The Blood Elves hit Level 70!!!!

Caeden & Iltria turned level 70 tonight!!! They become my 5th & 6th characters to do so! WOOOHOOO!!! Right before the New Year even =) That's 6 down & 3 to go! I'm too tired to write a full post right now. So, Caeden & Iltria's Profile at level 70 will be coming soon. I am still going to finish up all the quests in Netherstorm & Shadowmoon Valley with them. As a result, I won't be starting my next leveling project for awhile. I can say that after Devarien, Caeden & Iltria are among my favorite characters and I have enjoyed leveling them up to 70 =)

Only One More Level to Go!!!

The Blood Elves turned level 69 over the weekend! So, it won't be long now until they become my 5th & 6th characters to reach level 70! I'm already planning my next leveling project =) I've decided to pair up Jaos (my warrior) with Aeldina (my druid). The only problem is that Aeldina is only level 36 and I'll have to level her up to Jaos' level, who is level 53. Hopefully, that won't be too big a delay with the experience changes of the last patch.

Right now, Aeldina is specced as feral. This seems to be an excellent solo build & she mostly fights in Cat Form. However, once she starts grouping with Jaos, I plan to switch her to a balance/restoration hybrid build. This build is sometimes called a dreamstate build. It will allow Aeldina to provide some support dps & solid healing for Jaos. For Jaos, I'm going to try a new spec. Up until this point, he has been using a protection build. However, during her questing in Outland, Aeyla got a really nice 2H Axe drop that Jaos could use. As a result, I'm switching him to an axe arms build. Hopefully, this will increase his dps & make leveling much faster.

Character Profile: Annariel at Level 70.

I was thinking over the weekend that when I did Annariel's character profile, it was when she was still low level. I never wrote a summary of my thoughts about the priest class after she had reached level 70. With the profiles of Devarien, Aeyla & Faerolin, they had already reached level 70 at the time the profiles were written. So from here on out, I am going to write a profile when I start leveling a character & once again when the character reaches level 70. I think this will be cool in that it will show if my impressions/views of the class change. So, since Annariel was my last character to reach level 70, here goes her updated Character Profile:

The main thing I learned about playing priest is that it is an extremely mana intensive class when soloing. Even with all of the great mana generating talents you can get (e.g., Meditation, Spirit Tap & Vampiric Embrace), I still found myself drinking after every couple of kills. It seems that going with a shadow spec is the only real choice for soloing and the spell rotation of Mind Blast, Shadow Word: Pain & Mind Flay eats up a lot of mana. Another interesting thing I learned was how important spirit is to a priest of any spec. Usually, I view spirit as a waste stat, perhaps a luxury if you can find the right gear. I never found a need for spirit in any of my other characters. However with Priest, it is essential. This is especially true for a holy spec since you can get a talent that increases your plus healing stat by a percentage of your spirit. It is also great for a shadow spec due to the spirit tap talent. Annariel's unbuffed spirit is at 415 right now. One final observation about priest is that it really has no AOE abilities, other than the AOE fear spell you get. A priest has no viable offensive AOE spells, unless I am missing something.

67 and Counting!!!

Caeden & Iltria turned level 67 yesterday and started working in Blade's Edge Mountains. They zipped through Nagrand in record time, even completing most of the group quests on their own. So far, I've been very impressed with the Paladin/Mage combo. The two classes compliment each other very well. With Caeden's ability to tank multiple mobs and Iltria's AOE damage spells, they are able to take on many mobs at the same time, which makes quests go much faster. Even elite/named mobs have been easier to handle than with other class combos I've tried. Once Caeden establishes initial aggro, he just focuses on staying alive, which allows Iltria to unleash her powerful fire spells. Unless the mob has an interrupt skill (e.g., kick, bash or counterspell), the only thing preventing Caeden from healing himself is running out of mana. This is because the combination of Concentration Aura and the talent, Spiritual Focus, gives Caeden a 100% chance of not losing casting time. So generally when I have a tough boss fight, I am almost spamming Caeden's heal spell, which creates a great deal of aggro in addition to keeping him alive. This allows Iltria to use her combustion talent. This talent increases her critical strike chance with fire spells until she lands 3 critical hits. Iltria also has improved scorch, which makes a mob more susceptible to fire damage. So during the course of a boss fight, I start off casting scorch until I get it's full effect, then cast combustion and finish off by spamming fireball. Mana never seems to be a problem since she has Mage Armor and Blessing of Wisdom on her at all times.

Success in Stratholme!!!

Well I decided to try to complete Caeden's Epic Mount quest at level 65 and I was able to do it!!! Let me tell you, Stratholme is one tough instance! It was just Caeden & Iltria and the toughest part was getting to the quest area, not completing the quest itself. Clearing my way through to Aurius (the npc I needed to fight) was really rough. Since all the mobs were undead, I really didn't have any crowd control abilities, so I was fighting 5 to 6 at a time. Only 2 of the 6 mobs were elite, so it wasn't too bad, but there were very powerful elites patrolling the corridors and they made life difficult. These elites, as well Magistrate Barthilas, had a punting ability that would wipe out all aggro. This ability was really frustrating because Iltria would get pummeled & if the punting happened more then 2 times in the course of a fight, Caeden wasn't able to regain aggro. So Iltria died a number of times. Killing Magistrate Barthilas was the toughest part of doing this quest. Iltria died during the course of the fight and Caeden only had a couple of hundred hitpoints left when he landed the killing blow. Caeden also had to use Divine Shield and Lay on Hands during the fight. The actual quest fight was quite easy in comparison and I had no problems completing it. So Caeden has his epic horse & I bought Iltria her epic wolf! I feel really good about this accomplishment!!!

The Blood Elves attain exalted with Orgrimmar!

Caeden & Iltria hit level 64 over the weekend and when they returned to Silvermoon for their training, I decided to work on their reputation & Caeden's epic mount quest. I have been able to progress Caeden's quest to the point where he needs to go into Stratholme. I think I'll wait 2 more levels before I try to do it. I was also able to get their reputation with Orgrimmar to exalted. They were only 3000 points away, so I went to the Orc starter area & was able to get them to exalted in about 30 minutes! Iltria can get her wolf mount now! I'm excited to get the Blood Elves to 66 so I can try to finish the Paladin mount quest & get these guys their epic ground mounts!

As far as their level 64 skills, I wasn't too impressed. Caeden received Seal of Blood, which does additional holy damage, but at the cost of health. I can see no reason why I would use this seal over Righteousness. Iltria received Arcane Blast. It is a 2.5 second cast time direct damage spell. As Iltria is fire specced, I can see no reason why I would use this spell over fireball. Hopefully, the Blood Elves level 66 abilities will be more useful.

Working in the Marsh

Well, Caeden & Annariel just turned level 63 and have been working their way through Zangarmarsh. They recently picked up their first Burning Crusade skills. Let me tell you, the Paladin level 62 ability is amazing! It's called Crusader Aura and it increases the mounted speed by 20% for all party members within 30 yards. It makes your regular mount have close to epic speed! This skill has really come in handy as the progress towards purchasing epic mounts for the Blood Elves has been slow. I decided to try for Caeden's epic mount quest. So far, I have spent 300 gold on the ingredients necessary for the quest line. I expect to have to spend about 200 more gold before I am finished. I guess that's still cheaper than purchasing an epic mount, but not by much! The last part of the quest line takes place in Stratholme and I think these guys will have to be at least 66 before I can try and duo that quest. As far as Iltria, I'd like to get her a wolf mount from Orgrimmar. She needs about 4000 more reputation for exalted, so I might have to go back and do all quests in the orc starter area. So hopefully by the time these guys reach level 66, they will be able to get their epic mounts =)

Choosing the Right Stats for a Paladin?

Caeden & Iltria are level 61 now & working their way through Hellfire Peninsula. They have gone as far as Falcon Watch. One of the big dilemmas I am facing now is what type of gear to choose for Caeden. As a protection paladin, the tanking stats of stamina and agility are important. However, he also needs to do melee damage, so strength is key. On the other hand, mana is his life blood. All his spells and special abilities are keyed to mana, so intellect is important too. That's 4 primary stats to be worried about, which is the most I've had to deal with in any of the classes I've played so far! Add to these stats the fact the plus damage/healing/hit/defense gear is also very good for a protection paladin, you can see how choosing the right combination of gear gets very confusing! So far, I have been trying to balance the stats, with stamina being my highest stat so far. I hope I'm handling this the right way.

The Blood Elves Turn 60!!!

Well Caeden & Iltria hit level 60 tonight! The leveling improvements implemented in the last patch are amazing! The blood elves dinged level 60 after finishing up with the Winterspring quests and are all set for Hellfire Peninsula. Here they are after exiting the dark portal =)

The Blood Elves Ding Level 55!!!

Caeden & Iltria hit level 55 over the weekend and things seem to be going smoothly. Half-way through their 50's and they haven't even seen the Plaguelands! So I'm very happy with their progress and am fairly confident that they will be at least level 59 when they finish up with the zones in Azeroth. If patch 2.3 goes live tomorrow, it should be no problem at all. I like to start the Outlands with my characters no lower than level 59. It can be done at level 58, but that messes up the quest progression in the Outlands. Level 60 is optimal, but level 59 is just fine to start working in Hellfire Peninsula.

On a different note, Annariel finally made her last piece of Primal Mooncloth armor! Man that took a long time. There is about a 4 day cool-down on making Primal Mooncloth. If you specialize in Mooncloth tailoring, you can make 2 at a time. Given that it takes 14 primal mooncloth to make the Robe, you can see why it takes so long! Annariel now has a full set of Primal Mooncloth. She is my first character to have a full set of purple armor. She is also my first character to reach 375 with a trade profession. She will probably be my last...lol. It is just too expensive to level a profession to 375! Here's a pic of Annariel in her new robe =)

I hate the Blasted Lands!!!

Caeden & Iltria finished up with the quests in the Blasted Lands over the weekend. I have to say, the Blasted Lands is probably my least favorite zone in the game. When you enter the zone in your late 40’s to early 50’s, you have 5 main quests you can do. They are the quests you can get from the Blood Elves near the entrance to the zone. The npc’s ask you to collect various parts from the animals that inhabit the area. All told, you need 14 vulture gizzards, 11 basilisk brains, 6 blasted boar lungs, 6 scorpid pincers & 5 snikerfang jowls. Multiply those numbers by 2 and you begin to see my loathing of this zone. To make things worse, the drop rate has to be 1 in 4 or worse. So, in order for Caeden & Iltria to complete all the quests, I needed to kill about 336 mobs!!! That’s a horrible grind =( It was even a bit worse this time through, because all the animals seemed to be highly resistant to fire, making Iltria’s fire spec pretty much useless. Not to mention the huge dragon boss that flies around the zone!!! Teremus the Devourer…he’s so big, you can’t miss him, yet he has this amazing ability to sneak up on you from out of nowhere and kill you in a couple of shots!!! Anyway, I’m glad that zone is over & I hope with the new experience change coming in patch 2.3, I will never have to see the Blasted Lands again, except when going through the Dark Portal to the Outlands =)

The Blood Elves hit 50!!!

Well, the Blood Elves turned level 50 tonight & along with it, gained their 41 point talent abilities. For Caeden, there was Avenger's Shield, which finally gives him a ranged attack for pulling! Iltria picked up Dragon's Breath, which is an AOE spell similar to Cone of Cold, except with fire damage & a disorient effect. The combination of Firestrike, Dragon's Breath & Blast Wave is devastating!!! Between Caeden's ability to AOE tank & Iltria's AOE damage spells, taking on multiple enemies at the same time has never been easier =) I've decided to stick with the Blood Elves at least until 60 before I consider working on the Shaman. Hopefully, patch 2.3 will come out by then & I can decide whether its worth it to try and catch my shaman up in level.

Should I make it a trio?

Lately, I've been playing with the idea of making my 2 box experiment with the blood elves into a 3 box experiment by adding my shaman into the mix. I just keep dreaming of what a powerful trio it would be! I would spec my shaman restoration and he would be a dedicated healer. Between paladin, mage & shaman, I would have the three primary roles of any group covered (tank, healer & dps).

Technically speaking, it wouldn't be that difficult to do. I have an older, but still adequate computer that could be used to run the 3rd account. I have an extra copy of the Burning Crusade collectors edition that I've never used (don't even ask me how that happened...lol). So I would just have to pick up an original WoW game, a 60 day game card & transfer my shaman over to the 3rd account. Here are my reservations: (1) If I do this, I really will not learn how to play a shaman properly. All he would be doing is casting healing wave and some supportive totems. As the 3rd character, I would not be able to dedicate much attention to him. (2) My shaman is only level 20 now, so I would have to put off leveling the blood elves for a while until he caught up to their level (they are level 48 right now). (3) Will 3 boxing just become too overwhelming?

I'm not sure what the answer is? In one respect, it will get me closer to my ultimate goal much faster as I would be working on 3 character classes at the same time. However, I am just worried that it would be too stressful and not much fun in the end.

The Blood Elves start their run to 70!

Well, I finally finished up the quests in Shadowmoon Valley with Annariel & started my next leveling project this past weekend. I switched over to the Horde side to work on my Blood Elves. They are Caeden & Iltria. Caeden is a protection specced Paladin & Iltria is a fire specced Mage. They seem to be working very well together. When fighting melee type mobs, Caeden is able to AOE tank 3 to 4 with no problem. Iltria is able to lay down several powerful AOE spells, which finish off the mobs quickly. As long as I wait a few seconds before starting Iltria's casting sequence, Caeden is able to maintain aggro with no problem. When casters get involved, I have a tougher time taking on more than one at a time. I can always sheep an add, but I find it more difficult to AOE tank multiple caster mobs.

Right now, Iltria's casting sequence against groups of mobs is Firestrike, Blastwave & Arcane Explosion, if necessary. Once she turns level 50, I will be able to mix in Dragon Breath into the equation. Against single targets, Iltria just spams scorch and finishes the mob off with Fire Blast. I gained 3 levels over the weekend and the Paladin/Mage duo seems to be working quite well =) They are level 46 now & working in Feralas. Hopefully patch 2.3 comes out soon, so I can take advantage of the faster leveling.

My Fourth Character hits Level 70!!!

Well, Annariel finally hit level 70! She becomes my fourth character to do so. It seems as though it's taking more time to level a character to 70, the further I progress into my quest to have a level 70 character in each WoW class. I guess after you do all the quests in the game 4 or more times, it becomes harder to stay motivated...lol. However, I am determined to do it and the experience bonus that is coming with patch 2.3 should help a great deal! I have decided to switch over to the Horde side for my next leveling run and work with the Blood Elves. I am going to level 2 characters at the same time now, which should hopefully make my overall quest go much faster. The only decision I need to make now is whether to keep playing Annariel, so that she can finish all the Shadowmoon Valley quests, or go straight to the Blood Elves? Right now, I am leaning towards finishing up the Shadowmoon Valley quests since you get a huge amount of gold for completing them at 70. Plus, I might as well wait for patch 2.3, so that I can take advantage of the experience bonus.

Only One More Level to Go!!!

Well, Annariel hit level 69 tonight! Level 68 to 69 went extremely fast. There are just so many quests in Netherstorm...it's awesome! Annariel is in the middle of doing all the Kirin Tor quests...that area is just jam packed with quests...lol. One interesting thing to note is that Faerolin hit 70 by the time she finished the Kirin Tor quests, so somehow Annariel is progressing at a slower pace. Maybe its because I played Faerolin exclusively solo and Annariel has grouped with Devarien for the most part? Anyway just one more level to go and it will be 4 character classes down and 5 to go!

Only Two More Levels to Go!!!

Annariel hit level 68 today! She is almost finished with all the quests in Blade's Edge Mountains and then it is off to Netherstorm. I've been grouping her with Devairen a lot lately so he can work on leveling his new raptor. So, I decided to switch her spec back to holy to make her a better healer. We'll see how it works out =)

Meet Devarien's new pet, Razor!

Well, so much for my new wind serpent...lol. Devarien was helping Annariel out with some of the quests in Blade's Edge Mountains. Specifically, the ones that take place in Forge Camp Anger, which end with you summoning a named elite demon. I decided I would use this as an opportunity to start working on my wind serpent's level and loyalty. Right away I could tell that I didn't like fighting with the wind serpent. He kind of flutters around, like a big bug or butterfly. This got annoying after a while. In addition, he would engage a mob with his ranged attack much sooner than I expected and as a result, the mob would always be in that in-between zone where I could not engage it either in melee or range. I would have to keep on backing up so I could use my ranged attacks.

After I finished up the Forge Camp Anger quests, I was running Devarien & Annariel to the Circle of Blood & spotted this really cool looking black raptor. I have always wanted a raptor and it just seemed the perfect time to get one now that they can use the Dash ability. However, the raptor I saw was only level 66. Four levels to grind...ugh! Fortunately, I found level 67 elite raptors in Gruul's Lair and was able to tame one! Hopefully, I can stick with it & get my raptor to level 70!

Jarec finally becomes Devarien's Best Friend!!!

After what has felt like several months, Devarien has finally gotten Jarec's loyalty level to Best Friend. Man that was a horrible grind! Now, I must admit that I haven't focused my playing on getting Jarec's loyalty up, so maybe it could have gone faster. However, one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that your pet does not gain any loyalty by just being out and about with you. Loyalty is only gained when you fight experience yielding mobs. I learned this the hard way. I decided I would work on Jarec's loyalty while leveling Annariel. I thought that by Devarien helping out Annariel, Jarec would get at least a couple of loyalty levels. On and off, Devarien helped Annariel from level 53 to 62 and Jarec did not gain one level of loyalty! It wasn't until we started fighting level 63 mobs, which were green to Devarien, that Jarec gained his first loyalty level. I want to thank Mania for her great work on loyalty in her blog. It really helped me figure out what I was doing wrong =)

Now that I have finished with Jarec, I decided to go out and tame my 3rd pet. I picked a wind serpent from netherstorm. I've never had a wind serpent before and the idea of a pet that has a ranged attack was intriguing to me. Also, the fact that it was level 69 was a big selling point since I hate to grind...lol. Plus, it looks very cool too! I only played with it for a little while last night, but it seemed to go through focus extremely fast. I guess I might have to micro manage lightning breath and not leave it on auto-cast. Anyway, here is a pic of my new wind serpent!

Another Level Down, 3 More to Go!!!

Annariel hit level 67 today! She is now in Blade's Edge Mountains. I really like this zone. Mainly because the zone looks so cool. The jagged rocky terrain gives it a truly unique feel. I hope Annariel can squeeze out level 68 here and then it is on to Netherstorm!

Level 66 and Counting!!!

Well, only 4 more levels to 70! Annariel hit level 66 yesterday and the obligatory trip to Ironforge was made for new spells. Aside from the usual upgrades, Annariel got a brand new spell called Shadowfiend. This spell creates a pet that lasts for 15 seconds and the priest will gain mana back from the fiend's attacks. It has a 5 minute cooldown. I'm not sure of the utility of this spell for a solo player. I guess it can be used in situations where you have adds and need a distraction, although I have read that it does not have a lot of hit points. I guess it could provide extra dps for a particularly hard encounter. I'll have to try it out over the next couple of levels to see if it will be useful. On the subject of spells obtained in the Burning Crusade expansion, I have found the priest abilities to be just ok.

At level 62, you get Shadow Word: Death. It is similar to Shadow Word: Pain, but it an instant cast spell. The trade off is that if you don't kill the target with SW: Death, you receive the same amount of damage you inflicted on the target. Since I usually finish off a mob using my wand to conserve mana, I only use this spell in two situations. First, when I am dealing with multiple targets and I need to finish them off fast. Second, if I am facing a really tough mob and I can't recast PW: Shield because the debuff hasn't worn off. At level 64, a priest gets Binding Heal, which is a fast casting heal spell that heals about 1000 - 1300 hit points. Since I have been playing with a Shadow Spec, I haven't been able to determine the usefulness of this spell.

It may be my personal bias towards Hunters, but I think their Burning Crusade abilities have been the best! At level 62, you get steady shot. I love this skill! If you want to do mega dps, you can just spam this and weave in Arcane Shot whenever its cool down is up! Of course, this can be very mana expensive =) At 64, you get Aspect of the Viper. Another great ability and amazing for grinding mobs. If you're conservative with your specials, it feels like you can fight forever with this on and not run out of mana! At 66, you get Kill Command! As a beast mastery specced Hunter, this does sick damage! Now, at level 68, you get Snake Trap. I have to admit that when I solo, I don't use traps that much, but this trap provides excellent additional damage when your facing a tough mob. Finally, at level 70 you get misdirection. As I don't do instances or raids at all, I really cannot comment on the usefulness of this ability, although from all the forum posts I've read, it seems that it works quite well.

Annariel hits Level 65!

Sorry I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks. Work has been busy lately and my wife and I are having some work done to the house so its been hard to find time to play and post as well. During this time I also built my first computer! I have always wanted to do this and finally decided to give it a try. I have a friend I met through my wife's work who is a computer guru and he helped me through the whole process. It was really fun! The best part for me was picking out all the components. The actual building part took a whole day! I found that having patience and good troubleshooting skills are essential for the whole process. We ran into a couple of stumbling blocks along the way. First, the bios was not recognizing all of the ram we had installed. Initially, we though that one of the memory modules was bad, but after using a process of elimination, we finally figured out that the bios drivers needed to be updated. Second, after we had installed all of the components, we couldn't power up the system. So we slowly had to retrace our steps and found out that the USB connectors were not properly seated on the motherboard. The system works beautifully now and WoW looks absolutely amazing!

Anyway, back to WoW stuff. Annariel is half way through her 60's and still going strong! She just finished all the quests in Terokkar Forest and is now questing in Nagrand. Here are some of my observations of shadow priest so far: (1) As I have mentioned many times before, it is probably the most mana intensive class I have played. I find myself drinking more often than with any other class. Hunter's have aspect of the viper. Warlock's have the life tap, drain life combo. A shadow priest has spirit tap and vampiric embrace, but it doesn't seem to be enough when leveling solo; (2) Unless I am missing something, a shadow priest has no effective AOE damage. If I have a bad pull and get more than 2 mobs, I usually have to use Psychic Scream and pray that I can get away before dying. (3) A shadow priest can do some serious damage against single targets!

Vampiric Touch: Could it be the Answer to Annariel's Mana Issues?

Annariel hit level 63 last night & with it, she finally obtained her 41 point shadow talent, Vampiric Touch. Now, the tool tip for rank 2 of the spells says it does 600 shadow damage over 15 seconds & the party will gain mana back equal to 5% of the shadow spell damage caused by the priest. This effect appears to apply even if you are solo...so you don't have to be in a group to get the benefit. I now use this spell to pull with instead of mind blast so I can get the full effect of the mana regeneration. However, is 5% mana regeneration any good?

Here is a simple example. Most of the mobs Annariel is facing now have about 5 to 6K in hit points. So lets use 6000 hit points for this example. All of her damage, except for her wand, is shadow damage. So assuming she doesn't use a wand and is able to keep Vampiric Touch up for the duration of the fight, she will do 6000 shadow spell damage. That means she will gain back 300 mana during the fight. Since rank 2 of vampiric touch costs 400 mana, it doesn't seem like much of a bargain. Right now, I'm not too impressed. However, in using it yesterday, it did seem like she was able to go a little bit longer before having to drink, so maybe I am missing something. I guess I'll just have to keep testing it to see if it allows Annariel to become more mana efficient.

Annariel enters her 60's!!!

Annariel hit level 61 yesterday! She's in Hellfire Pennisula right now. I've always liked this zone. I think my favorite part is the fact that you almost immediately get to upgrade all your pre-60 gear with really nice greens. So far I am doing ok with her shadow spec. She is able to solo most of the content. I still find it an extremely mana intensive build. I have Devarien help out on the group quests & in some of the more mob infested areas, but I find when Annariel groups with Dev, her experience is drastically reduced so I try to solo as much as I can. One of the highlights of Hellfire so far was that Dev & Annariel were able to complete the Overlord quest by themselves! Sometimes I have to resist the urge to have her group with Dev since things go so much faster when he is around =) I'm hoping I can get Annariel up to level 62 before leaving Hellfire, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. Zangarmarsh will be her next stop.

Test Server Fun!!!

Well I finally got myself set up on the test server!!! The pre-made level 70 characters are absolutely amazing! You are only allowed 4 pre-made characters. As a result, I picked the Druid, Mage, Paladin & Shaman since I haven't had much experience with those particular classes and wanted to get a feel for how they played. I logged on the Druid first. I was like a kid in a candy store! 4 sets of Epic armor! One for every type of build you could imagine. Epic land & flying mounts! The druid actually had a netherdrake! She also had epic flight form. You also get 5000 gold and all the gems you could want. I spent at least an hour picking the right gear & gem combos. I decided to go with a feral talent build since that would be what I will use with my own druid leveling up.

As to the other characters, I went with a frost/presence of mind build with the Mage, an enhancement build with the Shaman & a retribution build with the Paladin. I was really impressed with the power of the mage & shaman (I was able to kill one of the level 68 elite demons in Legion Hold, Shadowmoon Valley with the Mage!). There are some down sides to playing on the test server. First, it takes a long time just to get on. Last night there was a queue of over 800 people. Second, it is very laggy. Third, for some reason you start out in the Ghostlands & unless you can find a port, it can take a long time to get to the Outlands. There also seems to be a lot of jerks playing. For example, there are people just camped out at the spawn point in the Ghostlands waiting to gank you. I guess there is a bug that tags you as PvP when you first log on with a pre-made character. As you can guess, you die almost instantly as none of your skills are set up & none of your talent points have been spent. I must have died at least 10 times with my Shaman until I was lucky enough to get invited into a raid group for a port to Shattrath. I had to resurrect right next to the portal & click immediately to avoid getting killed again! There are also people in the Ghostlands charging 500 gold for a port to Shattrath. I mean come on people, its just a test server!

Anyway, I have had a lot fun trying out the test server. I think I had more fun setting up the characters with their builds and gear than actually playing them...lol. If you are interested in trying a new class out or seeing how a particular talent build might work at level 70 on a character you are leveling up, I would highly recommend trying out a pre-made character on the Test server =)

Annariel starts her run to 70!

With Faerolin finally done with all the Shadowmoon Valley quests, I started to play Annariel, my level 53 priest, again. I decided to switch her to a shadow spec and play her solo...well sometimes she has Devarien's help as she is on my second account...lol. I got her to level 55 over the weekend and here are my preliminary thoughts on playing as a shadow priest.

First off, a shadow priest is incredibly mana intensive! Even with points in the spirit tap and meditation talents, I found that I would have to rest for mana after every couple of kills. This is much different from my experience with Warlock, where I had little or no down time. It is also a little scary playing priest in that if you don't time your Power Word: Shield correctly, you can die very quick! However, it has been fun playing a shadow priest so far. I have a pretty good casting sequence down now: PW: Shield just before engaging the enemy, pull with Mind Blast, then cast PW: Pain & Mind Flay. By the time Mind Flay is done channeling, I am ready to cast Mind Blast again. When there is less than 700 hit points left, I usually use my wand until the mob is dead to conserve mana. I like to cast PW: Shield before engaging the enemy because it gives me the option of casting it again during the fight. If I wait until after the pull, the "Weakened Soul" debuff, which prevents you from casting PW: Shield on yourself again, usually hasn't expired by the time I need another shield.

Hopefully, I'll have more updates on Annariel as she makes her way to 70!

Views from a Casual Player - Pick up Groups or the Lack Thereof

I don't know if its just me, but I've been finding it near impossible to get a group together lately. I recently finished most of the Shadowmoon Valley quests with Faerolin and was trying to find people to help me complete some of the group quests there (e.g., Gorefiend's Armor, Zulhead the Whacked & Ruul the Darkener). When trying to put together a group, I usually start out by sending a message on the Shadowmoon Valley general channel....no answer. I do that for a while, with no luck. Then I think, let me try the Looking for Group Interface. How the heck does it work!?!? It doesn't seem to do anything. It doesn't list anyone else who is looking for a group so I'm not sure anybody even sees that I need help doing a quest. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Anyway, I notice that when I use the LFG interface I am connected to a new channel called Looking for Group. So I type a message in that channel as well: "LFG for the Shadowmoon Valley quest Gorefiend's Armor"...no response. Doe anyone care?

I find this is very frustrating, especially when I waste an hour trying to find a group and I only had 2 to 3 hours to play in the first place! However, I just chalk it up to being one of the predicaments of being a casual/solo player. I don't have the time to invest into Guild membership, but without the support of guild mates, it's very difficult to get group oriented quests accomplished. Its not so bad with the lower levels of the Outlands, because I can always come back at a higher level and finish off the quests by myself. However, once you reach Netherstorm & Shadowmoon Valley, there is just no way you are going to finish the group quests by yourself. As a result, my quest log sits full of group quests from those zones =(

My suggestion to alleviate this problem is to allow the use of NPC henchmen like they have in Guild Wars. The henchmen don't have to be sophisticated, but a tank and healer would be very helpful. I think the henchmen should only be available in regular zones and not in instances. In my opinion, instances are designed to be completed by a group. However, in the regular zones where most people either solo or duo quests, it would be nice to be able to get help right away and not have to waste valuable time trying to find people to play with. Maybe as a form of balance, there could be an experience penalty or reduction in gold received for using henchmen to complete group quests.

WoW Expansion Speculation

With BlizzCon just around the corner, I am starting to see a lot of speculation and rumors about the next WoW expansion. There seems to be two main ones going around. First is "Wrath of the Lich King". There is a FAQ going around that was supposedly posted on the europe forums. WoW Insider has a nice blog post on this possible expansion. It will take place in Northrend and will supposedly allow a raid group to take on Arthas himself!!! Another major aspect of this expansion will be the introduction of the first hero class, the Death Knight. The other expansion rumor has to deal with the Maelstrom (the huge whirlpool in the center of the Azeroth World Map). However, this rumor is not at all fleshed out, so it doesn't seem to be true.

I think Northrend would make an amazing expansion. I loved playing the Warcraft RTS games and the lore introduced there. In my opinion, the cinematic sequences in the Warcraft games are still some of the best ever made for a computer game! It would really be fun to play in those locations as well. I am hopeful that Blizzard will introduce Hero Classes. I hope the hero class is one that your existing characters could access, rather than having to start a new character. How awesome would it be to have your Hunter turn into a Beastmaster! I know this would never happen, but if you could control two pets at the same time!!!

As to an expansion surrounding the Maelstrom, I guess it would deal with Queen Azshara and the Naga. I would assume it would have to be mostly underwater. I don't think I would like that at all. I hate fighting underwater in WoW. It is very cumbersome and stressful....lol. I guess if they improved gameplay underwater and allowed every class to have some water breathing ability it could be cool.

Anyway, I am anxiously awaiting BlizzCon and hoping for an official announcement!

Views from a Casual Player - Guild Recruitment

Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing against Guilds or raiding. It is just not something that I am interested in or have the time to invest. The problem is that as a level 70 unguilded player, when I walk into a City like Ironforge, I am accosted with invitations to join a Guild. It gets annoying after a while. I'll be at the auction house or bank doing my thing and I'll see the Guild invite message just pop up out of nowhere! This is something I'll never understand. Why would you invite someone you don't know and have never even grouped with into your Guild? I would think you would want to make sure the person would fit in with the rest of your guild mates before you sent an invitation? It's not so bad when someone sends me a tell and when I politely decline, they leave me alone. However, I have had some people that just won't take no for an answer. One person even offered me gold to join!!!

I think an easy fix for this dilemma is to lower the requirements for forming a guild. If Jim and I could just make our own guild, it would probably eliminate all unsolicited guild invites. Maybe there is some database or other server related reason for not reducing the requirements to start a Guild, but it would be really nice if Blizzard would do so.

Character Profile: Caeden & Iltria - The Blood Elves hit 40!

Caeden & Iltria mark my second foray into 2 boxing in WoW. The Burning Crusade had just come out and Jim & I wanted to try out the new content. Instead of working on one of our level 60 characters, we decided to roll new Blood Elf characters. I was having so much fun 2 boxing Jaos & Annariel that I decided to give it another try. This time I decided to try a Paladin/Mage combo. From grouping with Jim's Paladin, Thutar, I really came to appreciate the versatility and power of the class. I figured that my Blood Elf Paladin could tank, heal and provide some really nice buffs. I chose a mage for its dps and crowd control abilities. Jim created another mage to join my characters. So far this trio has really worked out well.


I have specced my Paladin in the protection tree & my mage in the Fire tree. I chose protection due to the fact that Caeden is always tanking for the group. However, I do have 10 point in holy for spiritual focus, which is essential for healing in the middle of battle. I chose fire for Iltria because it seems to provide the highest damage of all the mage trees. 2 boxing these characters is much more intensive than with Jaos & Annariel. Caeden is my primary focus as maintaining aggro with a Paladin is much different than with a warrior. Iltria basically sits back and spams scorch, fireball & fire blast when available. The only instance we have done with this trio thus far is Ragefire Chasm. However, we do intend to try the Scarlet Monastery and Uldaman to get the mage quests done. Jim has a level 43 warrior that will be joining us soon, which I am very excited about! We will essentially have a ready made group with each of us controlling 2 characters. I've been thinking about what would be the best configuration for the group as far as the warrior and paladin talent specs. Basically, I think there are two options: (1) Protection Paladin (for tank) & Fury Warrior (for dps); or (1) Protection Warrior (for tank) & (2) Holy Paladin (for healing). I'm leaning towards option 2. I think with 2 mages, we have more than enough dps. In my opinion, it would be very difficult for my paladin to tank & be the only healer. If Jim's warrior tanked, I could focus on healing with Caeden and off tank when necessary. I think that configuration would create a really well rounded group.

The Blood Elf trio hit 40 this week! I always get this great sense of accomplishment when one of my characters reaches 40. It is just one of those landmark points in any character's career. You can get your first mount & you usually get a very important class ability. For the Paladin it was the ability to use plate armor & for the mage it was the ability to create portals! Here are some various screens of the Blood Elf Trio:

Character Profile: Jaos & Annariel - The Great 2 Box Experiment

2 Boxing (playing two separate accounts at the same time) was something I was introduced to way back in my EQ days. My friend Tommy was a master at it! In fact, he got so good, he was able to 3 & 4 box. As someone who solos a lot, 2 boxing was a very tempting idea. It gives you the ability to attempt things in a MMO that you just could not do with one character. If you can convince a friend to 2 box as well, you can have 4 characters going and your own ready made group! 2 boxing in EQ wasn't that hard, there weren't that many skills you had to worry about. However, when I started playing WoW, I just couldn't see how you could effectively 2 box. There seemed to be too many skills for each class to make it work. Not to mention reactive abilities like overpower, that require you to focus you attention on one character. However, after I had gotten both Devarien & Aeyla up to level 60, I started getting the itch to try 2 boxing again.

I decided to try 2 boxing in WoW partly because I love trying out new classes and also because I wanted to see if Jim & I could experience some of the game's dungeons. I thought about what two classes might work together the best for a long time and finally decided that Warrior and Priest would be perfect. Between those two classes you have a tank and healer, probably the two most important roles of any group. Also, it was my belief that having a priest on the second account, who would just be healing, would make it much easier to do. Jim decided to make a paladin, Thutar, to join my characters and we called ourselves the Trio. Overall, it worked out well.

Here are some of my observations on 2 boxing. First, you really have to consider one of your characters as the main and the other as support. In my case, Jaos was my main. I found warrior to require most of my attention. Dealing with rage, aggro and reactive abilites like overpower and revenge requires a lot of focus. Annariel would just sit there and heal when necessary & maybe use her wand if I got the chance. The problem with this is that I really felt like I was missing out on learning all the aspects of priest. Having a paladin as the 3rd member of the group worked out pretty well. Paladin is kinda like Druid in that it is a very versatile and powerful class. It has nice buffs, can heal and can tank as well. In retrospect, maybe a mage might have made a better 3rd member for dps/crowd control, but paladin worked out just fine. We leveled the Trio up to 53 and then the Burning Crusade came out and we decided to shelve them as we explored the new content. During our time with the Trio, we were able to try out a few instances (the Deadmines, Uldaman & the Stockades). You get a pretty great sense of accomplishment when you are able to finish an instance with just you and your friend =)

Now that Faerolin is just about finished with questing in the Outlands, I'm thinking about picking up with Jaos & Annariel again. However, I'm not sure if I'm going to 2 box them again. I think I would like to try a shadow spec with Annariel & I'm not sure whether that would lend itself to 2 boxing. Maybe I'll just level them up to 60 or so separately and see how I feel after that. Anyway, here are some screens of Trio:

Views from a Casual Player - Armor Sets

As I have mentioned before, I consider myself to be a casual player...well maybe more towards the hard core end of the spectrum, but a casual player nonetheless. I generally only get to play 3 to 4 nights a week including the weekend and usually play with either my friend Jim or by myself. From time to time, I plan on posting my views, thoughts and suggestions about WoW from the casual gamer perspective. My first topic is armor and armor sets.

One of my only complaints about WoW is the way armor looks on my characters. As a solo or duo player most of your level 70 armor comes from quest rewards (at least for me it did). As a result, you get this hodgepodge look. Your chest piece is one color and your pants are another. Your boots look silly compared to the rest of your gear. Your shoulder item is too small compared to the size of your character & your helmet just isn't cool. Well....you get the idea. This issue is exacerbated for me when I see other players wearing their cool looking instance sets. My suggestion is to have a level 70 quest chain that rewards a set of class specific armor of blue quality. The quest chain should be very challenging, but not so difficult that a player could not complete them solo or with another friend. There should be set bonuses. The quality of armor stat wise should be better than the greens you get from Shadowmoon Valley. Maybe something on par with the dungeon set 3 armor. It might have to be slightly less quality than dungeon set 3 so that instance players can't complain. The most important thing is that all pieces of the set match and look cool!

Character Profile: Faerolin - Forsaken & Formidable

Faerolin Mithain is my level 70 Undead Warlock. She was my 3rd WoW character to reach level 70! She is also my first Horde character. She was created pre-burning crusade. I had finished leveling Devarien and was looking for a new class to try. I loved the pet aspect of Hunter so much, that I wanted to try WoW's other pet class, the Warlock. I also wanted to try WoW from the perspective of a Horde character...so the combination of Undead & Warlock just seemed like the perfect fit!

After the first 20 levels of Warlock, I wasn't so sure I liked it. I guess I kept trying to compare it to Hunter, which really isn't fair. Hunter pets are much more customizable from appearance to stats. As a result, when you are stuck with just one viable pet to solo with for the first 20 or so levels (the voidwalker), it can get a bit boring. However, I stuck with it and sometime in my mid to late 20's I was able to start drain tanking. This is where my view on Warlock changed. Drain tanking is awesome!!! It just amazes me that a cloth wearer can stand toe to toe with a mob like she is a warrior! My pet of choice during my drain tanking days was the Succubus. I would turn all her abilities off autocast except for seduce and just use her for extra dps and to get back mana using dark pact. It really is an amazing build & one I used until level 60. It is especially good when fighting humanoids as your succubus can deal with adds with her seduce ability! She is pretty smart about it too!


When Faerolin was high enough level to start questing in the Outlands, I switched to a Felguard build. Since I am a pet fanatic, when the 41 point talent abilities were introduced just prior to the expansion, I was really intrigued by the Felguard. It seemed to me to be the perfect balance between the Voidwalker and Succubus. At that time, Faerolin was only in her 40's, so I had to wait. Also, I was just having too much fun with my drain tanking build that I was hesitant to switch. However, as I continued to level Faerolin, I would see more and more Warlocks with their Felguard. I started to become envious...lol. I mean seeing intercept & cleave in action...how could I not? So, I finally gave in....my thinking was that after 35 levels of drain tanking, it was time to try something new. A quick trip to my local Warlock Trainer to pay for my respec & it was done!!! Let me tell you, I've never looked back. The Felguard build is absolutely amazing!!!

The Felguard in my opinion is the best warlock minion. He might not have the same amount of armor as a voidwalker, but his high damage output and cleave/intercept abilities more than make up for it. He is also the best minion for AOE tanking. His cleave ability not only does great damage, but keeps the attention of multiple mobs, even if you have some DOT's ticking away on them! Two talents I found to be important for the Felguard are Fel Stamina and Mana Feed. Fel Stamina really helps your Felguard be a better tank & mana feed keeps him pumped up with mana so that he can cleave to his heart's content! I really have to recommend putting your final 20 points into the affliction tree. Improved Corruption, Soul Siphon & Improved Life Tap are a must. The combination of Soul Siphon and Improved Life Tap gives you almost an unlimited amount of mana. When low on mana, life tap & then use drain life on the mob you are fighting to get your health back. If you are able to keep your pulls to one or two at a time, you almost never run out of mana & never have to rest between kills! Improved Health Funnel is also an extremely important talent. It allows you to heal your pet without having to sacrifice too much of your own health. Worried about your personal dps with this build? Don't be...I find I do more than enough damage by dropping my 3 dot's (immolate, curse of agony & corruption) and by using drain life. Also, when you get Fel Armor at level 62, your dps goes through the roof! Fel Armor also bolsters your health funnel!

As far as playing a Horde character for the first time, I really had a great time. There are a lot of cool lore aspects of playing as a Forsaken. In addition, the quests in Nagrand dealing with Thrall's return to the Orc homeland are fantastic! I haven't been able to complete them myself, but I was lucky enough to see someone else complete the Thrall quest chain & I watched the whole "cinematic" of Thrall arriving in Garadar. One of the coolest things I've seen in the game. One final observation of playing a Horde is that it seems like there are many more quests to take along the way. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I never had the "slow" period of questing in the mid to late 40's like I did on the Alliance side. There just seem to be so many more Horde quests available in places like the Swamp of Sorrow, the Badlands, Dustwallow Marsh & the Hinterlands to name a few. Here are some screens of Faerolin:

My Third Character Hits Level 70!!!

Faerolin, my undead warlock, hit level 70 today!!! /cheer! She is my third character to do so! She dinged in Netherstorm while doing the Kirin'Var Village quests. Her total time played was 9 days, 9 hours & 47 minutes. Stay tuned for a full character profile on Faerolin in the next couple of days. Until then....congrats Fae =)

Character Profile: Aeyla - The Combat Specialist

Aeyla is my night elf rogue & Devarien's little sister. He is very proud of her =) I created Aeyla when my friend Jim decided to play WoW and make a Druid. I had already been playing Devarien for a few weeks at the time, so I decided that I would make a new character to play with Jim's Druid instead of waiting for him to catch up to Devarien's level. Jim's Druid is named Saif. Saif & Aeyla played together all the way up to level 60!

Let me tell you, Druid & Rogue make an incredibly powerful duo! Between the two classes you have a tank, dps, healing, crowd control & stealth. During my time playing with Saif, I really learned to respect the versatility and power of the Druid class. Saif could tank for me in bear form. If we needed an emergency heal....no problem. If we wanted to sneak into & out of an area for a stealth kill, he could just switch to cat. It was great fun playing with Saif! Aeyla has missed Saif lately as Jim decided he wanted to group his warrior, Kizzy, with Aeyla in the Burning Crusade on our way up to level 70. I found the Warrior & Rogue duo to be good, however, I still think the Druid & Rogue duo is more versatile and powerful!

During most of Aeyla's career (up until about level 60), she was a dagger rogue. She ran a Cold Blood/Preparation Build. I decided to go with daggers, because it is the way I envisioned a rogue (Sneaky....coming up from behind with a huge ambush!). It was also always nice to have that cold blood eviscerate! A guaranteed crit on a 5 point eviscerate....yummy!!!! However, once Saif & Aeyla reached 60, we had a brief foray into guild life and raiding. As I have mentioned before, I am not really a guild oriented player. I have nothing against them, but I just don't have the 4 or more hour stretch to commit to a high level instance or raid. I also find the 20 or more person raids to be confusing and stressful....lol. However, the one good thing that did come out of my brief guild experience was my switch to a combat swords build.

I found that using a dagger build in raids was much too difficult. I just had too much trouble trying to position myself behind the mob that the tank had targeted when there were multiple mobs surrounding him. Also, many times when I did eventually position myself correctly, the mob would already be dead....lol. So, after doing some research, I decided a sword combat build would be best. Not only did it work well in raids, but it was great for normal PVE as well! I found the damage to be more consistent and my off-hand dps went up considerably. It is also a very easy build to play....spam sinister strike until you can pull off a 5 point eviscerate. Of course there is more to it than that, but the sinister strike/eviscerate combo is the bulk of your damage dealing. My favorite thing about the combat build is blade flurry and adrenaline rush! Combine those abilities with evasion and you pretty much have an "I win" button! I've lost count of the times when Kizzy & Aeyla pulled more mobs than we could handle & I used that combo and watched our worries go away =)

Overall, I have really enjoyed rogue. A good analogy for rogue is that it is like the Jedi of World of Warcraft. You can sneak wherever you want, do insane amounts of damage & if it gets a bit out of hand, just vanish and try again later! Here are a few screens of Aeyla at various stages of her career: