Well, this extending weekend and an unfortunate ending to my refer-a-friend keeping me from working on my warrior gave me the time I needed to work on my Shaman some. I was going to forgo working on my Shaman this weekend to finish up my refer-a-friend that was ending. It seems however that my refer-a-friend ended a bit sooner then I expected. Not only was it 3 months like I expected, but it was actually 90 days.
Refer-A-Friend story first. I started it June 5th, so 3 months (in my mind at least) would mean it was good until September 5th. I was wrong. It ended on September 2nd. Now even if I had remembered correctly and considered it to be 90 days and not 3 months it should have ended September 3rd. I don't know about you but feel free to bust out a calender and double check my numbers. The way I see it, September 3rd is 90 days after June 5th is. At least then I could have got all my granted levels from the Refer A Friend character. Now, I got nothing, lost it all. All because Blizzard can not do math.
A word to warning for anyone that wants to use Refer-A-Friend. Blizzard fails at math. 90 days really means 89 days. They count the day you start out as your first day, so you lose a day. Example for those that do not understand.
I signed up June 5th. On June 6th I have had the account 1 day correct? Nope, according to Blizzard that is 2 days. The second you sign up it is counted as 1 day. So 10 minutes after you sign up it is considered 1 day and 10 minutes. You catch the drift? Blizzard fucks you out of one day.
Some might say one day is no big deal and they would be right. But when it is that one day between getting your granted levels and losing everything you worked for then that one day means a lot. My Refer-A-Friend and I were going to run over the extended weekend being we both had the time. All fine and dandy we lost the time to level, but on Friday night I could have at least still gotten my granted levels. If only Blizzard knew how to count. Blizzard, in the infinite wisdom ended the Refer-A-Friend on Thursday, exactly 89 days after sign up. Thank you very much Blizzard for screwing me over. If anything, I can only blame myself. I should have checked sooner to see when it ended and I did think it was 3 months to begin with. Either way, I am still pissed at losing the levels on my Warlock, which is where I was going to put them.
Back to the happier story, my Shaman hitting 80. So with the Refer-A-Friend shot to crap I decided to work on my Shaman. I was only sitting at 30% rested and I always like to work on rested but it was the only character I was really interested in working on at the moment so I figured I would go for it. I was level 76. My Favorite level because once you hit level 76 it is all easy street from there on.
I love it because it is one large quest group followed by another. They are all close together, offer good experience, few kills (meaning rested goes longer) and nothing that would be considered hard even for a first time player. Anyone that tells you those last few levels are the hardest is either one of two things. 1) A first time player, because yes, not knowing the quest lines makes it harder to find them. 2) A complete and total moron.
So I went along questing, checking on my rested a bit here and there. 77 before I even finished the nessingwary quests. 78 I had the Argent Tournament stuff started and went as far as I could. 79 I finished up the Argent Vangard area to open up that flight path and the Ebon quest line to open up the Shadow Vault flight path. So here I was at 79 and a little and I went to do the Hodir quest line. Finished that one up and was only a hop, skip and a jump from 80 so I went to Frosthold and did that little quest line to open up the flight path near the Snowdrift plains (always forget the name there) and hit 80 during that quest line. All that, and I still was at 3% rested before I hit 80. Which means, with proper quest management you can get from 76-80 on fully rested with only 30% rested to start with.
So I was not 80 and it was time to run my first random heroic. Thing is I was not able to get into any with BoA gear on, quest greens and a few dungeon and quest blues. I had a BoE on my bank character I could use and another one in the guild back I could use. With those and two rings I bought from the auction house for 11 and 14 gold (cheaper then making them myself) I was able to query for a heroic. I ran two, did 1450 DPS in the first and 2100 DPS in the second. Not bad for a first day.
When I hit 80 I respeced from my leveling build to a raid build. Thing is, at this low of a gear level my mana is gone after nearly every fight so I better stock up on potions, drinks and make liberal use of Shamanistic Rage every chance I get in dungeons until I get better gear. Either way it was a nice little run. Complete leveling time, 4 days 16 hours. Not bad at all. Mind you, that was my first Refer-A-Friend character and I did level mining and blacksmith along the way with it too.
Mining is sitting at 445 now. Need those last 5. They will come in time. Hopefully before my Warrior (54) and Paladin (41) make it to 80. I guess it all depends on how much I play it. At least now I can gear up my DK without having to buy stuff off the market. Those 5 points I need will be 5 items I make for my DK. I love having multi purposes to doing things.
So my first Refer-A-Friend character hit 80 on the weekend my second Refer-A-Friend was supposed to hit 60 and I was going to use all those levels to get my Warlock to 60 as well. So not Warrior at 60, no Lock at 60 but my Shaman is at 80. For as much as it sucks on one hand I must say I am happy on the other.
Showing posts with label Refer-a-Friend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Refer-a-Friend. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
A huge leveling weekend for me.
When we last saw my stable of characters I had a Rogue at level 48, a Priest at level 40, a Shaman at level 38, a Mage at level 20 and a Warrior at level 6.
That was what they all where when I updated them two weeks ago. I did some serious leveling on my Mage last weekend getting my Mage up to level 52. So far I am still having fun with my Mage but I really hate those last few levels before entering BC content.
My Shaman is my Refer a Friend character, so when I do work with it I level at triple speed. I do not work on it as often as I would like to of course, but then again, I do not think what I want to do even I would do. I want things instantly. That triple experience has spoiled me. In a way that is why I was enjoying my Mage. Old school leveling the way it should be. You have more time to learn your character that way. I read a lot, that is my only saving grace for my Shaman really. Otherwise I would be lost. Enhancement Shamans are not exactly easy compared to most classes. If not for reading I would be lost.
As for this post, as an update, my Shaman has now reached the golden land of 60. Enough for BC with a little buffer to handle everything I run into. I need to step back some to get my mining up before I venture into BC. Do not want to go there and not be able to mine anything. With the refer a friend thing leveling becomes a joke. I was up to level 53 and my leveling partner was at level 52 when a friend came on and offered to give us a few dungeon runs. Of course we said yes.
So off to BRD we go and in one run through BRD I get to level 56 and my leveling partner gets to level 55. Yes, one run, only one run, you heard that right. Not only is BRD huge with lots of experience but at triple experience when you are being run through it is a leveling goldmine.
Off to BC content now. Yes, you can get into Ramparts at 55 no matter what all those guides online say. I know they say 57, but trust me, 55 gets you in. It is a short dungeon with lots of warn bodies which means short and quick and tons of experience. In a little over a hour we did 6 runs and we were both at 60. You might say, even at triple experience that is a little too quick don't you think? Maybe you remember the time wrong. Nope, I remember the time perfectly. I was 60 already and my leveling partner was 59 when we went to enter and could not get in. Too many instances in the last hour. Being you can do 5 per hour that means we had been playing less then an hour and had done 5. We only needed to wait like 5 minutes and we were in. That run made my refer a friend level 60 as well. That is when we stop getting triple bonus. So no use power leveling them together any more. I am sure we will still hook them up again at some point and do some level. Once I get my mining sorted out and he gets his herbalism sorted out. We both out paced them. Big time. I love refer a friend.
My little Rogue is still plugging along, mostly in Tanaris and Un'Goro trying to get leather to up my leather working before it gets too far behind. I figure I still get experience from the kills, so might as well get the leather I need and some experience at the same time instead of having to come back for it later. He has gone for 48 to 55 now. Rogues are stupid easy when killing things they have a few levels on. Sneak up from behind and ambush them and then 1 shot or 2 later, it is dead. Makes for quick leather gathering for sure. Hopefully I can get up to BC leather working by the time I get to BC level of 58. Needless to say, my skinning is doing just fine with all that skinning I am doing.
My little Level 6 Warrior met up with a larger level 6 Mage and they are now leveling as the second refer a friend grouping I am doing. My short Dwarf following a large Draenei is rather humorous. I did a ton of reading on warriors. I am going to be leveling Prot. I figure it will help us with dungeon query time and with triple experience Dungeons are a win/win to get through those annoying areas. Being we are getting triple experience even the best quest hubs end up being tons of useless quests super fast because we out leveled them. And the way questing areas are designed some times you have to go from one end of the world to the next while questing. It is not very itemized. With the dungeons we can pass complete quest zones in no time at all if we really wanted to.
Leveling with a complete aggro hog like a Mage will sure as hell teach me how to tank better I am sure. I am looking forward to that. I only have one level 80 tank, my bear. I do not count my DK, while I do have a tank spec and a set of tank gear for it I have never actually tanked with it. It is there more for "if" I need it and not "when" I need it. I am sure when I level a tank from 1 up I will have a more complete understanding of it so that way I can just jump into a dungeon with my DK and tank a hell of a lot better then if I do it now. While the characters are different the concept is the same. Once you get skilled at handling the concept doing it with other types is more about getting used to their skills instead of the ones you are used to. It will be a lot easier then learning how to tank and what the skills are at the same time.
My little warrior is already level 17, we did not play too long, but I can not wait until I get to 40 so I can charge in defensive stance. That will make my life a ton easier. Before I got thunderclap I could not hold aggro against a bunny rabbit with a Mage shooting at it. That helped some. Now, in defensive I am doing much better. Already going around and picking up a tons of mobs for the Mage to mow down. Leveling with this pair has the potential to be a sick combo. As long as I do not die and they go for the Mage.
Last but not least is my favorite class to play outside of my hunter. My Priest. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I started my priest as a PvP only character. Blizzard decided to make PvP leveling suck by taking away the daily PvP quest for the lower levels. Bastards. I leveled a little without it but it was harder to do that. Took longer and query time is not really all that fast. It is not like you are getting battle ground after battle ground and always moving so always earning. I started to do some dungeons with the priest, I figured that being a priest my query time would be better. Needless to say after waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes once for a dungeon before giving up and going to bed I figured I had no choice but to quest.
At level 60 I started questing again, the first time since I was a high enough level to get into a battle ground. Wow, that is a lot of levels without ever questing. At least once you hit BC leveling is stupid easy. The real question here is can it still be stupid easy for a PvP speced healer? I was almost sure I would be in need of buying an offspec just for leveling but I was willing to give it a try.
Up to level 65 now and with the exception of soloing a few 3 man quests I do not think my priest has even taken damage at all. Sure, I need to stop and drink often but my priest, a healer, is a killing machine in her PvP spec. A few quests I did, more on a lark, where me soloing an elite two levels higher then me. Each time when I came through, usually with less then 20% mana left over, I saw there in awe. A healer just soloed 3 man elites, with PvP spec, some PvP gear and built for healing.
So all in all it was a productive weekend for leveling. 107 levels in one weekends worth of time. (a little less because the Mage numbers are for 2 weekends) All that, and I still raided this weekend too.
That basically means, if I could have done this on one character I could have went from level 1 to level 80 in one weekend. Okay, it doesn't actually work like that, but that is still an impressive gain for levels this week.
Now I have a slight problem. Only 2 characters left not worked on. A Pally in the 20s and a level 1 lock. What am I to do now? Once I am done with them I can not make any more characters on this server. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.
I love leveling and love the prospect of having one of each class at max level. Not to mention the most important thing. One of every profession. This whole alt thing started because I wanted the other professions really. I just came to love making them. I didn't start that way.
That was what they all where when I updated them two weeks ago. I did some serious leveling on my Mage last weekend getting my Mage up to level 52. So far I am still having fun with my Mage but I really hate those last few levels before entering BC content.
My Shaman is my Refer a Friend character, so when I do work with it I level at triple speed. I do not work on it as often as I would like to of course, but then again, I do not think what I want to do even I would do. I want things instantly. That triple experience has spoiled me. In a way that is why I was enjoying my Mage. Old school leveling the way it should be. You have more time to learn your character that way. I read a lot, that is my only saving grace for my Shaman really. Otherwise I would be lost. Enhancement Shamans are not exactly easy compared to most classes. If not for reading I would be lost.
As for this post, as an update, my Shaman has now reached the golden land of 60. Enough for BC with a little buffer to handle everything I run into. I need to step back some to get my mining up before I venture into BC. Do not want to go there and not be able to mine anything. With the refer a friend thing leveling becomes a joke. I was up to level 53 and my leveling partner was at level 52 when a friend came on and offered to give us a few dungeon runs. Of course we said yes.
So off to BRD we go and in one run through BRD I get to level 56 and my leveling partner gets to level 55. Yes, one run, only one run, you heard that right. Not only is BRD huge with lots of experience but at triple experience when you are being run through it is a leveling goldmine.
Off to BC content now. Yes, you can get into Ramparts at 55 no matter what all those guides online say. I know they say 57, but trust me, 55 gets you in. It is a short dungeon with lots of warn bodies which means short and quick and tons of experience. In a little over a hour we did 6 runs and we were both at 60. You might say, even at triple experience that is a little too quick don't you think? Maybe you remember the time wrong. Nope, I remember the time perfectly. I was 60 already and my leveling partner was 59 when we went to enter and could not get in. Too many instances in the last hour. Being you can do 5 per hour that means we had been playing less then an hour and had done 5. We only needed to wait like 5 minutes and we were in. That run made my refer a friend level 60 as well. That is when we stop getting triple bonus. So no use power leveling them together any more. I am sure we will still hook them up again at some point and do some level. Once I get my mining sorted out and he gets his herbalism sorted out. We both out paced them. Big time. I love refer a friend.
My little Rogue is still plugging along, mostly in Tanaris and Un'Goro trying to get leather to up my leather working before it gets too far behind. I figure I still get experience from the kills, so might as well get the leather I need and some experience at the same time instead of having to come back for it later. He has gone for 48 to 55 now. Rogues are stupid easy when killing things they have a few levels on. Sneak up from behind and ambush them and then 1 shot or 2 later, it is dead. Makes for quick leather gathering for sure. Hopefully I can get up to BC leather working by the time I get to BC level of 58. Needless to say, my skinning is doing just fine with all that skinning I am doing.
My little Level 6 Warrior met up with a larger level 6 Mage and they are now leveling as the second refer a friend grouping I am doing. My short Dwarf following a large Draenei is rather humorous. I did a ton of reading on warriors. I am going to be leveling Prot. I figure it will help us with dungeon query time and with triple experience Dungeons are a win/win to get through those annoying areas. Being we are getting triple experience even the best quest hubs end up being tons of useless quests super fast because we out leveled them. And the way questing areas are designed some times you have to go from one end of the world to the next while questing. It is not very itemized. With the dungeons we can pass complete quest zones in no time at all if we really wanted to.
Leveling with a complete aggro hog like a Mage will sure as hell teach me how to tank better I am sure. I am looking forward to that. I only have one level 80 tank, my bear. I do not count my DK, while I do have a tank spec and a set of tank gear for it I have never actually tanked with it. It is there more for "if" I need it and not "when" I need it. I am sure when I level a tank from 1 up I will have a more complete understanding of it so that way I can just jump into a dungeon with my DK and tank a hell of a lot better then if I do it now. While the characters are different the concept is the same. Once you get skilled at handling the concept doing it with other types is more about getting used to their skills instead of the ones you are used to. It will be a lot easier then learning how to tank and what the skills are at the same time.
My little warrior is already level 17, we did not play too long, but I can not wait until I get to 40 so I can charge in defensive stance. That will make my life a ton easier. Before I got thunderclap I could not hold aggro against a bunny rabbit with a Mage shooting at it. That helped some. Now, in defensive I am doing much better. Already going around and picking up a tons of mobs for the Mage to mow down. Leveling with this pair has the potential to be a sick combo. As long as I do not die and they go for the Mage.
Last but not least is my favorite class to play outside of my hunter. My Priest. A long time ago in a galaxy far far away I started my priest as a PvP only character. Blizzard decided to make PvP leveling suck by taking away the daily PvP quest for the lower levels. Bastards. I leveled a little without it but it was harder to do that. Took longer and query time is not really all that fast. It is not like you are getting battle ground after battle ground and always moving so always earning. I started to do some dungeons with the priest, I figured that being a priest my query time would be better. Needless to say after waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes once for a dungeon before giving up and going to bed I figured I had no choice but to quest.
At level 60 I started questing again, the first time since I was a high enough level to get into a battle ground. Wow, that is a lot of levels without ever questing. At least once you hit BC leveling is stupid easy. The real question here is can it still be stupid easy for a PvP speced healer? I was almost sure I would be in need of buying an offspec just for leveling but I was willing to give it a try.
Up to level 65 now and with the exception of soloing a few 3 man quests I do not think my priest has even taken damage at all. Sure, I need to stop and drink often but my priest, a healer, is a killing machine in her PvP spec. A few quests I did, more on a lark, where me soloing an elite two levels higher then me. Each time when I came through, usually with less then 20% mana left over, I saw there in awe. A healer just soloed 3 man elites, with PvP spec, some PvP gear and built for healing.
So all in all it was a productive weekend for leveling. 107 levels in one weekends worth of time. (a little less because the Mage numbers are for 2 weekends) All that, and I still raided this weekend too.
That basically means, if I could have done this on one character I could have went from level 1 to level 80 in one weekend. Okay, it doesn't actually work like that, but that is still an impressive gain for levels this week.
Now I have a slight problem. Only 2 characters left not worked on. A Pally in the 20s and a level 1 lock. What am I to do now? Once I am done with them I can not make any more characters on this server. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.
I love leveling and love the prospect of having one of each class at max level. Not to mention the most important thing. One of every profession. This whole alt thing started because I wanted the other professions really. I just came to love making them. I didn't start that way.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Starting out new.
I did not get a great deal done leveling my refer-a-friend stuff this weekend but got up to 34 with my team mate at 32. Next weekend getting to 40 should be a breeze. I did not have a great deal planned for this weekend so I took the time to make place holders for my next two characters on that server, a mage and a warlock. That gives me 10 characters on that server which also has me standing neatly at 1 of each class.
I think I need to get another account. Maybe I can refer a friend to myself. I guess that is possible. What would I do with a second rocket mount however? I could easily power level myself running myself through dungeons and then using the grantable levels from that char to get my others up. Oh hell, now I am getting away from my train of thought here. That defeats my purpose. While I want more characters so I have all professions I also want to level them and learn while leveling them. Having a level 80 you burned through the game to get yo level 80 does not give you the time needed to really learn that character. It can be done, but it is a different type of learning. I like to learn while doing, not learn after it is done.
I am a hunter, will always be a hunter. The reason I think like that mostly is because I know how to play a hunter. Not trying to toot my own horn but being realistic here. I leveled a hunter from 1 to 80. I made about every mistake you can make along the way and I survived. It made me better, it made me realize how to play my class better. I know a hunter inside and out because of that leveling experience. That is why I think it will always be my main. While I love the pet and the ranged style, I know it best, and that is what will make it my main end game character.
Because of the refer-a-friend I am starting on a new server with my friend. Being it is a role play server I am making role play characters of course. Three to start out with. Made my main there a paladin because that is the character I have role played forever it seems. Made a warrior, which is the brother of the paladin and made a deathknight that is the sister of the paladin. I set them all up to be ready to go and walked them to an inn so they can build some rested time while I am waiting to go over there so we can level them together.
After setting them up it occurred to me that I do not really like playing a pally or a warrior, they where just made because they fit the role play. The deathknight was not supposed to be a sister but the name of the character I was trying to make was taken, so I rolled with it and made it something different. The DK is really just there to help make me some cash. Made it mining and jewelcrafting. That is always a nice and simple way to make money. Starting on a new server I do not have massive amounts of gold just sitting around to help myself out with starting a new character.
So here I was, all set up with the role play characters when I realize that if I ever get to 80 on that server I would not be playing at end game level because I really do not like playing those classes. I love playing a hunter. The hunter I made as my first character was one of the role play characters names I had, so it would fit there as well. So a new hunter was born. I could play that one with the idea of end game in mind and I could role play with it. Best of both worlds.
I made a hunter and set it up and decided that I would not use that one for refer-a-friend. I would level it naturally, on it's own, as if I just started and never played this game before. I already have no gold there and being I would be doing this on my own, no triple experience. It was starting new. I was interested with the idea to start off but once I started playing, it went from interested to full blown love.
I love leveling again with nothing to help myself along the way. Sure, it is a lot harder, or longer at least, but it feels as if everything is brand new. I hate the lack of bag space, it is killer, but in a way it fits for the level. I have to go back often, so I just sell more often. I will need to get some bags however. Picking and choosing what to carry is a game in and of itself. Wow, I did not remember what that was like. Whenever I start a new character I deck it out with all the bags before hand and never have to worry about space. I am liking this.
I ran out of arrows once. It was not because I am forgetful either. I have been a hunter long enough to know to carry enough for the task I am doing and then times that by 6. So 6 times more then I need for anything. I ran out because I could not afford to buy any more. I had to run around and melee kill some nightstalkers hoping they dropped that one thing that is 33 bronze so I could get some cash to buy some arrows. I got lucky, got a few of them and went back to buy arrows and turn in some quests.
Woohoo, had a stack of 1000 now, that would last me a small bit plus I had some extra silver to get some professions. Level 6 now and got a quest to send me to darn. I figured I wanted to go there anyway to grab my professions and put some junk in my bank, like food and cloth I knew I would need later to level cooking and first aid.
On my way there I grabbed skinning and leatherworking from those people in the middle of nowhere on the path to darn. Only had a few copper left now. Get to darn and turn in my quest. Consider picking up cooking or first aid for a bit but decide I am better off keeping the little I have now. I know I can get fishing for free soon from Gubber Blump so I am not worried about that.
At that moment I see someone say they are paying 5G for guild sigs. I whisper them saying I am in darn and they say they are too. Deal. 5 gold for me just for joining someones guild and I did not even need to take a break in my stride to do it. Then I see another, and another. One offer was in darn so I took it. Here I am, 10 gold richer for all of 2 whispers worth of my time while I was running around there anyway.
10 gold is more then enough for all I would need to start a new character. A hell of a lot more then what I had my first time I started playing. I did not know any better then. Now I know what bank alts are and I know people will pay you to join and you do not have to stay. I took advantage of that.
I picked up my first aid and cooking now that I had to cash and headed back to do some more questing. Having played a hunter before and having a better understanding of how things work I did things differently now then I had at first. No pet means melee hunter time. However, I am a learned hunter now, not a noob one. I know how to kite and wow does it make leveling easier. When I first got concussive shot when I started I asked, what is this BS, it is useless. Now, as soon as I got it I said, woohoo, killing just got a whole lot easier.
I swear leveling a hunter the second time around and actually having to work on it is awesome. I did get myself an 8 slot bag for 20 silver. Just because I got 10 gold does not mean I am going to waste it. The little extra bag space does help. I can stay out longer while killing.
How times change? When I first leveled it was serpent sting and auto shot until it got to me and then I would turn into melee hunter. Now, I open with concussive, sting it, arcane shot it, oh, that is after marking it. Needless to say, even with no greens, no heirlooms, no enchants, nothing but junk from quests and mobs, more then half the time the creature was dead before it got to me. The few times it was not I dropped a raptor strike on it and did a back jump with a concussive again if it was needed.
The first time around I would get slaughtered by packs too. I guess after all my soloing I was able to perfectly pull only one mob at a time. Leveling with knowledge is so much easier. Even without the gold and items and help from, well, myself.
Going on the quest to get my pet was like learning to love the game all over again. I had become disheartened in the game recently and doing that quest line reminded me of why I loved playing. It reminded me why I got addicted to the game to begin with. It felt like a real accomplishment. It also gave me something to run beside me while I quest. A sense of being complete. I always feel weird on my other characters. No little buddy to follow me around where ever I go. No friend there to help me out no matter what happened. I was once again having fun with the game.
I got myself a nightstaker named Fang just like I did originally. I leveled to 80 with Fang and Fang only. Never got a grinding pet or anything else while leveling. My cat did good by me. I plan to do the same this time. But I might grab a turtle when I get to southshore later.
My night ended as a new hunter with me fishing on the docks for Mr. Blump's quest. I dropped a fire while I fished and cooked up the food so I could get some experience in both. Occasionally I would throw Fang some fish, after it had been cooked of course, and I felt complete again in the game.
That is what made me fall in love with WoW, that is what made me fall in love with being a hunter. It was awesome to feel that way about the game again. A total rebirth. I suggest others try starting over again with nothing on a new server with the class they like to play the most. It is very fun.
BTW: I kept fishing up trunks, which gave me lots of bolts of cloth and other such goodies to sell at auction. I won't be trying to get rich on this server, but I surely will not be hurting for money. Starting new is not as hard as I thought it would be. Having Fang with me makes it a lot easier. Back to questing with the first friend I ever made in WoW. My nightstalker.
I think I need to get another account. Maybe I can refer a friend to myself. I guess that is possible. What would I do with a second rocket mount however? I could easily power level myself running myself through dungeons and then using the grantable levels from that char to get my others up. Oh hell, now I am getting away from my train of thought here. That defeats my purpose. While I want more characters so I have all professions I also want to level them and learn while leveling them. Having a level 80 you burned through the game to get yo level 80 does not give you the time needed to really learn that character. It can be done, but it is a different type of learning. I like to learn while doing, not learn after it is done.
I am a hunter, will always be a hunter. The reason I think like that mostly is because I know how to play a hunter. Not trying to toot my own horn but being realistic here. I leveled a hunter from 1 to 80. I made about every mistake you can make along the way and I survived. It made me better, it made me realize how to play my class better. I know a hunter inside and out because of that leveling experience. That is why I think it will always be my main. While I love the pet and the ranged style, I know it best, and that is what will make it my main end game character.
Because of the refer-a-friend I am starting on a new server with my friend. Being it is a role play server I am making role play characters of course. Three to start out with. Made my main there a paladin because that is the character I have role played forever it seems. Made a warrior, which is the brother of the paladin and made a deathknight that is the sister of the paladin. I set them all up to be ready to go and walked them to an inn so they can build some rested time while I am waiting to go over there so we can level them together.
After setting them up it occurred to me that I do not really like playing a pally or a warrior, they where just made because they fit the role play. The deathknight was not supposed to be a sister but the name of the character I was trying to make was taken, so I rolled with it and made it something different. The DK is really just there to help make me some cash. Made it mining and jewelcrafting. That is always a nice and simple way to make money. Starting on a new server I do not have massive amounts of gold just sitting around to help myself out with starting a new character.
So here I was, all set up with the role play characters when I realize that if I ever get to 80 on that server I would not be playing at end game level because I really do not like playing those classes. I love playing a hunter. The hunter I made as my first character was one of the role play characters names I had, so it would fit there as well. So a new hunter was born. I could play that one with the idea of end game in mind and I could role play with it. Best of both worlds.
I made a hunter and set it up and decided that I would not use that one for refer-a-friend. I would level it naturally, on it's own, as if I just started and never played this game before. I already have no gold there and being I would be doing this on my own, no triple experience. It was starting new. I was interested with the idea to start off but once I started playing, it went from interested to full blown love.
I love leveling again with nothing to help myself along the way. Sure, it is a lot harder, or longer at least, but it feels as if everything is brand new. I hate the lack of bag space, it is killer, but in a way it fits for the level. I have to go back often, so I just sell more often. I will need to get some bags however. Picking and choosing what to carry is a game in and of itself. Wow, I did not remember what that was like. Whenever I start a new character I deck it out with all the bags before hand and never have to worry about space. I am liking this.
I ran out of arrows once. It was not because I am forgetful either. I have been a hunter long enough to know to carry enough for the task I am doing and then times that by 6. So 6 times more then I need for anything. I ran out because I could not afford to buy any more. I had to run around and melee kill some nightstalkers hoping they dropped that one thing that is 33 bronze so I could get some cash to buy some arrows. I got lucky, got a few of them and went back to buy arrows and turn in some quests.
Woohoo, had a stack of 1000 now, that would last me a small bit plus I had some extra silver to get some professions. Level 6 now and got a quest to send me to darn. I figured I wanted to go there anyway to grab my professions and put some junk in my bank, like food and cloth I knew I would need later to level cooking and first aid.
On my way there I grabbed skinning and leatherworking from those people in the middle of nowhere on the path to darn. Only had a few copper left now. Get to darn and turn in my quest. Consider picking up cooking or first aid for a bit but decide I am better off keeping the little I have now. I know I can get fishing for free soon from Gubber Blump so I am not worried about that.
At that moment I see someone say they are paying 5G for guild sigs. I whisper them saying I am in darn and they say they are too. Deal. 5 gold for me just for joining someones guild and I did not even need to take a break in my stride to do it. Then I see another, and another. One offer was in darn so I took it. Here I am, 10 gold richer for all of 2 whispers worth of my time while I was running around there anyway.
10 gold is more then enough for all I would need to start a new character. A hell of a lot more then what I had my first time I started playing. I did not know any better then. Now I know what bank alts are and I know people will pay you to join and you do not have to stay. I took advantage of that.
I picked up my first aid and cooking now that I had to cash and headed back to do some more questing. Having played a hunter before and having a better understanding of how things work I did things differently now then I had at first. No pet means melee hunter time. However, I am a learned hunter now, not a noob one. I know how to kite and wow does it make leveling easier. When I first got concussive shot when I started I asked, what is this BS, it is useless. Now, as soon as I got it I said, woohoo, killing just got a whole lot easier.
I swear leveling a hunter the second time around and actually having to work on it is awesome. I did get myself an 8 slot bag for 20 silver. Just because I got 10 gold does not mean I am going to waste it. The little extra bag space does help. I can stay out longer while killing.
How times change? When I first leveled it was serpent sting and auto shot until it got to me and then I would turn into melee hunter. Now, I open with concussive, sting it, arcane shot it, oh, that is after marking it. Needless to say, even with no greens, no heirlooms, no enchants, nothing but junk from quests and mobs, more then half the time the creature was dead before it got to me. The few times it was not I dropped a raptor strike on it and did a back jump with a concussive again if it was needed.
The first time around I would get slaughtered by packs too. I guess after all my soloing I was able to perfectly pull only one mob at a time. Leveling with knowledge is so much easier. Even without the gold and items and help from, well, myself.
Going on the quest to get my pet was like learning to love the game all over again. I had become disheartened in the game recently and doing that quest line reminded me of why I loved playing. It reminded me why I got addicted to the game to begin with. It felt like a real accomplishment. It also gave me something to run beside me while I quest. A sense of being complete. I always feel weird on my other characters. No little buddy to follow me around where ever I go. No friend there to help me out no matter what happened. I was once again having fun with the game.
I got myself a nightstaker named Fang just like I did originally. I leveled to 80 with Fang and Fang only. Never got a grinding pet or anything else while leveling. My cat did good by me. I plan to do the same this time. But I might grab a turtle when I get to southshore later.
My night ended as a new hunter with me fishing on the docks for Mr. Blump's quest. I dropped a fire while I fished and cooked up the food so I could get some experience in both. Occasionally I would throw Fang some fish, after it had been cooked of course, and I felt complete again in the game.
That is what made me fall in love with WoW, that is what made me fall in love with being a hunter. It was awesome to feel that way about the game again. A total rebirth. I suggest others try starting over again with nothing on a new server with the class they like to play the most. It is very fun.
BTW: I kept fishing up trunks, which gave me lots of bolts of cloth and other such goodies to sell at auction. I won't be trying to get rich on this server, but I surely will not be hurting for money. Starting new is not as hard as I thought it would be. Having Fang with me makes it a lot easier. Back to questing with the first friend I ever made in WoW. My nightstalker.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Refer-A-Friend
So this weekend I started out my refer a friend program with a friend of mine. I paid for the games and time, he supplied us with bag and he said he will help me out leveling my blacksmithing. I am hoping to get a blacksmith and an engineer done during the course of this. Those are the two professions I need to work on most as those are the two I really do not want to have to deal with slowly.
For this first set up I rolled a Shaman with Mining and Blacksmith and he rolled a Warlock with Herbalism and Skinning. We are both horders of sorts so with his help I should have no problem leveling the blacksmith. So far we are rolling along. The triple experience is insane. We did not play what would be considered a hell of a lot. Spent lots of time learning the new characters (he had some experience in his type) and leveling up skills. From a purely time spent questing stand point we have not played much. I am already level 23 and he is 21. I have heirloom gear on so that might be the little difference there.
Good thing about the triple experience is that if he ever falls 3 levels behind he will still get triple while I will not. This means that we will always been within 3 because if he ever falls behind he will catch up almost instantly. The summon to each other thing has been great so far as well. I am liking everything about this so far and it sure as hell seems like it was worth the investment. Sadly it is only for 90 days but I would actually be willing to pay $20 per month instead of $15 per month to keep the accounts linked. In my opinion it would be worth it.
Of course I am saying that from this standpoint where I still need a lot of characters and classes and professions. Once I get everything I doubt I would really care about leveling so quickly. Heirlooms would be more then enough should I choose to level another character.
What I hope for is this. Level my Shaman to 60 with his Warlock. Have him use the Warlock to grant my Priest 28 levels. So I can go from 30 to 58 and be outlands ready. Level once you hit 58 is a joke anyway, even without heirlooms, so that would be enough for that one. The other 2 levels he can put on my Rogue. That would get him from 48 to 50.
Next one we do when we hit 60 I would ask him to level my Paladin (if I do not make one) from 23 to 45 and my Rogue from 50-58. Reason being there is now my Priest and Rogue are outlands ready and my Paladin is past that level 40 barrier that now I can AoE grind to level and fly through the levels.
The Priest is my 2nd Enchanter / Tailor and my Rogue is a Leatherworker / Skinner. Being at 58 you can learn max profession that is another reason I want to stop there. High enough for outlands and max professions. I am sure I can make out those in no time. The Enchanting for sure. I have a maxed Enchanter already and have LOADS of stock. No joke, nearly 2 bank tabs worth of enchanting material. Leveling will not be an issue. And being I have a maxed Scribe as well, I will throw everything I make on vellums, which are cheap enough to make, and try to sell them. Better then just enchanting your own gear over and over again like I was stupid enough to do the first time around.
This leaves me with 4 open spots to work on. My Paladin is leatherworking and Skinning as well. I decided that I do not want that, so going to drop them both. So that opens 2 spaces. Then there is the other new character I will make. Mage, Warlock and Warrior are all I have left to make on that server. I do have a warrior at level 6 but that was just something I did out of boredom one day. I do not think I set him up with bags and such yet. If I have, then I will not start him over.
I guess what I make next will depend on a few things. If the warrior was set up then I will not make one of those. So that means either a mage or a warlock. If he chooses a mana user I will go mage, as that will help us both a lot. If not, a warlock. I guess if I had to choose I would want to make a mage or a warrior. Warrior leveling will help me learn some early tanking which I need to learn if I ever want to do some serious tanking later. Mage would be nice to have for PvP and ports, not to mention, awesome ranged DPS which is my favorite thing to do. Also, from what all my mage friends say, the stupid easy 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 BS rotation to top DPS meters is nice to do once in a while when you really do not feel like thinking much while playing. Being Warlock is changing in Cataclysm I might want to wait for that. I have enough to worry about with the hunter changes. I do not want to completely relearn 2 classes, even if the warlock changes are no where near game changing like the Hunters are going to be.
So Mage or Warrior it is. If I had started to deck out my warrior, then Mage is the way I will go. If I go Mage I will either do Herbalism and Alchemy or Herbalism and Inscription. If it a warrior it will be either Mining and Jewelcrafting or Mining and Blacksmith. I already have one of both those combos, but that would be best for a warrior. Also, at that point I will be thinking more about what works for the character better as I will have one of everything.
For the one (maybe 2 depending on how much time we have left over) character I put on the RP server with him I am going to be a Paladin. That goes without even a thought. If I am going to role play it will be a paladin, the same character I have role played for the past 13 years. Might as well keep with it. I would go mining and skinning there. Reason being is I will need to make some money as I do not have any characters on that server already to play sugar daddy for me I will need some skills that can make money for me. Mining is the best money maker, hands down, it is like stealing money with that profession and I can't do tracking for the two professions (herb & mine) at the same time so the other has to be skinning.
When I get to 80 and make some cash I would like to make the character a Jewelcrafter and a Scribe. That will come later I am sure as that would be my secondary server, not my main.
It is going to be nice when it is all said and done. Have all professions (except for engineering which I will likely throw on the reformed Pally) and have all but one class within end game range. Then it will be the effort of getting them all to 80. Which, with rotating rest and heirloom gear, should not take a very long time at all.
Wow, how times change. When I used to read on the forums about people having all classes at 80 I wondered how the hell could they do that. I have barely enough time to play my hunter and do everything I want to. Now that I am end game on my hunter, have most of the reasonably obtainable achievements and only sit around waiting to raid with it, I look at it differently. The other characters are all for fun, and professions of course. Soon I will have one of each at level 80 on the same server. That is sick. I think of it as a way to make me a better hunter however. The more I know how other classes work, the more I know how I can interact with them to the best of my ability.
Next task after that... saving up for epic flying for 6 more characters. Only my hunter and Druid have it. Not even my 80 DK has it. That and I am going to need another bank character for sure. My DK is one, might make the Rogue the other bank character. I do not see myself ever really playing the Rogue anyway.
I am in love with Refer-A-Friend. I suggest every good geek takes part in it one time or another. It is worth it.
For this first set up I rolled a Shaman with Mining and Blacksmith and he rolled a Warlock with Herbalism and Skinning. We are both horders of sorts so with his help I should have no problem leveling the blacksmith. So far we are rolling along. The triple experience is insane. We did not play what would be considered a hell of a lot. Spent lots of time learning the new characters (he had some experience in his type) and leveling up skills. From a purely time spent questing stand point we have not played much. I am already level 23 and he is 21. I have heirloom gear on so that might be the little difference there.
Good thing about the triple experience is that if he ever falls 3 levels behind he will still get triple while I will not. This means that we will always been within 3 because if he ever falls behind he will catch up almost instantly. The summon to each other thing has been great so far as well. I am liking everything about this so far and it sure as hell seems like it was worth the investment. Sadly it is only for 90 days but I would actually be willing to pay $20 per month instead of $15 per month to keep the accounts linked. In my opinion it would be worth it.
Of course I am saying that from this standpoint where I still need a lot of characters and classes and professions. Once I get everything I doubt I would really care about leveling so quickly. Heirlooms would be more then enough should I choose to level another character.
What I hope for is this. Level my Shaman to 60 with his Warlock. Have him use the Warlock to grant my Priest 28 levels. So I can go from 30 to 58 and be outlands ready. Level once you hit 58 is a joke anyway, even without heirlooms, so that would be enough for that one. The other 2 levels he can put on my Rogue. That would get him from 48 to 50.
Next one we do when we hit 60 I would ask him to level my Paladin (if I do not make one) from 23 to 45 and my Rogue from 50-58. Reason being there is now my Priest and Rogue are outlands ready and my Paladin is past that level 40 barrier that now I can AoE grind to level and fly through the levels.
The Priest is my 2nd Enchanter / Tailor and my Rogue is a Leatherworker / Skinner. Being at 58 you can learn max profession that is another reason I want to stop there. High enough for outlands and max professions. I am sure I can make out those in no time. The Enchanting for sure. I have a maxed Enchanter already and have LOADS of stock. No joke, nearly 2 bank tabs worth of enchanting material. Leveling will not be an issue. And being I have a maxed Scribe as well, I will throw everything I make on vellums, which are cheap enough to make, and try to sell them. Better then just enchanting your own gear over and over again like I was stupid enough to do the first time around.
This leaves me with 4 open spots to work on. My Paladin is leatherworking and Skinning as well. I decided that I do not want that, so going to drop them both. So that opens 2 spaces. Then there is the other new character I will make. Mage, Warlock and Warrior are all I have left to make on that server. I do have a warrior at level 6 but that was just something I did out of boredom one day. I do not think I set him up with bags and such yet. If I have, then I will not start him over.
I guess what I make next will depend on a few things. If the warrior was set up then I will not make one of those. So that means either a mage or a warlock. If he chooses a mana user I will go mage, as that will help us both a lot. If not, a warlock. I guess if I had to choose I would want to make a mage or a warrior. Warrior leveling will help me learn some early tanking which I need to learn if I ever want to do some serious tanking later. Mage would be nice to have for PvP and ports, not to mention, awesome ranged DPS which is my favorite thing to do. Also, from what all my mage friends say, the stupid easy 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 BS rotation to top DPS meters is nice to do once in a while when you really do not feel like thinking much while playing. Being Warlock is changing in Cataclysm I might want to wait for that. I have enough to worry about with the hunter changes. I do not want to completely relearn 2 classes, even if the warlock changes are no where near game changing like the Hunters are going to be.
So Mage or Warrior it is. If I had started to deck out my warrior, then Mage is the way I will go. If I go Mage I will either do Herbalism and Alchemy or Herbalism and Inscription. If it a warrior it will be either Mining and Jewelcrafting or Mining and Blacksmith. I already have one of both those combos, but that would be best for a warrior. Also, at that point I will be thinking more about what works for the character better as I will have one of everything.
For the one (maybe 2 depending on how much time we have left over) character I put on the RP server with him I am going to be a Paladin. That goes without even a thought. If I am going to role play it will be a paladin, the same character I have role played for the past 13 years. Might as well keep with it. I would go mining and skinning there. Reason being is I will need to make some money as I do not have any characters on that server already to play sugar daddy for me I will need some skills that can make money for me. Mining is the best money maker, hands down, it is like stealing money with that profession and I can't do tracking for the two professions (herb & mine) at the same time so the other has to be skinning.
When I get to 80 and make some cash I would like to make the character a Jewelcrafter and a Scribe. That will come later I am sure as that would be my secondary server, not my main.
It is going to be nice when it is all said and done. Have all professions (except for engineering which I will likely throw on the reformed Pally) and have all but one class within end game range. Then it will be the effort of getting them all to 80. Which, with rotating rest and heirloom gear, should not take a very long time at all.
Wow, how times change. When I used to read on the forums about people having all classes at 80 I wondered how the hell could they do that. I have barely enough time to play my hunter and do everything I want to. Now that I am end game on my hunter, have most of the reasonably obtainable achievements and only sit around waiting to raid with it, I look at it differently. The other characters are all for fun, and professions of course. Soon I will have one of each at level 80 on the same server. That is sick. I think of it as a way to make me a better hunter however. The more I know how other classes work, the more I know how I can interact with them to the best of my ability.
Next task after that... saving up for epic flying for 6 more characters. Only my hunter and Druid have it. Not even my 80 DK has it. That and I am going to need another bank character for sure. My DK is one, might make the Rogue the other bank character. I do not see myself ever really playing the Rogue anyway.
I am in love with Refer-A-Friend. I suggest every good geek takes part in it one time or another. It is worth it.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Gear, Refer a Friend and Off Topic
I finally got my first piece of Sanctified Gear last night. Once again it was as a hand me down of course, I still can not win a roll for the life of me. It was in a VoA 25 run and there was only one other hunter there. Right off the bat my odds where better. The 264 gloves dropped and I rolled a huge 32. For me that is a big roll. I then get a whisper from the other hunter. Usually this is where I always get the "I really need it can you let me just have it" message. I get that all the time, even from people with better gear then me. He just said Congrats and he did not even roll. I asked him why he did not roll. He said, I have it already. So once again I get my upgrade only because someone else did not need it.
Kind of interesting that the hunter that did not even need the piece of gear I had did about half the DPS that I did. Makes me really wonder how he ended up getting better gear then me when he is not even competent at what he does.
A friend of mine is going to join me in a Refer-a-Friend so I can get the cool rocket mount. I really wanted that. Also wanted to be able to level a couple more characters for profession purposes and the triple leveling speed with the ability to summon each other will really make leveling a snap. Not to mention, once you hit 60 they might as well just award you 80 because 60 to 80 is a joke anyway. It takes longer to get from 48-58 so you can move along to outlands then it takes to get from 60 to 80. We are going to roll characters on my main server and also roll ones on a RP server. I am looking forward to the RP server one. It is something I have not dabbled into in a long time.
Now for a moment of Off Topic:
I am from New York so I am of course excited that the Super Bowl will be at Giants stadium. I already told my boss I will not be here the monday after that Super Bowl. I am going, there is no way to stop that from happening. I do not care if the ticket costs me 10,000. I am so there.
All the morning papers say things like New York wins Super Bowl or Greatest City gets Greatest Game. That is nice and all, but I should send these people a map and ask them to circle where Giants Stadium is. If these dimwits can find it they will realize that Giants Stadium is in New Jersey. So with that said, New York did not get the Super Bowl, New Jersey did. I really wish the newspapers would have added one word to all their articles to make it more accurate. New York Area wins Super Bowl. Now that is correct.
Kind of interesting that the hunter that did not even need the piece of gear I had did about half the DPS that I did. Makes me really wonder how he ended up getting better gear then me when he is not even competent at what he does.
A friend of mine is going to join me in a Refer-a-Friend so I can get the cool rocket mount. I really wanted that. Also wanted to be able to level a couple more characters for profession purposes and the triple leveling speed with the ability to summon each other will really make leveling a snap. Not to mention, once you hit 60 they might as well just award you 80 because 60 to 80 is a joke anyway. It takes longer to get from 48-58 so you can move along to outlands then it takes to get from 60 to 80. We are going to roll characters on my main server and also roll ones on a RP server. I am looking forward to the RP server one. It is something I have not dabbled into in a long time.
Now for a moment of Off Topic:
I am from New York so I am of course excited that the Super Bowl will be at Giants stadium. I already told my boss I will not be here the monday after that Super Bowl. I am going, there is no way to stop that from happening. I do not care if the ticket costs me 10,000. I am so there.
All the morning papers say things like New York wins Super Bowl or Greatest City gets Greatest Game. That is nice and all, but I should send these people a map and ask them to circle where Giants Stadium is. If these dimwits can find it they will realize that Giants Stadium is in New Jersey. So with that said, New York did not get the Super Bowl, New Jersey did. I really wish the newspapers would have added one word to all their articles to make it more accurate. New York Area wins Super Bowl. Now that is correct.
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