So you all want to know how Bella is doing I'm sure. Well, she's still level 70, but I specced her deep affliction to start with, with 5 points in Demo and 5 points in Destro. Hey, a girl needs her stam and shorter cast time for Sbolts.
Haunt has been a lot of fun to play with, and I've been running around with my imp out. However, after reading up on the new pet abilities, I think I may switch to my fel hound. I didn't take Unstable Affliction pre-Friday's patch, but I may take it when I go back in to spec. I did Utgarde Keep with her, and that was fun. It was nice to have mobs up a little longer so that my DoTs could tick, but I severely miss my Dottimer. It's pretty difficult to keep track of your dots, when you're in a group with another warlock, a pally and a mage. So many debuffs it gets a little nuts.
So far, the questing has been nice in Howling Fjord. The music is certainly much better than in the Tundra, comprising of a distinctive celtic or irish feel, rather than stucatto piano music. The scenery is a little prettier as well. I didn't touch Bella all weekend however.
I did play Rissa quite a bit yesterday. The server has still been a little (more) unstable than usual, crashing every 10 - 15 minutes. For this reason, I was dualing with the live-side yesterday, doing dailies on Keri or questing with Rissa as the server allowed.
I did discover a nice little something yesterday that will hopefully go live. Doing dailies more than once while leveling gets you the same amount of XP. See, usually, you do a daily once as a quest, then it becomes a daily and the rewards aren't as good. However, when I completed the Troll Patroll daily, which consists of getting a main quest from the Argent Crusade camp in Zul'Drak, then completing 1 quest from 4 separate sub-zones, then turning in the Troll Patroll (total of 5 quests), I received the same amount of xp. Now this Troll Patroll is a good deal. The troll patroll quest is timed, and you have 30 minutes to complete the 4 other quests. Each of the 4 quick quests rewards 5300 xp (for a total of 21,200). The Troll Patroll quest gets turned in for 21,500. AND!! If you make the 30 minute timer, which you should fairly easily, you get an additional 26,500 xp. So, in 30 minutes, you can obtain a whopping 69,200xp. Trust me, this set of dailies is well worth the time.
I did get to go exploring a new instance yesterday and I actually did it twice in a row. Gundrak is a reasonably quick instance, encompassing 4 bosses, all named Prophet (insert name here), except one. The one is a little bugged, not allowing you to complete a quest involving him, but I assume they'll fix it sooner or later. The first boss summons these little snake adds, so as long as everyone stands on the bosses platform it's no big deal. We had a pally tank, so a little consecration killed the snakes easily. Our other dps comprised a warlock, and a shriest. (And the new shriests are AWESOME). The second boss phases between a earth elemental (that looks like a stone statue) and a purple water elemental. His phasing is based on health, seeming to switch at 50% and 0%. It's a tank & spank, and easy. The third boss changes into a Rhino and then does a silencing and stun effect. The last boss, which you get to by activating altars once the first three bosses are dead, also changes into a Rhino, and he randomly charges party members, impaling them with a dot. This is one of the easiest instances, and the bosses are very easy. In fact, for a mid-level 70's instnace, I would say they need to toughen it up a little bit. Aside from a level difference, level 70's themselves should be able to wipe the floor in there. While I was in there however, I did finally replace my T5 chest piece. I also replaced my T5 legs earlier in the day with a quest reward blue. So it seems that T5 starts to get replaced around level 76-77.
Oh, and I got to do a fantastic quest chain yesterday where you get to play a spy, and dress up like scourge. I won't give it away, and hopefully Blizz will tweak a few things before it goes live as it did have some issues, but it was interesting, and quite fun.
With the XP tweak, and the fact that I still have a ton of rest XP, I'm now nearly 3/4 of the way through 77. Hopefully I'll hit 78 tonight, and finish up Zul'Drak. I haven't even touched Sholozar Basin, and I'm hoping to hit 80 soon so I can try Naxx and give Wintergrasp a try.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
It's been several days since I've given you guys any new and juicy details on the beta. I aplogize for neglecting you.
First, when they patched yesterday, instead of doing a quest in Sholozar Basin to get your cold weather flying, you pay a trainer at level 77. The cost is now 950g. For those whom I've recently told otherwise, I apologize, as I just hit 77 ~45 minutes ago and I wasn't aware they had made that change in this patch. It sucks, but it does get you back epic flying, so at least it's somewhat cheaper than the original. I also think it's shitty of Blizz to charge us for an ability to which we already had and they took away access, so I'll be filing a suggestion/complaint on that.
Let's see, I did find the absolute worst sub-zone I've yet to encounter. Drak'Sotra is a small sub-zone in Zul'Drak and while the quests seem like they would be interesting (mainly freeing Argent Crusade people), the spawn/drop rates are terrible, even when you've got an entire sub-zone full of people. I'll be submitting poor feedback for those quests and hopefully we'll see some changes come live.
For one of the coolest quests I've gotten to do, I was able to successfully free a storm giant, and then I spent some time riding around on his head killing level 80 elites. Another very frustrating, but very rewarding quest. If you get several people trying to do this all at the same time, it gets difficult, but at the same time, it's a storm giant, and you're on his head. Geekdom vs. annoyance factor I suppose.
The server has been about stable as can be expected. You get 5-10 minutes of play time, then see 3/4 of your guild go "offline" and know to expect the same. You never quite log in where you left off, but you typically have whatever you logged out with. They also seem to be fixing some of the bugged quests finally, which is nice.
I did the Ampitheater of Anguish a few days ago, finally replaced my Wub's Cursed Hexblade. The AoA is the new Ring of Blood, complete with crowd sound effects. You still make just as much money, and get just as awesome of a weapon at the end. The spell power unification makes gear choices a little more varied, but making a decision also takes more time than usual. However, as a Boomkin, I can use the spirit, and I like that I get to choose more between haste and crit. Hopefully we'll get some haste/crit items this go round in the raiding scene.
I'm hoping to get to 80 soon, as I'd like to see the inside of Naxx. I'm most interested to see if the cat is still around.
I did just finish one of the new daily quests. You get to do dailies while you're leveling. They grant XP on par with other quests from that level, and typically a little higher cash value. This one requires you to take the daily from the Argent Crusade main area in Zul' Drak, then go around to the sub-zones and complete 4 dailies in a half hour. The 4 dailies only grant minimal cash (1.5g) and minimal xp (5300 at 77). However, if you complete all 4 in a half hour, you're eligible for a second daily from the main area that gives you extra xp, extra cash and a stuffed bag. The dailies were fairly easy, except the one from Finkelstein. But all in all, a fun little challenge.
I did some dailies back in Grizzly hills as well, but they all required you to flag PvP. I did get ganked a couple times by a level 77 (i was 73), but those were fairly fun as well. I think this is a great way to let people learn the zones and make some extra cash while leveling.
Well, I just fell asleep at the keyboard, and I'm not sure how long I was out for. I'll cover Bella's progress in the next couple days.
First, when they patched yesterday, instead of doing a quest in Sholozar Basin to get your cold weather flying, you pay a trainer at level 77. The cost is now 950g. For those whom I've recently told otherwise, I apologize, as I just hit 77 ~45 minutes ago and I wasn't aware they had made that change in this patch. It sucks, but it does get you back epic flying, so at least it's somewhat cheaper than the original. I also think it's shitty of Blizz to charge us for an ability to which we already had and they took away access, so I'll be filing a suggestion/complaint on that.
Let's see, I did find the absolute worst sub-zone I've yet to encounter. Drak'Sotra is a small sub-zone in Zul'Drak and while the quests seem like they would be interesting (mainly freeing Argent Crusade people), the spawn/drop rates are terrible, even when you've got an entire sub-zone full of people. I'll be submitting poor feedback for those quests and hopefully we'll see some changes come live.
For one of the coolest quests I've gotten to do, I was able to successfully free a storm giant, and then I spent some time riding around on his head killing level 80 elites. Another very frustrating, but very rewarding quest. If you get several people trying to do this all at the same time, it gets difficult, but at the same time, it's a storm giant, and you're on his head. Geekdom vs. annoyance factor I suppose.
The server has been about stable as can be expected. You get 5-10 minutes of play time, then see 3/4 of your guild go "offline" and know to expect the same. You never quite log in where you left off, but you typically have whatever you logged out with. They also seem to be fixing some of the bugged quests finally, which is nice.
I did the Ampitheater of Anguish a few days ago, finally replaced my Wub's Cursed Hexblade. The AoA is the new Ring of Blood, complete with crowd sound effects. You still make just as much money, and get just as awesome of a weapon at the end. The spell power unification makes gear choices a little more varied, but making a decision also takes more time than usual. However, as a Boomkin, I can use the spirit, and I like that I get to choose more between haste and crit. Hopefully we'll get some haste/crit items this go round in the raiding scene.
I'm hoping to get to 80 soon, as I'd like to see the inside of Naxx. I'm most interested to see if the cat is still around.
I did just finish one of the new daily quests. You get to do dailies while you're leveling. They grant XP on par with other quests from that level, and typically a little higher cash value. This one requires you to take the daily from the Argent Crusade main area in Zul' Drak, then go around to the sub-zones and complete 4 dailies in a half hour. The 4 dailies only grant minimal cash (1.5g) and minimal xp (5300 at 77). However, if you complete all 4 in a half hour, you're eligible for a second daily from the main area that gives you extra xp, extra cash and a stuffed bag. The dailies were fairly easy, except the one from Finkelstein. But all in all, a fun little challenge.
I did some dailies back in Grizzly hills as well, but they all required you to flag PvP. I did get ganked a couple times by a level 77 (i was 73), but those were fairly fun as well. I think this is a great way to let people learn the zones and make some extra cash while leveling.
Well, I just fell asleep at the keyboard, and I'm not sure how long I was out for. I'll cover Bella's progress in the next couple days.
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