Category Archives: WOTLK

Ok so my blog has been pretty, well, squishy so far. Lately though I’ve noticed that there’s a real lack of content for a whole set of folks playing WoW, the Post WotLK Newbs. Why should I write for these folks? I mean is being a newb now really any different than it was to be a newb in BC or in Vanilla WoW? Actually yeah.. it is.

So in Vanilla WoW, life was different for Newbs. I didn’t get a chance to play WoW during the vanilla WoW days, but I know a lot of folks who have. I’ve listened to their stories and I’ve gotta say that the game was a lot different for folks just starting out back in those days than it is now. There was only one ‘world’, there were only 60 levels to the level cap, there were more folks to group with at lower levels, and Auction House prices were a little more reasonable (for the most part).

Now fast forward to the Burning Crusade expansion. Everyone runs for level 70. The Burning Crusade adds two new elements to the game Dailies and Heroics. These are two great new features that give players something to do aside from raiding and PvP once they get up to 70. There’s also a lot of gold to be had in them there Outlands! With shiny new gear and all this new content, folks pretty much abandoned the old world for the Outlands and never looked back. Sure they’d level an alt once in a while, but why go through all that grind when you can just hang out in Shattrah City and show off all your awesome new gear and yep a flying mount!! For folks that started the game post Burning Crusade, you now had 70 levels to catch up on, an inflated server economy because people would rather spend gold than have their main set foot in the old world, and aside from Barrens Chat, the Old World seemed bleak and empty.

This is where I entered WoW. I spent a lot of time questing solo and since I was solo leveling a Priest, I’m really surprised that I didn’t quit the game all together. I did make friends when I first started out. In fact my first 5 minutes in the game I made my first WoW friend ever who invited me over to the Horde side. Once on the Horde side I found another friend that I ran with for a few months. Once my real life friend found out I was playing she let me know which server she was on and I re-rolled a priest to compliment her hubby’s Warrior and her Mage. My buddy followed me over and rolled a warrior, but these two classes were just so annoying to level that we just eventually gave up. I quit the game for a while and he went back to his old server. When I got back to the game I got back to leveling that Priest, this time solo of course. It wasn’t fast leveling that’s for sure and it took a lot of strategy to complete quests without spending most of my playtime in the graveyard. My friend and her hubby helped me out and chatted with me when they were online, but they were almost to 70 so I didn’t see them very often since they were leveling in the Outlands. There was also only one way to get in and out of the Outlands making it a bit of a hassle for higher level folks to get back into the old world. Since there was so much to do at level 70, there weren’t a whole lot of folks rolling alts and since I started between expansions, there also weren’t a whole lot of folks starting up the game for the first time, so the old world was pretty lonely. Actually once I even made it up to the Outlands, they were pretty empty as well.

In rolls WotLK. So many sweet new features, more accessible end game content, new dailies, new flying mounts, achievements, it’s almost a whole new game. Now all of the folks who were 70 rushed up the 10 levels to get to 80. They whined a bit, but once they got there they were gearing up for end game content, doing more dailies, leveling trade skills, whining about being bored in the new Shattrah, Dalaran. Blizz did make it a little easier to get in and out of Northrend, but there’s so much to do out there, why go back to the Outlands, and so many of those folks spent so much time on the old world content that they aren’t going back, well unless they need to hit the auction house of course.

I’m feeling for folks who are starting to play WoW now, or started playing around the time the expansion hit. Now it seems like things are even more expensive since there seems to be even more gold in the new continent. Leveling has been toned down so it’s faster to get to 80, but there’s two problems with that. First off trade skills are problematic because chances are you’ll level out of a zone before you gather enough materials to get your trade skills high enough for the next zone. Less quests are required to get to the next level while that means dealing with fewer of the ‘get 50 ears for Zul’tan’ style quests, it also means less coin. This can make it a lot harder to pay for class training, travel, and mounts (training and the mount). It also makes it easier to skip group quests. If you can get the xp elsewhere and it’s too much of a pain to get a group together, why bother finishing those quests? Problem is that grouping for dungeons is a great way to learn how the skills of one class work with the other classes to take down the bosses. Without this experience there’s a ton of people that are getting up into the end game content and basically doing all the same things they’d do while they were running solo. That just doesn’t work and ends up leading to a string of wipes and a lot of wasted time (ok granted there’s probably also a lot of folks that just didn’t have the patience to get ready for and raid in the BC expansion that are now running amok in WotLK and making us all look bad).

So safe to say WoW is slowly becoming a game that’s really unfriendly to new players. Yeah the recruit a friend program is really helpful, in that it gets you to the level cap faster, but think of all the content that’s getting passed up on the way to 80.

Since I'm blogging from a different computer tonight I don't really have a picture to add to the blog. It's a sin I know but hey I'm blogging from bed so… Hmmm probably shouldn't have shared that part. Well anywho I actually tried to get through Utguard Keep today with a group of friends. Safe to say I actually had fun. I need to work on my tanking though, and probably go blood instead of Unholy. The pet's kind of nice, but I can see how it's a pain to heal and I feel really sorry for the Priest we had with us (who did an awesome job by the way). I also hit 72 finally after clearing the second room. Yippee 8 more levels to go.  /sigh

I did however finally pick up that Axe I'd been drooling over the Edge of the Tuskarr. I also hit the Auction House to see if I could upgrade a piece or two of my armor. Really the only way I'm going to get any experience tanking will be to, yeah Tank. So I probably ought to get out there and get to business. The sad part is that pretty much ever other message in the general channels includes requests for healers and tanks. Hey if nothing else I should start answering those just to push up my experience bar.  

I think though, if I changed out for a Blood tanking build, I'd drop Dual Wielding. Then again I could just stick with Dual Wielding for now, but just go for a Frost tanking build. The only reason I'm leaning toward a Blood build is that it's easier on healers. After being a healer I like the idea of making their jobs easier. Although I haven't tried an all Blood build yet, so perhaps I should give it a shot and just see what I think. I was not a big fan of running Frost. The burst damage is kind of nice, but the rest of the time there's not a lot going on. Also until Unbreakable Armor, the shielding DK talent is buffed a bit, the Unholy equivalent, Bone Shield is really very helpful.

Then again, since I run solo a lot, I'm wondering if sticking with Unholy isn't such a bad thing. That little pet ghoul can be pretty helpful. Then again that's only if I remember to set him to docile before making a pull and then setting him to defensive once the mob is in range. Otherwise I end up aggroing half the mobs in the area as the idiot goul goes chasing after whatever it is I'm trying to pull one mob in. Oh well, AOE for the win right? 

OK so last night by the time I logged off I ended up hitting 70 as mentioned, and I’d run around collecting some new gear. So right now I’m up to the Mightstone Helm, the Pugnacious Collar, the Ramshorn Inlaid Shoulders, Mightstone Breastplate, Mightstone Legplates, the Scout’s Signet Ring, and the Rigid Tuskring.  After picking up the Rigid Tusk Ring I threw my swords back on again (if nothing else just to keep my skills up) and WOW, what a difference that extra expertise makes! I had dropped the two swords in exchange for 2 handed quest rewards to get a little extra damage in as my Dual Wielding became a little hampered by my lack of +hit and boosted expertise. I enjoyed being a whirling instrument of destruction again for a bit.

The evening also became a little more interesting after the General Channel erupted into non-stop madness when a player asked for the location of a quest and received the response ‘crossroads’. Of course the player posing the question had to point out that the Crossroads is in the Barrens. Somehow I guess he/she never considered that there could be more than one place in the game where roads crossed and hence formed crossroads. But that’s neither here nor there. Next thing you know there’s a dude claiming Mankrick’s wife is at his house, another dude asking if Mankrick knows, and three other people asking if this is all part of the standard fee or if we’re paying extra for this nonsense. I did notice hosever a severe lack of Chuck Norris jokes which tend to be a staple in Barrens chat asshattery. The worst part is that I’m not sure whether I should feel that I dodged a mental blow by missing out, or if I should feel cheated. Either way I’m puzzled by my reaction.

It saddens me to say though that as swiftly as the general channel cleared of all intelligent life forms, I too dropped Dual Wielding again, well at least for now. Last night I also completed Hellscream’s Champion for which I was rewarded the Axe of Frozen Death. Finally a blue item to drop in the slots. I rushed back to Acherus to slap the Rune of Cinderglacier on it and made my way back to Northrend. While it isn’t the main hand Axe I’m waiting on, it does look pretty intimidating.

I’ve got to admit, I like the gear in Northrend a lot more than the gear from the Outlands. It’s kind of nice to put on matching quest rewards armor. Ah there’s nothing quite like trying to head out to cause terror only to look as though you’ve dressed yourself in the dark. There were times in the old world where I was just waiting for some humanoid mobs to say ‘look it’s bad enough that you’ve come trouncing into my home, but seriously, you’re not going to kill me while wearing that are you’? Don’t get me wrong, I’m much more concerned with the stats of an item over the look of it, but there are sometimes where I wish I could hide more than just my helmet and cape if you know what I mean. The Northrend gear I’ve collected so far however, is pretty easy on the eyes (at least for folks who like black, which I do). I’m almost looking forward to leveling Strategeist here once Geistig has hit 80. For the most part I always loved Shadow form because it not only has a great sound associated with casting it, the armor kept Strategeist alive a little bit longer, and it covered up the 64 color landscape that’s usually associated with armor that isn’t crafted or part of a Tier set. Ah one day, I might even have one of those! Meh, if I can get home from work earlier. Oh yeah, work. Well gotta go, enjoy Thursday everyone!

/Salute

Northrend finally! Yeah I should have headed out once I hit 68. Instead I swapped out professions Skinning for Mining and spent a little extra time in the Outlands building up my Skinning skill before rushing to Northrend. Well that and collecting a little more quest turn in gold. Geistig is still Dual Wielding but I’ve got to do some more tweaking to build up her damage output. She’s currently rocking a Stoneblade Slicer and a Coldstone Cutlass. While I like the stats on the Stoneblade Slicer, I have to admit the dual swords just don’t seem to have the same kind of menacing aesthetic that I enjoyed with my Grunt’s Waraxes. Honestly though that’s just a style thing and well I’m willing to forgo style for stats to be a killing machine. I am however looking forward to picking up this guy though the Edge of the Tuskarr which is a quest reward from The Tides Turn. [more]

I am not enjoying the fact that I’ve got to build up my skill in one handed swords, but at least it’s better than my skill in one handed maces (whew it’s embarrassing, I’ll have to equip a mace and go bash some stuff one of these days). I did however work pretty hard for the Stoneblade Slicer, *cough cough* yeah I failed the quest (Trial of Fire) a few times before finally running the crazy apothecary out of danger. This quest brings the “I hate Escort quests, it’s like trying to rescue one of Jerry’s kids” into a whole new realm of yeah there’s a reason why you got captured, but why am I crazy enough to try and rescue your bony butt.  Arguably I’m not a huge fan of these new weapons though, rocking a pair of, well, rocks, with pointy ends just bugs me. When Strategeist hit the Outlands honestly I wasn’t too worried about upgrading my gear. I did however miss upgrading from a staff I’d obtained in Black Rock, but since I hadn’t been a raider in any sense of the word, it’s not as though I had epic gear that I was exchanging for greens. I did start to know the feeling though with Geistig since I’ve had to replace some of those awesome starter blues with greens and now with the uglies. Except for my weapons though I’m a big fan of Northrend and I’m looking forward to questing there, seeing the sights, and of course, killing the natives.

So I still have doubts about the spec I’m working with currently and I may have to make some changes here and there. I’m glad that I hadn’t already posted specifics as I’ve already had to go through and remove the 2-handed weapon specialization. OK I don’t know what I was thinking when I added that to a Dual Wield talent tree. Arguably, reading comprehension is pretty rarely at it’s best after working all day and then piecing together Death Knight research a little at a time in the evenings.

I’ll be happy when the Death Knight class is well documented and the class tweaking and tuning is complete. In the meantime though, I am kind of enjoying being a part of a class that’s still evolving. I haven’t played WOW for years and years, so for me it’s like being right there at the beginning of things. I really like that.

I’m not sure what the future will hold in Northrend for Geistig. Hopefully some new and fantastic weapon choices. So far I like the fact that there’s defense ratings added to single handed weapons and I’m hoping that I can get my hand on some of those. If I can’t use a shield, I’m curious if using a second weapon with some defensive stats will help augment the Death Knight shielding abilities. Guess we’ll have to see how things roll out over time.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty exhausted and ready to get some sleep in before starting a new week. Here’s to Northrend!

Here’s Geistig my Death Knight. I’m totally stoked that I finally finished the Ring of Blood quest chain thanks to an awesome group of fellow Death Knights. While it would have been nice to have had a healer, we still managed to take down the whole set of them pretty quickly. I’m also fairly pleased with my latest talent tree set up. This evening I went through and did some reading up on Death Knight tanking. Based on what I read and based on some other ideas I’m formulating I’m working my way up to a Dual Wield tanking Death Knight. Yeah it sounds kind of crazy when I look at it in type, but it seems to be working so far. Not only did I solo the two out of three of the Nagrand ‘Nestingway’ quests (I was getting a bit too tired by the end to find the last one), I completed the ‘Ring of Blood’ quest chain, and I knocked a few other quests out of the log. I found that with my latest revision to Geistig’s talent tree I suffered a lot less damage than I had previously, but I was still able to take down mobs pretty swiftly. [more]

Basically this new set of talents draws on hitting as many ‘tanking’ talents as possible while also snagging talents that help out with Dual Wielding. My plan at this point is to max out the Unholy Death Knight Talent tree just enough to get some good tanking skills out of this tree. This build also runs up the Blood and Frost Death Knight Talent trees just far enough to pick up a few more tanking talents. There’s also a few talents hit that boost damage done by Dual Wielding weapons and getting a little extra parry to help keep the damage down.

So far, I’m feeling a lot better running with this build than with my earlier and undocumented experiments (trust me, you don’t want to know). I also really enjoyed grouping with other Death Knights. I still want to get some tanking practice in so that I’ll be able to test this build more thoroughly once I get Geistig to the level cap. I’m also kind of starting to like the tanking role over the DPS role. Well I’ll have to get more details in after I get some sleep, otherwise I’m going to end up with qwerty on my forehead.