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!!!