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!!!