Ding, 70!

Woohoo! Finally!

I know, I skipped 69.

But it just went by so fast. I saw that only ONE MORE LEVEL and just BLEW through it. I'd say about 8-10 hours or so. In about 3 days. I spent the first half or 2/3 of the level finishing up some Blade's Edge Mountain quests and then just grinded out the last third or so of the level. I hit 70, proceeded to SMV to get the flying mount, and began flying around! I didn't accomplish much the remainder of the weekend, I did a few daily's and quested a little more. Of course, all of this was just to pay back my guild leader for being so nice as to lend me the last 300g for my flying mount.

I feel pretty poor that I couldn't afford it, but it was all because I spent so much time leveling up my tailoring. And, after all that, I can't even make myself any of the FSW kit yet. I actually made my first 2 shadoweave cloth last night. Only two more and I'll be able to craft the shoulders. Woo, shoulders. Hey, can't complain, it's an upgrade. I think next on the list is actually the S1 wand, the Gladiator's Touch of Defeat. It's only 8,000 honor and 10 Eye of the Storm marks. I'm about half way there. I can't wait just because it'll be my first level 70 purple. Well, unless I can get 10 Primal Water and make my shoulders first. Either way. I'm excited. hehe. I can't wait until I can get the spellblade or the staff or something but they're significantly more "expensive", honor wise.

SO! Now that I'm 70, it's time to gear up. Slowly. That's the plan now. I respecced a little, so that I should still be viable at PvP (mass, PvP, not so much arenas) and I should be viable in a group (with around 500 spell dmg, 8kh and 7k mana). Just time to work on getting better!

Tailoring -- Take 2

So I’ve spent some good time grinding for mats (on my rogue mostly – leveled him up to almost 61 getting all the runecloth that I needed). I bought some cloth but ended up grinding most of it just because the prices on my server for anything other than Netherweave is outrageous. I’ve gotten my tailoring up to about 367 now (even though it did cost me around 300g!) Stupid Arcane Dust was expensive. I can make armor up to my level now, and even some of the lvl 70 stuff. I can make all the types of bags available (Linen, Wool, Silk, Mageweave, Runecloth, Netherweave, and Imbued Netherweave), which I feel should help out my guild some in the long run.

I sold most everything I made over level 45 or so to the vendor. I have an enchanting alt that I was able to DE the lvl 20-45ish stuff with, but beyond that, I was pretty screwed. Although most of the stuff usually sold back (over that level) for more than the mats cost anyway, so it wasn’t too bad. DEing stuff netted me around 100g or so, which recouped some of the cost. If it weren’t for that stupid Arcane Dust!! I would have been fine. Or if I’d had a higher level enchanter, it probably wouldn’t have been as bad either. But it’s fine. I’m down to about 300g now, level 68, and I need about 600g more before I can get my flying mount when I hit 70.

But who cares? Now, I can make SWEET ARMOR! Hehe. And BAGS! If only it hadn’t cost so much.

367 Tailor LFW.

Ding, 68!

So I’ve hit 68 now. I’m actually about half way through 68 to 69 at this point. I guess I was slow writing up a post. L Sorry. I did a bunch more of the Nagrand quests (I’ve almost finished most of them) and spent some time grinding on the Ogres in the south-east of the zone. There’s a cave up there that’s rarely visited by anyone else on my server. There are mostly melee mobs (which are my bitches) up in there, so the grinding isn’t bad.

I also got a bunch of netherweave drops, which is mostly what I was going for trying to lvl tailoring as well. I probably ground out the last 175,000 exp of 67 to get to 68. But it was flying. I was averaging 105,000 – 110,000 experience per hour, topping the charts at around 120,000 or so for a little while. Just grinding. It was amazing. Until two (66 and 67) druids decided it would be fun to stalk the grinding priest. That ended that little adventure for the night. I managed to kill them a couple of times, but it just was no longer worth my time. So off to other things.

Next day though, I finished up the last 75k or so in the same spot.

This really made me curious about the grinding vs questing argument. 120k xp/h is amazing. Really amazing. But then I was questing the other day in Nagrand a bit more, doing a handful of quests around the big open field area off to the west side. They were kill xx yy mob quests, and collect xx of zz thing quests. Upon turning them in after about 40 minutes or so of play, my XP/h spiked to around 132k/h. So, it’s a tough call. It seems that both work well given ideal circumstances.

I enjoy questing more, but when I don’t know how long I’m going to be on, I’ll typically just grind for a little while. I guess that’s why I’m slow getting through Nagrand. Not that I mind – more quests left for lvl 70 that way. I was actually a bit worried about that since I started outland at 58, but definitely not a worry now. Cool Beans! Can’t wait for 70!!

AV ROCKS

So, I decided that since I figured that I would PVP more than PvE once I hit 70, I should give it a shot. I sucked it up, picked up an AV quest or two in Shatt and talked to the battle master. “First Available, please.”

Less than 5 seconds, and *poof*. My first time EVER in AV. The match had already started and I was joining mid-way through. I had never been in Alterac Valley before (if you’ve never been, I highly recommend it – particularly at level 67-69 range). I’m in this cave with one exit, so I head on out. There’s fighting going on all around me.

Well, my “Healbot” addon is taking up my whole screen at this point, I’d never been in a 40-man raid group before. So, tweak that a bit and get that set back up and where I can see everyone.

Then off again. I mount up, ride around a corner, and immediately dismount. There’s a battle raging. I’d say 10-15 of my teammates are fighting off a party of some 20-25 horde. Looks like a no-win. But I throw in where I can – tossing heals around, dotting up the enemies, Mindblast à Shadow Word:Deathing when the cooldown is up. I got a good number of killing blows to keep my spirit tap procced as much as I could to try to keep my mana up. But definitely not like in PvE. I had to stop and drink several times. Skidaddle back around the corner where no one will see me, have some water, and back into the fray.

This battle raged for what seemed like ages, but was actually probably around 10 minutes. The BG ended and I checked my honor. I had something like 600 Honor Points for around 6-10 minutes of being in a battle ground. I only got about 4 killing blows. It was great.

So I started right back up in another game and played through, following the mass of people leaving the tunnel. I got a bit more of a feel for the BG this time, capturing towers, killing NPC’s, etc. There are a bunch of quests in there, so I picked some up, but wasn’t able to finish any. This one went on for about 30 minutes, and we actually won this one. Two Thousand Honor?! For 40 minutes of play. Amazing.

Maybe the PvP gear won’t be that hard to get after all. I don’t even have my first PvP trinket (Insignia of the Alliance) yet. That’s first on my list. Well, maybe I’ll hit 70 first. I asked a guildy about 70 AV and he said it was just about the same as the 60-69 bracket, if just a little more “intense.” I can handle that. I’m really looking forward to it now, it was a very good time. Maybe I could be a PvPer after all.

What is this "holy" tree you speak of?

Yes, I know. I’m a priest. I should heal. Right?

Well, no. All edumacated people that have ever played a priest know that a decent shadow priest can be plenty of help to a group. The issue, though, is that my server is a ridiculously low-pop server. I like the guild that I’m in, but I’m the 3^rd highest level in it. The other 2 are a tanking pally, and a hunter. The hunter gives good CC, the pally can tank it if we need it, and then there’s me. I always sorta get grouped in the “heal” spot because it’s much easier to find 2 DPS than a healer. Dime a dozen, I tell ya.

A few levels ago, I ran BF with a like-level PUG and healed it. We didn’t do so hot. It convinced me to re-spec holy. This was around level 62. I threw together a hybrid smite/heal Holy/Disc build. It worked OK. My healing was great, I could still grind without drinking too much (though I still had to after about 6-8 pulls typically). It could have just been because I didn’t have a good casting order, but anyway. I Re-ran BF with another like-level PUG, and TORE IT UP. I had NO trouble whatsoever healing the group. There was ONE wipe on that annoying second boss where you have to fight off 4 groups of mobs, immediately followed by the boss. I was the first one to die, and Improved Death only lasts for 15 seconds. The fight’s quite a bit longer than that.

Anyway, it was nice. I leveled up to about 66 specced holy and ran more instances than I had since Scarlet Monestary. (Man, I LOVED SM. No trouble healing THAT as a shadow spec..) But I missed the Damage! I started Nagrand at level 66 or so, and was killin some orcs. There were a bunch of 2-pulls instead of the single mob pulls that I usually go for. I couldn’t mana burn well, couldn’t silence-pull the casters. I’d throw fear, but then the mobs would run off to God knows where because I couldn’t slow them with Mindflay.

That’s what I missed most of all, really. Mindflay. I love that spell.

So anyway, I specced back to shadow. It cost me 20g, but it was worth it. I’ve actually only been back to shadow for a bout a level now. I ran BF again, but I was 66 at the time, so I didn’t have any trouble healing that. Hell, I renew + Vamp Embrace healed most of it. We lost our tank after the first boss, and never got one back. We made it from the 1^st to the 2^nd boss with no tank at all. We didn’t get past the second boss, but that was more due to a lack of a tank than a lack of decent healing. Even with Pots, Shadowfiend, Vamp. Touch, and Vamp. Embrace, I couldn’t keep mana up long enough to get through the entire fight. I was healing a lock, a 60 rogue, 60 hunter, and a mage. So they were taking heavy damage. It just didn’t work.

So, I’ve been there, done that (for all of 4 levels) in the holy tree. I tend to solo more than instance, and generally enjoy solo-questing. I like grouping too, but it’s not as much my thing. What did I learn? I’m much more of a shadow type of guy. Or night elf chick, as the case may be.

Whippin up on the Evil Mage...

So I was working on leveling my tailoring up the other night and a guildmate that I hang out with a bit was playing his alt – a 22 mage. He was in the Redridge mountains and commented that it was tough to quest because a couple of horde kept killing him. I was in Stormwind, which is a single flightpoint away, so I figured I’d swing by and help him.

Got there and found a 48 pally bugging him. Mana burned the pally down, threw a couple of dots on him, and feared him away. He’d knocked me down to about 85% or so, but I didn’t think anything of it. Threw a mindblast at him and it finished him off.

Right about this time, I get the crap (about 1,700 health worth of it) knocked out of me by a frostbolt from the rear. Remember, I’m level 67, and I’ve got around 6,200h. Definitely not PvP specced at all. So that frostbolt hurt. I turn in time to see a mage casting again, and I did manage to get a silence off on him before he got it off. I tried a Mana Burn on him as well, but it didn’t take out much of his mana at all. He must have a ton. Well. He IS a mage. So I threw a mindblast, SW:P, starshards, and vamp embrace on him. Of course, he’s beatin on me again at this point. I shield and get a couple of flash heals off. But my mana’s about shot by this time. He got a couple more crits on me, I got another mind blast off, but I kicked the bucket. Damn. Pretty close too, he was at about 40%.

Release, run back to my body, and see that his pally buddy has JUST spawned, and they’re both sittin down for a drink. Right next to each other. Mmm, I couldn’t resist. I ressed, feared, and off they go. Mindblast, sw:p, Mindflay, mindflay, Mindblast and the mage is dead. Sweet. I just killed a 70! That’s an ego booster, regardless of how you look at it.

I got a starshards off on his pally buddy, but he shields up as he’s coming out of fear and starts healing. I pop a mana pot and wait it out. Once his shield goes down, he’s up to around 70% health, but just about out of mana. A mindblast and SW:D takes him down.

Sweet! I just killed a 70 mage AND a 48 pally. I sit down to drink and shadowmeld. My mage buddy has ressed by this time and is drinking up. The 70 and the 48 spawn back round about the same time, and the pally instantly goes after my friend, the 22 mage. I hop up and go at him again. Of course this draws the 70’s attention as well, but the 48 drops like a rock. I then immediately face off the 70 again. He’s at around 70/80% health and mana, and I’m pretty much full. Seems like it should be a close fight to me.

Nope. 15 seconds or so. He’s dead, I’m at 70% health and 30% mana or so. He was a terrible mage. I got off a couple more flash heals during the fight. Couldn’t he counterspell me or something?

Basically, I didn’t corpse camp them, but they spawned back and went after my 22 bud again about 3 more times. I killed them both 3 more times. A couple of those times, it was from full health. Both of them. It was awesome. Totally made my night. And I guess my next couple of days too, because I’m still thinking about it. Haha. Eventually, a 70 human rogue happened by too, and that scared scared them away. Neither my guildmate nor I heard anything else from them.

So yeah. Spriest PvP FTW! I’m pretty sure now I’m going to PvP more at 70. And not some heavy Disc, “I’m going to sit here and stay alive while you beat on me for 3 minutes” PvP, but some hardcore, “I’m gonna melt your face, please don’t hurt me” PvP.

Or, at least, that’s the goal. For now.

Tailoring

I probably shouldn’t have, but I dropped alchemy the other day and picked up tailoring. I had my alchemy up to around 350 and was just recently able to start transmuting primals. But that doesn’t really help ME out much, other than the money situation. Which is nice, but I’ve never really had that much money anyway. I typically barely scrape by when time comes to buy my mount. In fact, I was level 62 before I got my epic mount. I felt left behind. I’ve only got around 550g now, and I believe that’s about half enough to afford my flyer in 3 more levels.

All this leads to the fact that I’ve always found it easier to make my own armor than it is to buy it. At least if you’re going for decent gear. I am on a PvP server, but I don’t PvP much. And having the schedule that I do, I doubt I’ll ever do a raid. Maybe something small like Kara, but that’s probably about the extent of it. The longest time I get to play (at a time) is typically about 2 hours – 3 if I push my luck. So I’ll probably end up PvPing more in the end, but I don’t think I could really start level 70 PvP with outland greens and blues. That’d make me little more than a small distraction. A gnat to be swatted away.

So anyway, I ran through Stockades and Deadmines with my 60 Rogue and got all the Linen / Wool that I needed to level up to 125. I’m following a guide online to minimize the cost / mats that I need to level up my tailoring. It’s going to be a nightmare once I get to runecloth and Netherweave though because I don’t really have any good runecloth farming characters. I think the rogue can run SM to get some silk, and maybe find a good place to farm the Mageweave. The runecloth farming may even level him up a little.

Or I could spend my last 500g buying mats, and forget about the mount. I don’t wanna do that though. I want to fly! J So I’m at about 125 now, running SM later today if I can to get some silk, and we’ll see how much higher we can get it then. Soon, I should be able to at least start making some stuff that’ll be helpful to the guildies.