World of Warcraft XVI: Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Orcy Worcey...Stuff

[mistformsquirrl]

@Karoht - Nah, it's mostly because I'm weird in that I hate grouping, but love MMOs; and it's the best weapon I can get without any group related content. I'm actually planning to use Quel'delar as my transmog over it.

Krazzman is right and it's actually the axe I need to be building, rather than the sword, I just never thought to look at the axe until he pointed it out though <@.@>

@Icewraith - Got my lag issue cleared up last night (had to reset my modem), and yeah, I did it the 'easy' way according to a guide I read. I'll try for hard mode another time, but right now I'm just gathering transmog stuff. I am however having way more fun with this than I anticipated - these old raids are kinda like boss fights from old action games when you're at a level/ilvl to solo them <@-@> it's kinda nifty.

Currently I've made my way to Hodir - having a bit of trouble avoiding his Flash Freeze, but I read a guide and it's just my timing that's off at present.

@ryuplaneswalker - That is a lovely trinket <~_~> but I don't group at all, so I probably won't get it. On the upside, I heal for stupid amounts anyway, the only way most bosses can kill me is if I get stupid and they have an instant kill/high DPS mechanic to use on me. The rest of the time Death Strike is usually enough, and when it isn't I have Death Siphon. (A lot of people prefer Death Pact, but I find for my playstyle Death Siphon is better a lot of the time.)

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[ryuplaneswalker]

Death Siphon is..okay, it would be awesome for blood if it triggered Blood Shield..or if it used heart runes.

[The_Jackal]

I'm weird in that I hate grouping, but love MMOs

Skyrim, dude. Seriously. All the awesome progression and questing of an MMO, with none of the other moist humans.

[mistformsquirrl]

I have played lots of Skyrim, believe me hehe, but it doesn't really scratch the same itch for some reason. I don't pretend to wholly understand it, but there's just something about an MMO that I enjoy, even though I tend not to actually play it with other people <. .>; Like I said, I'm weird.

Speaking of soloing:

Taking a break from my Ulduar run - beat Freya easily enough earlier, but Mimiron is proving annoying. I can beat his phases, but I can't seem to beat his enrage timer yet. Thankfully in a couple days I'll have the first version of my new weapon, and that'll take me from a green 414 ilvl weapon to a blue 463 ilvl weapon. So that should be a pretty substantial improvement in my DPS.

Also been getting my Tiller's rep up there - really enjoying the farm, which makes me even more excited for the Garrisons coming in WoD.

[The_Jackal]

A couple of days? Seriously, take a couple of minutes and do the Arena of Annihilation. I know you're opposed to grouping and all, but seriously, it's 5 minutes and you'll have a ilvl 450 weapon when you're done.

[Karoht]

Taking a break from my Ulduar run - beat Freya easily enough earlier, but Mimiron is proving annoying. I can beat his phases, but I can't seem to beat his enrage timer yet.

Which phase are you in when he enrages?
Also, if you push the big red button he goes from having a hard enrage to a soft enrage. You just have to kite/bait fire between the phases. And don't kill the fire-fighter robots, just let them do their job.

[The Glyphstone]

Which phase are you in when he enrages?
Also, if you push the big red button he goes from having a hard enrage to a soft enrage. You just have to kite/bait fire between the phases. And don't kill the fire-fighter robots, just let them do their job.

Normal Mimiron berserks at 15min. Hard Mode Mimiron berserks everybody at 10min, plus the fire patches soft enrage.

[Seerow]

Mimiron is the worst. I always bring a ranged friend with me for him.

[mistformsquirrl]

It's the final phase that I have trouble with hehe - the first three phases weren't so bad, but getting enough damage on the head is tricky. That said, I read a guide that I think might help, so soon I'll give it another whirl.

[Krazzman]

It's the final phase that I have trouble with hehe - the first three phases weren't so bad, but getting enough damage on the head is tricky. That said, I read a guide that I think might help, so soon I'll give it another whirl.

Have you considered watching it on youtube? Some people really like to boast and are proud they are able to do it solo and as such make it public. Also what is taking you so long? (Never went into ulduar alone and only once killed mimiron... mostly due to no real interest and the fact that I don't have the best classes for it)

About solocontent in an MMO... you know you are missing quite some stuff that would be quite fun/entertaining? Randomscenarios/selected scenarios aren't that bad you don't really talk with the guys in the scenario and get some improvements too. Also do you miss out on Worldbosses? Like Ordos or similar?

[D_Lord]

I just got the cloak.

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kislath]

Cool!

Okay... I subscribed just now, but it says "pending." I guess I should have just bought a time card. Is this normal?
Anyway, here's the problem--> my account info says "renews on 7-31/2013."

Are they going to try to charge me 7 months' back subscription???
That will not do. I can't afford it. The reason I subbed instead of buying a card is that I only wanted to get one month's worth at a time.

Another problem--> from what I read on the forums, there are a lot of problems with paid services lately, especially for those on recently connected servers. ( My toons from one server don't even show up in the Armory )

Is this going to make it harder to fix a billing error, if there is one?

[Karoht]

Cool!

Okay... I subscribed just now, but it says "pending." I guess I should have just bought a time card. Is this normal?
Anyway, here's the problem--> my account info says "renews on 7-31/2013."

Are they going to try to charge me 7 months' back subscription???
That will not do. I can't afford it. The reason I subbed instead of buying a card is that I only wanted to get one month's worth at a time.

Another problem--> from what I read on the forums, there are a lot of problems with paid services lately, especially for those on recently connected servers. ( My toons from one server don't even show up in the Armory )

Is this going to make it harder to fix a billing error, if there is one?

Billing is account based not character based, so no, not likely.
I've never heard of anyone (in 9 years of following the forums) being charged 'back pay' on subscriptions, so give it time to process. Any problems, follow the instructions on the website.

[Kislath]

Heh. well, you found this before I could edit it out; you were right, of course. After about 20 minutes my account finally clicked over to Active.

However, it still won't let me play, saying that I have to buy more time, even though I just did. The troubleshooting guide says to clear the cache on the WoW folder if simply logging out/shutting down/restarting and relogging-in doesn't work. I'm about to try both options and see if it works.

[mistformsquirrl]

Have you considered watching it on youtube? Some people really like to boast and are proud they are able to do it solo and as such make it public. Also what is taking you so long? (Never went into ulduar alone and only once killed mimiron... mostly due to no real interest and the fact that I don't have the best classes for it)

About solocontent in an MMO... you know you are missing quite some stuff that would be quite fun/entertaining? Randomscenarios/selected scenarios aren't that bad you don't really talk with the guys in the scenario and get some improvements too. Also do you miss out on Worldbosses? Like Ordos or similar?

Yeah, I usually watch youtube videos for any second attempts, but I like to go in cold on a boss the first time so it's more of a challenge. It's more fun to figure out the mechanics myself if I can. Though sometimes that's a guaranteed death <,< but I don't care.

As for what takes so long with Mimiron - I've only tried him once so far, so I think there were basically 4 things working against me in that fight:

1) I'm sick.

2) He was the last boss I tried in Ulduar after a fairly long run, so I was tired too.

3) My weapon at the time was an ilvl 414 green (now a 463 blue) - so my DPS wasn't that great.

4) I went in cold, not knowing his mechanics. The first two phases are quite easy, but the third phase, where you have to kill the adds, loot the electromagnetic cores and use them to bring him down, took me quite awhile to figure out. (I was pretty annoyed since I couldn't melee him until I figured that out.)

Additionally the final phase you have to kill all 3 sections of him within 15 seconds, and the head can't be DPSed by melee attacks. So I figure when I try Mimiron again, I'm going to start out weakening his head first with a lot of Death Coils and Disease, then weaken the bottom piece (the toughest), and finally just go to town on the midsection.

I think it'll work.

----

In the meantime I've been soloing Naxxramas 25 since there's some nice looking armor for a DK there as well (specifically the Saronite Warplate recolors)

So far I've cleared the Military Quarter and the Arachnid Quarter without too much difficulty. Haven't touched the Plague Quarter; but my attempt at the Construct Quarter ended poorly as Patchwerk hits like a truck. I generally survive bosses via blood shield + healing from death strike, but Patchwerk hits so hard that even Blood Shield doesn't last long at all against him; and his HP is high enough that I can't burn him down before he gets me.

That said, I'm thinking I can take him with some clever use of Army of the Dead, since I read his mechanic basically spreads his damage out if he's got enough people registered on his hate list. At least that's what I've read about it. It may just require better gear than I have. (My armor is blue ilvl 450 PVP gear, so not exactly optimal heh)

---

As for group content -

I admit, there's stuff I'd like to see - Stormstout Brewery and the Shado-pan Monastery particularly; but I've had such terrible experiences with grouping in the past, both in WoW and other games* that I just don't bother; it's too stressful for me. I know it's weird, but that's just how I am <~_~>

Besides, soloing some of this stuff is quite challenging and that's pretty interesting for me as well. It's fun trying to figure out the mechanics of fights that are designed to be won by large groups of people - like the Instructor Razuvius fight in Naxxramas. I found out after I fought him that you're *supposed* to use Mind Control on the adds and use them to tank him... which explains why he hits so ungodly hard <@.@> I won, but he really made me sweat.

*I also have a pretty serious anxiety disorder, that doesn't help, heh.

[Kislath]

Okay, it worked! WhooHOO!

After 8 months of freedom, the WoW monkey is once again on my back.

Oh man, am I going to be rusty for awhile. ( not that I was ever all that good in the first place. )

Hmmm... so now what to do before WoD hits? Get my 60-somethings up to ~80's, or get my 80-somethings up to 90? Decisions, decisions... I think I'll start by just looking around for awhile and trying to remember how to play.

[Psyren]

Okay, it worked! WhooHOO!

After 8 months of freedom, the WoW monkey is once again on my back.

Oh man, am I going to be rusty for awhile. ( not that I was ever all that good in the first place. )

Hmmm... so now what to do before WoD hits? Get my 60-somethings up to ~80's, or get my 80-somethings up to 90? Decisions, decisions... I think I'll start by just looking around for awhile and trying to remember how to play.

Note that you'll get a free level 90 with WoD (and some solo scenarios to help you learn how to play it) so if there's a class you're really not looking forward to leveling you can skip it and use that to level it instead.

[Kislath]

Ah, yes. That will be handy.

So... they say that we'll be able to buy level-ups to 90 on top of that?

I'm not sure what I think about that. I have a feeling that it will have an overall bad effect on things.

Today I was playing on Shu'Halo, which connects with Eitrigg for a total "High" population, and wow, was it ever a lot more crowded that it was when I left. I was actually getting a bit of choppy lag in places. That's annoying.
On the plus side, the auction house is rocking, and I sold about half of my old junk in under a half hour.

It looks like a few things have changed since I left! My hotbars are not at all like I left them, and some things don't quite work the way I remember, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Is there a list of character names used by inactive players someplace that people might use for ideas for naming their new toons? The reason I ask is that when I left I had several characters with original one-of-a-kind names, and now I see that those names have suddenly gotten fairly popular. I was wondering how that might have happened.

[Karoht]

Ah, yes. That will be handy.

So... they say that we'll be able to buy level-ups to 90 on top of that?

I'm not sure what I think about that. I have a feeling that it will have an overall bad effect on things.

1-The level cap is going to 100. Even before that, the current expansion is mostly over, the effect of some extra 90's running around isn't going to be huge.
2-Technically, if you are willing to buy another copy of the game, and have someone use recruit a friend (namely yourself), you essentially already get a free 85 with an XP boost to 90. All selling 90 boosts does is skip a few steps and some headaches, on the players part and on Blizzards.
3-There is a market for it, and it largely will not hurt the game. More people having characters that are at least within reach of the endgame means more people to actually participate in the endgame.

There are some noted downsides though.
1-Yes, some new players will just pay for the level increase, so you will see some new players running around being derpy at higher level content. Which is different from right now how?
I'm looking at you LFR.
2-Due to the way Mythic raiding is being oriented towards some compositional strategy elements (which were largely eliminated from the game after BC), this level boosting system means that if your raid is short on the new flavor of the week, along with recruiting you have another option to acquire what you need. Now, how severe is this comp stacking going to be? How much is it going to boost the income from people paying for 90's? Hard to say, won't know until WoD beta starts and we see some raid testing happen. But as someone who has actually been part of the hardcore raiding scene since Wrath, I genuinely don't see Blizzard messing with boss mechanics that severely that we see a return of Derpy McBloodlust, Failsauce McMagetank, or Standsinfire McWarlockfeartank, suddenly being brought along to the most hardcore of hardcore content. That seems particularly counterintuitive, and I'm sure this isn't what Blizzard plans to do.
3-Flavor of the week PvP. See point number 2, but with PvP instead. How severe will it be? Given how quick Blizzard makes hotfixes and balances things, I don't foresee this being a huge issue. Again, won't know until Beta.

All this said and done, I'm greatly looking forward to boosting my Monk to 90. I love the class, love it to bits, but I can't bring myself to level these days, unless I absolutely must. That said, I'm planning on taking all my alts to 90 prior to WoD, mostly for professions reasons mind you.

[The Glyphstone]

Was Nazgrim LFR really still that difficult? There's a whole bunch of targeted nerfs to him and Flex Garrosh coming up on MMOChamp's datamining.

[Karoht]

Was Nazgrim LFR really still that difficult? There's a whole bunch of targeted nerfs to him and Flex Garrosh coming up on MMOChamp's datamining.

Having killed him twice in one lockout in LFR, one shots both times, not really. Got really tense in the last 10 seconds with those endless waves of adds though. Just like Tortos, that really is the hardest part of the fight is the final 20%.

[Kislath]

Well, this new Proving Ground thing might help with the level 90 derpiness issues a bit, and I'm looking forward to that.
Heh.
Back in Cata a very good player spent two hours with me one day to teach me everything I was doing wrong, and my DPS nearly tripled. Soon I was one of those OP mages that the PvP'ers whine so much about.
About a month after that everything changed, though, and I never have gotten back to being that good again. maybe the Proving Ground will help.

I was concerned more with the rest of the world and the economy. If everyone shifts to playing the new content with their old or spiffy new 90's, the leveling zones are likely to be empty again, and the auction market ruined for anyone still bothering with the lower levels.

Maybe it won't be so bad. I guess we'll see.

[Karoht]

Well, this new Proving Ground thing might help with the level 90 derpiness issues a bit.

They also said they want to expand on Proving Grounds to be "more instructional, less of a target dummy with legs."
And, when you boost a character to 90, you're supposed to get a solo scenario that teaches you how your character functions. I'm curious to see if this is implimented now, or with WoD.

I was concerned more with the rest of the world and the economy. If everyone shifts to playing the new content with their old or spiffy new 90's, the leveling zones are likely to be empty again, and the auction market ruined for anyone still bothering with the lower levels.

Which is different from the current model how?

Mind you, they plan on implimenting down-scaled content at some point in WoD if they get the development time to work on it some more. Technically, it already exists in the game and you can glitch the game to get it to work, but because you're using a bug to access a non-implimented feature, there are some bugs that go with it. It's not really playable per se.

They said the biggest thing holding them back from doing downranked/downscaled content (for everything that isn't current content, so Mists stuff would be in there too), is reward structure. When they settle on a reward system that makes it enticing (not just Valor/JP), this feature will probably get priortized much higher.

[Traab]

They also said they want to expand on Proving Grounds to be "more instructional, less of a target dummy with legs."
And, when you boost a character to 90, you're supposed to get a solo scenario that teaches you how your character functions. I'm curious to see if this is implimented now, or with WoD.

Which is different from the current model how?

Mind you, they plan on implimenting down-scaled content at some point in WoD if they get the development time to work on it some more. Technically, it already exists in the game and you can glitch the game to get it to work, but because you're using a bug to access a non-implimented feature, there are some bugs that go with it. It's not really playable per se.

They said the biggest thing holding them back from doing downranked/downscaled content (for everything that isn't current content, so Mists stuff would be in there too), is reward structure. When they settle on a reward system that makes it enticing (not just Valor/JP), this feature will probably get priortized much higher.

I expect the training scenario will be something like the death knight starting area. And I approve of that as its a ton of fun. So a nice short story where your whatever class has to learn to play while going through whatever event is involved could be a lot of fun. Im just curious what angle they will play. Will they acknowledge the fact that you (theoretically) dont know how your class works even though it is 90? Or will you say, just happen to hit various challenges as you progress that use specific skills?

For example, as a mage, would you have obstacles where you have to cover single target destruction, aoe slaughter, and juggling crowd control so you can focus one down while keeping another locked in place? Maybe get the chance to play with all three specs so you can decide which is best for you? Perhaps as a sort of joke scenario you go through a story as an amnesiac being retaught how to do things?

[Kislath]

HAHAHA!!
Amnesiac. That would be great.

[mistformsquirrl]

Thrice-damned maintenance! Oh well <. .> they gotta do it sometime, may as well be during the off hours for most people heh; I'm just up at weird times usually.

On the upside, I've been spending some time playing a a NE Fury Warrior of late, in addition to my Blood DK, and I'm quite enjoying it. Up to level 34 on her so far, and I have a pretty cool idea for a transmog set for her too; I should be able to have the whole thing at about level 90 (and the shoulders are the only thing that requires me be 90 even. It's all blue or green stuff, so that's nice.)

The only problem I'm having with my warrior thus far is... rage generation. It just feels... kinda slow to be honest. I mean I know I'm only level 33, so it's probably a problem that will fix itself as I gain abilities - but as it stands I spend a lot more time auto-attacking than I do on my DK, and that feels a bit awkward. Granted some of that is also the longer global cooldown, but a lot of it is also just being short of Rage to throw at problems.

Is that something that improves later on as a Fury Warrior? Or is it just something you get used to?

[Krazzman]

Thrice-damned maintenance! Oh well <. .> they gotta do it sometime, may as well be during the off hours for most people heh; I'm just up at weird times usually.

On the upside, I've been spending some time playing a a NE Fury Warrior of late, in addition to my Blood DK, and I'm quite enjoying it. Up to level 34 on her so far, and I have a pretty cool idea for a transmog set for her too; I should be able to have the whole thing at about level 90 (and the shoulders are the only thing that requires me be 90 even. It's all blue or green stuff, so that's nice.)

The only problem I'm having with my warrior thus far is... rage generation. It just feels... kinda slow to be honest. I mean I know I'm only level 33, so it's probably a problem that will fix itself as I gain abilities - but as it stands I spend a lot more time auto-attacking than I do on my DK, and that feels a bit awkward. Granted some of that is also the longer global cooldown, but a lot of it is also just being short of Rage to throw at problems.

Is that something that improves later on as a Fury Warrior? Or is it just something you get used to?

I think it gets better because your Rage-generation is dependant on a few things and you are missing your main Rage-generating skills at that level but I could be wrong... I don't have a warrior so far the farthest I played one was level ~30 during WotLK.

Currently we play an Orcish Shaman/Warrior duo with me as a restoshaman. Except for Petpulling Mages/Warlocks/Hunter we got it quite good so far... except I hate Gnomeregan.

We also have a Bloodelfs Hunter/Paladin duo (with me as Hunter) but my wife doesn't really like the paladin and we had the bonus of again idiotic players. Mage/Priest duo that killed adds in another place of the instance instead of following the Tank.

[Karoht]

The only problem I'm having with my warrior thus far is... rage generation. It just feels... kinda slow to be honest. I mean I know I'm only level 33, so it's probably a problem that will fix itself as I gain abilities - but as it stands I spend a lot more time auto-attacking than I do on my DK, and that feels a bit awkward. Granted some of that is also the longer global cooldown, but a lot of it is also just being short of Rage to throw at problems.
Is that something that improves later on as a Fury Warrior? Or is it just something you get used to?

Fury is a bit more rage dependant than Arms (as well as enrage state dependant), and has a bit tighter timing for it. A friend of mine recently leveled as Arms, his problem while leveling was having enough things to dump rage with. Maybe give Arms a go?
You get Overpower and Mortal Strike and Heroic Strike at level 10, all very solid kit for leveling. I think you get Victory Rush early on, which is a self heal and an attack. All great tools for wrecking low level mobs. You're over 30 so I think you have some AoE by that point. Cleave and Thunderclap for sure, probably Whirlwind too. 30-80 you are an unstoppable juggernaught. 80-85 you slow down slightly, 85-90 you slow down slightly. But both of those curves are gear dependant, and we have the stat squish coming soon.

[Seerow]

Seriously as a low level warrior, go prot. None of its primary attacks require rage to use (Prot Rage is exclusively for Shield Block/Shield Barrier/Heroic Strike), and most of them come online early (by level 30-35 you should have everything you care about). The abilities will generally hit as hard or harder than most DPS warrior abilities too. Especially since DPS warriors are missing out on colossus smash until level 85, which is a huge chunk of your DPS. You're also missing out on mastery which gives prots a boost to defense while giving dps characters a boost to damage. Between the two Prot is equal to or ahead of both DPS specs at every step of the way.

Seriously, prot will give you more damage, less downtime, and more survivability. There is no reason to be anything else while leveling.


Around 85, once you get colossus smash, you can go Arms for a boost. Fury is still going to be generally crap until you're level 90 with 20-25% crit at minimum. Fury's prime ability proc is tied heavily into critical strike, and with low crit rates you're going to be sitting there doing nothing but waiting for BT to come off cooldown frequently.

[mistformsquirrl]

Ah, I didn't know about the item squish <@.@> just looked it up. It makes me a bit nervous, but it does seem they're dead set on it not affecting our ability to solo old content, so that's good.