Number Seven

The screenshot isn’t much to look at, but …

Like I needed more. Oh well. Hehe. Not sure exactly why Cruel decided I needed to get to 80 and drug me through dungeon after dungeon, but hey, I ain’t complainin’.

Now I have some decisions to make.

Dual spec? Well sure, but … isn’t the price of it being dramatically slashed soon? Is it in Cata itself, or in the next patch when we get our new talent trees? (rumors say Oct. 12 for the patch!)

Current spec. Keep arms but update it? (poleaxe spec and I got a new mace. lol) Go Fury? (need another weapon!) Just keep what I’ve got and grind until I have decent enough gear to go Prot? (got a 219 shield already but nfc how to tank on a warrior)

Or I could get those last two levels on my 78 priest and go for Number Eight … ^ . ^

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Leveling Spree

Well, this weekend I got it into my head that Sanbec and Ragle needed to get Brewmaster. Not enough doing the crap on six toons, I needed to do it on two more as well. Insane? You betcha.

Sanbec started the weekend sitting at something like 21% into level 76. By late Saturday afternoon, he was 78 and collecting his first frost emblems from Direbrew. He’s a few quests short of the achievement for finishing Sholazar. He did do two or three dungeons with guildies, but mostly he just quested. Not ready to learn warrior tanking just yet, I’m enjoying ripping things into shreds and watching them bleed.

Mooooooo....love my transporter malfunctions

Rags started Sunday morning at 76% of level 75. He ended the night 23% into 78.  The only quests he did were the one for Violet Hold, a couple of Gundrak quests someone shared, and then as he was flying over the Ampitheatre in Zul’drak to turn those in, a group preparing to do that invited him to join them. Otherwise, he spent the entire day chain healing dungeons.

I know I see a lot of complaining about the groups one can get from LFD but honestly … other than a couple of tanks that left my very first group for no apparent reason, it was a great day. Those two were replaced by Kronicball and his guildie Fanaris from Korialstrasz, and a good time was had by all. Such a good time, in fact, that we ran a couple more after that. I even got to DPS. 

The two DK tanks I healed later that day were a little rough around the edges and more of a challenge to heal, but really … compared to the pally, disc priest is EZ mode. PoM does most of the work for me. Keep that up, toss out shields and some renews, penance if someone gets really low despite all of that, and that’s about all there is to it. Looting? Sure! Plenty of time for that. Only thing I really had to adjust to was the need to drink and carry lots of apple juice with me. Kerick only runs out of mana if I force him to.

It wasn’t all leveling though. I took a break Saturday night, because Cael was back from vacation and the 25 man pug he runs in was looking for a DK. This group is mostly alts from the top 25 man guilds on the server and afaik they’ve downed everything other than the LK himself.  It took me a minute or two to adjust back to dpsing since I’ve been solely tanking for the last few weeks. We did heroic lootship. We did heroic rotface. We cleared out everything except Putricide and LK because we ran out of time.

The experience and raid awareness in this group was tops. We tried heroic Blood Princes and if we’d had time for a couple more attempts, probably could have downed it. Someone kept taking my balls off with AoE though … ok so maybe not everyone was tops. Blood Queen … we’ve been working on her in Apathy and from what I saw in this group, we have a LONG way to go to get her down. If anyone get mind controlled, you’re done. Heck, if one of the people that’s bitten dies, you’re done.  IMO, Sindragosa was a hell of a lot easier than BQL.

DK Rides

BOTH of my DKs managed to snag new mounts last night.

Arelin found this beauty in his goody bag from Coren Direbrew.

He also ran it a few extra times like usual, still trying to get the dps trinket. It *finally* dropped … and two others rolled need on it. The healer won it. Buddy, you better have an enhance offspec. grrrrrrrrrrr!

Kalyon amassed enough Brewfest tokens to get his Brew of the Month Club membership and had a few left over to get some hops and turn his horse into a ram for an hour. That nabbed him a handful of cheeves.

Yeah, you see that one under Brewmaster there? Elgar was reading the archives earlier this week and pointed out this beauty from a year ago .. ‘Yes, it was kinda fun, but I will likely never do it again.’ AHAHAHAH! This is the second violet I’ve collected since that post, making three total so far. Um .. oops?

What can I say, I enjoy the holiday achievements. By the end of Brewfest, all six 80’s will be Brewmasters. Oh, and Sanbec gained a whole level last night … one more and he can do Direbrew, too. So he’ll probably get the title as well.

Plans for Cataclysm

Subtitle: You want to raid what?

All over the place, I see people talking about their plans for Cataclysm. This person is going to get to 85 as fast as possible, that one is going to level Archaeology first, this other one can’t wait to make a gnome priest, another is looking forward to starting a goblin. That is what they are focusing on and are going to do first.

Let me tell you about the things I am looking forward to. But let’s break it into sections, because there are several. Which thing will I focus on and do first? All of them!

Old Toons

I currently have a half dozen toons at max level. Yes, you read that right. I have three on each faction. They only comprise four classes, because I have double mages and double Death Knights. I also have a priest and a warrior in their upper 70’s. This gives me six classes that could all potentially become my first level 85. Am I choosing one now and saying ‘THIS is what I want to level fast and raid on’? No. Am I going to wait for the guild to decide what class they need for raiding and level that one first? Don’t know me very well, do you.

If this past expansion, the first full one I have been around to play from start to finish, taught me nothing else, it taught me that I am not happy just doing one thing. I’m always curious about what another class is like, or another role. Having both factions means I can see the lore and each starting zone on both sides. Two mages? No problem, I can level two different specs and see which I like better. You want to know which toon will be my first to 85? Yeah, so do I! I’d say ‘whichever one I am having the most fun playing’ but … heck even that can change during the course of the game.

New Toons

Not only do we get new races, but we get new race/class combos as well!  I have two open slots saved on my Alliance server for a lock and a shaman … probably a worgen and a dwarf, although that’s not set in stone. I have a druid that will be rerolled as a worgen. That one IS set in stone. That will give me one of each class on that server. (My 39 rogue is currently serving as my bank alt. Why do my rogues always end up as the bank alt?)

I will, of course, try out a gnome to see the starting area, and also a goblin … and a troll. And I heard the Forsaken get some cool new changes to their starting zone lore. And to Silverpine Forest. Do you see where this is going? Do you?? Alts! Lots of them!! Many likely never to make it past level 20, but still …

Professions

Alchemists get to turn into a drake and let a friend ride them! New fishing achievements! New fishing and cooking dailies .. at level 10?! Changes to inscription, the engineering barbeque, new enchants … I could go on. Oh, and of course … Archaeology! And did I mention new fishing and cooking dailies?

Now, some of my friends and guildies will probably notice two things that I didn’t really mention, or only mentioned in passing … raiding and PvP.

Let’s cover PvP first … I love the fact that they’re bringing back the titles. I like the idea of rated battlegrounds. I will try some out for achievements and what-have-you. But let’s be honest here … it comes way after all of the other things I already talked about. Moving on.

Raiding. I’ve had a great time raiding in Wrath. There were a couple of months or more where I was in a raid literally 6 or 7 nights a week. I’ve been in a raid 4 to 5 nights a week since February. And this is while being in social guilds that raid, not even in a traditional raiding guild! Obviously, we’re on to something here … I like to raid. BUT … I didn’t mention it in the things I am looking forward to. Confusing, no?

Let’s look back at my history to explain the reasons behind this. When Wrath came out, I’d been playing for six months total. I was a complete huntard with little grouping experience and had only been to two raids in my life. Those two visits to Karazhan were magical. Now, after having been in an entire expansion from start to finish and having killed everything there was to kill (minus Yogg … f*ck Yogg) … I can look back and think “wow .. if Sunwell was to Kara as ICC is to Naxx … those guys must have been bored to have run Kara for a couple of noobs … and were probably laughing at my excitement and wonderment to actually be in a ‘real’ raid.” That feeling, the OMG I’M IN A RAID … now it’s just ‘meh, been there done that’ … yeah, maybe it’s just burnout and when new stuff comes out I’ll be looking forward to getting in there with my guilds and getting blown up by some bosses. But when new raids are announced … I don’t get all excited and can’t wait like when they announce new fishing dailies.

One more piece of my history that goes along with this … Wrath was out for almost a full year before I seriously began raiding. Yeah I did some once-a-week Naxx early in the expansion, but I mean *really* raiding. I had too much other stuff to do and see.

So, just a word of warning to my friends and guildies out there … I have nfc what I’m going to be doing in Cata. There are a bajillion things I want to do on a bajillion different toons, so I’m going to take it one hour at a time and just do what I feel like doing. The raids .. they aren’t going anywhere. I’ve always been more concerned with mounts and pets and achievements than having the highest gearscore. That won’t change. The raids will be there when I’m ready to see them.