World of Warcraft

[Totenkindly]

Well, that ended up being easy.

I used the Alt-F4 quick logout to do "A Frozen Milkshake" -- put your characters next to each other in old Dalaran, turn the first into a snowman, Alt+F4 out, immediately login with the other, turn into a snowman (because the system hasn't kicked your old character off the server yet), then dance with yourself. Achievement granted.

For the final "Little Helper" quest (50 honorable kills while buffed to appear like a gnome in a santa suit), I needed 32 more. Tried Wintergrasp. Lucked out and ended up on defense. All of us went to one of the workshops immediately as a blob, and there was a huge battle and literally within about 30-60 seconds, the achievement dinged and then the full winter veil achievement dinged. It was kind of funny because (1) the achievement is old, so most people probably already have it and (2) I was disguised as Gamon.

I also played the whole thing out (it was actually kinda fun) and got Conquest points and 1000 Honor when we won! So I dinged Honor Level 46 too.

Now I can do other things.

 

[Totenkindly]

Longest Dungeon Run Ever? Group Takes 14 Hours to Clear +17 Spires of Ascension - Wowhead News

 

[Totenkindly]

I ran the first of my five WOTLK dungeons for time walking and holy guacamole it seems overturned. We were in Halls of Lightning and we actually and to CC those packs of dwarves on the second level because they were hitting geared players like a freight train. It took me more effort to heal that than it was healing Mythic dungeons.

Good god man. I just did my first one -- it dumped me into Pit of Saron, which I'm not fond of. We tackled the forgemaster first.... people seemed to know the dungeon because we took the quick path to get there... but I ended up being group leader when the tank died three times and then simply bailed, and then everyone else in my group quit too. I got a whole new group (and I was group leader, uggh), and then we took him out after 2 more wipes. Middle boss was easier. Had a spot of trouble on the rising ramp with the Ice Ring (I knew we would), and then took out Tyrannus or whoever without an issue.

I *think* it's that in past expansions people were fully geared and developed sloppy play styles and/or didn't take the time to learn all the mechanics (generally they knew them, but had never been pushed before where people had to really play tight).

Anyway it was a hellish experience. I hope the others don't go so badly.

In good news, my iLvl is 160 now and I feel stronger. I am also going to make a legendary, although just a rank 1, and I'll have to swap it out for one I really want once I get the Memory drop I need. My happiest moment in Pit of Saron was running DPS against two mages, and we were either clumped tight or I was breaking out with lead DPS at i160. The main issue was the damn tanks kept dying and then the boss would aggro onto me, and I just can't eat that much damage although I tried my best popping CDs and kiting.


EDIT: Did the last four on Saturday 1/2. With the boost in iLvl, and with competent PUGs, it was decent. (I think the issue is that iLvl is simply not high enough for most people now for TW, until you get up in the 160-170 range, even with scaling, and so you have to play REALLY tight much of the time or you'll wipe.)

Quickest / Easiest run was Gundrak, we blew through that without issue. As bad luck would have it, Pit of Saron was the last dungeon I had to run. But I had a good tank, even if they forgot the dungeon. We did wipe twice, but they were just due to a bad pull -- and (this is crazy) two people died on Forgemaster, leaving me and the tank and the healer. Normally this can kill DPS enough to create a wipe, but all three of us knew how to play and we still won that one, ROFL, with me popping all the CDs I had.

Both times also in the ice tunnel ,people forgot to run to the center before fighting -- we were dodging cave-ins while wiping mob clumps, it was crazy and reedic and glorious.

Honestly, on pit of sauron, as far as DPS goes, the only bad one is Forgemaster + then the four groups going up the ramp to the ice tunnel... you need to make sure you cc / lock down the casters.

I actually got the Winter necklace, iLvl 200 (which puts me around iLvl 173 now), you can use it once an hour to bind an outdoors animal as a pet for five minutes. (I think it should be 10, five is kind of lame.) Also, when it is released, it turns on you instead of vanishing.

 

[Totenkindly]

iLvl 165 -- was trying to push to iLvl 170 to be able to LFR Castle Narthia but was stuck. There is a quest available for which the reward for winning an item from the Great Vault is one of the two best Memories for my spec... and I only have about 255 Soul Ash to go, to create a level 1 Legendary with it. The easiest way to get an item from the GV is to do three raid bosses, but I couldn't raid yet, so...

Then I got a decent trinket drop (180+) from an epic daily PLUS I remembered the "upgrade" vendor in my Covenant HQ. wasn't sure what to do... dropped the gear into the slot, you pay with anima (rather like the tidal moonstones or whatever back in BFA)... and I upgraded my low class gear high enough to scrape 170 for about 250 anima. DOH. Now Raid is available.

Definitely DPS is feeling a lot better once I hit 160, and around 170 now I feel like I take out equally leveled things with a fair amount of ease, finally.

 

[Totenkindly]

How I Gave In To Temptation And Started Boosting In World of Warcraft Classic

Cracking me up that the mage pulls all the trash in Maraudon and AoE's it all down.

The problem with classic is that it is designed to not be solo, yet everyone just ran to endgame. Now it's hard to find groups esp for dungeons. I am what, a 12th level fighter or something, but have trouble surviving attacks by 2-3 orcs at once, which some of the quests demand just based on NPC mob grouping.

 

[Totenkindly]

Bit the bullet, did Leeching Vaults (the current raid wing of Nathria open to LFG).

I think I spent more time prepping than actually doing it. I read for about half an hour about each of the three bosses, their abilities, the stages of each fight, and what things need to be mitigated. I then went on YouTube and watched over an hour of videos of the actual raids in LFG so I could see how their powers and the fight stages played out on screen in real time.

Took the PUG raid about 45 minutes to do all three. We wiped once near the end of the first boss (Huntsman), for some reason I am not sure of. (maybe the healers were not ready for the Quakes, and people were not dropping the stone areas far enough away?) And then we wiped again with only about 60 seconds left on the last boss (Lady Darkvein), arggg... totally because one of the two tanks DC'ed or quit or something -- so there was only one tank left trying to tank the boss + the spectral add, etc,, and no one to help mitigate stacks. More amusing, the tank left (who did admirably, honestly) wasn't actually reading the chat responses because many people said the other tank either quit or DC'ed, while the tank here kept going off dramatically about how two tanks are necessary to tank that boss. Yes, we know; no, it wasn't your fault; and then a new tank joined, and we literally cleaned the floor with her... which is ironic, because I think her mechanics are more confusing than the Huntsman... but we had the most trouble with him. (For example on the middle hound/bear, people kept hitting the sheep'ed spirit that you need to let be cc'ed for awhile to pick up a debuff and prevent it from moving. I literally watched one get sheeped 3-4x in about 6 seconds because people kept shooting it.)

My DPS was still on the low end (as my iLvl was low-end, I was only at 173), I came in around 20th on Skada, but I think I composed myself okay? I don't think I ever died in the raid aside from a party wipe, and once in the rat-infested tunnels (trash pulls) where no one did squat to control the mobs and it was just a total free-for-all. I also successfully managed all the targeted mechanics on the various bosses, aside from occasionally getting confused over two that looked similar; and also grouped up when necessary to mitigate certain damage mechanics on targeted people. Good for a first time out; I wasn't responsible for any of the wipes; it will get better when re-run.

My drop wasn't supergreat -- got a level 200 Golden Path conduit (healing while standing in Consecration) -- but I should now have met the bar for a Great Vault item, which means I can complete the quest to get the Mad Paragon memory, which is considered the "best" memory for ret pally raiding... and I only need 100 more soul ash to make the level 1 item. I assume I will get at least that much if I finish my next torghast quest, which is "save Jaina" I think.

 

[Totenkindly]

So did others find the Eriynes underneath the Darkmoon Faire? (It's up this week btw.)

This is pretty creepy -- a bunch of female belfs all with the same name and looking the same, wandering around inside a cave crying. Meanwhile, in the center of the cave is an eerie looking green-glowing machine.

I got too close the first time and three of them aggroed from super-far away (they're probably at your max level -- mine were gold Level 60's) and still killed me no matter how far away I swam. I aggro'ed one from the furthest distance possible to pull her, then managed to burn her down (they cast shadow drains too), and got a ring drop from her body.

Took it back to town, found a guy who commented on it, and let me keep the ring as a Toy. Apparently it makes you look like one of them for 15 min.

I am getting the idea that this creep's machine turns women into clones of this Belf woman, for whatever reason, obviously against their will. I wish I could thwunk him.

 

[Totenkindly]

I think my biggest gripe right now is the geometric increase of anima needed to evoke higher levels of your covenant's four services (basically a transport network, a command table, anima-flow access to open new areas, and then the fourth element which is unique to each covenant... for example, NF has a seedpod garden, while Revendreth has the weekly ball, etc.) LEvel 1 in each is easy -- 1000 anima to activate. But level 2 costs 5K, and level 3 costs 10K. The unique element usually has more and it is 12K and 15K or something.

Anima is a forced grind and it is not very forthcoming. Along with this, it also doubles as a currency, so if you want any nice frills (armor, mounts, toys, etc. -- not cheap, the mounts are typically 4-5K anima, and the armor can be expensive too), you sacrifice the ability just for one mount to open Level 2 of something, and it takes a long time to collect anima.

So unless your ability to generate higher amounts of anima increases as you go, this is just a ridiculous grind -- ESP if you have alts. The cost should really be about half of what it is, considering that this also is not all you are being expected to do.... you're also supposed to be building reputation and professions, and doing the Maw quests, and doing extensive Torghast runs to collect Soul Ash... and then you still have Raids, Mythics, and PvP. And then holidays / special events, and World Bosses, and WQs, and whatever else.

It's just way too grindy and time-consuming. Does anyone think they are ever gonna level out their Covenant anima reservoir services?

---

I finished TW on my cleric and got a pair of pants. At least they were level 200, but a trinket or ring would have been great.

Torghast related:

- Saved Jaina last night. Yay, me?
- The quest-related Torghast runs feel much easier than regular Torghast, but not sure cuz my iLvl has jumped a lot in a week too.
- I was worried about ranged DPS in Torghast but it seems to be tuned well at least for Shadow Priests. I did fine on quest-related runs. Things are easier to defeat in the tower than in regular PvE.
- I am still running across new powers in Torghast. Some are useful utility (like jumping much further distances -- you just have to be sure you don't jump off a bridge; or now getting a 60% speed buff when close to a wall). But there are some others that are crazy good, some that aren't, and all based on class. Just Torghast itself is like its own game.

----

Definitely a jump in power in the 155-170 range.

Last night i was nonchalantly riding through Ardenweald without worries about dying, and saw a poor shadow priest (alliance) getting munched on by a swarm of gormlings. THey are annoying -- at low levels it was like dying from gnat bites. I rode by, she kept just staggering and couldn't escape, and I turned around and went back and AoE'd them down in about 2 seconds for her, to give her a break. She probably would have died or been severely damaged as a cloth; I play shadow and it can take time to whittle down with DoTs. She was grateful. But I had been there, it feels very overwhelming at lower levels, now I just wiped them out without trying.

 

[Totenkindly]

I hate RNG.

I got a choice of one item in the Great Vault for doing 3 Raid Bosses last week -- and it offered me the ONLY item I already had... and at a lower iLvl just to really rub it in.

I took the Stygia instead (my other option was just to disenchant it for mats) and ended up cashing in to buy some nice upgrades in the Maw since I just went up a rep level with the contact there.

Also, I now had everything to make my first legendary... so at least I could cash in quick for a 190 belt.

 

[Totenkindly]

Fans React to ‘South Park,’ ‘WoW’ Cosplayer Who Died From COVID-19 | Complex

I heard about this yesterday but didn't know who he was (aside from what a great cosplay he did of the WoW player from the South Park episode, he was spot on). I saw more today.

I think the saddest thing is just how sweet he seemed.

one of his last twitter posts: "Wasn’t sure I was gonna worry you guys but things are now looking good. Went to the ER yesterday for chest pains. They suspect I have covid. Test results not in yet. Feeling better after treatments. Again, things look good so don’t fret. Will keep you all posted." I think it's just him telling others not to fret while thinking about how bad everyone felt for him (even though he was the one in the hospital) is what choked me up. He also was tweeting about how excited he was to watch the new version of "The Stand" -- but he'll never get to see the ending now, it's not even half over yet.

I wonder if Blizz will do an in-game tribute to him.

 

[Stigmata]

Was a busy wow week last week!

Jumped up from about 171-ish to 188 with some luck in some keyed Mythic+ runs and doing a full clear Castle Nathria (got a huge ilevel upgrade wise in a healing trinket; from 140 to 200 ilevel). The vault system for completing raids using the dungeon finder and for completing mythic key runs makes it quite easier to gear yourself up once you get around 160ish. Unlike previous expansions where they just toss you a completing random item, you actually can choose your item reward for the week based on completing various accomplishments (using the raid finder, keyed runs, heroics, ect). Also got a 207 waist drop from doing the World Boss this morning before I went to work.

@Totenkindly

If you did LFR make sure to loot your chest and get your item when the server's reset.

 

[Totenkindly]

If you did LFR make sure to loot your chest and get your item when the server's reset.

Yeah I mentioned it above. I only earned one item... and it gave me the exact same item that dropped for me on TW and at a lower iLVL to boot.

I took the stygia instead.

Basically if you can do pvp + mythic + raid, then you'll have a lot of options.

 

[JocktheMotie]

I've gotten the bug again, will probably resub this month, but not sure if I'll get the expansion until I catch up. I left off around level 95 or so, hadn't completed Legion or BfA yet. Now apparently the levels have been rebalanced so no idea what's up.

 

[Totenkindly]

I've gotten the bug again, will probably resub this month, but not sure if I'll get the expansion until I catch up. I left off around level 95 or so, hadn't completed Legion or BfA yet. Now apparently the levels have been rebalanced so no idea what's up.

Legion had the artifact weapons for each class (and the class halls) and implemented a lot of more polished WQs and Assaults; then BFA swapped everyone to a necklace (heart of azeroth) that you powered up to give growing powers to your helm, shoulders, and chest slots. You eventually got a magic cloak to protect you from going insane while dealing with the return of N'Zoth.

All that got ditched in Shadowlands, along with the obvious level scrunch. I feel like there's a much larger shift between BFA and Shadowlands than Legion to BFA -- I had to recalibrate a lot. I think SL is more interesting than BFA, although there were some interesting storylines in BFA... I'm not super-familiar with Alliance but it was the first time I felt sympathy for Jaina.

 

[Stigmata]

[MENTION=7]Totenkindly[/MENTION]

Have you felt the alt anxiety, too? I was thinking about making a Warrior or leveling my Shaman but just the thought of all the crap you have to do is just killing any motivation to do that. I leveled my hunter to 60 before my the Priest, which I have been playing as my main, and even logging on that character seems daunting. I couldn't imagine having to climb Torghast on multiple characters every week to get my soul ash.

 

[Totenkindly]

Torghast Twisting Corridors Tip - Don't Turn Brokers into Anima Cells - Wowhead News

OMFG... there is always someone... This is so hilarious, I didn't even try to do this.

Have you felt the alt anxiety, too? I was thinking about making a Warrior or leveling my Shaman but just the thought of all the crap you have to do is just killing any motivation to do that. I leveled my hunter to 60 before my the Priest, which I have been playing as my main, and even logging on that character seems daunting. I couldn't imagine having to climb Torghast on multiple characters every week to get my soul ash.

I basically am trying to juggle three (Horde Ret Pally, Horde Priest, Alliance Monk) and was going to start level another Alliance - my Elemental Shaman.

But that is too much. I'm finding I have to focus on my ret pally and the other two I'm just trying to do fill-in WQs/Callings as I want a change of pace. My shammy will be in the same boat. I just wanted to have some Alliance options if I needed them.

Ret Pally - iLvl 174
Priest - iLvl 160
Monk - iLvl 159

Really, I should also just level a rogue on each side to 60 just so I can open chests. But I am not finding SL alt-friendly at all. It will only be useful when I have finished a lot of the content on my main. I just opened up Tier 2 on my Anima Flow in Ardenweald today (as a NF), so that is giving new quests, and my rep for the two factions in my Covenant is now inching through Revered towards Exalted.

I guess it was similar in early BFA too, but I didn't feel like it was that hard to level the Heart of Azeroth, you just went through the storyline and did WQs and it boosted. Of course by the second or third part of that release, the Heart power boosted much more quickly; you really could level an alt to max cap + be on par with other characters in short order. This is just the second month of SL and your mains are still being gate-kept from maxing out, let alone trying to get an alt or two up to speed. I also feel like the complexity of Phase 1 of SL is starting on par with that of BFA final section (N'Zoth's horrific visions), except it would be like if you still were being forced to blow through 50 levels of Heart of Azeroth too.

Darkmoon runs through Sunday morning, so you can keep picking up the rep boost for barely any coin (10%) by riding a ride, and going back every hour, which helps a little when you are turning in Calling quests which will usually give 1500-2000 rep (so that adds 150-200 rep in one chunk). I need to see about the contacts too.

Anyway, long story short, for this first portion of SL, yeah, you are probably stuck just focusing on a main unless you really want to spend your waking hours getting an alt up there too.

 

[Stigmata]

Jumped up to ilevel 193. Crafted my first legendary after having to be dragged kicking and screaming through Torghast by my wife (I detest artificial time sinks like this that happen to be necessary in order to be competitive). Also got a major trinket upgrade in a Mythic+6 Necrotic Wake. It is crazy how much my healing jumped up in raids for just a few pieces -- I went from having to go all out to hit around 3500~3600HPS to being able to do close to 5K if I went all out but maintaining still sustained around 4300~4400 while holding to conserve mana.

 

[Totenkindly]

Haha...I'm never gonna catch you. Ilvl 181 now.

 

[Stigmata]

Haha...I'm never gonna catch you. Ilvl 181 now.

You'd be surprised. You've jumped up a lot just in the last few days. Start doing Mythic+ dungeons and you'll gear up even quicker -- even if you don't get an actual drop from the dungeon, you'll get a drop from the vault on Tuesday.

 

[Totenkindly]

iLvl 183. And I made my first legendary base item and stuck it on the auction house because I finished leveling Tailoring + Enchanting.

---

I failed for the first time tonight in a regular Torghast run and am kinda cheesed off about it.

I was trying to do the quest to find clues about Thane, and my only option was to go into Mort'regar, and I did Layer 5 because that's where I was at (I just always try to do my highest level).

Damn. That whole section is a bitch and I wanted to throw my keyboard at the wall. One of the six segments, you have to lasso yourself from platform to platform, you end up aggroing the shades/spirits there most of the time even if you're careful, and they swarm you. It was also giving me an accumulative bad debuff to take more magical damage (by the end I had 6 of them and no way to remove them -- 18% additional magical damage). I died twice on that level, although I blew my phant in part buy additional lives to get back to five. These spirits also create these dark seething patches on the ground that drain/slow you if you get stuck in them. It is really easy to die unless you've gotten lucky with power drops and gotten some cool stuff.

Also, you don't want to mess up and fall off a platform and die. (I never did that, but uggh.) This place where I wiped twice before finally making it through, you're fighting a boss, there's dark patches everywhere, and these horrible demons rematerialize even after you kill them, so you are just getting mobbed. I got so sick of running the empty level, having to run across huge chains (like when you go down to molten core before flying), etc. What was really rude was that I killed the boss, right as he materialized a large seething pool of black, and I went from a full health bar to dead in about 2 seconds as two more demons jumped on me in the pool and I was using my charge to try to get out. Reedic.

Finally got the final boss: Warden of Souls. Died three time before I finally went and read up... and I still could not solo him, although I did better. he drops ick pools that you need to get him out of, or he will not take much damage. Meanwhile, he has an occasional fear that if you miss it, you'll run for 4-5 seconds AND take lots of damage as well from the fear. MEANWHILE... he keeps summoning three demons, which aren't hard to kill, but they are often inside the large ick pools so to get to them you will be taking damage and leading him back into his buff pools AND he summons trios of them fairly regularly and they stack. These demons all cast ranged drain on you, so if you end up inside their 35 yard range and you're NOT killing them, it's pretty much game over.

I got him down once to about 30% health, but seriously.... it's a cruel hard fight. It really sucks to work so hard to claw your way to the final boss after 45 minutes and 6 levels and then have it all be a complete waste of time.

But I am thinking now, maybe I can do the same wing (to get the clue) but just at a lower layer. Maybe that will be easier.

While the layer pissed me off, it was kind of neat that was different than other layers I have done in other wings. These were all exterior, like running the ramparts, etc, of a ruined fortress, rather than being inside like most of the others.