5661

This strikes you as “good” or “compelling” gameplay? It strikes me as completely shittacular gameplay, but stuff that people lap up because they get caught up in the whole “progressquest” element of WoW.

I get where it’s a great plug-in module to a Skinner box, and one which takes fuck-all actual design effort on the part of the game makers. I just don’t think I’ll understand why some folks find it so compelling. Then again, I just don’t get how folks get their real life egos so tied up in raiding or the like either.

5662

It beats sitting at a worktable, doing the same recipe over and over again, hoping for a favorable random number.

Why is any of it compelling? Crafting is certainly not necessary to play WoW, and I and a lot of other people like working the AH. Other people raid, or do Arenas, or BG’s, or achievement whore. Are those somehow more inherently compelling?

And by the way, the best part of playing the AH, you don’t have to ‘progress’ in the same way that you progress through raids, you just gain and lose money.

5663

I ran my first heroic on my DK alt. It sure seemed easier than being a bear leveling and doing normals, but I ascribed that to my greater familiarity with the game. Yeah, no. So much easier tanking with the DK. Threat is a nonissue and survivability isn’t a problem either, even with ilevel 330 (I did have a fairly talented–though not overgeared–healer, so that helped). I gather that the “DO EVERYTHING TO MAXIMIZE DEATHSTRIKE!!!111” thing gets old in raids, but due to connection problems I probably won’t be raiding for a few months, if at all, so that’s not an issue for me.

5664

Sorry, what? It’s still one of my best professions to make gold with.

Obviously, it’s exponentially better if you have the ‘golden’ triangle(Enchanting+ Jewelcrafting +Alchemy).

For tailoring, i’m still selling Netherweave Bags. It doesn’t make the profit others might but i sell 20 bags at least each day with 15g profit on each.

Btw, for scribes, the ‘easiest’ way to make gold(at least on my server) is just to mill the herbs and sell the pigments to make the Inferno Ink.

5665

Maybe I’ll finish my shaman after all. That sounds like a real boost and fun too.

5666

Just chiming in to say I’ve been loving Battlegrounds lately. Because, like Charlie Sheen, I’m winning. A friend of mine and I decided to try stack our main stats as much as we could. As a level 61 Feral Druid I’m sitting on about 400+ Agility depending on buffs and I haven’t even enchanted all of my gear yet. He’s a Warrior with 450+ strength.

Out of 4 AV’s yesterday we were in the top 5 in each of them for Damage Done ( in one he ended with 300k damage done ). Once I refine my rotation a bit more and get the enchantments complete we’re hoping to be an unstoppable force. The only thing I’d like to do is stack Haste a bit more but I’ll need a higher gear score for the gems.

As an aside when we started my agility was 260 at level 58.

5667

Having dinged 85 3 months after everyone else did, for some reason I’ve put myself tentatively on the post-85 treadmill. Unclear why, as I have no particular plans to raid, but it’s keeping me occupied at the moment. So errr… if I have iLevel 333 average gear (resto druid), and I start queuing for random heroics having read up on the boss encounters, what are the odds I will actually make it through some? Or should I keep farming JP/rep and gearing up more in normal?

5668

There is no reason you shouldn’t be able to complete heroics with 333 gear.

5669

Also, can BOA/heirloom gear be equipped by toons on any server regardless of where they were purchased? Can more than one toon equip them simultaneously? Does plate gear start as mail and turn into plate at a higher level (same with mail/leather)?

5670

No. No. Yes.

Edit: Second no is actually not a hard no. You can mail the stuff around and two toons can be using them at the same time, but you can’t have it equipped on both toons at the same time (though why would you since you can only play one at a time anyway).

5671

Of course, just buy two of them. :)

5672

I’m just switching mine between two toons.

5673

Yes, but your toon must be able to wear it eventually. You can’t put mail heirlooms on a druid, for example.

I have 3 sets of heirlooms: one for my DK, one for my Druid and one for my Hunter and Shaman.

5674

First purchase should probably be cloth shoulders/chest and one of the spellpower staffs.

That way you can use it not only for mage, lock, priest but also Ele/resto shaman, resto/boomkin druid and even holy pala.

5675

I made 60, then 61, in WoW this weekend. I think I will play a bit longer, flying is just too fun. Nothing else has changed, the PvE quests are bit harder in the Outlands, though still no real challenge unless my wife and I purposely do dumb things. Played a couple of lower level dungeons (Worgen one and prison one in Stormwind) with my guild and then talked my wife into a PUG for Hellfire Ramparts (I think it is). The ones with the guild were great. The PUG worked, though my wife could not understand why no one said anything or planned anything.

Had a pretty decent time playing over all. I think I will squeeze a bit more juice from WoW before I make the shift to Rifts.

Oh, this is the first time I have made 60 in any MMO. I was pretty high in EQ before I quit around the second expansion, but since then, this is definitely the highest level character I have had by a long shot. My wife’s literal words upon achieving 60, also her highest level character ever in any MMO, “This is the greatest feeling ever!”. I shall not tease her about that one at all, I promise. :D

5676

Heirlooms make for crazy XP. I am now getting a 45% XP boost leveling my Hunter. I have shoulders, chest, ring from the fishing tournament and we just got our guild heirloom helms…that with the Guild 10%…just nuts.

And if I am working on rest XP…hah, I get like 1000 xp from mining a frigging green node.

5677

Grats Matt. You should power through to 68 and then head to Northrend as soon as possible. This is just my preference, but Northrend is still my favourite place to quest. Go to the Howling Fjord first - it’s a beautiful zone.

5678

I think the way it works is dependent on the level of the zone you’re in rather than the level of the node.

5679

I can’t tell you about Cat heroics as a healer, but I’ve dps’ed them and they are more demanding than blasting through LK heroics in T9 gear. I leveled my resto druid from 82-83.5 last weekend by healing instances and my only real problems were being rusty at the beginning. Part of that was having the luck of 100k+ HP DK tanks (those self-healing bastards can breeze through regulars) on a good chunk of the runs, but even with a 50-60k pally or warrior, it’s not too bad. Only needed to do one brez the whole weekend.

The actual healing was primarily lifebloom on the tank, spamming regen and wild growth for the party, swiftmend on damage spikes, or when I thought the glowing green circle would be cool. Lower-level tanks and melee needed a few bigger heals. I was surprised to find no real mana issues despite having ~275 level gear.

I hear for heriocs the damage is much spikier, and that could be tricky for druids, whose big heals require 2+ sec cast times with nature’s swiftness on cooldown.

5680

I would say that unless you have a really geared tank, ask the group to do some CC on most of the pulls. One or 2 fewer mobs will really cut down on the damage spikes, especially to the dps, allowing you to focus on the tank.

Also keep in mind that with a fully random group, you will get a nice 15% buff to damage, HP and healing. This helps a lot and can make the difference on the harder pulls and bosses.

Lastly, as the healer, most wipes aren’t going to be your fault :) If someone breaks a CC, or the dps is on the wrong target and gets 1 shotted, nothing you can do about that, regardless of what the group thinks.