boomkin blow the crap outta stuff so more power to her. We had a few hiccups though, I hadn't tanked these instances and didn't realize that compared to the easy mode crap I saw in Wrath and BC coming up through the ranks, I was in for a huge eye opener. Mobs hit a lot harder and I really wasn't geared enough for the instance. A couple of fights were a little more than spank n tank with some kiting involved. Ya I know, all you hardcore raider and heroic guys out there are laughin to tears. But hey I am still new to tankin in general. Overall, and with the patience of my guild we got through it and I started to learn what needed to be done in the future.

I am holding off for a bit on pvp while I turn serious attention to Mhorgrim's advancement. Most of my guildees are Military and therefor we are pretty tightknit. The problem of course is when one or more need to be out on the move for whatever reason. So its been tough to get enough people ready for not just heroics but also the future as 10 man crews. I doubt we will ever get to the 25man but maybe at least 10 man down the road. Anyways, when I feel Mhorgrim is progressed enough I will  hit back into pvp. Part of that of course is both Grimnhak and Damios are at level breaches where I would need to seriously concentrate on killing a couple of levels and getting the right gear since I don't own BOA gear as yet.

In the Real world, I will be moving sometime in late May, so around that time frame if I go silent for a couple of weeks its simply us moving around and getting settled.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Leveling, questing and stuff

Well last night I hit 81 on Mhorgrim, still working towards 82 by tonight. Good thing I actually did do some work on Blacksmithing, it made my initial questiong a dream. Suprising what a couple of decent pieces of gear meant for Cata can do for you. I am actually enjoying all my questing out there, I like the story lines coming through the Hyjel line. It actually brings a lot forward and helps me complete the storylines. I was really afraid of not enjoying this time but I'm having a ball. I think what got me riled a month ago was that Outland and Northrend seemed as though they were in a bubble for the most part. I enjoy Northrend mind you, but I despise Outland.

Something to bear in mind if you PvP, there are  a lot of glitches out there right now with questing as well as BG's. Get rid of your old Addons, they are reaking havoc with questiong as well as and especially BG's. I actually got frozen last night just before I ended in one BG. Had to get a GM to give me a lift out of there. I was happy with their quick response, I think I only had to wait ten minutes from the time I submitted to getting assistance. Seeing as how this is a brand new patch that all the cry babies were screaming is late, I'm pretty happy with the service. I just logged over to my othr toon for a few expecting a long wait. Lo and behold it wasnt very long and a GM conacted me and resolved the situation. The GM did say addons are really rough right now, so make sure you update your addons the second you can. Be very careful about BGs as well, not sure about instances yet as Im having too much fun just questing which for me is pretty refreshing.

Ok, folks enjoy your day!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Apologies and a fun weekend....

First and foremost, normally I write at least 4 - 5 times a week as a habit. My apologies for being silent in that area. There are a couple of reasons for this. One, I have been devoting a lot of time towards my career progression classes in the real world. This takes a fair amount of time during my day where I used to have a lot of spare time. Lets face it, I love WoW. I love Blogging, but I have to balance that with my real job. The second part of this however, is that I spend a fair amount of time reading other peoples blogs, I think I am subscribed to almost 60 now lol. I tend to write short comments where appropriate but it is time consuming to read every one's thoughts, so that slows down my own writing. The thing is, I love all the blogs I read, everyone has good stuff to say. I don't always comment, but I love the community and I am addicted to reading other people's thoughts or commentary. So, my apologies in this area.

Now, let's see. Oh yes, I took a break from my regular guild over the past few days. Most of them are gearing up in the real world to go out overseas for military duty, so I rarely see or hear from anyone lately. What did this break include? Well, it wasn't a break from playing that's for sure. My main did manage to get his 500th HK which is laughable because I doubt as a tank he has more than a handful of killing blows. I parked him again as he is close to hitting lv 80. But then what? My guild is all quiet and I hate running Ronin style. Well there is the other 5 lv's to go, but really I don't want to deal with that yet till I get some better gear. My Feral pvp druid Damios hit 30 so his BG days are limited for a couple of levels. I do need to get some farming done for more cash flow to feed my little army though. That is the limit of my Alliance side work.

My real fun was with my Orc hunter Grimnhak over the weekend. While leveling he is a cash cow, but then its on to the BG's and open world pvp wherever I can find it. I am noticing he is having a harder time fighting out there and I do need to add in an additional pvp style pet but I had a blast fighting AB all weekend. I am currently specced Survival, not sure if its the best for pvp but I stiil love it anyhow. At anyrate, because AB was on the extra honor awards, that's where I fought. Sadly, my horde compatriots had very little in the ways of healers on the pug side. Worse, many times they didn't remember to fight at the flags and to hold ground. Too often I found myself either alone or with maybe 1 or 2 others to defend. This became an issue as in AB you need to hold the points with at least 5. Even if the enemy zergs on you, they rarely to it organized enough to put a serious push on you. Everyone is racing so their attack is rarely coordinated and you can pick them off one at a time a they approach at range. The problem arose when in many of the fights I ran, zerg mentality ruled the day. I'm not sure if they were trying to get acheivements done, but it was at many times brutal. I'd say throughout the day on Sunday, I saw a 30% win ratio. Not too impressive but it did teach me a lot about what not to do.

Some things I did have a ton of fun even when the battle was lost:
Traps galore! Gods having traps everywhere has saved my skin. Being able to move my pet as a sentry for early warning approach. Tracking both unstealth and hidden. Hunters may not put out the ultimate dps, but their additional abilities make them a unique and welcomed Swiss army knife. Flare is another beautiful thing, cuts back on those 1 shot ambushes significantly.

Things I need to get:
A new pet. I love my raptor, don't know why but I do. Spiders though are so damned useful in slowing the prey down. I hate spiders, but it looks like I'll need one. Enchants and glyphs. On Grimnhak's server (Emerald Dream) prices are stupid outrageous. I am not a part of a solid pvp guild as yet. I did manage to find a low Lev guild though to be honest I don't think pvp is their focus. Soooo...I am somewhat ham stringed their. The problem is, there aren't too many pvp guilds on that server accepting lowbie toons still learning the Art of War. It's ok, I'm bashing my way slowly up the ladder, just waiting for the right time for him. I thought about finding a strictly pvp server but I have yet to find one that is ok with a newbie pvper like myself. Much like the titanic Raid guilds out there, PvP guilds can be very much the same way in looking at the peons of the world lol.

Finally, for anyone looking for a good pvp outlook on patch 4.1, I advise you to head on over to Cynwise's Site and read this. Excellent info for those wanting to know the up and coming scope of the pvp world. Cynwise is also very very experienced on the BG strats etc, it is definitely worth looking at. Yup that was my shameless plugs for one of the Bloggers that I got a lot of respect for lol. Anyways, I hope your Easter went well everyone, for those who spent a little time doing the Noble Garden stuff, hope you got yer Bunny on! Speaking of which, good places to get the eggs and such: Alliance get on down over to Dolanaar or umm the Space Goat zone. Avoid the hell out of Human or Dwarf zones they are always ovewr camped.  For Horde, try out The Blood Elf beginning zone, not too bad there for gettin yer egg on. And with that, take care one and all, I am still out there pluggin away!