55: It’s not just for speed limits.

  Alt powerlevelling continues as Manchego is now 3 short dings from being able to walk through the Dark Portal! Felwood is (mostly) tapped out now, and Un’Goro Crater has been most thoroughly ransacked… I think tonight will find me killing legions of Furbolgs until the Timbermaw guys like me enough to let me through to Winterspring. As I’ve said before, I’m really not too familiar with the zone, but I know that I’ll have 2 immediate turnins from Un’Goro stuffs, and a couple of others that are immediate available (and doable). I won’t be able to stack it and sweep it like I do Un’Goro, but I think that between Winterspring and Silithius, it’ll suffice.

  Still the matter of Thrallmar rep once I can get there, I’m going to try like heck to get into a Ramps group once I hit 57 and can be summoned. One or two runs through there, then maybe slip into a Blood Furnace group or two while I’m actively questing in Hellfire should be enough to vault me up to Revered for that head glyph. I’m pretty excited about the prospect of hitting Outlands this weekend.

  I didn’t get a whole lot done outside of wednesday night’s Un’Goro sojourn and the Felwood stuffs. Lots of sleeping lately, newborns will only give you so much time for that!

The Beat Goes On….

  Shredded Jintha’alor last night as planned, things went much, much smoother than anticipated. I was a little bit leery of Vile Priestess Hex, what with her frog polymorph and all. Previously, coming through here solo on the Rogue and Paladin after everything was nerfed to non-elite status, I had issues with her polymorphing me and then whaling away while I sat helpless. The Rogue wasn’t such a big deal, as I could just burn her down with cooldowns and stuns before she could get it off. The Paladin? I think she got me once or maybe even twice before I was able to gut her.

  No such issues with the Shaman, though she did frog me the first time that I fought her, on the entry. I missed my Earthshock interrupt on a damage cast, so the Grounding Totem ate that and she promptly frogged me – but right as I got off another shock spell, so as soon as I got frogged, she ran away! By the time she decided to come back, I wasn’t a froggy anymore…. GG, Priestess. No issues on the way out, burned her down fast enough that she wasn’t able to do anything.

  So that more or less wrapped up Hinterlands for me, and (now that I was close enough, from a level standpoint, to handle level 55 Magus Rimtori safely) I moved on to Azshara for a quick sweep. For whatever reason, I always liked Azshara, though the amount of quests certainly leaves a lot to be desired. What’s available, though, is both easy to complete and ridiculously rewarding for the trouble. I was even fortunate enough to finally run across The Evalcharr, the rare spawn Chimera. Not that he dropped anything particularly rewarding this first go-round, but more that it’s just one more “been there, done that” check mark for me. I know there are still several rare spawns that I’ve never glimpsed in-game, but it’s one less today!

  Anyhow, Azshara was a breeze to clear; I wrapped up the Musiek questline in Feralas afterwards (another first!) and the Silithid Hive line in Tanaris, which leaves those two areas pretty well bankrupted for quests now. Before I had to log and come in to work, I had just deposited myself in Felwood to clear out a few of the more southerly quests there. I’m thinking that, when I get home tonight, I’ll blow out the quick and obvious ones there (including that goofy Feralas turnin) and get set for Un’Goro tomorrow.

  Un’goro is another of those regions that seems to be generally disliked by the masses, but I’ll tell ya what – I think it’s one of the best places to hang onto in your back pocket for a quick 2-3 levels in the 50’s. So many of the questlines there intertwine to an extent (and there’s nothing quite like killing one mob that can impact 2 or 3 different quests!), and the whole framework of the zone is reasonably tight and easy to work through. Maybe it’s the roving Devilsaur gank that scares people off, I don’t know… but I’ve always been a fan. I’m pretty confident that, between tonight and tomorrow morning, I’ll be looking at 54 by this time tomorrow. After that, things get a bit dicey for me in my whole levelling scheme. 

  I need to bridge the gap from mid-54 to 58; how to do so in the smoothest manner is what’s tough. Clearing out the majority of the remaining Felwood quests would put me to 55, with a healthy amount of what it takes to get to 56. From there? I don’t know… maybe Winterspring (though I confess, I’ve hardly quested there, ever). Maybe Silithius. I think as long as I can get a healthy bit into 57 I’ll be ok, as I plan to get in LFG at that point to find a Ramps group or two. If I want to get my mitts on the Thrallmar Rep head-slot glyph, then the Hellfire Peninsula quests are going to leave me just a bit short – and I *HATE* Shattered Halls. Thus, I’ll have to bang out a few runs for initial rep, or wait until I can get some Heroic Ramps groups. Not so appealing if you’re me. I don’t think instancing there at 57 will be an issue anyhow if I can round up some decent Outlands greens, what with the spell hit I get from totems and talents. Convincing a group to take on a 57, that might be a little tougher! I guess I’ll see what I can drag out of my Guild…

  So, things look to be well on their way, and I’ve got Outlands in my gun sights for this weekend! Still just barely over 4 days /played on this one, and there are a lot of gratuitous AFKs in there for baby breaks.. I’m pretty certain that I could tighten this up to about 3 1/2 days to get to this point, assuming no rested XP.

Productive Weekend

  Well, productive is kind of a relative term, as I didn’t do much with anyone but Manchego this weekend, and had to bow out of Saturday Karazhan at the last minute… but I did make a lot of headway with the Shaman! Cleared out nearly everything in Tanaris and Feralas, plus a few holdovers from Stranglethorn Vale and a good start into The Hinterlands. All told, this was enough to vault me from level 42 all of the way up to level 49 in a relatively short amount of time played.

  Pleasantly surprised to see that Lightning Overload procs relate directly to the spell that was cast, as a Chain Lightning proc means a second Chain Lightning spell. Considering that I really only use it on pulls when I’m going to have to face multiple mobs anyhow, it’s wonderful to see that double dose up front. Makes it that much easier to lay down a Magma Totem after the fact and not worry about one of the baddies taking a shine to it and breaking it for me!

  I’m predominately a solo player when I’m levelling. Mostly, I can’t be bothered with the burden of sharing the item drops from quests (just try doing the “Natural Materials” quest in Feralas with a buddy, now you need *80* of those Metallic Fragments? Yikes!). Given that the killing speed for mob-downing quests improves, I just find myself annoyed more than anything. Take today for instance, I was picking up one of my few Tanaris quests that I have left, for the 5 bug parts out of the hive in the west. As soon as I got there, some level 45 Hunter asks me to join a group with him – and then asks me to rez him. I should have known right there, but I decided “sure, ok… for this quest”. Given that there are a bunch of level 50 mobs in that hive, and that doesn’t play so well as a level 45… maybe he should rethink his line of work. But, I went for it anyways, rez and all. We manage to kill through a couple 6 or 8 mobs, and it’s frustrating. He pulls when I have no mana. He seems intent on pulling the Swarmers (which are, ideally, the ones that you avoid). To make it worse, he melees. A lot. A Hunter.  As if that isn’t all enough, that he’s making me carry the load, and under duress with low mana at that – every time that one of the quest items (Centipaar Parts, I believe) drops – he nicks it! Finally, after a combat in which I take on (and take down) two of the Wasps at once, in which he couldn’t be bothered to assist me, but instead went off and pulled another – you guessed it – Swarmer, dragged it back to me (melee, of course), and then died, I had to be the jerk. I informed him that our business relationship was decidedly one-sided in its nature, and that he wasn’t doing anything but slow me down. So, I rezzed him again and left the group to bang it out solo, but you know what? I hate doing stuff like that, and damn if people aren’t always putting you in that spot.

  We’ve all heard it. “Run me through RFK”. “Run me through Mara” (lol). “Run me through BRD” (more lol). Help me do “Forge Camp: Annihilated”. It’s never the fun or easy stuff, it’s always some mind-numbing bastion of idiocy like Wailing Caverns. That’s probably why they ask in the first place, but it’s crummy to be placed in the position of refusal. Yes, I could run you. Yes, I’ve run people (albeit friends) before. And while I understand that “pls run me WC 5g” might be an outrageous cash outlay for your level 17 Orc Rogue main, it’s less than I can make in 5 minutes on QD. Time is a darn valuable commodity in WoW, and the more you extend yourself for charity like that, the less you can actually get done for yourself… and it gets depleted faster than you think. We’ve all had a day there where we get off on tangents, running a friend through wherever, helping someone pick up those (group) quests that are left in their log – and all of a sudden, it’s 5 hours later, and all the things you had planned to do for yourself are gone.

  So, there’s the line. Do you listen to all of the “Pls run me ____” whispers, or even a few of them, or just ignore em all? I mostly ignore ‘em, and I’m sure that’s the majority opinion, but I still feel a bit guilty about it. Given that a fraction of those people, on denial of their request, will respond with something nasty for your disinterest – I still feel a certain urge to protect my personal server reputation. News flash fellas, your server is a smaller place than you think, and if you’re a jerk – it’ll get out fast. Pretty soon, it’s good luck finding a group for anything. That’s my dilemma. How do you protect your reputation and your time?

  Realistically, most of those “run me ____” types don’t have 70 mains, and if they do, well – they’re not the kind of 70’s that are going to be beneficial raiding partners, shall we say. Still, those same people tend to be Trade Channel Trolls, and getting flamed in /2, however deserving, isn’t my idea of fun. Anyhow, I’ll probably keep denying them and take my chances. The ones that ask for gold, though? They can still go to hell for all I care. I love telling ‘em to go out and earn it like everyone else, just to see their response. It’s interesting when one actually seems to be interested in farming advice, but usually they just flame you in that endearing way that only a 14 year old can. WTB bigger ignore list.

  Anyhow, tonight I’ll sweep through Jintha’Alor and wreck those 5 or 6 quests there.. I think it might push me to 50 already! And to think, 10 days ago I was only 35, and I’ve had almost no rested XP to get through in that time. Maybe, with a little diligence, I can make Outlands by this (3-day) weekend?

So, I’m starting to feel moved-in here.

  Well, now that I’m done with my initial madness about town, posting my character histories, links and whatnot, it’s probably a good time for me to introduce myself!

  My name is Brian, I’m a married, 33-year-old father of one with a jones for WoW.

  For some background on me ‘n the game, I started playing in December of 2006. WoW was something that I had been interested in trying out for a long time at that point, but I had never seriously entertained playing because I was more focused on finishing school. I’m one of those guys that dropped out of college somewhere around halfway, then came back 8 or 10 years later to finish what I’d started! Because I knew ahead of time that this would probably consume me, I purposely held out until I had nearly finished my Bachelor’s Degree.

  I have a long history of computer RPG playing, starting in the early 80’s with Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. I’ve played a number of games between then and WoW, including Bard’s Tale, Might & Magic, Ultima, Fallout, Diablo, Dungeon Siege… heck, I even beat Zork Zero. I guess that my point is, I’m definitely not new to the “RPG” part of “MMORPG”. The “MMO” part? Total noob. I was admittedly shy about that at first, since I’m not so keen on being gankbait. One of the big reliefs with WoW for me was the fact that I can play on my happy little carebear PVE server and not get bothered if I don’t want to be. Is it annoying that there are 6 Alliance 70s rampaging through Crossroads *AGAIN* and killing off quest givers, doing the funky chicken dance, or laughing their annoying Gnome laughs? Sure. Can I ultimately just wander off and do something else while they get their collective rocks off, then come back later and pick up where I left off? Yup – and that leads me to another point; from the beginning, one of the things that I’ve most loved is that I never run out of projects.

  I suppose that having as many alts as I do certainly helps to ensure that outcome, but there are precious few times when I can say that I’ve more or less “hit the wall” on something, and maxxed it out according to my goals. Profession hit 375? Now go get all the recipes. Levelled the Rogue to 70? Cool, go level the Warlock. I’ve certainly set myself on a path that requires more than a passing dedication, but it’s worth it to me. As it stands right now, I can bring a capable toon in almost any role that the raid might require. Tank? Check. Ranged DPS? Which one? Melee DPS? Want the Druid or the Rogue? Heals? Well, let me respec the tank, but… check! (I’m working on that one!)

  It’s nice that I’m self-reliant on professions too. I cut my own gems, make my own pots, tailor my own goodies… if I could only enchant my alts’ BoPs, I’d be set! Really, though, I’ve never been a player who was short on money. I remember Toro hitting 40 and 60, and being one of the only people that I knew who could afford their lvl 60 mount the moment I dinged. That was a point of pride for me. Since then, I’ve always been able to afford the things that I need in-game, and then some. It’s even gotten to the point now where I can be charitable about it and give away blues, even epics to help out Guildies.

  At some pie-in-the-sky point, it was my personal WoW goal to get a 70 from each class. With 80 coming up as the new 70, that’s getting to be an even taller order that it used to be, but (now that I think about it!) I’m really not that far off. With the exception of a Priest, I’m an aggregate 69 levels (as of this writing, though that will change by Monday) from having *8*, level 70 characters.

  Whoa.

  I hadn’t taken the time to add that up in a while, honestly… exempting Derting in favor of the higher-levelled warrior, that’s (70*5)+60+42+39=491 total levels. Anyways, the point is – and here’s where it all makes sense on some level – it’s a lot to manage. Too many alts.

  The downside to having as many toons as I do is, someone winds up getting neglected. If I were one of those guys who has one, two 70s and that’s it… I’d probably be into a BT-level Guild. Well, OK… that’s also kind of assuming that I had enough available playtime to meet the raiding requirements, yadda yadda yadda, but you get the picture. There’s a darn large amount of /played time across my account for the gearing that I’ve got. Still it’s good enough for me to enjoy just about any part of the game that I’ve tried, and that’s fine by me.

  Finally, a send-up for my Guild. I’m a proud member of <Mediocrity in Motion> on the Skywall server. MiM is, refreshingly, a Guild that is made up of predominately older players (most of us are mid 20’s to late 30’s, I think), with a laid-back mentality about raiding that makes everyone feel welcomed. The downside is, it does kind of preclude us from the Hyjal-level stuff at this point. The upside to it, though, is a Guild where nobody is keeping track of how often you raid, dictating your spec, or telling you “You can’t has raid” because your gear is marginal (in most cases). It’s a good place for medium-serious guys (and gals) to learn.

  And with that, I’m done with my shift for the night, so I’ll post and sign off… back Monday to start into this endeavor with a purpose!

Welcome to ‘My Little Corner of The Internets’!

  Yes, it’s yet another WoW blog. These things take time and dedication, I know, but it’s my sincere hope that I can make this thing useful in some manner, for somebody – or even a few somebodies. It’s something that I’ve decided to undertake during my free time at work, because a) I have a lot of free time, b) I love to play WoW and c) I’m pretty fond of writing as well.

  Right up front, I’m happy to admit that I know absolutely nothing about playing Alliance. I’m Horde all the way through, currently sitting (quite comfortably, thank you!) at my 10-toon cap on the Skywall (US-PVE) server. That 10 *does* include a placeholder for my Death Knight toon – someday – in addition to (almost) every other class. Maybe someday I’ll find the patience to level a Priest….

  So, since we’re getting to know each other, I’ll introduce you to the Rogues’ Gallery that is my little virtual Horde Family (via page tabs at the top of this page)…