Gitr Knows WoW

Unlike your other World of Warcraft blogs. Quality over quantity, and a terrific community.

Gaming

Raiding for Dummies, Noobs, and Jabberwocks

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So I have started yet another toon, but this one will, perhaps, get to do something none of my other ones have: that is raid. He is my first Alliance character in over a year, so that in itself will take some getting used to. I know the Horde area like the back of my hand, but playing the Alliance feels like a whole new game.

I have done many 5-man instances, but honestly I still feel like a noob with every one I have done. So I need to not only level a new toon rather quickly, I need to practice and hopefully master my class. So I have a few questions to help me become a better player, so that when I do raid, I won’t be the weakest link.

  • What are some things one should be doing while leveling to prepare for instances?
  • Should I try pre-BC instances to better learn my class, or should I just get to 70 as fast as possible and maybe do run thrus of lower ones then?
  • What has someone done that made you pleasantly surprised in a PUG? What have you done that surprised people?
  • Now in my case, I am a Demon spec Warlock. I am going that way for leveling. When PUGing, should I automatically give everyone a Healthstone? If there isn’t a Priest who do I Soulstone? Should I offer to do crowd control or just ask which demon they want?
  • What are some of the worst things you have seen a Warlock do in an instance that I should avoid? What have you done in an instance that immediately made you smack your head with your palm?

Give a guy and hand and give me an education I won’t soon forget.

Single-Player Mode

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Pursuant to my discussions with Lassira about private servers, I finally came up with an original content idea. Original, at least in that, as well-read as I am in WoW, I have yet to see this idea.

For those of us who have always played RTS, FPS, and the various FPS/strategy games like Rainbow Six, I have a desire to see the entire game. Obviously there are thousands, if not a million people willing or able to put the time into the game to get attuned, geared, and learned in the end-game instances to play them through to the end of Blizzard’s content.

What I propose is a single-player mode. You get a crew of 4, 9, or 19 computer-controlled players, just as you do when you assault the subway in Rainbow Six. That would enable someone who gets off work and eats dinner and puts the kids to bed to play for an hour per night to get somewhere. We don’t all have a bunch of guild whores that can drop everything they are doing to help us out whenever we log in, do we? You do!? You suck!

There would be no need for acquiring the loot directly, as you would need to take control of another player should your main die in combat. Bosses would drop tokens that represent a particular piece for your given class, which you would then obtain when you rez and take control of your main again.

The only thing missing at that point would be a save game feature for your progress through a long instance. Granted, instances don’t take 3-6 hours any more, but they are still longer when starting off than many people have. Even playing on private servers to experience end-game content won’t alleviate everyday time crunches.

Would you like to see a Single-Player mode? What things have I missed here? Would you consider playing on a private server just to have an instant 70 to see end-game content with a new class that you’ve never tried? Are you even remotely as busy as I am?

I love WoW as much as the next guy, so let me see it all. Sound off.

Updates Look Like They Are Here to Stay

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Remember those 3 weeks when everyone was dancing in the streets because Tuesday maintenance updates were over? I can’t remember the last time there wasn’t a Tuesday maintenance server shutdown, besides it being some vague memory of a nice day after the expansion.

/sigh

RL is really busy now, and I didn’t even play after dinner last night. I logged in really quick to find Deadr had almost 950g. I bought more cloth and made more bags, but as of this morning they hadn’t sold yet. I won’t buy my fast mount until I have several hundred extra gold so I have something to work with on the AH.

The Many Playing Aspects of World of Warcraft

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One of the things that has kept me continuously interested in WoW for almost 2 years is how many different things one can do to keep the throws of boredom away. The only time I have ever been fed up with playing was when I was in the middle of a level and had nothing to do to get to the next level but grind. That really sucks, but only if your single-minded goal is getting to the next level.

I consider myself to be an intellectual gamer. By that, I mean that even when I’m relaxing by playing a game, I’m not brain-dead. I am constantly figuring out better ways to play, new things to do, and basically trying to know everything possible about the game. Some people just play to have fun, but for me playing with intent is fun.

Here are some of the many things I have done to stay on top of my game:

  1. Game mechanics
  2. Instances
  3. Quests
  4. Professions
  5. Auction Hall profiteering
  6. Powerleveling
  7. Guild-leading
  8. Blogging about WoW
  9. Giving in to my inner alt-aholic
  10. Trying both PvP and PvE

Right now, Huntr is at 50 and getting bored with Tanaris, so he’s camping out Humar the Pridelord again and will move to Blasted Lands to try a shot at Grubber (I think that’s his name). I hear he has a 36-48 hour respawn, but at least he has a limited range, too.

The powerleveling is wearing me down because of the lack of content to my posts lately. So… I’m making it official:

Would any of you, my dear, fine readers, mind if I stopped my powerleveling at level 50 and we’ll just know that I can get to 50 really fast and have huge kahonas for not running instances for 50 levels? Man, I missed SM, RFD, and Maradon. That makes me somewhat sad, and I don’t want to miss out on BRD or UBRS/LBRS.

Pet Inconsistency

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This is a quick one: why is it that you can’t jump from one level to another in a cave without your pet running the actual path all the way around, but you can jump off a 50 foot high Zep tower and he stays right with you? Hmmm?