Well, I've finally seen the Light. Okay, not really, if I had, I'd be rolling a pally tank right now (although the thought is somewhat tempting.), but you know what I mean. I have discovered the joys of tanking with a protection warrior wearing the best gear that patience and 10 runs of Helfire Ramps and Blood Furnace combined can buy. I've read all about tank fatigue, and some of the stresses related to tanking. I can admit that I felt a little more drained after tanking 4 instances straight as opposed to DPSing those same 4. Tanking stress? Not feeling it.
The top 5 reasons why I'm loving tanking right now.
1. I am the ringmaster.
I put up the marks and I make the pulls. After months of obediantly sheeping and trapping at someone else's whim, it feels incredibly good to be in the driver's seat.
2. Constant attention from the healers.
Ice block has a cool-down and so does Vanish. Feign Death usually means a clothie's gonna bite it for me. It's nice to be able to throw myself in there and KNOW not hope that there's going to be someone healing me.
3. Plate feels and looks good.
A lot of the mail and leather stuff in OL looks pretty craptacular till you hit 70. Plate always looks good (assuming you color-coordinate) .
4. Instances
Back in the day when I was leveling my mage and hunter, and even now when I level my rogue, I found that getting into instance groups on a regular basis required quite a bit of effort. However, as the tank, I'm the one putting together the groups. And if that fails, well, there's a lot of people out there "lf1m tank".
5. Questing in general
I'm finding questing so much easier as prot. It takes me a little longer to kill things than it did as Arms, but at least I'm still alive after pulling 3-4 mobs. Despite what people thing, Prot's still a decent spec for doing damage. Devastate + One-Handed Weapon Spec = Dead mobs eventually.
- Trysti
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Changes and more.
Okay, so I'm soooorta changing the focus of this blog. Well, not so much changing as sharing. I recently started leveling my warrior concurrently with my rogue and realized that my guild could use either one. Okay, that's a lie. The guild could use a warrior tank, and I just find rogues WAY too fun to give up.
So there will be some warrior posts as well as rogue posts. I'll update my links section soon to include links for both.
So with that out of the way, let's talk about WoWarmory today. It is simultaenously your best friend and worst foe. It's your best friend, because you can look at someone's gear level and spec before ever having to invite them into a group. This saves you from having to kick someone (something that I know a lot of people have trouble doing) because they're not geared right for what you need. I cannot tell you how many times I've been in LFG, needed a lock (for example), saw 3 candidates and had to choose. Before Armory you'd have to pray you got lucky and chose the best one. Armory gets rid of the guess-work and lets you build a better group.
So, how is it your worst foe? Well, it works both ways, you can look people up, but they can look YOU up too. If you're a rogue, this is probably not going to bode well for you. Especially if your server is anything like mine and there's 4 rogues and hunters in LFG at any given time (Or if there's been a sudden surge of paladin tanks who don't want anything to do with you.) The highly unloved (for 5-mans anyways) DPS warrior normally doesn't have this problem, because they are doing one of four things. They're off in Arena/Battlegrounds, doing a guild run, raiding or currently respeccing to Protection because they realized that NO ONE is going to take them for a 5-man unless they're desperate. If you're a prot warrior, chances are that you're the one who's scouring LFG for people, so this doesn't really apply to you.
Another friend for anyone who's level 70 and wants to raid seriously is be.imba.hu. But that's another post for another night
- Trysti.
So there will be some warrior posts as well as rogue posts. I'll update my links section soon to include links for both.
So with that out of the way, let's talk about WoWarmory today. It is simultaenously your best friend and worst foe. It's your best friend, because you can look at someone's gear level and spec before ever having to invite them into a group. This saves you from having to kick someone (something that I know a lot of people have trouble doing) because they're not geared right for what you need. I cannot tell you how many times I've been in LFG, needed a lock (for example), saw 3 candidates and had to choose. Before Armory you'd have to pray you got lucky and chose the best one. Armory gets rid of the guess-work and lets you build a better group.
So, how is it your worst foe? Well, it works both ways, you can look people up, but they can look YOU up too. If you're a rogue, this is probably not going to bode well for you. Especially if your server is anything like mine and there's 4 rogues and hunters in LFG at any given time (Or if there's been a sudden surge of paladin tanks who don't want anything to do with you.) The highly unloved (for 5-mans anyways) DPS warrior normally doesn't have this problem, because they are doing one of four things. They're off in Arena/Battlegrounds, doing a guild run, raiding or currently respeccing to Protection because they realized that NO ONE is going to take them for a 5-man unless they're desperate. If you're a prot warrior, chances are that you're the one who's scouring LFG for people, so this doesn't really apply to you.
Another friend for anyone who's level 70 and wants to raid seriously is be.imba.hu. But that's another post for another night
- Trysti.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Questing
So you finally hit that magical 58. It's time to fly down to Blasted Lands, ride to the Dark Portal and take your step through. For some of you it's a first experience, for others, it's coming home.
It's also time to start thinking in a different way and to start getting mentally ready for 70. The first way you can do this is in your attitude towards quests. Back in Azeroth, you could pick and choose your quests a little easier. After all, there was hundreds of them per leveling range. In Outland, I urge you to do EVERY SINGLE QUEST until you hit 70. And even after you hit 70, do them all. Why? Gold for one. You're going to need gold to buy materials for things that you want crafted. Sure, you'll farm a little, but there's always going to be that one material that you need that you can't quite get a hold of by yourself (Primal Nethers, Nether Vortexs, Hearts of Darkness, etc) just yet.
Another reason you want to do those quests is due to quest rewards. I could do an entire post about quest rewards and how awesome they are in Outland and how crap most of them were in Azeroth, but suffice to say, you will get a lot of your gear, if not all of it (initially) through questing.
Lastly and most importantly, it gives you exp faster and in a more interesting way than just grinding. Sure, at least 60% of the quests (if not more) are going to make you grind anyways, but at least you get the nice big exp bonus and quest reward at the end.
- Trysti
It's also time to start thinking in a different way and to start getting mentally ready for 70. The first way you can do this is in your attitude towards quests. Back in Azeroth, you could pick and choose your quests a little easier. After all, there was hundreds of them per leveling range. In Outland, I urge you to do EVERY SINGLE QUEST until you hit 70. And even after you hit 70, do them all. Why? Gold for one. You're going to need gold to buy materials for things that you want crafted. Sure, you'll farm a little, but there's always going to be that one material that you need that you can't quite get a hold of by yourself (Primal Nethers, Nether Vortexs, Hearts of Darkness, etc) just yet.
Another reason you want to do those quests is due to quest rewards. I could do an entire post about quest rewards and how awesome they are in Outland and how crap most of them were in Azeroth, but suffice to say, you will get a lot of your gear, if not all of it (initially) through questing.
Lastly and most importantly, it gives you exp faster and in a more interesting way than just grinding. Sure, at least 60% of the quests (if not more) are going to make you grind anyways, but at least you get the nice big exp bonus and quest reward at the end.
- Trysti
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Planning
After hitting 57 today, I looked at what I had still had open to me in terms of leveling zones. I was shocked that I still had all of Un'goro, Burning Steppes, Silithius, Winterspring and most of Easter Plaguelands looking at me. Originally, with my first character I found that I was desperately trying to find new quests to do to hit that magic 58. My second character had a much faster time getting to 58.
So what changed? Two major things did. The first was patch 2.3. Patch 2.3 introduced a slew of quests in Dustwallow Marsh, lowered the amount of experience one needed to level up, got rid of almost all the non-instance elites, and improved the quality of a lot of quest loot (expect a post on that soon). But the second thing is something that all of you can do, and what I did. Just plan ahead.
Do you ever see those ads for leveling guides? Well, I'm going to give to you for free what they'd charge you $10 for. Plan your levels out. This can be as detailed or as vague as you want. An example:
Dustwallow Marsh - 37-41
Hinterlands - 41-42
Feralas -42-43
Yes, it's THAT easy. If you tell yourself "Okay, at this level I'm going to clear Tanaris, and when I'm done I'll start on Searing Gorge" you'll find the levels flying past. Also, don't be afraid to include instances in there. On my server, times are a little tough on the pre-Outland crowd and LFG is usually barren. However, this is where your guild and (hopefully) your friends come in. Try to get yourself into a guild that has a lot of people between 20 and 50, as they're the ones who are going to want to run instances the most. You don't have to stay with them forever, but you'll find that instancing and leveling will be much faster if you don't have to spend hours in lfg or trade spamming things like "LFG SM".
- Trysti
So what changed? Two major things did. The first was patch 2.3. Patch 2.3 introduced a slew of quests in Dustwallow Marsh, lowered the amount of experience one needed to level up, got rid of almost all the non-instance elites, and improved the quality of a lot of quest loot (expect a post on that soon). But the second thing is something that all of you can do, and what I did. Just plan ahead.
Do you ever see those ads for leveling guides? Well, I'm going to give to you for free what they'd charge you $10 for. Plan your levels out. This can be as detailed or as vague as you want. An example:
Dustwallow Marsh - 37-41
Hinterlands - 41-42
Feralas -42-43
Yes, it's THAT easy. If you tell yourself "Okay, at this level I'm going to clear Tanaris, and when I'm done I'll start on Searing Gorge" you'll find the levels flying past. Also, don't be afraid to include instances in there. On my server, times are a little tough on the pre-Outland crowd and LFG is usually barren. However, this is where your guild and (hopefully) your friends come in. Try to get yourself into a guild that has a lot of people between 20 and 50, as they're the ones who are going to want to run instances the most. You don't have to stay with them forever, but you'll find that instancing and leveling will be much faster if you don't have to spend hours in lfg or trade spamming things like "LFG SM".
- Trysti
Monday, June 16, 2008
Introductions
Welcome to The Road To 70 And Beyond.
So, some of you may be wondering just what this is. Well, it's a blog detailing my experiences getting a rogue up to the level cap, raiding, and getting ready for Wrath of the Lich King. While I'm not nearly as qualified or experienced as some of the other rogue bloggers out there, I'm hoping to entertain and educate other new rogues as I make my way through the levels.
That said, just who am I? I'm a "casual" World of Warcraft player. I own two level 70 characters, a hunter and a mage respectively. I play Alliance. I raid Karazhan weekly, occasionally do Gruul's, rarely do Zul'Aman and just got my first taste of Tempest Keep the other night. I am not what you'd call a "hardcore" raider, although I'm a veteran of heroics, having done every instance on heroic mode at least once.
You can have a look at my rogue and how she's progressing at the link below.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackhand&n=Trysti
And speaking of links, I have a few set up right to the side. I'll go into a few of them in a little more detail with future posts but for now I'll just say; DO check out Shadowpanther.net and Roguespot.com if you're a new rogue as there's tons and tons of good information/macros/add-ons and what not there.
See you next update.
- Trysti
So, some of you may be wondering just what this is. Well, it's a blog detailing my experiences getting a rogue up to the level cap, raiding, and getting ready for Wrath of the Lich King. While I'm not nearly as qualified or experienced as some of the other rogue bloggers out there, I'm hoping to entertain and educate other new rogues as I make my way through the levels.
That said, just who am I? I'm a "casual" World of Warcraft player. I own two level 70 characters, a hunter and a mage respectively. I play Alliance. I raid Karazhan weekly, occasionally do Gruul's, rarely do Zul'Aman and just got my first taste of Tempest Keep the other night. I am not what you'd call a "hardcore" raider, although I'm a veteran of heroics, having done every instance on heroic mode at least once.
You can have a look at my rogue and how she's progressing at the link below.
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Blackhand&n=Trysti
And speaking of links, I have a few set up right to the side. I'll go into a few of them in a little more detail with future posts but for now I'll just say; DO check out Shadowpanther.net and Roguespot.com if you're a new rogue as there's tons and tons of good information/macros/add-ons and what not there.
See you next update.
- Trysti
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