Devarien hits Level 80!!!!

Devarien dinged level 80 last night! He just finished the quests in Zul Drak & still has some of Howling Fjord to do, as well as all of Storm Peaks and Icecrown! I'm gonna keep playing Devarien until I finish all the new zones. At that point, I will start leveling my other characters. I think I will try 3 boxing so I can level 3 characters at a time =)

The Best Quest Chain Ever!!!!

I just finished the Angrathar the Wrath Gate quest chain with Devarien & am just blown away!  This has to be the greatest quest experience I've ever had in the game!  The lore, the cut scenes and the development of the story is just amazing!  This quest chain starts in Dragonblight & I think it is something everyone should experience!  I hope this quest chain is just the first act of the story & there will be more quest chains like it in the higher level zones =)

Devarien is almost level 76 now & is working in Grizzly Hills.  This zone looks awesome & reminds me of a Red Wood Forest!  So far, I have really enjoyed every aspect of Wrath of the Lich King!  I've been taking my time questing & have been able to hit every instance so far!  The artwork in the game is just outstanding & the music is awesome too.  I can't wait to see what comes next!

Northrend Awaits!

Well, it's been about a week since Wrath of the Lich King has come out & so much has happened!  I guess the big question is whether I will continue my quest to get a character of each class to max level.  It's something I can't answer right now.  The thought of trying to level 10 characters to 80 at this time is just too overwhelming...lol.  So I just plan to take it easy for the time being & just enjoy the new content =)

I've been working on Devarien for the most part.  He is almost level 74 now & I have done all of Borean Tundra, about 1/2 of Dragonblight & some of Howling Fjord.  I've also been able to see the 1st four instances.  I've loved everything I've seen so far!  In particular, I think that Azjol-Nerub & Ahn'kahet are the best looking instances I've seen so far!

I've also been able to create a Death Knight & complete the Ebon Hold quest chain.  Twice in fact!  I liked the quest chain so much that I created an Alliance & Horde Death Knight...lol.  In my opinion, the blue set of armor you get for finishing the Death Knight quest chain is the best looking armor in the game!  I really wish it would level with you so you wouldn't have to replace it.  My Alliance DK is specced Blood & my Horde DK is specced Unholy.  Both builds are strong, but I like my female Blood Elf DK the most =)  She just looks amazing!  

As much as I liked the DK quest chain, I just wish there was more content related to it.  First, I really think that your DK should end up at level 70 by the end of the quest chain.  I mean who really wants to have to level through the Outlands again when Northrend is waiting for you?  Also, I think it would have been really cool if the quests started with a flash back to the time before your character became a DK to see what happened to you.   

All in all, I've been really happy with the new expansion & am really looking forward to getting Devarien to level 80!  

Andiemus reaches Level 70!

Another month goes by and nothing much has been going on.  Man....time seems to fly by these days!  Anyway, the one big thing that has happened in the past month is that I have gotten my Alliance Paladin, Andiemus, to level 70!  At just over 4 days of "played" time, he becomes my fastest leveling run yet!  The recruit a friend program had a big part in this fast leveling.  The other big factor was that I hit every Outland instance available on my way to 70.  I was very surprised by how much experience you get from doing dungeons.  Not only is the exp per kill much higher, but there were a good number of quests associated with each dungeon that I had never done before.  By the time I was finished with Nagrand, my Paladin was already level 68!  I pretty much skipped all of Blade's Edge Mountains & went directly to Netherstorm.  

Of course, another very exciting thing that has happened is that patch 3.0 has gone live!  With all my alts, it has been a bit overwhelming to try and figure out how the new patch affects them....lol.  The new changes for Hunters & Paladins are just awesome!  I tanked Kara the other day for my guild & we were able to do a full clear!  It's crazy how much easier Kara has become since the new patch.  I'm not complaining though....lol.  The gear & badges are still very nice =)

Arena, Honor Grinding & the Recruit a Friend Program

Well it's been another month between posts & nothing really exciting has happened in game during that time.  I think I've finally hit a slow spot.  It happens to everyone at some point.  You kinda hit a wall & there really isn't any new content for you to try.  I just can't get motivated to do my daily quests & the idea of accumulating over a 100 Badges of Justice for my next gear upgrade makes my dizzy...lol.  Thankfully, the new expansion is on the horizon & there will be plenty of new stuff to do =)

What I have been doing, is a lot of PvP with my Rogue!  PvP is very challenging and fun.  It can get repetitive doing the same Battle Grounds over & over.  However, PvP is very fluid so every time you go into a BG, it is never exactly the same, which makes it extremely exciting.  Grinding honor for gear can be rough though!  Some BG's (Warsong Gulch & Arathi Basin) can take so long to finish with very little honor reward.  All in all, I am having more fun doing BG's right now, than doing daily quests.  

The other thing I have been working on is leveling a new alliance character.  I know I said I would take a break from leveling any new toons, but I just couldn't pass up the Recruit a Friend program....lol.  I really wanted a Paladin on the alliance side, so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to level one.  The triple xp from quests is insane!  After only 1 day of played time, my new Paladin is already level 51!  He progressed from the Draenei starter area to Ashenvale to Desolace to Dustwallow Marsh to Tanaris and is now in Ungoro Crater.  He never even had to leave the Kalimdor Continent!  There are some negatives to the incredibly fast leveling.  First, forget about gathering professions.  You just out level an area so fast that you can't keep up.  Second, you really need an established high level character who can fund your new alt.  You are gaining so many levels in such a short period of time that your new character is not making enough gold to be able to purchase new spells/abilities.  And upgrading gear?  Just forget about it....lol.  Unless you have a lot of extra gold to burn, its going to be hard to keep your new toon's gear up to date.  My new pally is still using a level 30 2h sword...lol.  I just can't justify spending 15 to 20 gold on getting a green upgrade.  The auction house is so inflated these days. 

All in all, I think the Recruit a Friend program is a great idea.  However, for someone completely new to the game, I think it has some flaws.  You will get to the higher levels extremely fast, but without an ability to make gold until maybe you hit the Outlands, you may have to pick and choose the spells/abilities you get, forgo your mount or go without gear upgrades until you hit the Outlands.  The only recommendation I can make for a new player is to stay in an area you have already out leveled until you have gotten your gathering professions skill up.  Then you can sell what you have gathered on the auction house and make some gold that way.  This might slow your leveling down a bit, but will be well worth it in the long run.  I would advise on taking 2 gathering professions in the beginning to maximize your selling potential.  You can always switch to another profession later on.

Devarien gets his Nether Drake Mount!

I know it's been over a month since my last post, but nothing really exciting has happened since then.  The big thing I have been working on this past month is getting Devarien his Nether Drake Mount.  Let me tell you...it was a long grind!!!  Getting your reputation with the Netherwing up to Exalted takes a lot of commitment.  The quests can be frustrating at times since the drop rates are so low.  However, you make a good deal of money doing them & as a skinner, you get a huge amount of heavy knothide leather out of it.  All in all, I am happy I stuck with it & was able to get my awesome Onyx Netherwing Drake!

Other than working on my Nether Drake, I've been mostly working on my alliance characters and trying to get them into Kara & gear them up.  I've been having a lot of fun tanking 5 mans with my warrior Jaos.  I've also decided to make my rogue, Aeyla, my dedicated PvP character.  She grouped up with a mage from my guild for some 2v2 this week & we went 6-4!  She's running a shadow step subtlety build, which has a lot of control & is very fun to play.  I'm trying to get S2 weapons for her, but grinding honor seems like it will take a while.  I hope I'm able to get her some good pvp gear before the expansion comes out.

Another cool thing that has happened is that my guild got to go to Gruul's for the first time!  Last Friday we got together with another guild for a co-raid of Gruul's Lair!  We were able to down the first boss after about 4 or 5 tries!  Unfortunately, we ran out of time to down Gruul himself, but on our last attempt, we got him to 12%, so I definitely think we could of done it!  I hope we get to try Gruul's again & if things work out, co-raid some more 25 man content in the future! 

Character Profile: Jeamyr at Level 70

No offense to those of you who play a Shaman as your primary character, but I have to say that I found Shaman to be my least favorite World of Warcraft character class. First of all, the first 40 levels were torture! Fighting was so slow & dealing with multiple targets was really tough. Things got much better once Jeamyr reached his mid 40s. With dual wield & stormstrike, his dps increased dramatically. I’d have to say that enhancement is the best leveling build, at least from level 41 to 70. Perhaps an elemental build would have made the first 40 levels easier, but I doubt it. As far as the elemental shaman, I found it to be the most boring play style I’ve encountered in the game. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but spamming lightning bolt over & over just got too dull for me.

I think the Shaman class suffers a great deal from the Jack of All Trades, Master of None mentality. You’ve got a lot a different play styles to choose from: Enhancement for Melee DPS; Elemental for Spell DPS; and Restoration for healing. However, to me the shaman did not seem that powerful in any of these rolls. For melee dps, I’d rather play a rogue or fury warrior. For Spell DPS, I’d rather play a mage or warlock. For healing, I’d rather play a priest or druid. I have to admit though that the utility factor of a shaman probably makes up for this somewhat with all of its Totems that provide nice group buffs. Please keep in mind that I never played Jeamyr in a group or raid setting, so my perspective is slanted by my experience soloing and leveling Jeamyr up to 70. However, I still feel that for a hybrid class, it is the weakest. As hybrids, the Paladin and Druid classes are much stronger than the Shaman. I don’t think I’ll play Jeamyr much in the future unless it is to group him up with my Paladin & Mage again when the expansion comes out. I’m a little disappointed because I thought the lore behind the shaman (especially Orc shamans) was so cool. I hope the Shaman class gets a nice revamp soon =)

The Hex Lord goes Down!!!!

My guild defeated Hex Lord Malacrass last night!!! And it was only our second night of trying him out! He was nice enough to drop me an amazing new helm, the Coif of the Jungle Stalker!!! The stats on this helm are sick, but it looks horrible....lol. So I guess I won't be displaying my helm graphic for quite some time =) I want to thank my guild again for letting me come with them on this run & congratulations to everyone on a job well done!!!

Jeamyr turns Level 70!!!!!!!!

Jeamyr hit level 70 today! He becomes my 9th character to do so! I have finally accomplished my goal of having a level 70 character for each character class! I can't believe my quest has finally come to an end. Next week, it will be a year since I started writing this blog & truly decided to undertake this mission. In that year time, I have leveled 7 characters to 70. To be fair, I guess that number is really 6, since my Warlock (Faerolin), who was my third character to reach 70, was almost to the level cap when I started this blog. Still, that is a lot of leveling in a year's time =) I'm happy to be done with this project & think I'm going to take a break from leveling any new characters for a while. I plan on focusing on Devarien & my druid, Aeldina. I have really been having a great time playing with my guild & experiencing new content. In the next couple of days, I plan of writing a post on my final thoughts of the shaman class & I'm sure I'll have some more things to say about my quest to 70. Then I guess I'll just keep on writing about things that happen in the game and hopefully when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes out, there will be a whole new quest to undertake =) Talk to you soon!!!

Lynx Boss Goes Down!!!!

My guild killed the Lynx Boss in ZA last night for the first time!!! It was only our fourth time in ZA & we were able to down the first 4 bosses of the instance! We were able to one shot Bear, Eagle & Dragonhawk. I think it took us about 4 attempts to get the Lynx boss down, but I think we know him pretty well now. For our next run, we will have to see if we can beat the timed event & get ourselves some chest drops! Congrats to everyone involved in last night's run! Can't wait to try ZA again =)

Only One More Level to Go!!!!

Jeamyr turned level 69 today! That means I only have one more level to go in order to complete my quest to have a level 70 character for each character class! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel =) Hopefully, level 70 will come soon. Jeamyr is in Netherstorm now & the quest experience in that zone is amazing! I can't believe I am almost done!

Jeamyr turns Level 68!!!

Only two more levels to go! Jeamyr is almost finished with the Blade's Edge Mountains' quests & then it will be off to Netherstorm. I've been pretty happy with Jeamyr's restoration spec. So far, it seems that Shamans can heal extremely well. The combination of Protection Pally, Fire Mage & Resto Shaman is powerful & I am having fun three boxing my horde trio =) I'm playing with the idea of taking these guys into a mid 60 level instance to see how I do. I'm up to the part in the Hero of the Mag'har quest line where I have to go into the Auchenai Crypts. So, maybe I'll try that, but I'm worried that the boss encounters will be too difficult with trying to control 3 characters at once =(

Only Three More Levels to Go!!!

Jeamyr turned level 67 over the weekend & finally finished up all the quests in Nagrand! My Horde trio has been working out extremely well =) I was able to 3 box all the group quests in Nagrand including Durn & the 1st three rounds of the Ring of Blood! I couldn't kill the voidwalker boss in the Ring of Blood because my Paladin kept loosing aggro & the boss would wipe out my other characters. I think if I gave it another try I might be able to do it. I just need to time my Paladin's Righteous Defense ability better. However, I'm ready to move on to Blade's Edge Mountains so I might just skip over the rest of Ring of Blood. The end is in site...hopefully I'll be able to get Jeamyr to level 70 by the end of this month!!!

The Eagle Boss Goes Down!!!!

My guild's second attempt at ZA and we downed the Eagle Boss!!! This time we brought 3 healers & that really seemed to help. It seems that the key to this fight is being able to time the lightning storms correctly. The Boss will select a player at random who is thrown up in the air. The rest of the raid must get under this individual to avoid massive damage from the storm. The trick seems to be that if the raid doesn't collapse upon the boss before he selects his target, then a ranged dps could be selected & it becomes difficult to reach safety in time. However, if you collapse too soon, you can take massive damage from his static disruption ability. I have to thank our great raid leaders who were able to get the timing down perfectly, which allowed us to finally beat this guy!!!!

Not much happened in way of leveling Jeamyr this past week. I was on vacation so I didn't have the set up to try out my 3 box experiment. I did get to play my horde guys a little yesterday & the trio of my Paladin, Mage & Shaman seemed to work out well. I hope to get some more time in with these guys this week & finally get Jeamyr out of Nagrand!

Level 66 & Jeamyr gets another Spec!

Jeamyr turned level 66 over the weekend & I switched his spec yet again....lol. I'm finally going to try 3 boxing my paladin, mage & Jeamyr. As a result, I changed Jeamyr to a restoration spec so he can be the healer of the group. I'm going to test out the combination by doing all the Nagrand group quests. I think the combo of Paladin, Mage & Shaman should do really well. With it, you have a tank, dps & healing. I just hope I control 3 characters at once...lol.

My First ZA Run!!!

My guild attempted its first run of Zul Aman last night & I was lucky enough to be able to tag along! I have to say, it seemed like the difficulty level of ZA is amped up compared to Karazhan. We only attempted the first two bosses: Bear & Eagle. We were able to down Bear on the first try & he dropped the Pauldrons of Primal Fury for me!!! However, Eagle was just too tough. I think we may have to bring 3 healers for our next attempt. Eagle just does too much damage to the whole raid & the healing becomes too intensive for 2 people. I can't wait until we give it a try again!!!

As far as Jeamyr's progress to level 70, not much has happened in the past week. He has been stuck in Nagrand at level 65. However, I have off tomorrow & plan to work on him! Hopefully, I can get him to level 66 and into Blade's Edge Mountains.

Devarien gets a Sunfury Bow!!!

It was an amazing night in Kara! I still can't believe that the Sunfury Bow of the Phoenix dropped for me last night!!! I'm so happy =) I really want to thank my guild for letting me come with them on their Kara runs. I'm having such a great time & really enjoy grouping with them =) Thanks again!

On a different note, Jeamyr reached level 65 over the weekend! Half way through his 60's & almost ready to start Nagrand! At the rate he is leveling now, he might reach level 67 by the time he is finished with Nagrand. This is a little ahead of the pace from my last couple of leveling runs. I think it has to do with the fact that I am soloing him most of the time, instead of two boxing him with another character. Anyway, I'm not complaining =) With all the fun I've been having with Devarien & my guild, the whole leveling alts thing is getting kinda old. I'll be happy when Jeamyr reaches 70 and my leveling project is finally over.

Jeamyr switches back to Enhancement

I decided to change Jeamyr's talent spec back to enhancement. I just needed to do something to revitalize my interest in the Shaman class. Let me tell you, it worked! I forgot how much I enjoyed dual wielding & the Stormstrike ability. In addition, I love the great burst damage of an enhancement spec. Leveling with an ehancment spec is soooo much better than elemental....at least for me =) I think I got bored of just spamming lightning bolt all the time with elemental. Luckily, I was able to fully gear Jeamyr from some quest gear I saved up & was able to purchase some more from the auction house. The only problem is that I don't have any trinkets for an enhancement spec =( Hopefully, there will be some quest rewards on the horizon. Jeamyr is just about to start all the quests in the Bone Wastes & then it is off to Nagrand!!!

Jeamyr hits Level 64!!!

The progress has still been slow, but Jeamyr has gained another level & is working in Terokkar Forest. The main reason for the slow-down in leveling is that I am having so much fun playing Devarien & grouping with my guild =) However, another reason is that I'm just not that into Shaman. I have to say that I think Shaman is my least favorite WoW character class.

As a hybrid class, I think the Shaman suffers to a certain extent from the Jack of All Trades, Master of None mentality. A Shaman can do many things: melee dps, spell dps, healing & support. However, in my opinion, the shaman does not excel or beat other classes in any particular role. For melee dps, I'd rather play a rogue or fury warrior; for spell dps, I'd rather play a mage; for healing, I'd rather play a Druid or Priest. For me, Totems are a mixed bag. On the one hand, I can really see their utility in a group or raid setting. For soloing, I'm not so sure. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't find myself using totems that often....maybe on hard fights. All in all, I'm not really digging shaman right now, but I am determined to stick with it & get Jeamyr to 70 =)

Karazhan is Amazing!!!

My first Kara run was amazing! It’s probably one of the coolest things I’ve done in the game. The look, music & boss encounters are just awesome! The place is huge and I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed in the beginning. You get to the first boss encounter right away, which is Attumen the Huntsman. However, before Attumen spawns you have to engage his horse Midnight. Once you get Midnight down to 95% of his health, Attumen will spawn. One of the raid’s tanks must deal with Attumen, while the rest of the raid fights Midnight. Once Midnight is reduced to 25%, Attumen & Midnight merge & you have to fight them together! Very fun fight. My guild usually breaks Kara into 2 nights. On night 1, the first four bosses are done & the rest are done on night 2. Well, our group did so well, we were finished with the first four bosses before 10 pm & the raid was scheduled to go to 11:30 pm. So everyone decided to continue on! Before I knew it, we had cleared the whole instance (11 boss encounters in all) & I earned 22 Badges of Justice! I also got two really nice upgrades to my equipment. It was an incredible experience.

Two of the coolest boss encounters for me were the opera event & the chess event. In the opera even, one of three different encounters can happen. We got one that was a remake of Romeo & Juliet....lol. The trick to that fight is that you have to kill both bosses within 10 seconds of each other or they resurrect! In the Chess event, you don’t fight with your character at all! You actually play a version of chess against Medivh! Each member of the raid gets to control a chess piece & the object is to kill the opposing King. I was very confused at first, but got the hang of it. All in all, it was a fantastic night & I hope I get to go again!

Jeamyr turns Level 63!

After what has seemed like forever, Jeamyr has finally gained another level! Just a few more quests to do in Zangarmarsh & it will be off to Terokkar Forest. I'm really looking forward to level 64 as Jeamyr will get the Wrath of Air Totem! This totem seems to be a perfect match for Jeamyr's elemental build! It increases spell damage &, since it is an air totem, will combine with Totem of Wrath, which provides a bonus to spell hit & spell crit! This one/two punch should be amazing!

I've still been playing Devarien a lot! I've gotten his leatherworking skill up to 375 & have been able to make some really awesome armor! All I can say is thank goodness for daily quests....lol. Without them I would be completely broke ;-) The materials for some of these recipes are crazy! One required 16 primal fire & 16 primal shadow! I was able to farm some, but I just couldn't stand the grind necessary to farm 160 motes for each kind! So, I had to buy some from the auction house & that cost me! However, after a couple of days of daily quests, I was able to make up the money I lost...phew! The thing I'm most excited about is that I might be going to my first Kara run with my guild tonight! I can't wait!

Instances are Fun!!!

Well, I've been focusing a lot more on Devarien these days & doing stuff with my new Guild! As a result, the leveling progress with my shaman has slowed down quite a bit. Jeamyr is level 62 now & is working in Zangarmarsh. Hopefully, I'll get him to 63 by the end of the week.

I am really enjoying running instances with my Guild. They are really great to group with! So far I have been able to get the key for Arcatraz & am on the last step for a Kara key! I know I don't need to have a Kara key anymore to be able to go, but it was a very fun quest chain & by doing it, I got to check out some really cool instances. Right now, I am trying to get Devarien to 375 leatherworking so that I can try to make the epic dragonscale leatherworking armor for hunters. He is currently at 369, so I'm getting close. I'm also working on fishing & cooking. I neglected these secondary professions before & am now trying to max them out. For hunters, cooking is really cool. I hope to be able to make warp burgers & Kibler's Bits for my pet!

I'm still determined to finish my quest to have a level 70 of each class, but it just seems that my last character might take a bit longer to finish then usual =)

Jeamyr gets his first Outland's Spell!

Jeamyr turned level 62 over the weekend & was able to pick up Water Shield. This spell is perfect for his Elemental spec! It lasts for 10 minutes & gives a ton of mp5, even when casting! This will definitely make Jeamyr more mana efficient & will hopefully reduce the down time between fights when leveling. I've been grouping Jeamyr with my friend Jim's mage, Athame. Things are going well. We finished up Hellfire & are just starting Zangermarsh. I was able to 3 box my paladin, mage & Jeamyr in order to get all the Hellfire group quests done!

Devarien gets a Sonic Spear!!!

Since the end is in site on my quest to have a level 70 character of each class, I decided that I wanted to focus more of my attention on my favorite character, Devarien =) A little over a week ago, I was asked if I wanted to join this really cool guild called The Empyrean Order. The guild leader, Tazric, sounded really nice & I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to get to experience game content I've never seen before.

Last night was my first chance to group with guild members & it was an awesome experience! I got to run Shadow Labs for the first time ever! The guys I was grouping with were great! They explained each encounter & took it very slow. We only died a couple of times and downed all the bosses! The fourth boss, Murmur, is probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen yet in the game! He is this HUGE air elemental that takes up almost a whole room. The guy is so tough, he starts with only 40% health & still has over 500k hit points! He doesn’t move at all, but has this AOE sonic boom that melee classes have to worry about. I had to watch my cat so he wouldn’t die. He also has this ability that turns you into a living bomb, so when it happens you have to make sure you get away from everyone else so they aren’t hurt. We downed him on the first try & he dropped the Sonic Spear for me!!!!!

I want to thank the guys I grouped with for a great time & I hope I get to group with you again soon!

Character Profile: Jaos & Aeldina at 70

With Jaos & Annariel finishing up most of the Shadowmoon Valley quests, I thought it was time to give my thoughts on the Warrior & Druid classes after playing them for 70 levels. I have to say that my perspective on Warrior changed drastically from level 50 to 70. The main reason for that is the fact that I changed specs from protection to fury. I never really liked being a protection warrior. It's a hard spec to level with & for some reason I find tanking as a Paladin much more fun. Switching to a dual wielding fury spec re-vitalized the class for me. I was just blown away by how much damage a warrior could do! Add to that the fact that a Warrior wears plate & you have a very powerful combo. Going up against multiple mobs was no problem at all. Your plate armor makes you very tough & the Bloodthirst skill gives you health back while you're doing damage. Finally, with Whirlwind & Sweeping Strikes, you can do substantial AOE damage.

Another cool thing about being Fury Warrior was how easy it was to find gear. Maybe it was easier for me since Jaos is an Armorsmith, but I had no problem finding blue gear at level 70 that was perfect for a Fury Warrior. The Ragesteel Armor set is awesome & all the pieces are BOE. Anyone can use them, but if you have a 350 Blacksmithing skill, you can get the set bonus, which provides a bonus to your hit rating. In addition, there are several quest rewards from Netherstorm & Shadowmoon Valley that are perfect for a dps Warrior. All in all, I found the fury warrior to be an exciting & rewarding class to play. I highly recommend it!

My perspective on the Druid class has not changed since I started playing Aeldina. I still think it is one of the most versatile & powerful classes in the game. With Druid, you can do it all. Tank, DPS (both melee & spell casting) & heal, the Druid can fill all the roles of a group. The only problem is that it can get very expensive since you need multiple sets of gear to be able to switch roles effectively. Another thing I found frustrating about gearing a Druid is that there are very few leather armor quest rewards for a Restoration Druid. I found Aeldina to be one of the hardest characters to gear. Many times I had to pick cloth rewards because they were better for healing. I didn't like doing this because it made Aeldina look silly. She really didn't look like what I felt a Druid should. Luckily, with the 2.4 patch came the new PVP set you can purchase from reputation vendors. This really helped out and I'm really happy with the way Aeldina looks right now =) In summary on Druid, I think it is one of the best classes to try out if you are a first time player. It allows you to try out multiple roles without having to create 4 different characters. It is also a class that is pretty easy to level & you have at least two different specs (feral & boomkin) that you can level with!

Jeamyr hits 60 & gets a new spec!!!

After 60 levels of being an Enhancement Shaman, I finally thought it was time to try out a different spec. I decided to give Elemental a try and respecced to 41/0/10. Don't get me wrong, enhancement is an awesome leveling build, but I was just itching to try something new. Another part of my decision was the fact that many of the Outland quest rewards seem to be geared towards elemental shamans rather than enhancement shamans.

My first impressions on my new elemental build is that I'm not sure I like it...lol. I was expecting it to play a lot like a mage, but it's nowhere near as efficient as a mage. Unless I'm missing something, as an elemental shaman, you have no way to snare your target. As a result, as soon as you pull, you don't have a lot of time before the mob gets into melee range. I'm only able to get off 2 or 3 lightning bolts before the mob starts beating on me, then it becomes difficult to cast a lightning bolt because you keep on loosing casting time. Another problem is that a shaman has no way to root a target to gain some range again. I guess the idea is that since you have mail armor & a shield, you should be able to take some damage and finish the mob off with melee attacks and your shocks. So far, this spec seems fairly mana inefficient. However, in 2 levels I will get Water Shield, so maybe that will help.

I'm not going to make a hasty judgment, so I'll try this spec out for a few levels before I give up on it. The good thing is that all the gear I get should be helpful if I decide to switch to a restoration spec down the road.

8 Down, Only 1 to Go!!!!!!!

Jaos & Aeldina dinged level 70 tonight!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! They become my 7th & 8th characters to do so! That means I only have to get my Shaman to level 70 & I will have accomplished my ultimate goal of having a level 70 character for each class in WoW. With Jeamyr already level 57, I can really start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to thank my friend Jim for joining me on this run. It was great having his Hunter, Holtzy, & his Druid, Saif, join the group =) Here is a picture of Holtzy's flying machine that he made after reaching level 70!

Fly Away Aeldina!!!

Jaos & Aeldina hit level 68 last night!!! Aeldina's level 68 burning crusade ability is Flight Form! Very cool! Only 2 levels to go and my 7th & 8th characters will turn 70! That will be 8 character classes finished and only one more to go!

Jeamyr dings level 55!

So, Jeamyr reached the mid-way point of his 50's yesterday & still has a bunch of quests left in Un'goro Crater to do. He hasn't even set foot in Felwood, Winterspring or the Plaguelands, so reaching level 60 should be no problem at all. If you've noticed, Jeamyr's appearance hasn't changed much in the last couple of screenshots. That's because I really haven't been able to upgrade much of his gear since he turned level 40. There has been a trend I have noticed for the last couple of characters I have leveled where low level items have been ridiculously expensive on the auction house. I mean green items in the level 40 to 50 range are selling for 8 to 10 gold a piece! There is just no way I am going to spend that kind of money on items I know I will replace on the first day I start questing in the Outlands. There also seems to be a smaller supply of lower level items. Maybe that is driving up the prices? There is also the problem that since you are leveling so fast, you outgrow your gear before you have a chance to save up the gold to buy replacements. I also think that the quest rewards in the 40 to 60 level ranges need to be revamped so that they scale better with the leveling enhancements from the last patch.

67 Levels Down, Only 3 to Go!!!

Well, Jaos & Aeldina turned level 67 over the weekend and are currently working in Blade's Edge Mountains.  I had a major accomplishment in the game over the weekend as well.  My friend Jim and I were able to complete the Ring of Blood quest chain in Nagrand for the first time!  I finally decided to give 3 boxing a try and put my priest Annariel on a 3rd account.  I switched her back to a shadow spec to provide additional dps & some support abilities for our group.  Let me tell you, controlling 3 characters at the same time is extremely challenging!  I was controlling 3 characters & Jim was controlling 2 characters, so we had a full group to give the Ring of Blood a try.  I have to admit that I don't think we would've done it by ourselves.  Luckily for us, there were two other groups doing the quest chain.  So we all took turns doing each quest and helped each other out.  It is when I have experiences like these with nice people that I think that being part of a good Guild wouldn't be such a bad thing =)  If you ever get a chance to do the Ring of Blood, you must.  If you aren't level 70, you get a ton of experience, about 60 gold & a fantastic blue item!  If you are level 70, you earn over a 100 gold!  Although challenging, a well balanced group of 5 in the 66-67 level range should have no problem doing this quest chain.  

I was pretty disappointed with the level 66 Burning Crusade abilities for warrior and druid.  First off, my warrior didn't even get a new ability!  What's up with that?  The druid skill was Lacerate, a feral ability.  Since Aeldina is restoration specced now, she won't get much use out of it.  It seems like Lacerate is similar to the warrior's Sunder Armor.  It can only be used in Bear form, increases threat & can stack up to 5 times.  Seems like a great tanking skill.  Although I was disappointed with the level 66 skills, I'm not too upset since Aeldina will be getting flight form at level 68!!!!

Views from a Casual Player - The confusing & sometimes overwhelming world of mods!

For someone who plays WoW casually, I think modifications and addons to the user interface can be a daunting experience. I have literally spent hours at a time trying to pick and configure the right mods for my playing experience. For a person that doesn't have a lot of time to play each week, the idea of losing that time to set up mods and keep them updated could discourage the use of mods entirely. That would be a shame since the use of mods can really enhance your gaming experience. So, I thought I would share some of my experiences and recommendations about ui mods and addons with the casual gamer in mind.

I have to admit that I did not start using any mods right away. I think I had been playing WoW for over a year before I gave them a try. I was afraid that mods would mess my game up or make my computer more susceptible to viruses. However, I always found it frustrating when a forum post would refer to specific map coordinates and I had no idea on how to find that location on the map. I finally decided that I needed a map mod so I could take advantage of all these great tips. So I started to do research on what map mod to use. I was instantly overwhelmed by the number of choices. The other problem I ran into was that there did not seem to be a stand alone map mod. Every map mod I liked either had dependencies that required more mods or was packaged together with additional mods. This opened up a flood gate of other decisions to make. Do I go with Ace2 mods? What about Titan Panel? Or is Cosmos the way to go?

I finally decided on using Cosmos. I felt confident in the safety and reliability of Cosmos since it was listed on the WoWWiki site, which is like gospel to me =) One of the main reasons I choose Cosmos was that it contained a package of mods that addressed all my needs. It had the map mod I wanted, plus a number of neat extras. I also liked that it came with its own updating software, which really makes it easy when patch day comes along and all your mods are out of date. I have tried a number of different mod schemes since I started using Cosmos, but always find myself going back to Cosmos because it is so easy to use and has all the mods I want.

In my opinion, Cosmos is the one stop shop for mods for the casual gamer. It is easy to set up, use & keep up to date. This allows you to spend your free time playing WoW instead of tinkering with settings. When you do want to play with the different modules within Cosmos, it is very easy to do so. There is a button right on your mini map that opens up the options menu. The menu itself is very intuitive and has tooltips for all the choices. Some of my favorite addons in Cosmos include the Durability Status window, expanded quest log, quickloot (places the loot window at your cursor), the detailed experience and dps monitors, free bag slots, equipcompare & fluid frames (allows you to drag & resize the default WoW windows). Cosmos also includes excellent map mods & mob info, which gives you detailed information on each mob you fight. The mob info mod actually creates a database of information as you fight different mobs. It is great for keeping track of what mobs drop the quest items you need.

Many people might complain that Cosmos contains too many unnecessary addons in the package. There are quite a few that I do not use such as some of the chat functions or the Thottbot plugin, but it is very easy to disable any unwanted addons so they do not eat up your memory. Another great feature of Cosmos is that you can download an addon that allows you to register any Ace2 mod with the Cosmos options menu. This gives you the ability to change the settings of your Ace2 mods right within Cosmos & gives it great flexibility for adding mods not included in the package.

Now for the casual player, I think you can download Cosmos, check out a few of the options & never have to look for another mod again. However, if you are like me & like to experiment and try out new things, here are few recommendations for additional mods:

Unit Frames - If you don't like the look or feel of the default unit frames, or are like me and would like the party pet frames to be bigger, there are a few options. The two main choices are X-Perl & Perl Classic. These mods completely revamp your unit frames. X-Perl is amazing in the amount of customization available. You can change the size, location & look of everything. I found the amount of options within X-Perl to be too much. For the casual gamer, I would recommend Perl Classic. It gives most of the same functions as X-Perl, but has a much more straightforward options menu & is easier to configure. Cosmos actually comes with a Unit Frame addon called Archaeologist. I was not very impressed with this mod as it doesn't seem to allow you to change the size or position of the frames. It basically adds more information to the default frames. However, I find that the options in the default interface menu are more than sufficient, making Archaeologist unnecessary. By the way, if anyone can recommend a mod that increases the size of the party pet frame to make it easier for healing, I would greatly appreciate it =)

Action Bars - I have always found the default action bars to be fine. You can add an additional 4 actions bars from the interface settings in the WoW options menu. However, if you are looking for more actions bars than that, then Bongos or Bartender are the way to go. I've tried both and didn't like either as they didn't work properly with my Logitech G15 keyboard.

Misc. Mods - Here is a list of different mods I love & use:

1. Omen - Great threat meter. It will only work in a group if all of your members are using a similar threat mod. However, if you are a Hunter, it really helps you in threat management with your pet.

2. Rating Buster - Ever wondered whether that new piece of quest gear is an upgrade to what you are currently wearing? If you said yes, then Rating Buster is a must. It sums up all the necessary stats for your class & if you have a mod such as equipcompare, it will compare and tell you the differences between your choices.

3. Totem Timers - If you play a shaman, this is a great mod for managing your totems. It also has a window to quickly cast your weapon buffs and lightning/water shield.

4. OmniCC - This mod will show you the cooldown for any possible ability, spell, trinket or item. Much better than what you can get in Cosmos.

5. DoTimer - If you play a restoration druid or warlock & want to keep track of how much time is left on your HoTs or DoTs, this is the mod for you!

6. Decursive - It may not have the same functionality it once had due to a recent patch change, but it is still an awesome mod for removing curses, diseases, poisons, etc.

7. FuBar - Not necessary if you have Cosmos, but if you are running only Ace2 mods, it is a must. This mod creates 2 bars at the top & bottom of the screen that acts like a docking station for various modules. When you get the mod remember that FuBar is worthless unless you also download all the different modules that come with it. Some of the ones I like include Durability Fu, Experience Fu, Emote Fu & Money Fu. You can also get packages where you get FuBar and most of the usual modules in one download. You can find these at the Curse Gaming site.

If you are wondering where to find all these mods, I would recommend Curse Gaming at wow.curse.com/downloads/addons. The Cosmos website is located at www.cosmosui.org. If you are looking for update software for your Ace2 mods, I would check out WoWMatrix.com. I found this program at BigRedKitty's site. It works really well. It was also featured on CNet's Download site and on Apple's site. As a result, I feel pretty good about it being safe. So, as a bottom line for the casual gamer, I'd say go Cosmos. If you feel a bit more adventurous, check out all the great Ace2 mods on the Curse gaming site. Enjoy!!!

Aeldina turns into a Tree!!!

Jaos & Aeldina turned level 64 last night! With the new level, Aeldina learned the new spell Lifebloom, which is a healing over time spell that can be stacked up to 3 times on your target. Since Aeldina has become the primary healer for our group, I decided to switch her over to a full restoration build and get her the Tree of Life ability. I'm really excited to give this new build a try as it seems healing in Tree form will be different from what I've experienced with my Priest. When in Tree form, you can only cast healing over time spells such as Lifebloom, Regrowth & Rejuvenation. With my priest, I used large slow casting heals such as Greater Heal more than I used HoT's such as Renew. I guess I'll have to try to keep Lifebloom up on the tank and use regrowth & rejuvenation when necessary. In emergencies, I can cast Nature's Swiftness and Healing Touch for an instant cast large heal. I hope I can find a good mod to help me keep track of the HoT's and when to reapply them.

Jeamyr reaches level 50!!!

As tough as I found the first 40 levels of Shaman, the next 10 levels were no problem at all. Jeamyr is doing so much damage now, that he is just ripping through the levels and I still haven't finished Tanaris or Feralas! I'm hoping that by the time I reach Ungoro Crater, he will be at least level 53 to 54. I'm still thinking about transferring Jeamyr over to a 3rd account so I can try 3 boxing him with my Paladin & Mage. If I do that, I will switch him to a pure restoration build so that he can be the group's healer. However, I think I will wait until Jeamyr reaches the Outlands before I make the switch.

Another Zone Down!

Well, with the big snow storm that happened last Friday, my office was closed! So, another full day of WoW playing!!! Almost did all of Zangarmarsh on Friday and completed it over the weekend. Jaos and Aeldina are now working in Terokkar Forest and are on the verge of level 64! I had a mixed reaction to the level 62 Burning Crusade skills for Warrior and Druid. On the one hand, I found the Warrior skill Victory Rush to be great. Victory Rush is a no rage cost instant attack that only becomes available after you kill an experience generating opponent. It works really well with my fury spec and seems to be a great way to build up some rage at the beginning of a fight. On the other hand, I did not like the druid skill, Maim. Now I have to admit, I am not running a feral spec right now, but this skill still seems a little weak. Maim sounds a lot like the Rogue skill Kidney Shot. However, it is not a true stun and any direct damage will break the effect. I guess it could be useful if you need to get a self-heal off during the fight.

The White Lion is Mine!!!

Devarien was able to tame Sian-Rotam yesterday!  I've been wanting a white lion for a long time.  I love the way lions look in general & the white color is just plain cool!  However, prior to the recent patch, it was extremely difficult for an alliance character to tame a white lion, since they only spawned from two horde quests.  I had a plan that once one of my horde characters was high enough to take the Winterspring quest, that Devarien would get an opportunity to tame him then.  By the time that happened, Devarien was already level 70 and I just didn't feel like grinding the lion up 10 levels.  With the 2.3 patch, not only can Alliance characters take the quest that spawns Sian, but pet leveling supposedly got easier.  So, I decided to say goodbye to my raptor and get my lion =)  

I brought him out to Nagrand to grind on all the beasts there.  I figured that I could skin while grinding and at least make some money while doing it.  I was surprised by how well my lion tanked.  He was able to last an entire fight without loosing too many hit points.  Pulling aggro was a problem, so I had to be very conservative with my shot rotation.  I also used the Omen add-on to monitor my threat, which seemed to help.  According to my pet's experience bar, it will take 84k exp to get to level 61 and he seemed to be getting about 700 exp per kill.  That's about 120 kills for the level.  That still seems like quite a grind, but hopefully I can stick with it. 

Hellfire for a Day!

Today, my friend Jim & I had off from work for President's day. So we were able to spend the whole day playing WoW!!! Jaos, Aeldina & Holtzy have just entered the Outlands. So, we started working on the Hellfire Peninsula quests. I really wanted to finish Hellfire today, but we just weren't able to do it. It's amazing how many quests that zone has!!! However, we were able to get to level 61 and are about 1/2 way to level 62! We also had no problem doing any of the group quests like Overlord, Drill the Drillmaster & the Rockflayer Matriarch. All in all, it was a great day. I love all the new gear Aeldina and Jaos got. I think Aeldina looks really cool =)

Bring on the Outlands!!!

Jaos & Aeldina just turned level 60 tonight!!! The leveling enchancements of the recent patch really made this run to 60 a joy =) Now, I'm in the final stretch with these guys & am really looking forward to upgrading their gear with all the Hellfire Peninsula quest items!

Closing in on 60!

Jaos & Aeldina turned level 58 last night, so only 2 level to go until 60! Now technically, I could take them to Hellfire Peninsula, but I find starting that zone at level 58 throws off the progression through the rest of the Outland zones. Plus, with how fast the exp is coming from the zones in Azeroth, it's really not a problem to wait until 60 before I start with Outland. Teaming up with Jim's hunter (Holtzy) has been great. We have just been ripping through everything with little trouble. Aeldina has taken the role of the group's healer and I have really been enjoying Jaos' Fury Dual Wield build. It's a totally different feel from a protection warrior. Hopefully, we'll finish up with 60 over the weekend & be ready to unleash these guys on Hellfire!

Character Profile: Jeamyr - The Last!

My Orc Shaman hit level 40 this week! Assuming that my warrior & druid hit level 70 first, Shaman represents the last class I'll need to level to accomplish my goal of having a level 70 character for each character class in WoW. I'm not really sure why shaman ended up being the last class in my progression. Jeamyr isn't the first shaman I've created. Over a year ago, I started a Tauren Shaman, but never stuck with him. I picked the Tauren race for its cool War Stomp racial skill. However, I just couldn't get into the character. He was soooo big and cumbersome, it made his running speed seem extremely slow compared to the other races. My Tauren didn't last too long and was eventually deleted and having a shaman went on the back burner.

Several months later, I read the excellent Warcraft novels "Rise of the Horde" and "Lord of the Clans", and I just had to create an Orc Shaman. I think from a lore perspective, having an Orc Shaman is the only way to go! I loved the story line of how the Orcs' original shamanistic way of life was corrupted by demon influence and how Thrall was able to redeem the Orc race and bring them back to their shaman ways. I was really eager to give Shaman another try. Unfortunately, leveling a Shaman to 40 has been the toughest of any of the classes I've tried!

I did a lot of research on the best spec for leveling a shaman. My conclusion was that an enhancement shaman was the way to go. The first 30 levels were really tough. An enhancement shaman is primarily a melee class, yet you only get to wear leather until level 40. Also, you do not get any special melee attacks. My usual encounter would consist of pulling with Lightning Bolt, casting flame shock and then auto-attacking until the mob was dead reapplying an appropriate shock when the cool down was up. As far as weapon choices, you can go with a one hander and shield or a 2 handed weapon. With the 1h and shield option, it just took too long to kill enemies, so I went with a 2h axe to take advantage of the Orc racial trait. Still, with no special melee attacks fighting seemed to take a long time when compared to other classes. A shaman's ability to deal with a multiple mobs is not too good either. The only option that seemed to work for me was dropping a Stoneclaw Totem, which will taunt away the add and has a chance of stunning it. You just have to hope you can kill your current target before the Stoneclaw runs out or else you'll have multiple mobs pounding on you and certain death. At level 30, things got slightly better with the skill of Windfury Weapon. Windfury adds a significant amount of dps to your attacks. The only problem is that its' proc rate with a 2h weapon seemed to be low. I found myself hoping it would proc during each fight and being disappointed if it didn't.

Then you reach your 40's and the Shaman class changes night and day. You get to wear mail armor, you get to dual wield and you get the Stormstrike melee attack. With Windfury on both of your weapons, it seems to proc multiple times during each fight. Stormstrike is a strong melee attack and having mail armor increases your survivability. I find that fights go much quicker now and I am really starting to enjoy the Shaman class! Once Jeamyr reaches his 60's, I might switch him to a restoration spec, but for now I look forward to continuing as an Enhancement Shaman.

Aeldina turns 50!!!

Things are progressing at an awesome pace!  Another ten levels down and Aeldina hits 50 after completing the quests in Tanaris, Feralas, the Hinterlands and Azshara.  We haven't even hit Searing Gorge, so that will be next on the agenda and then we will be ready for Ungoro Crater.  I've started to throw my warrior, Jaos, into the mix & I find his fury build to be pretty cool.  It still feels a bit awkward to me, but I hope I can get used to it.  Fury seems to do a lot of damage, but it really requires that you to pay attention to your action bar.  Some of the abilities can only be used after a critical hit, some have cool downs and others you just need to manage your rage properly.  So I hope this spec won't be too difficult for 2 boxing with Aeldina.

Views from a Casual Player - Leveling Enhancements

I've been playing Aeldina for a couple of weeks now & I can say that the leveling improvements, which were made with the last major patch are amazing! Aeldina is already level 46 and is just about to start questing in the Hinterlands. In fact, leveling has been so quick, it has really thrown off how I progress through the zones. A perfect example is when Aeldina finished questing in Stranglethorn Vale. Normally, when I finish up with that zone my character is about 38-39, maybe 40. This time Aeldina was level 43! Level 43 and I hadn't even done any of the quests in the Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows or Desolace!!! I had to make some tough choices: Do I go back and quest in those zones, even though everything is far below my level or do I move on to my normal level 43 zones Tanaris & Feralas. I decided to move on to Tanaris & Feralas and everything seems to be working out. By the way, the new quests in Dustwallow Marsh are awesome & a nice change of pace. All in all, I am very pleased with the leveling enhancements and am excited to get Aeldina high enough so she can start grouping with my warrior, Jaos =)

Character Profile: Aeldina turns 40!!!

Aeldina, my Night Elf Druid, hit level 40 tonight! She will be my next leveling project. However, this time, my good friend Jim will be joining me with his Dwarf Hunter! Grouping with Jim will make this leveling project a lot of fun! Once we get these characters into the 50's, I will start two boxing Jaos, my level 53 Human Warrior.

As I probably have mentioned before, I gained a great deal of respect for Druid when I grouped Aeyla with Jim's Druid Saif. Druid is just one of those classes that can do so many different things. They can tank, melee dps, spell dps & heal. Druid is probably one of the best classes to try if you want to experience all aspects of the game. For her first 40 levels, Aeldina has been specced feral and leveled mostly in cat form. However, cat form plays too much like Rogue, so I wanted to try something different. I'm switching her to a balance/resto hybrid. Hopefully this will provide some support dps and good healing for the group.

Character Profile: Caeden & Iltria at Level 70.

Well Caeden & Iltria have finally finished up with the quests in Shadowmoon Valley, so I thought I'd give my final thoughts on Paladin & Mage as I move on to my next leveling project. First off, I have to say that I'm really going to miss playing these guys on a day to day basis. They made a perfect combo. I moved through quests at a rapid pace because I could take on multiple mobs at a time with ease. I also love the way Blood Elves look =) Their armor looks amazing, especially Iltria. Caeden & Iltria will definitely be among my first characters to reach level 80 when the next expansion comes out.

Paladins make amazing tanks! Whether you are fighting a single opponent elite mob or many mobs at the same time, a Paladin with a protection build has an amazing ability to maintain aggro. In my experience, the "Tankadin" is better at maintaining threat than a protection warrior! Now, I must admit that I have only played my warrior to level 53, but my experience with warrior was that it took much more effort to tank effectively than it does with a Paladin. The only issue I had with Paladin tanking is if you loose aggro for some reason, there are very few direct threat abilities like a Warrior's Taunt or Sunder Armor. I can only think of two at this time: Blessing of Protection & Righteous Defense. Both of these abilities have cooldowns that require you to be very careful at the timing of their use. Overall, the Paladin class has awesome depth. You want to be a healer, spec Holy. You want to tank, spec protection. You want to solo/dps, spec retribution. Paladin has it all.

The Mage is dps pure and simple. I loved watching mobs get destroyed with Iltria's amazing AOE combo of Flamestrike, Dragon's Breath & Blast Wave. Against single targets she would use scorch followed by fireball with fireblast as a finisher. In tough elite/named fights, she would use combustion to let loose with the crits! I wish I got to play her more with the Ice Block ability. That used to be an ability only obtainable through the Frost Talent Tree, but now it is available to all Mages. Ice Block would have really helped with Iltria's survivability. I would definitely play a mage again & spec frost. I am always amazed by the videos of Frost Mages who AOE grind with the blizzard spell! I would love to give it a try some day. I have a level 20 Draenei Mage that would be perfect for the project, but it will be a long time before I get to her.

As I have mentioned before, next to Devarien, these guys have probably been my favorite characters and I look forward to playing them again in the expansion =)