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I’ve really been enjoying my leveling experience in Wrath. I decided from the beginning that I wouldn’t rush once I got Celidur out of Outland and into Northrend.
Leveling
In the beta, I took my death knight to Outland at 58 and Northrend at 68. I told myself that on live, I’d wait until 60 and 70, respectively, that way I’d do less quests in Northrend while leveling and have more quests to complete for gold.
Well, I managed to hit 60 before Outland, but I went to Northrend at 68. I don’t regret the decision.
In beta, I started with the Borean Tundra and made my way to Dragonblight. This time, I did the Fjord in between. I’ve done every quest I can find, and I’ve easily hit the quest achievements for all three zones. I’ve just finished up Dragonblight and I’m ready to hit the Grizzly Hills. I did take a stop with some guildies in Zul’Drak to do the Amphitheater of Anguish and get my De-Raged Waraxe. During the event, I dinged 76. Just one more level until I can fly, although I don’t have an epic mount, and after zipping around on the druid all Outland, it feels sloooooow.
Instancing
I’m amazed at the number of people who still don’t understand the death knight. When I was 71, I got a group for The Nexus, and I was tanking. Conversation was casual as we all ran around Dalaran finishing up errands, and one of the members says, “Our last tank was Unholy…” to which another member replied “Ouch.” The exchange finishes with an “Yeah, epic fail” from the first member. It got a bit quiet when I said “<– Unholy.” It was quiet a moment, then I added “But I tanked this instance with this spec before, so we should be fine.” “Oh really?”
So, aparrently people have it in their heads that Frost is the tanking tree, Blood is the DPS tree, and Unholy is the AoE tree. And while that is true to an extent (Blood has a lot of single-target DPS talents, frost has a lot of good mitigation talents, and Unholy does have a lot of talents to boost your AoE), you can certainly tank 5-mans in any of the specs, and I feel that at least Frost and Unholy will be very strong heroic and raid tanking trees.
Later that instance:
DPS tank? I wasn’t aware I was a DPS tank.
So, aparrently it’ll take more work that I thought to get the stigma out of people’s minds. Heck, I had a pretty long conversation with a good real-life friend about it, and it took me several minutes to get it into his head. He’s a druid, so I finally got it through with “Imagine you have three feral trees.”
I do have to say, I’m really loving the DPS I can put out when tanking, especially multiple mobs. This group had two warlocks and a mage for DPS, and a pally healer:
Overall, I really love my death knight. We’ll see how things go when I start tanking heroics and raids, but if all goes well, Celidur is definitely gonna be my main.
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Alright! We’re back in business (almost) 100%!
As I mentioned two posts back, I had to move from WordPress to another blogging platform due to memory usage on my old host. I also mentioned that I got a new host. Well, I managed to get the old WordPress blog back up and running, and also managed to move all my posts from the other system over as well! So, we’re back in business!
You may notice a few links breaking here and there, as I used different permalink structures on the two platforms, but I’ll get those working soon.
It’s good to be back!
[Edit] Ah, sorry about the double-posts on your feed readers. Since I switch platforms, all the imported posts count as “new” posts. But, since my feed only shows 20 entries, it won’t be too bad. Apologies again!
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Since today really “starts” the Christmas season for many folks, I thought I’d share this video. The quality may not be super high, but it makes me laugh every time!
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All right! We are back in action!
I apologize for the long-ish “vacation” I took. It turns out my VPS was hacked somehow, and my host shut it down without telling me. A few support tickets and a couple weeks later, I finally have a backup of my data (although not everything I asked for–I had to manually import my MySQL MYI, MYD, and FRM files…) and my VPS from my old host still wasn’t up and running correctly.
Today alone I was able to purchase a new VPS through Linode, install Apache/PHP/MySQL (Linode VPS’ are completely self-managed, no preinstalled software), a firewall, get my email set up again, and get two of my domains running again. And my old VPS still isn’t up.
Time to switch if you ask me.
So, I haven’t been around since Wrath’s launch. I’ll spare you my opinions of Wrath, other than to say that it is extremely well done. Blizzard improved in many areas while keeping the areas they were already strong in very polished. I’ve been playing my Death Knight… what can I say, I fell in love with the class in beta! I really enjoy tanking with him. I’m amazed at how many people tell me “Wow, the last Unholy tank I had sucked, you’re a much better DPS tank,” and I can say “I’m not a DPS tank.” It’ll take time for people to begin to understand how Death Knight tanking works, and in the meantime I’m just trying to prove myself out of all the other DK’s who can’t or don’t want to tank.
Anyway, it’s late… I spent all day setting up this VPS! So I’ll catch you all on the flip side!
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To: Madam Valdania Renn
From: Captain Thomas Baldwin, Front Lines, Plaguelands
Mrs. Renn,
These times of war are dangerous times, and the brave men and women who fight in the name of freedom and the Light face dangerous paths. The dangers that face them here are too numerous to count, yet they courageously fight for what they believe in.
Two days ago, we watched in surprise as Naxxramas slowly disappeared from the sky, flying slowly in a north-western direction. Although we were obviously relived to see it go, both the unknown reason for it doing so and the discovery of the new ziggaraut we made a week ago made us hesitant to celebrate.
That night, we were ambushed by a large contingent of the Scourge force here in the Plaguelands. Though the soldiers fought bravely, we lost men in the skirmish. Your husband was among those who fell.
Celidur and I often fought side by side, as we did this day–but I was not able to save him. I saw him die, and I avenged his death, but when we went back to the site today to honor the fallen with proper burials, I was not able to find his body.
I am terribly sorry for your loss this day–Celidur was a good man, and a good soldier, and he will be missed.
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Hello again, my Dear Valdania,
I apologize for not being able to write you this past week; we have been very busy. We were able to subdue much of the Scourge activity I mentioned previously, and proceeded to make our way to the Eastern Plaguelands. It was our hope that by fortifying strategic locations here, we would be able to concentrate our efforts against the undead. But, when we arrived, we discovered a new threat.
In the sky looms a new necropolis. We do not know why it is here or what its arrival might foretell, but it floats hauntingly over New Avalon, and the shadow it casts over this gloomy landscapes somehow seems darker and more tenebrous that that of the dread Naxxramas–every time I cast my glance skyward, I feel the Light inside me falter, and my very soul all but shudders at the dread of finding out what horrors it has brought to our lands.
I cannot help but feel that our courage will be put to the test. May the Light guide us and protect us.
It is my wish to write you again very soon. Until then, stay safe, and remember that I love you, dear wife, more than anything.
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Dearest Valdania,
I arrived in the Plaguelands today. The area is aptly named. The Argent Dawn has set up a small camp here, which we use as our base of operation for now.
Things look pretty grim. Andorhal is all but unsalvageable, even if we manage to rid the area of the undead. We think that there is a leader of the Scourge there, commanding forces from the safety of the ruins, although we do not yet know who he is or what their plans are.
A few moments ago, a scout returned with word of a large cauldron not far from Androhal. It doesn’t take much imagination to consider what the undead legion may be cooking inside.
Although the situation here does not play into our favor, we must remember the Light, and have faith.
I look foward to writing you again, my dearest wife.
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At the end of the Death Knight starter zone, your Death Knight will be around level 58 or so. You can either go to Outland immediately, or spend some time in the Plaguelands leveling to 60 or so. If you do, there are some great item turn-in quests at Light’s Hope Chapel (that require some Argent Dawn rep). Either way, you’ll probably want to have some other items ready to mail your Death Knight. Here are the ones I’m preparing:
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As mentioned in my previous post, I’m on a mad rush to hit 70 (or at least 68) by the time Wrath releases. Today is Thursday, November 6, and Krolin is now level 56 (about half a level to go to 57). I feel relatively confident that I can get him to 58 this evening pretty easily.
The question is, can I really get him to 70 from 58 in a week? I’m not so sure. I’m trying to remember how long it took me to get my death knight to 68 on the beta. It was definitely a lot faster than leveling other toons through Outland, but it still takes quite a bit more time than leveling in Azeroth.
This got me to thinking–would it be a bad thing if I didn’t make it? What if I was level 66 when Wrath hits the stores–now I’ve got Outland basically to my own, finishing up my last levels while the rest of everyone in the world finishes up the newbie zones or makes their way into Hellfire Peninsula, making it easier to level there? I wasn’t 60 for TBC release. How was questing in HFP on release day?
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Krolin in his… colorful DPS gear
I have decided that I want to level a warrior tank. There were several reasons for this decision, not the least of which include dual specs (so I can go fury for soloing) and the fact that prot can do decent DPS anyway (and possibly even interesting PvP?).
I’ve found that I miss tanking quite a bit. The warrior seems to be the more generic "non-specialized" tank, almost how I see a priest healer–not the best at anything, but can adapt to many situations. I found on my druid that mostly tanking involved Mangle, Swipe, and Lacerate, over and over. The warrior has a few more buttons to press situationally, and I really like the the whole sword and board thing.
Krolin, my warrior, has been in his 20’s for some time now–a couple weeks ago I picked him back up. It’s currently Monday; the Friday before last he was level 30, this past Friday he was 40, and today he is 51. I’ve gotten a few comments from my friends about the speed at which I’m leveling–I’m no record-holder, to be sure, but I’m pretty famous for going… well, slowly, and with a lot of toons at once (see blog title). This is a bit of a change for me.
My goal is to get him to 70 by the time Wrath hits stores, but my wife and I are about to move, and I don’t know if that is entirely possible. If not, that’s OK, I just want to get him as close as possible. I won’t spend any endgame (that’s level 70 endgame) time with him; he will probably start replacing gear right out of the gate on the shores of Northrend.
In the meantime, my druid is specced Moonkin with some decent gear. I’m enjoying it, but DPS to me is not nearly as fun as tanking, although it is good to be able to sit back and just beat (cast?) the bejesus out of mobs from time to time. She may go resto in the future–we’ll see.
So, if you see a dwarf warrior running around (and his name happens to be Krolin–and you happen to be playing on Shadowsong), toss him a /wave!
I’ve really been enjoying my leveling experience in Wrath. I decided from the beginning that I wouldn’t rush once I got Celidur out of Outland and into Northrend.
