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 =)