Since my battlegroup is currently down, a post! I said that I'd post after our first Citadel run, but I wasn't expecting the huge number of instance problems that have arisen since 3.3 went live. Entering the raid instance took us about thirty minutes, possibly longer. Then after reaching the fourth (and currently final) boss, the server crashed and we were unable to teleport back and actually down it (which is why I didn't bother posting until now). The only response to my ticket was "The issue will be solved as soon as possible.", which wasn't in time for the raids to reset (and therefore totally pointless).
Hopefully we won't have any such problems tonight, so there might be a post later on when we've cleared the first wing of ICC 10. Everything else is generally awesome, though there isn't a huge amount to keep me occupied since I don't need Emblems of Triumph or loot from the new 5-man dungeons.
Wednesday 16 December 2009
Tuesday 8 December 2009
We're going to kill the Lich King!
3.3 is tomorrow, and I have never been so excited about a patch. I think it's because I've done Trial of the Crusader to death on both 10 and 25 man, and even completed 10 man Trial of the Grand Crusader twice (the first time a few weeks ago, and again last night). This is the first time I'll be approaching new raid content knowing that I've done everything possible in the last one, and I'm really happy about that. My guild -still- hasn't downed Yogg-Saron, but hopefully sometime before the release of Cataclysm we'll get around to doing that.
We lost some people to boredom and/or real life recently, so we probably won't be doing much in the way of 25 man content, but we still have a really strong 10 man team, so I'm hoping I'll get to do Icecrown Citadel hard-mode progression raiding, and get one of those awesome frostwyrm mounts.
I have all but three slots with item level 245 gear; some crafted, some bought, some from 25 man ToC, some from 10 man ToGC. My two 232 pieces are shoulders and shield, and I have a 200 trinket (from 5 man ToC normal). 42k health unbuffed, which isn't a huge amount worse than the best tanks on my server.
Raiding Ancients (that's my guild, not sure if I've ever said) are ranked 18th on the server for 10 man content, having cleared ToGC 10 with more than 25 attempts remaining. We missed out on the 45 attempts remaining achievement by 50k last night, which was kind of a disappointment. Then had a load of 1-2% wipes, before finally clearing it. I also got an awesome new sword, less than a week after getting the non-heroic version (and a day after spending gold to enchant it).
Not really much else to say. Very, very excited. Expect posts tomorrow after we've done our first Citadel run.
We lost some people to boredom and/or real life recently, so we probably won't be doing much in the way of 25 man content, but we still have a really strong 10 man team, so I'm hoping I'll get to do Icecrown Citadel hard-mode progression raiding, and get one of those awesome frostwyrm mounts.
I have all but three slots with item level 245 gear; some crafted, some bought, some from 25 man ToC, some from 10 man ToGC. My two 232 pieces are shoulders and shield, and I have a 200 trinket (from 5 man ToC normal). 42k health unbuffed, which isn't a huge amount worse than the best tanks on my server.
Raiding Ancients (that's my guild, not sure if I've ever said) are ranked 18th on the server for 10 man content, having cleared ToGC 10 with more than 25 attempts remaining. We missed out on the 45 attempts remaining achievement by 50k last night, which was kind of a disappointment. Then had a load of 1-2% wipes, before finally clearing it. I also got an awesome new sword, less than a week after getting the non-heroic version (and a day after spending gold to enchant it).
Not really much else to say. Very, very excited. Expect posts tomorrow after we've done our first Citadel run.
Friday 16 October 2009
Not dead, 3.3, Cataclysm
Though you may be forgiven for thinking that I am, due to the lack of posts for quite some time. I am infact Undying. Pretty cool, eh?
I've kind of hit a slump with finding things that are interesting to write about. Not that I was great at finding things to write about in the first place, and not that I was great at writing about them when I could. I have the worst attention span ever, and generally get easily distracted from the initial point I was trying to make.
I've been keeping up-to-date with the 3.3 patch notes via the MMO Champion front page, and I have to admit that I'm very, very excited about Icecrown Citadel. I'm not a particularly large lore buff, don't know much about the Classic or Burning Crusade content (having only experienced the levelling aspect), so for me Wrath of the Lich King IS World of Warcraft. Sure, I experienced Azeroth, and I had a taste of Outland, but most of my time has been spent in Northrend. I'll be kind of sad to see it end, but I'm also pretty stoked about a lot of the changes I've read about in Cataclysm.
Maybe in three years time I'll be one of those foolish people posting about how everything used to be so much better; saying that patch 5.x is the worst yet, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel were the greatest raid instances ever created, and that the game has been dumbed down for casuals and idiots over the years. I hope not, though.
I, with a large amount of help from Daelona, bought myself a Mekgineer's Chopper. And, in addition to looking totally badass while sat on it, riding it around the desert in Tanaris is one of my favourite things to do when I'm not questing or in a dungeon or raid. I'm not convinced people will be able to truly enjoy the sundered, post-apocalyptic world of Cataclysm without being on a chopper or mechano-hog, to be honest.
I've kind of hit a slump with finding things that are interesting to write about. Not that I was great at finding things to write about in the first place, and not that I was great at writing about them when I could. I have the worst attention span ever, and generally get easily distracted from the initial point I was trying to make.
I've been keeping up-to-date with the 3.3 patch notes via the MMO Champion front page, and I have to admit that I'm very, very excited about Icecrown Citadel. I'm not a particularly large lore buff, don't know much about the Classic or Burning Crusade content (having only experienced the levelling aspect), so for me Wrath of the Lich King IS World of Warcraft. Sure, I experienced Azeroth, and I had a taste of Outland, but most of my time has been spent in Northrend. I'll be kind of sad to see it end, but I'm also pretty stoked about a lot of the changes I've read about in Cataclysm.
Maybe in three years time I'll be one of those foolish people posting about how everything used to be so much better; saying that patch 5.x is the worst yet, Ulduar and Icecrown Citadel were the greatest raid instances ever created, and that the game has been dumbed down for casuals and idiots over the years. I hope not, though.
I, with a large amount of help from Daelona, bought myself a Mekgineer's Chopper. And, in addition to looking totally badass while sat on it, riding it around the desert in Tanaris is one of my favourite things to do when I'm not questing or in a dungeon or raid. I'm not convinced people will be able to truly enjoy the sundered, post-apocalyptic world of Cataclysm without being on a chopper or mechano-hog, to be honest.
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Addons!
I came late to the concept of addons. My first addon - I believe it was MapCoords - was installed when my first character was late 60s. When I made my Paladin, I levelled to 80 simply using that one addon; when I hit 80, I deleted it.
I tanked Naxx clears and other 3.0 raid content for a number of weeks without any addons, then finally installed Deadly Boss Mods. I tanked Naxx clears for several more weeks with just DBM before deciding to completely rebuild my User Interface. A customised UI, depending on just what you want to do with it, can require a large number of addons.
Here is a list of all the addons I have installed:
All Stats
Atlasloot Enhanced
Auctionator
Bartender 4
BlizzMove
Deadly Boss Mods
eCastingBar
Grid
LunarSphere
Message Redirect
MikScrollingBattleText
Omen Threat Meter
PallyPower
Pitbull Unit Frames 3.0
Power Auras Classic
Prat 3.0
Recount
SatrinaBuffFrame
SexyMap
SmartRes
SmoothDurability
Taunt Tattle
The ones in bold are the most important ones.
And, if you're interested, here's what my UI looks like currently:
Click it!
I tanked Naxx clears and other 3.0 raid content for a number of weeks without any addons, then finally installed Deadly Boss Mods. I tanked Naxx clears for several more weeks with just DBM before deciding to completely rebuild my User Interface. A customised UI, depending on just what you want to do with it, can require a large number of addons.
Here is a list of all the addons I have installed:
All Stats
Atlasloot Enhanced
Auctionator
Bartender 4
BlizzMove
Deadly Boss Mods
eCastingBar
Grid
LunarSphere
Message Redirect
MikScrollingBattleText
Omen Threat Meter
PallyPower
Pitbull Unit Frames 3.0
Power Auras Classic
Prat 3.0
Recount
SatrinaBuffFrame
SexyMap
SmartRes
SmoothDurability
Taunt Tattle
The ones in bold are the most important ones.
And, if you're interested, here's what my UI looks like currently:
Click it!There are some things that it's difficult to get a screenshot of, and some things that simply aren't shown because they weren't relevant at the time I took the screenshot. The most important aspects of my UI are visible though.
Alterac Valley
Alterac Valley was the last battleground I needed marks of honor from to buy myself a PvP mount. Knowing that there is a certain PvE element involved, I stayed in Protection spec for the seven battlegrounds necessary to get the marks required.
For those who don't know, Alterac Valley has the distinction of being the only battleground with a highest bracket of 71-80. What this means is that in addition to fighting level 80 opponents, there are also opponents below level 80 to fight. And, with the addition of XP gains in battlegrounds, there seemed to be a LOT of under-80 characters on both sides.
As a Paladin tank with 35k health self-buffed, fighting against under-80 opponents is not fun. At least not when they're alone. They do minimal damage, and I crit with Judgement for about 1.5k, crit with Hammer of the Righteous for just over 4k, crit with Shield of Righteousness for just over 6k, and mid-70 opponents don't have all that much health.
However, fighting teams of under-80 opponents is ridiculous amounts of fun. While one person stands no chance of killing me before I kill them, a group of three, four or five of them do. And, in the midst of a swarm of mid-70 Horde trying to kill me, there was the occasional surprise of a level 80 opponent as well.
I was hacking and slashing with my axe, slamming with my shield, and throwing out holy judgement in all directions. But I wasn't dying until I ended up against a mid-70 mage, rogue, death knight and an 80 Warlock without a healer present (I had killed this same group earlier when I had a 73 druid healing me).
For those who don't know, Alterac Valley has the distinction of being the only battleground with a highest bracket of 71-80. What this means is that in addition to fighting level 80 opponents, there are also opponents below level 80 to fight. And, with the addition of XP gains in battlegrounds, there seemed to be a LOT of under-80 characters on both sides.
As a Paladin tank with 35k health self-buffed, fighting against under-80 opponents is not fun. At least not when they're alone. They do minimal damage, and I crit with Judgement for about 1.5k, crit with Hammer of the Righteous for just over 4k, crit with Shield of Righteousness for just over 6k, and mid-70 opponents don't have all that much health.
However, fighting teams of under-80 opponents is ridiculous amounts of fun. While one person stands no chance of killing me before I kill them, a group of three, four or five of them do. And, in the midst of a swarm of mid-70 Horde trying to kill me, there was the occasional surprise of a level 80 opponent as well.
I was hacking and slashing with my axe, slamming with my shield, and throwing out holy judgement in all directions. But I wasn't dying until I ended up against a mid-70 mage, rogue, death knight and an 80 Warlock without a healer present (I had killed this same group earlier when I had a 73 druid healing me).
I am Ironman
I've spent the last few days doing PvP when I haven't been raiding or doing Tournament dailies, generally focusing on the three vanilla battlegrounds to get the necessary emblems for a PvP mount - I had a black war horse on my first character, a 70 Warrior (pre-Wrath) which I PvPed with exclusively, and decided I wanted one on my Paladin too.
I'd been getting close to Ironman for a while, generally managing to capture two flags without dying. My best attempt was two flags without dying, and no opposition from the Horde to speak of (I assume they were busy being graveyard camped by the rest of my team), but a rogue on the Alliance side decided to be a prick and capture the third flag himself. Admittedly I didn't tell him that I was going for Ironman, and he may not have realised I'd already done two of the flags, but still.
If there is one thing I've learnt from my Ironman attempts, it's that holy shit I can take a beating. Between Lay on Hands healing me back to full, Ardent Defender putting me back on 30% health when I should have died, and the 35k health I have self-buffed, there have been times where I have had two DKs and a rogue trying to kill me, and been able to survive with almost no heals from the Horde base to the bottom of the tunnel in the Alliance base.
I just hit autorun, spam cleanse to get rid of as many DoTs as possible, use Hand of Freedom whenever possible and necessary, and watch my health go down gradually, with the occasional spike upwards when I do have somebody heal me.
So I have 27 Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor, and only need three more. I step into Warsong Gulch in Protection spec, and run for the flag. I grab it, I start running down the long tunnel, and get attacked by a rogue. I kill the rogue, carry on running. I get met at the end of the tunnel by a druid healer, and start making my way across the field to the Alliance base. I get attacked nearing our base by two mages, but they die quickly to a gathering group of Alliance. One capture.
I repeat the process twice, each time getting close to dying but not actually dying. I have no idea how many DoTs I cleansed from myself or how much damage I took, but I finally captured that third flag. I am Ironman.
And, by the way, I wrote this entire post while listening to Ironman. It just seemed appropriate.
I'd been getting close to Ironman for a while, generally managing to capture two flags without dying. My best attempt was two flags without dying, and no opposition from the Horde to speak of (I assume they were busy being graveyard camped by the rest of my team), but a rogue on the Alliance side decided to be a prick and capture the third flag himself. Admittedly I didn't tell him that I was going for Ironman, and he may not have realised I'd already done two of the flags, but still.
If there is one thing I've learnt from my Ironman attempts, it's that holy shit I can take a beating. Between Lay on Hands healing me back to full, Ardent Defender putting me back on 30% health when I should have died, and the 35k health I have self-buffed, there have been times where I have had two DKs and a rogue trying to kill me, and been able to survive with almost no heals from the Horde base to the bottom of the tunnel in the Alliance base.
I just hit autorun, spam cleanse to get rid of as many DoTs as possible, use Hand of Freedom whenever possible and necessary, and watch my health go down gradually, with the occasional spike upwards when I do have somebody heal me.
So I have 27 Warsong Gulch Marks of Honor, and only need three more. I step into Warsong Gulch in Protection spec, and run for the flag. I grab it, I start running down the long tunnel, and get attacked by a rogue. I kill the rogue, carry on running. I get met at the end of the tunnel by a druid healer, and start making my way across the field to the Alliance base. I get attacked nearing our base by two mages, but they die quickly to a gathering group of Alliance. One capture.
I repeat the process twice, each time getting close to dying but not actually dying. I have no idea how many DoTs I cleansed from myself or how much damage I took, but I finally captured that third flag. I am Ironman.
And, by the way, I wrote this entire post while listening to Ironman. It just seemed appropriate.
Argent Tournament
I neglected the Argent Tournament in 3.1 - I did the quests for a few days, then got bored of the same thing over and over again. I wasn't very good at jousting (I am now awesome, obviously) and didn't find it that interesting.
With the addition of the Argent Charger - I WANT WANT WANT this mount - in patch 3.2, I've been doing the Tournament dailies every day. I have five days of Gnomeregan Valiant quests left (including today, haven't logged onto WoW yet) before I'm a Crusader, and should be Exalted with the Silver Covenant sometime in the next couple of days.
I'm still not convinced that these quests are fun, but they aren't as awful as my first impression suggested they were, and they do at least contribute heavily to my income of gold. Plus it will all be worth it when I have myself an Argent Charger.
With the addition of the Argent Charger - I WANT WANT WANT this mount - in patch 3.2, I've been doing the Tournament dailies every day. I have five days of Gnomeregan Valiant quests left (including today, haven't logged onto WoW yet) before I'm a Crusader, and should be Exalted with the Silver Covenant sometime in the next couple of days.
I'm still not convinced that these quests are fun, but they aren't as awful as my first impression suggested they were, and they do at least contribute heavily to my income of gold. Plus it will all be worth it when I have myself an Argent Charger.
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