Maybe you were directed to one of those portals, like where the fire guys are, went in, turned in the breadcrumb, then left the portal before getting any of the inside quests (and then had minor brain damage to forget you did this)?
I had a similar thing happen where I missed a breadcrumb quest pop up at that burning grove area. I moved on, flew around, and couldn’t find any quests, same as you. But when I went back to the area I’d been in, I saw the ! pop up. I advise flying back to all the quest hubs you’ve been at to make sure there isn’t one you missed somehow.
And yeah, I think this does point out a flaw in the new questing strategy - when you dole them out in 2s and 3s, if you get off the tracks, you’re pretty screwed.
I had the same problem. For what it’s worth, the quest I missed was in one of the Firelands portals; I had done everything in there, but because I hadn’t completed the final “Go back outside and tell the guy you’re done” quest the entire zone chain came to a screeching halt.
They certainly took a risk there with Hyjal since there are multiple chains running parallel. Hope they don’t try that again in the future.
I decided to give WoW another go (along with my son) sans Cataclysm. We created Alliance characters (hadn’t play Ally for years) and did the dwarf beginning area. I even tanked a couple of instances (Deadmines and SFK).
The questing is generally better in the revamped areas, but the game feels very much the same to me. I liked having some of the trash taken out of the old instances and it appears that a cautious but quick tank like myself is back in vogue again. But it’s like a new coat of paint on a old car - it looks better, but still drives the same. The game feels the same to me and I’ve not come across anything earth-shatteringly different. The game mechanics feel like they did before. Maybe things are different in level 85 instances, but at level 25 they’re pretty much the same. I did walk around the world with my level 80 character (can’t fly since I didn’t buy Cata) and some of the revamped zones seem pretty cool. Stonetalon, in particular, looked very interesting.
Maybe something will grab me, but right now I don’t see me sticking with it.
I saw lots of people in General Chat mentioning that same problem when I was questing through Hyjal a few weeks ago. Unless you’re experiencing an entirely different bug, there should be a quest for you back at Nordrassil.
Marchare, I believe H SFK is built without the idea of shackling in mind. Very few CC’s exist for keeping undead controlled reliably. My guild and I never CC trash in that instance generally, just put up skulls and X’s to have the DPs focus on the right targets. Trash wise, it’s the easiest imo.
Now, Grim Batol and Stonecore. THATS some trash.
Andrew
3946
What they really need is some kind of mechanism for discovering where you should go next if you dropped the quest chain. There were a ton of people in my guild who had similar problems, where they lost their way and didn’t have anything in their log. They eventually managed to figure it out, but if they had some kind of “Oops I’m lost” button that makes a little thing show on the map for where you can go next, that would be good. It could even come up automatically if you are in a zone for your level range, and have no quests for that zone.
Got my first ever character to the part in Dragonblight at the Wrathgate (the one with the cinematic) and, while cool, apparently the quest progression past that point is no longer accessible. A real bummer as I’d heard from many friends that still played (I had quit for almost two years) about how great the Battle for Undercity was. Does anyone know if this is just a glitch or if it’ll come back at some point?
I picked my 62 Rogue back up and have her to almost 73. I had not played her seriously since just after BC release (and, really, not since 2005, as I had shelved her to level up a Lock just as we were hitting MC back-in-the-day). While I’m very pleased with many aspects of the class, particularly the viability of daggers (one of the reasons I switched – in addition to my guild needing Locks for Garr – was that dagger builds were VERY weak and I kept getting pushed into sword or mace builds, ick (IMHO)), I feel completely lost in the dungeon / raiding game.
Positioning bites me quite a bit and I just don’t feel like I’m pulling my weight like I should. It is an Assassination build and I make sure SnD is up and I use Envenom most often as my finisher (with deadly poisons on my daggers). I’ve read I should be Rupturing and need to look more into that. My guild is steamrolling Black Temple tonight for fun (I’m excited as it is an instance I’ve never seen) and I just don’t want to embarrass myself.
Also when I eventually get L85 and moderately well geared what can I expect to solo? I must admit some envy that a Hunter friend of mine can solo the vanilla raid content, some of BC’s raid and all dungeons, and some early LK dungeon content (like Nexus). I guess there really isn’t much point in doing that, not like the loot is any good in a Cata world, but I’d love to redo some old instances I missed (Serpent Shrine, Eye, etc.) without having to suck in the guild.
idrisz
3948
you need have instant MH and deadly OH, not both deadly, for single target fights you need to keep both SnD and Rapture, if possible, vanish during the fight to gain another overkill buff for 20 seconds, start with garrote if possible.
Also when target is below 35%, you switch to backstab instead using mutilate.
It’s gone for good. It really was awesome. :/
I really wouldn’t worry about it until you hit 85. For one thing there’s a fairly hard gear reset during levelling 81-85 so you’ll be in gear that is actually appropriate for the new mechanics. Then after you have all your skills at lvl85 start trying to work out the mechanics. Expect to be sapping, kicking and generally using a lot of your non-DPS skills to get through encounters. The more versatile you are the more successful you’ll be… but again… don’t sweat it until you actually hit 85.
You’ll definitely be able to solo content. Not all of it, but a good portion of it. You can usually find people to tag along for old content though because of the achievements. There are usually a few people around who don’t have all of the achievements yet.
Also, even though you can solo, being in a guild has benefits now. Some of those guild perks are very nice.
Great tips! Thanks! What is the thinking behind instant MH and deadly OH (not questioning the veracity, just trying to understand better)? I also made sure my OH was the faster of the two as well, of course (though it is 1.7 vs. 1.8 so not a huge difference). I hadn’t thought of Vanish during the fight for Overkill, that’s awesome (I must admit that I’m VERY stingy with Vanish – a product of having played the majority of my Rogue before they removed the material component, haha).
It’s a shame – I guess with the changes to Azeroth they couldn’t work in the back-side (the Azeroth side) of the quest? Pity. Still was cool to see regardless, though, and I did get an achievement out of it.
That’s awesome. Even leveling up now I do a lot of Sap to split mobs (or Distract to split patrolling mobs, a fun little trick), Kick to interrupt (or, if necessary, a Gouge or even a Kidney Punch finisher) to try and stay up on the more “thinking” part of being a Rogue. Way back when I did a lot of CC in live Strat and such and it was so much fun, one of the things I’m so glad Cataclysm has brought back in some form (well, until everyone totally outgears it).
Yep, I love my guild, we’re tiny but RL friends. We’re only rank 3 so far (so have the XP and the mount buffs) but it’s all good. So I will often be likely to find someone who’ll do the old stuff, but it’s nice to be able to solo in those times I don’t want to bug people.
Edit: “we’re tiny but RL friends” doesn’t mean we’re a guild of tiny people but rather a tiny guild of RL friends.
Dagger builds were pretty much always viable in raid content and sometimes better in 5 man content (due to having considerably more burst damage). Combat would pull ahead on longer fights though and the utility of Bladeflurry has always been fantastic. Still the difference wasn’t that significant. Daggers were certainly viable for end game stuff in vanilla and the combat dagger spec that emerged somewhat later was the most damaging in most boss fights. My problem with daggers was doing anything solo was slow and painful because getting behind a mob when fighting it solo, sucked.
Positioning bites me quite a bit and I just don’t feel like I’m pulling my weight like I should. It is an Assassination build and I make sure SnD is up and I use Envenom most often as my finisher (with deadly poisons on my daggers). I’ve read I should be Rupturing and need to look more into that. My guild is steamrolling Black Temple tonight for fun (I’m excited as it is an instance I’ve never seen) and I just don’t want to embarrass myself.
Positioning is key to good damage with a Rogue, regardless of spec. Get used to staying behind enemies and moving while attacking. Also, read this: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t110134-assassination_guide_cata/ it’ll tell you damn near everything you need to know about Assassination spec.
Also when I eventually get L85 and moderately well geared what can I expect to solo? I must admit some envy that a Hunter friend of mine can solo the vanilla raid content, some of BC’s raid and all dungeons, and some early LK dungeon content (like Nexus). I guess there really isn’t much point in doing that, not like the loot is any good in a Cata world, but I’d love to redo some old instances I missed (Serpent Shrine, Eye, etc.) without having to suck in the guild.
No idea about Cata (or WotLK really) but I’m willing to bet you’ll want to be Combat spec for anything solo. Fortunately dual spec is cheap and easy.
Stack limitations. After you’ve hit the stack limit you’re just maintaining it, which can easily be done with only one weapon. Having it on both negates a whole lot of damage you could be getting with IP.
I also made sure my OH was the faster of the two as well, of course (though it is 1.7 vs. 1.8 so not a huge difference).
Get a faster off hand when you can, 1.7 isn’t really that great.
I hadn’t thought of Vanish during the fight for Overkill, that’s awesome (I must admit that I’m VERY stingy with Vanish – a product of having played the majority of my Rogue before they removed the material component, haha).
You really didn’t raid with your Rogue then, I used to have nearly an entire bag dedicated to flash powder back in the day. It didn’t give you much of a dps boost then but it was a threat wipe.
This is nearly all with respect to raids. Five man stuff really isn’t going to be that big a deal till you start doing heroics.
BigWeather: read this thread: http://elitistjerks.com/f78/t110134-assassination_guide_cata/
It’s written for people wanting to learn how to play Assassination spec in end-game PvE (heroics and raids), but you’ll find it has lots of valuable advice for you. Not all of it is relevant while you’re questing, though.
As for your rotation, use Mutilate to generate combo points, and use a finishing move when you have four OR five combo points. If you already have four, don’t Mutilate again.
Quick and dirty advice for choosing which finishing move to use:
-
Is Slice and Dice currently up?
Yes: go to step 2
No: use Slice and Dice
-
Does Slice and Dice have more than 5s remaining?
Yes: go to step 3
No: go to step 5
-
Is Rupture currently up?
Yes: go to step 4
No: use Rupture, go to step 1
-
Does Rupture have more than 5s remaining?
Yes: go to step 5
No: wait a few seconds for Rupture to expire, refresh it, go to step 1
-
Is the Envenom buff already active?
Yes: wait a few seconds for it to wear off then use Envenom again, go to step 1
No: use Envenom, go to step 1
When your target is below 35% health, you’ll switch to Backstab instead of Mutilate to generate combo points, but otherwise the cycle remains the same.
Great tips! Thanks! What is the thinking behind instant MH and deadly OH (not questioning the veracity, just trying to understand better)? I also made sure my OH was the faster of the two as well, of course (though it is 1.7 vs. 1.8 so not a huge difference).
Your off-hand weapon should ideally be 1.4 speed.
The reason you want Deadly Poison on your OH is because of a change they made about a year ago. Now whenever DP procs when it’s already at five stacks, it causes the poison on your other weapon (which will almost always be Instant Poison) to proc. To maximize your dps, you want to get DP to five stacks as quickly as possible, which means you’ll want to put it on your faster weapon.
idrisz
3956
because deadly poison actually proc your instant poison once 5 stack is reach, it saids it in the tooltip, having 2 deadly doesn’t do anything at all, you going to reach 5 stacks deadly real quickly once you use envenom anyways.
mutilate spec aren’t too much picky about position, they are like rest of the melee dps, stay behind so you don’t get parried, it’s so easy to level as mutilate nowaday, just run up and spam mutilate and win, plus having deadly momentum makes lvling assassin spec even easier, you basically keep SnD and Recuperate up all the time as you bounce from kills to kills.
No idea about Cata (or WotLK really) but I’m willing to bet you’ll want to be Combat spec for anything solo. Fortunately dual spec is cheap and easy.
In my experience with Cata so far, Subtlety is borderline overpowered for solo play. I’m not using the EJ-approved Subtlety raiding spec, though, but rather a build specifically designed for questing. As long as I can chain pull mobs, I can keep both Recuperate and S&D running perpetually and take my targets from 100% to 50% in two global cooldowns. My health rarely drops below 90% even if I’m fighting 3-4 mobs at once because of the insane respawn rates in some areas.
Here’s the spec I suggest for questing/leveling:
Start from stealth, use Premed then Shadowstep then Ambush then Eviscerate. That should have most targets down to about 50%. Use Hemo to build combo points, then use Recuperate. Your first mob is probably dead by now. Go to the next mob, repeating the process, but this time use S&D instead of Recuperate. Because of Deadly Momentum, both S&D and Recuperate are refreshed to their maximum duration whenever you kill a target.
I must have missed something, but Blizz was a bit remiss in not giving me any way of figuring out what I missed. I did to the series of quests that led to the Joust quests, but as far as I know I finished them all and didn’t miss anything. I can run back in there I guess, but unless I see a guy with a ? over his head, not sure it will help.
A key questgiver shouldn’t be in an instanced area if it means that by skipping his breadcrumb quest you are hosed. I mean, when you are looking for quests you don’t duck into instances normally.
It’s weird overall. In BC or LK, I’d simply find a new quest hub and start questing again. In Cata, you ride the rails or you don’t get anywhere.
idrisz
3959
you probably miss the quest that offer by the night elf on a tiger right outside of grove of aessina. I missed it once but found it on a flyby.
I think you missed an earlier breadcrumb quest. IIRC, after you complete a particular quest hub in Hyjal, you get one quest that sends you to area that ends with the jousting and another quest that sends you to a different hub. I might be wrong, but I think they’re from two different quest-givers, so many people miss the second one. Consequently, when you finish the jousting chain, your log is empty but you actually have another hub to complete.
