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 =)

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.