Oops....I did it Again!!!!

Well it’s been well over a year since my last post. It’s amazing how time flies. A lot has happened in WoW over the last past year. Since my last post, we’ve had at least 4 major content patches and have seen Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader & Icecrown Citadel released. On a personal note, I have leveled 10 out of the 10 character classes to 80! I have once again accomplished my original goal, which I set for myself way back in July of 2007, of having a character of each class at max level. During the past year my playing preferences have changed a bit. I haven’t been raiding on my hunter at all. In fact, I haven’t played him much lately. However, now that I’m done leveling alts, I think I will go back & work on achievements with my Hunter. My leveling routine has changed as well. Instead of questing exclusively, I do a combination of questing & random dungeons. It seems to make levels go by much faster! My routine is usually queue up for a random & quest while I wait. I make sure I do all the pre-requisite quests so I can get all dungeon quests as I level up. The bonus exp you get from completing all the quests associated with a dungeon really adds up.

My favorite class right now would have to be Paladin, with Mage a close second. I still like raiding with my guild, but we haven’t progressed as far as I thought we would at this point in the expansion. We still haven’t downed the Lich King & have only seen Sindragosa once. Lately, it has been hard to get a good group together due to low signups. Maybe it’s the summer months or the usual slow down before a new expansion comes out, but interest in raiding these past few weeks has been really low. I also play on the horde side a lot more these days. I like the lore behind the horde & have been having a lot of fun with my horde paladin.

Since I’ve experienced all of the character classes while leveling up & raiding this past year, I thought that I would give a short review of each class & rank them based upon my personal preference. So from my favorite to least favorite, here they are:

1. Paladin – My favorite class at this time. Paladins can perform every role in a group. They are amazing tanks, awesome healers & strong at dps. They are also probably the easiest class to level. I would highly recommend Paladin to everyone, especially someone new to WoW. They make the perfect first character, as they are easy to level & allow you to experience all aspects of the game.

2. Mage – Right now, Mage is probably my favorite pure dps class. They can put out a ton of damage & have a lot of utility to a raid. Also, they are a ranged caster class, which is very helpful in Icecrown Citadel. They are another class that it is very easy to level. I would recommend leveling as frost, which gives you a lot of protection & control over your enemies.

3. Hunter – Hunter used to be my favorite class & I still consider Devarien my “main” character. However, in my opinion, Blizzard has gone away from what I thought made hunter great, at least at the raiding level. I always felt that the best thing about hunter was the importance of a hunter’s pet. When I raided in the Burning Crusade, Tyr (my white lion) did a substantial portion of my overall dps and a Beast Mastery spec was a competitive dps spec. Today, Marksman & Survival are the top specs & your pet doesn’t play as important a role. I hope in Cataclysm that a Hunter’s Pet comes back to the forefront.

4. Warlock – I have to say that I’m very impressed with the Warlock class. If I didn’t like the feel & play style of the mage so much, I would have to consider the Warlock a candidate for the strongest ranged dps class. What’s so awesome about the Warlock is that all 3 specs are viable for raiding, perform extremely well, and have completely unique play-styles. In addition, they are also a very good leveling class, with 2 strong specs to choose from (Demonology & Affliction). I would highly recommend the affliction spec when leveling in Northrend. It’s almost ridiculous how powerful this spec is! You can take on 5 or more enemies at the same time & end up at full health at the end of the fight! Almost all the damage you do converts to health for you….it really is amazing!

5. Druid – Another class that can perform every group role well. They make a great first character or “main” character if you don’t have time to level alts. However, I did not enjoy leveling my druid. They are nowhere as powerful as a ret pally is for leveling, but if you can make it through to max level, the druid is well worth it.

6. Warrior – Warriors used to be one of my least favorite classes in Burning Crusade, especially at tanking. However, with the changes made in Wrath, they are much more fun to play & better at aoe tanking. I would recommend leveling as protection. You still do sufficient damage to make questing easy & you can get quick random queues as a tank.

7. Shaman – I’ve never really liked the Shaman that much. It’s one of those hybrid classes that have always felt underwhelming to me. There are classes that do better jobs of healing & dps. However, in WoTLK, it seems that Shamans have been improved quite a bit. I leveled as an Enhancement Shaman & found it to be powerful. In addition, it had one of the more complex & interactive rotations of any class I have played. I would still recommend Paladin or Druid over Shaman, but I definitely have much more respect for the Shaman class then I did in Burning Crusade.

8. Death Knight - When Death Knights were first introduced in WoTLK, I thought they were awesome. Incredibly strong at leveling & great at tanking/dps. Plus, their starting quest chain is one of my favorites of all time! However, as things changed & nerfs occurred after several patches were released, DK’s seemed to loose what set them apart. They are supposed to be a hero class, but they really don’t feel that way anymore. In fact, they are kind of redundant given that we already have 2 plate wearing classes that can dps/tank. But their rune system still gives them a unique flavor & I love the lore behind them. Also, if you don’t want to level a new alt from level 1, they are the only option in town.

9. Rogue – I haven’t had a chance to do 5 mans or raid with a rogue at max level. So my thoughts on rogue are limited to what I experienced questing and doing 5 mans as I leveled up. My rogue was actually the last character I leveled even though she is one of my oldest. In short, I found leveling a rogue to be boring. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but I could usually only take on one enemy at a time. Being able to stealth was nice, but it wasn’t enough. The thing I found most shocking was the lack of any aoe abilities while leveling up. You don’t get Fan of Knives until level 80. The only thing available while leveling is if you spec as combat. You can then use Killing Spree & Blade Flurry for AOE, but they have longer cool downs & can’t be used all the time.

10. Priest – Priest is my least favorite class. In my opinion, they are another example of a hybrid class that doesn’t quite perform any role optimally. Pally’s are better tank healers & Druids are better raid healers. Shadow dps is solid, but I’d still rather play a mage or warlock. I found leveling to be a chore. I was always out of mana & having to drink.

Annariel reaches Level 80!

My third character hit level 80 this past week!  As I have mentioned before, leveling a priest is a chore!  I'm glad its over =)  I have dual specced her with 2 healing specs:  Discipline & Holy.  I was able to heal a Naxx run with my discipline spec & had a lot of fun.  Only thing is that discipline does not fair to well on the healing meters since a majority of its healing power comes from absorbing damage.  I hope to find a mod that will give me a better idea of how I'm doing.

I'm still working on my horde Paladin.  He is level 77 now.  On the alliance side, I have started leveling my mage, who is currently level 74.  

Devarien, Champion of the Frozen Wastes!!!

Well, it's been a while since my last post.  Nothing really exciting has been happening lately.  However, last night Devarien finally got his Champion of the Frozen Wastes title after defeating Malygos!  After about 34 attempts at Maly over a span of approximately 3 months, it finally happened!  For whatever reason, he was an extremely tough encounter for our guild.  We were actually able to do Sartharion 10 man with one drake up before we did Malygos...lol.  Anyway, I'm really happy that I finally got that done =)

I've been running a marksman build with Devarien for the past couple of weeks & am really happy with it.  For me at least, its dps has been close to what I was doing with Survival & I really like bringing the True Shot Aura buff to the raid.  As far as my leveling projects, they have been going slow.  I've been working on my Horde Paladin & my Alliance Priest.  My Pally is level 75 right now & is questing in Dragonblight.  I'm having a great time experiencing the quests from the Horde perspective.  It's a totally different feel.  I'm leveling as retribution & its awesome!  I'm finding the Retribution Paladin almost as good at leveling as my Unholy Death Knight.  However, the Unholy Death Knight is still the most powerful & fun class at leveling that I have experienced.  I decided to level my Priest so that I could help my guild with healing when necessary.  She is level 74 right now, but leveling as a priest is torture...lol.  They have no AOE abilities that I can see & fighting one mob at a time is just sooooo slow.

Illeyria turns Level 80!!!

My Death Knight becomes my second character to hit level 80!  I have to say that leveling as a DK is a breeze.  I would highly recommend an unholy build to level your DK.  It has amazing AOE power, a permanent Ghoul Pet & increased mount speed.  All in all a perfect combo for fast leveling.  My DK is frost specced right now for tanking.  I've been able to tank a few heroics & Naxx so far & I have to say DK Tanking is very strong.  Excellent threat for both single target & AOE situations.  Hopefully patch 3.1 doesn't mess DK tanking up too much.

The Nerubian Conquerer is mine!!!!

I had a very good night in Naxx yesterday!  Not only did this amazing gun drop for me, but I also got my Tier 7 Leggings!  My rolls have been horrible lately, so I was really fortunate to get these awesome upgrades =)  The only thing left for our guild to accomplish before patch 3.1 comes out is to down Malygos.  Our first attempt did not go so well.  We will be trying him again this Sunday.  I have a good feeling that we will do it!  If we are successful, I will get a new title, "Champion of the Frozen Wastes"!

My Death Knight is coming along nicely as well.  She is 75 now & is questing in Dragonblight.  I decided to have her learn Mining & Skinning so she can supply my other characters with mats.  Let me tell you, leveling those professions from scratch was not fun at all.  I think that since DK's start at level 55, they should be able to start 2 professions at the equivalent level.  To have to go back to the starter areas to level your skill is just a horrible time sink.    

My Death Knight turns 70!!!!

Well I'm back to accomplishing my original goal of having a level 70 character for each class!  I think it might be time to start the process of leveling all my alts to 80.  If I think about it too much, it becomes an overwhelming prospect.  So I'm just gonna take it one leveling project at a time.  Since I've been enjoying my Death Knight so much, I'm gonna focus on getting her to level 80 next.

I find Death Knights to be the ultimate leveling class.  They can take on multiple mobs at the same time better than any other class in my opinion.  Think a combination of Protection Paladin & mage in one package and you kinda get the idea of how powerful these guys are.  My DK is specced unholy right now & I love it.  Her AOE damage is insane & with abilities like Bone Shield and Death Strike, she can survive quite a beating & heal herself too!  Add a permanent ghoul pet for extra dps and you have quite a powerful character!

However, what I am most interested in trying with my DK is tanking.  It seems that tanking with a DK should be a very unique experience.  I've tanked with my Druid, Paladin & Warrior.  So far, Paladin has been my favorite tanking class, but I have a feeling that the Death Knight will be just as fun =)

The Spirit Beast is Mine!!!!!!!!!!

After almost 2 months of searching, I finally tamed the rare & elusive spirit beast, Loque'nahak!!!! I was so excited after I tamed him that I was shaking & my heart was racing...lol. I knew I wanted this guy as a pet from the first time I saw screenshots of him on Petopia & BigRedKitty. So, as soon as I turned 76, I set out to Sholazar Basin and began my search. I will not lie. This has been the most frustrating & demoralizing tame of my WoW experience...lol. However, all of the negatives immediately go away once you tame this beautiful beast =)

Loque'nahak is ultra rare. He is the only spirit beast and his model is completely unique. He is one of 3 rare elites that can spawn in Sholazar Basin & he can spawn in more than 6 different locations. In addition, it is speculated that only one rare elite can spawn at a time & that they spawn on a 3 to 6 hour timer. In short, it can be a daunting prospect to tame this guy. My only advice is not to give up as I almost had. My main method of searching was to patrol on my flying mount through the known spawn locations with my beast tracking up & spamming my target macro. As I said, I've been doing this for almost 2 months now & I've only seen Loque'nahak once....the time I was able to tame him.

I've tried checking every hour for awhile, waking up in the middle of the night, trying first thing in the morning & checking right after a server reset. Nothing seemed to work. In all that time, I never saw the spirit beast once & I only ever saw the corpse of another elite, King Krush. Slowly, I began to come to the realization that I might never find this guy, so I slowed down in my pursuit. I only looked for him when I did the Oracle daily quests. A couple of times, I thought I found him only to see that some other Hunter decided that it would be fun to name his pet after Loque'nahak. His pet would keep on coming up in my targeting macro. I learned to hate this Hunter...lol. Once I became exalted with the Oracles, I pretty much had given up my search. I really had no reason to come back to Sholazar on a day to day basis. However, I kept on searching once a week when I would go to buy my mysterious egg. Today at approximately 10:30 A.M., my persistence finally paid off =)

It really didn't seem real at the time...hehe. I heard the sound of something coming up as my target & looked to see that it was Loque'nahak! Then it disappeared! I realized that he had just gone out of range & frantically began spamming my macro. I found him by the gorillas in the southern part of the zone. I put down a freezing trap, but I don't even think it went off...lol. I just started the tame & held my breath as the seconds went by. Thankfully, no one else was around & the tame was a success. I think this might be the best thing that has ever happened to me in the game =)

Devarien gets a Red Drake!!!

Well, it's been about a month since Devarien dinged 80 & I've still been playing him exclusively. There's just been so many cool things to do! I've been able to finish up questing in all the Nothrend Zones & got the Loremaster achievement! Getting the 140 quests done in Icecrown was actually more difficult than I thought. This is mostly due to the fact that you must complete several 5 man quests in order to reach the 140 quest total you need. Luckily with the help of my friend Jim & a guildie, I was able to do it =)

I've also been doing a lot of heroics with my guild. They are fun & challenging. I think my favorites so far are the Culling of Stratholme & the Occulus. I think these two are probably the most challenging heroics out there & really require good teamwork to complete. Heroics are also an amazing way to get faction with either the Kiron Tor, Argent Dawn, Ebon Blade or Wyrmrest Accord. So far, I have gotten to exalted with the Argent Dawn & Wyrmrest Accord. There is an amazing Hunter chest piece reward for getting to exalted with the Argent Dawn & of course the Red Drake mount for Wyrmrest Accord =)
I have also been working on reputation with other factions such as the Sons of Hodir, the Kalu'ak & the Oracles. I am just one more day of daily quests away from exalted with the Kalu'ak! I can't wait to get my penguin pet & new fishing pole! I'm still a ways off from getting exalted with the other 2 factions. I find the Sons of Hodir daily quests quite annoying, mostly because there are just too many people trying to do them....lol. The negative feelings I get from the Oracles' quests is probably more related to my frustration in not being able find Loque'Narak to tame, rather than the quests themselves...hehe. For the past 6 weeks at least, I have been searching for the ultra rare exotic spirit beast to no avail. I'll probably keep searching until I reach exalted with the Oracles & then I will most likely give up.
I've been having so much fun playing Dev that I have really had no desire to start leveling my other characters. I will hopefully get around to them sometime soon, but I am more excited about running Naxxramas with my guild =) I am, however, a little bit concerned about the upcoming hunter nerfs. Hopefully, I will be able to adjust my talent build & shot rotation so that my dps doesn't take a big hit.

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 =)

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 =)

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! 

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.