World of Warcraft

[Stigmata]

It's been running fine tonight. After BB promised a delivery, they now told me what I wanted wasn't in stock anymore. Thanks a bunch -- like, don't promise me something on a short-turnaround unless you can deliver, I think that's twice now they screwed up. I canceled that and will place an order for pickup tomorrow at a different store.

-----

I am reminded why I don't much do group content.

Decided to do a low-level dungeon in Maldraxxus. Took a few minutes to read the game notes on the bosses.

Tank is an asshat. At one point runs through a large pool of poison, the rest of the group isn't sure what to do or if he's circling around on other side (since poison has already killed people), so after 15-20 seconds people go to the closer center island in the poison and kill a few things there, on their way across. He has a hissy fit and swears at everyone for not following him and doing a needless fight. (Note: It was a pretty easy fight, not a big deal to do... and it was his fault for running off like a bunch of people leveling up in the first ten days of a release know the dungeon enough to run through a shitload of poison.)

Next boss, we wipe partly because we don't know the mechanics yet; note that I read them but it's a little different the first time you actually do the fight, typically, the mental expectation vs the reality of how the mechanics manifest. The jerk actually was using add'ins to monitor our DPS and showed everyone our output and then bitched because we weren't high DPS enough. (I can understand it in a raid where people vie for slots and you want to minmax output AND people are fully leveled and heavily geared... but not in a PUG dungeon that people might not even know yet, when they are not even geared nor max leveled yet.) He's like, "We can't kill this boss without more DPS." Yeah, well, what -- you want us to just quit the dungeon in hopes you get someone better randomly? Or wtf are you actually asking? Shaming undergeared novices to a dungeon doesn't really change the DPS output.

As it was, now that we knew the fight better, we beat the boss on the next try. Plus, after not playing my spec for a week, I remembered a few abilities I forgot I had, which helped.

Same thing with final boss. He actually was a bit more helpful after we wiped and actually explained the fight, but he was kind of a dick regardless in how he talked down to everyone.

And that's why I really hate doing random group stuff. I don't need that shit. I'm trying to have fun + learn the fights and learn my class spec, and these guys are acting like a mid-level PUG dungeon w/ noobs is hardcore raiding or something. He also happened to be the group leader, so no one even wanted to respond to him lest he think they were arguing and get kicked.

I didn't even get a boss drop on any of the four bosses. It was all pretty lame. The only reason I ran it at all was to do a dungeon quest, to get a 116 piece of gear... so I got that at turn-in, at least.

But yeesh. I end up just wanting to stick with solo games, unless I am playing with people I know.

I had a similar experience just now. Decided to try out "The Threads of Fate" leveling mode that becomes available once you hit 60 for my priest. It basically unlocks the entire map and allows you do choose a covenant at 50 and start working towards it, but you don't have access to the main story quests and thus have to level from world quests/side quests/and dungeons. In order to do the entry dungeons you have to have an item level of 80, which I was at like 50, lol, so I had to do a bunch of world quests for the gear they drop.

That takes roughly about an hour and a half to get geared up enough for the dungeons.

Then when I finally do get in, had a tank that was being a douche and never allowing me to drink, which is fine normally when I'm geared and mana becomes less of a concern, but when I'm in greens and blues and you're chain pulling and paying no attention to my mana, it makes it tougher than it needs to be. I kinda made a sarcastic joke midway through, something along the lines of "mana is optional in this expansion" and he took it way too serious and got upset about it when I really didn't care all that much, it was just a minor annoyance. Nobody died and we blasted through it fairly easily, but yeah.

 

[Totenkindly]

So I guess I am still on the main questline?

Currently in Maldraxxus and working to get all five runes on my weapon to open a door (although I don't notice anything interesting about the weapon, eh). I have three so far and I'm either at level 57 or just about to bump 57. I think I said I was close to 55 when leaving Bastion. I am not in War Mode because I figured there would be a glut of players of both factions and didn't feel like getting ganked but I didn't bother to test to see how that's been playing out... but honestly a big benefit of Alliance would likely be a larger WM xp bonus --- although I have not checked to see what that bonus is this week.

Herbalism seems to be leveling fairly enough (up to 57/100, probably), but the gathering skills normally do. Inscription though is only around 20, just using the mats I found so far, and I've burned through them already.

 

[Stigmata]

So I guess I am still on the main questline?

Currently in Maldraxxus and working to get all five runes on my weapon to open a door (although I don't notice anything interesting about the weapon, eh). I have three so far and I'm either at level 57 or just about to bump 57. I think I said I was close to 55 when leaving Bastion. I am not in War Mode because I figured there would be a glut of players of both factions and didn't feel like getting ganked but I didn't bother to test to see how that's been playing out... but honestly a big benefit of Alliance would likely be a larger WM xp bonus --- although I have not checked to see what that bonus is this

Yeah you're still doing the story. You have to follow the main quest line (they look different than normal quests, as the quests have like th at bronze background behind the normal exclamation point) through each zone at least once so you can unlock all the zones and choose a covenant. From thereon if you decide to level up another character all you have to do is the opening Maw scenario and once you get Orbius it will let you choose which way you want to level your character going forward. I didn't use the Alliance war buff but I probably should've when I leveled my Hunter -- I turned it on yesterday for my Priest and we had the call to arms bonus which gave 25% increased experience.

I actually didn't get ganked outside of the one time I decided to be cute and dot up two level Hordies that were questing over in the area. Perhaps that's because I'm on one of the most heavily populated Alliance servers (Sargeras-US), so maybe I just got lucky because the horde know their numbers are substantially less than ours.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah you're still doing the story. You have to follow the main quest line (they look different than normal quests, as the quests have like th at bronze background behind the normal exclamation point) through each zone at least once so you can unlock all the zones and choose a covenant. From thereon if you decide to level up another character all you have to do is the opening Maw scenario and once you get Orbius it will let you choose which way you want to level your character going forward. I didn't use the Alliance war buff but I probably should've when I leveled my Hunter -- I turned it on yesterday for my Priest and we had the call to arms bonus which gave 25% increased experience.

Okay. Maybe I will give it a shot, just to see. If it doesn't work out, I guess I can turn it off again -- although as you note, since it's my first character, I'm stuck doing the main thru-quest through all four areas anyway, which will get me to 60 regardless. Maybe it will feel more important to level faster when I'm no longer stuck doing the through line.

Honestly, it feels pretty lame to gank people at this stage. Most of the people with it on just want to level. If we're 2-3 months in and there are active PvP questlines to gank people, then sure. Back in BfA, I would try not to just randomly kill people who were obviously questing and picking up resources; it's only typically if they were ganking others or invading safe faction space (or people doing an Assault event in WM, I mean, come on, you gotta expect it then), i.e., a more obvious PvP event. But still, pretty much if you've got it on, then you end up having to suck it up if someone jumps you.

I actually didn't get ganked outside of the one time I decided to be cute and dot up two level Hordies that were questing over in the area. Perhaps that's because I'm on one of the most heavily populated Alliance servers (Sargeras-US), so maybe I just got lucky because the horde know their numbers are substantially less than ours.

My alliance characters are on Feathermoon, which is low pop and looks like a 2:1 imbalance (Alliance:Horde), so chances are I'll be around Ally anyway. Sentinels seems even lower populated and there are two other servers virtually grouped.

 

[Totenkindly]

Hit 60 with my Alliance Monk tonight, right before getting to the Winter Queen finally (and completing Ardenweald).

I'm kinda keen on seeing old lore characters come back, some of it is amusing and some of it heartbreaking.

I was laughing at Vashj in Maldraxxus. Gripey gripey gripey, but you can't keep a good snake woman down!

Then again, it was really sad to see Ursoc go. And I actually knew the lore, I didn't have to look anything up -- so I loved this, it made it more poignant to recognize who it was and then see what happened.

Meanwhile, the same thing plays out with Ysera, who I figured out who she was just by the story and the characters in her dream before I actually had to relive her death. I had forgotten some of that, the whole replayed sequence made me cry. Just tragic. But I thought it was cool that it was a mystery who was in the seed pod and I could piece it together without them ever just coming out and saying it until after I had already correctly guessed.

I'm kinda glad they are pulling in old characters. it is like their story is continuing... or not, for at least one.

 

[Stigmata]

Hit 60 with my Alliance Monk tonight, right before getting to the Winter Queen finally (and completing Ardenweald).

I'm kinda keen on seeing old lore characters come back, some of it is amusing and some of it heartbreaking.

I was laughing at Vashj in Maldraxxus. Gripey gripey gripey, but you can't keep a good snake woman down!

Then again, it was really sad to see Ursoc go. And I actually knew the lore, I didn't have to look anything up -- so I loved this, it made it more poignant to recognize who it was and then see what happened.

Meanwhile, the same thing plays out with Ysera, who I figured out who she was just by the story and the characters in her dream before I actually had to relive her death. I had forgotten some of that, the whole replayed sequence made me cry. Just tragic. But I thought it was cool that it was a mystery who was in the seed pod and I could piece it together without them ever just coming out and saying it until after I had already correctly guessed.

I'm kinda glad they are pulling in old characters. it is like their story is continuing... or not, for at least one.

Shadowlands has been a pretty damn big retconn thus far. I wasn't expected to see VashJ in Maldraxxus but it was cool to see. the Ysera scene in Ardenweld caused me to get a little misty-eyed. Kael'thas is in Revendreth. I just hit 55 on my Priest! If you make your way to Alliance, I'm willing to provide high quality dungeon heals!

 

[Totenkindly]

Shadowlands has been a pretty damn big retconn thus far. I wasn't expected to see VashJ in Maldraxxus but it was cool to see. the Ysera scene in Ardenweld caused me to get a little misty-eyed. Kael'thas is in Revendreth. I just hit 55 on my Priest! If you make your way to Alliance, I'm willing to provide high quality dungeon heals!

Are you Holy or Disc?

I just finished the story arc last night and picked a covenant for my monk. Obviously they make you do a sample run on Torghast in there, which was interesting. It reminded me of Diablo a bit, in the sense you're getting some kind of randomized floor creation along with what monsters and awards/powers drop. I have no clue how this plays out in regular play though or how you accomplish tasks. The health buffs are pretty crazy (45%?) but very helpful when I chose those for my monk.

It looks like even with the non-linear leveling, they make you do the opening maw thing with your alts just to get to the Covenant choice. I am assuming once you get to Oribos, the four realms are represented just as they were with my monk (left in that position), hence you just have to get to Oribos to do the switchover if you want to level an alt through WQs. It's just a pain, I'm sick of the opening Maw quest and am currently running it on Disc and hadn't felt like changing spec to Shadow just to run the section, but might because... urrrk.

Can you do WQs outside of your covenant area? I didn't check yet, although I did the opening set on Maldraxxus for my monk.

 

[Totenkindly]

Ret Pally 58.5 levels now, just finished Ardenweald.

So apparently I had done a lot of side quests on my first run through, which is why it took forever. it goes much faster if I just focus on the quests with a shield around the exclamation point. One zone left, 1.5 levels to go with minimum extra questing, so it should ding around when I finish Revendreth.

There is a benefit this week because Darkmoon is up, so I remembered I could go ride a ride for a very cheap price and get an hour buff. If one's heartstones are set up appropriately, one can get to the Faire, ride a ride, and hearth back only losing a minute or so of the hour 10% xp buff.

There seems to be a lot of mounts available, similar to legion with all of its rares that you could kill for toys, pets, or mounts.

Last night someone got a mushroom drop shortly after killing the rare and made an open offer to everyone. We all waited for the Loam spot to spawn. The mushroom only lasts 20 minutes, and apparently there is a 10 minute respawn on the rare. The guy gave me the mushroom. It only had about 30 seconds left before disappearing, and I was ready for this to end in failure because of the rare respawn -- and the Loamy Mound area appeared probably with about 10 seconds to go. I was so on top of it, I clicked it and the rare started to spawn -- pretty wild. So I got a froggy mount off that, although it's not collectible until 60.




EDIT: Current To-Do Lists for SL
What To Do Week 3 of Shadowlands: Weekly and Daily Activities List - Wowhead News

Found that today. I don't even know what any of that stuff really is, so I have a headache reading it, and I only have one level 60 anyway (soon to be 2). So I guess I will look at it this weekend, just so I become aware of what kinds of things to focus on past just doing World Quests/Bosses. I don't even know much about the Weekly Vault, aside from where it is, but I guess I would have to do Mythics or Raids or PvP battlegrounds to get anything from it.

 

[Totenkindly]

He's a florist, not a fighter.

https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-wa...-hit-level-60-by-picking-millions-of-flowers/

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

He's a lover, not a fighter.

https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-wa...-hit-level-60-by-picking-millions-of-flowers/

That takes serious dedication.

 

[Stigmata]

Are you Holy or Disc?

Holy. Leveled through dungeons as Holy. I love the spec but it feels really weak at the moment. May need to give Disc a try (again) -- I don't like the playstyle but it is supposedly performing better.

Can you do WQs outside of your covenant area? I didn't check yet, although I did the opening set on Maldraxxus for my monk.

You can! You can do WQs all over the map. It is good to go from zone-to-zone, collecting the pieces that drop items to help upgrade your gear quickly.


I just hit 60 on my Priest about 20 minutes ago. Now starts the grind....

Not sure what to do next. I suppose I need to hunker down and do all the end-game content stuff to help gear my character up.

 

[Totenkindly]

So I did enough stuff with my ret pally in the last 24 hours that my head is swimming... I think it's easier once I get used to how to set up everything, but doing it the first time I keep thinking I'm missing stuff.

- Got my soulbind
- Got mission table set up
- Got the anima reservoir set up and opened a few things
- Did world quests / weekly things to get chests to open with gear and junk worth a few thousand gold.
- Jumped in the maw a few times and did the tower again and saved Baine, but there are other things opened -- not sure what those are... two other wings?
- Almost have my tailoring leveled to max, and my enchanting is about at a 75/125 or something.
- Geared to iLvl 148.

it was sad when I had to swap out my heart of azeroth, and it looks like my cloak will be the next to go.. it's at 155 but I'm being offered a 168 replacement with another tower quest.

I decided to go Night Fae with my pally and am happy with that. (I went Maldraxxus with my monk, Venthyr with my Disc Priest, and Kyrian with my blood DK... although only the monk is 60, I'm almost to 54 with the priest -- running Shadow -- and my DK is still 50-51.)

The NF induction was hilarious and sweet -- the fae put on a big stage production of Legion and BFA, with lots of costume changes and having to kill your fellow actors (fake kill), it's fun and neat. And Ysera is happy with it at first, then gets sad and disturbed because she thought it was all a dream she was having and not real... but it was.

Not sure if I like the Mission Table. I mean, it's nice they decided to make strategy more important in a few ways, but at the same time there is so much to do, the last thing I need is a mission table taking up time.


EDIT: Oh side note -- after the huge shipping delay, my new memory DRAM showed up after a week (RGB Pro Corsair Vengeance, 2x8Gb = 16gb.) Installed... ran on first try, no issues, 16Gb memory.

 

[Totenkindly]

Back to cool mounts -- the Mistrunner from Ardenweald, which is another flying unicorn mount.

(Already collected the cradle last week -- you have to collect five tools from the southern garden, compile them into a toolbox, and deliver to the northern-most rest area in the flightpath. Also got the frog mount, as I think I described a few days ago, related to the Humungous mushroom drop.)

This one, you have to navigate through a misty maze to reach the central area after taking the right path, and then kill the boss. If you go the wrong way, the boss and captive mount won't appear. The boss is also on a 60-75 min spawn timer. There is a scroll near the opening to the maze (TomTom 31,54) that provides the proper sequence, or you can WowHead it -- you're not required to read in game.

This is all complicated by the maze having various elites and regulars stationed throughout the maze (along with a wandering mist cloud that seems to have a deleterious impact on health). If you try to fight through normally, it will be a tough go, esp if you are lower geared -- been there, done that, died along with the moron who ran through and aggroed a lot of the monsters, getting everyone killed.

How to deal with this? To the east of the Heart of the Forest is a small pond-ish area with a center island; killing the faeries/guardians there will eventually drop Faerie Dust, which lets you fly for 1.5min. (Double click after activation to actually start flying, then use spacebar to lift off, just as with the faerie wings.) But the item itself expires in your backpack after 15 minutes, so when it drops, you'll need to run the maze shortly after. Long story short -- If you are flying through the maze (a little ways above the ground), you won't aggro any of the monsters.

So back to the encounter: When I read about the boss, people were saying they beat it at iLvl 135-140 and no one mentions difficulty -- but as a ret Pally at iLvl 149, I died the first time and wasn't sure if I could do this until I was higher geared. The boss's powers themselves weren't horrible, he just was heavily armored and I wasn't doing a lot of damage, and he wasn't doing light damage. I tried again, this time eating attack/stam food first, popping a crystal left from BFA, and needing to use a heal potion (10K) partway through, and managed to play the hell out of it and took him down, after running out of mana once or twice from all the self-heals. (I burned him at the end, because all my CDs came back up about the same time, tg.)

Other classes might have better mileage, esp if they have tank pets.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, now that Byrsse is close to level 59 and I want to blow through that tonight if possible, I have a comparison between ToF and regular campaign.

ToF feels like a grind, I will be honest. The benefit is that you can pick a Covenant to start with, but you can't soulbind or anything. I can't seem to access the Covenant reservoir either, so I'm building up a bunch of anima items that i will have to dump in as soon as it activates. I also cannot see world bosses and the like. i do get these "help this covenant" quests, which give 50-70K at this point but are a real DRAG -- I have completed the one for Ardenweald and also will finish the Bastion one (85%) but damn, it's like you make progress by doing things / quests in that realm and it's only adding 3-6% at most to the completion bar. Again, what a freaking drag -- it's little more than a periodic bonus to XP after doing about 30-40 quests in that realm and/or anything else you can see activated.

It's hard to keep up with everything as well, with just three characters. This might settle in a bit but I don't even have time to consider raiding or the like. I haven't even been able to keep up with the Tower yet, because each run takes like an hour.

---

Along with this, I was trying to finish the Winter Veil achivement to get "Merrymaker" title, but one of them is 50 honorable kills with something loaded, during Winter Veil. Like WTF is that about? Forcing everyone to PVP, and now that quest is like 6-7 expacs old to boot, so outdated and not as easily said as done? I will probably get all the others done but once again fail to complete Winter Veil. I only have four of the achievement quests left to go and they don't look that hard. However, no one is selling Winter Boots (for one of the easy ones), and my DH was only at 70 Leatherworking in Original. So I got her up to about 140 last night and will have to do yet another blitz until she's high enough to actually complete this. All for a stupid pair of boots to complete one dumb achievement.

I did run a dungeon on Heroic to get the red santa hat drop, and Tailoring was on my main, so the boots are the last thing I need.

Aside from getting the snowflakes themselves (You have to kiss a Winter Reveler to get a chance at 5 snowflakes, and you'll need 10 -- and there's a wait time of an hour between kisses -- you might get stuck with mistletoe (which you need elsewhere) or holly instead (which you can also use on yet a third WV quest)), you have to then tag 10 other players of the right class and race -- 5 horde, 5 ally.

The only GOOD thing about this happening in Shadowlands is that we no longer have separate bases -- everyone is in Oribos in non-PVP mode, so you just go there and watch people come and go and eventually you will get the ten combos you need. [It was harder in BFA, but I sat in Uldum in non-WM and got them that way for the Halloween flavor of this quest.] Just be quick. The last two I got were a Dwarf Pally (go figure -- they are superpopular in RPGs, but not apparently here? Dwarves in general, actually?) and a BE warlock. Pretty much every BE is a priest, a mage, or a paladin. The other in the three that took me the longest to see was an ... undead rogue. Really?

 

[Totenkindly]

At this stage, my opinion of Shadowlands is pretty simple: It's a positive reinvention of the game... but it's just too goddam much for the beginning of a single expansion.

- Level to 60
- Join a faction
- Complete all the chapters of your faction storyline
- Daily WQs
- Daily faction assignments (usually doing 3-5 WQs or similar)
- Daily rare kill vs chest opening
- Special faction activity (e.g., pod garden for NF or party for RD)
- Do Command table quests with companions
- Collect a shitload of anima daily to not just activate all four things your faction offers to level 4-5 but also pay for weapons/armor/mounts/other special items
- Kill rares / get treasures on four continents
- Do raids (to get a weekly reward and/or earn faction drops)
- Do eight dungeons (for same)
- Advance all the Maw story lines and quests / manage to not die, so you can build rep with your contact
- Do eight levels in multiple wings of Torghast to advance that storyline and collect soul ash to make legendaries, to again better yourself for all the other things
- Do any other special activities -- periodic holidays, timewalking weekly events, other weekly things (battle pets, etc.)
- Do any PvP battlegrounds you want to be involved in

And that is just on your main. If you want to have more than one character, you will need to do all the same shit.

In past expansions, they also typically had 2-3 releases where the game changed / moved to the next phase. But you could seriously spend two years just doing all this shit just to get a few characters maxed out.

It's just too damned much.

 

[Stigmata]

At this stage, my opinion of Shadowlands is pretty simple: It's a positive reinvention of the game... but it's just too goddam much for the beginning of a single expansion.

- Level to 60
- Join a faction
- Complete all the chapters of your faction storyline
- Daily WQs
- Daily faction assignments (usually doing 3-5 WQs or similar)
- Daily rare kill vs chest opening
- Special faction activity (e.g., pod garden for NF or party for RD)
- Do Command table quests with companions
- Collect a shitload of anima daily to not just activate all four things your faction offers to level 4-5 but also pay for weapons/armor/mounts/other special items
- Kill rares / get treasures on four continents
- Do raids (to get a weekly reward and/or earn faction drops)
- Do eight dungeons (for same)
- Advance all the Maw story lines and quests / manage to not die, so you can build rep with your contact
- Do eight levels in multiple wings of Torghast to advance that storyline and collect soul ash to make legendaries, to again better yourself for all the other things
- Do any other special activities -- periodic holidays, timewalking weekly events, other weekly things (battle pets, etc.)
- Do any PvP battlegrounds you want to be involved in

And that is just on your main. If you want to have more than one character, you will need to do all the same shit.

In past expansions, they also typically had 2-3 releases where the game changed / moved to the next phase. But you could seriously spend two years just doing all this shit just to get a few characters maxed out.

It's just too damned much.

I was just complaining about this the other night. That's one thing I hate about this game that they've been doing since WOD -- when I hit max level, I wanna be done with all your time sink sidequest leveling up an item/covenant/artifact neck bs. When I hit max level, I only want to have to care about maximizing my professions and upgrading my gear through dungeons and raids. This Torghast stuff is not fun or engaging at all, and just seems like a colossal boring time sink that you're forced to do if you want to character to be in anyway competitive.

Not only that, when I see all the things required of me to get my main up and running, it completely dissuades me from wanting to level an ALT at all -- it becomes the daunting series of tasks that awaits you the second you hit max level. Not to mention mythic dungeons if you wanna have competitive gear as well from outside the raids. That's another bag of worms.

 

[Totenkindly]

I was just complaining about this the other night. That's one thing I hate about this game that they've been doing since WOD -- when I hit max level, I wanna be done with all your time sink sidequest leveling up an item/covenant/artifact neck bs. When I hit max level, I only want to have to care about maximizing my professions and upgrading my gear through dungeons and raids.

Right. I even forgot to add that -- "maxing profs." Fortunately it seems to happen as part of leveling, I've fairly easily hit max on Tailoring and Jewelcrafting so far as non-gathering profs, and soon I'll be done with Enchanting (because of synergy -- my crafters just send all the extra crap to be disenchanted and used as mats). But yeah, hitting 60 was just the very first step of a very tall and winding staircase up a veritable mountain!

his Torghast stuff is not fun or engaging at all, and just seems like a colossal boring time sink that you're forced to do if you want to character to be in anyway competitive.

I find it kind of fun in a more "video game" kind of way... but it's kind of mandatory to advance your storyline + get legendaries... and it's just too much. Eight wings potentially? With eight levels each, each one harder? And I've timed them, it takes a good 60-90 minutes to run a level. The only positive is that once you advance far enough, you can just run level 8 (after you have done the other 7 runs) to gain the rewards of running all 8 levels. So that reduces to about 90 mins a week for one run, for one wing. But still...

Not only that, when I see all the things required of me to get my main up and running, it completely dissuades me from wanting to level an ALT at all -- it becomes the daunting series of tasks that awaits you the second you hit max level. Not to mention mythic dungeons if you wanna have competitive gear as well from outside the raids. That's another bag of worms.

I already don't feel competitive, a month in. My main is only about iLvl 154 and I'm already grouping on Winter Veil Greench kills with people in the 180-200 range.

And now I'm seeing that to get legendary recipes that are best for my class/spec (or even decent soulshape drops for Fae), I need to farm certain bosses... so now I have to do PUG raids and dungeons, which have always just been terrible experiences.

 

[Totenkindly]

So after all that bitching:

- Looks like it's worth doing Timewalk dungeons again, for a bit -- you get 200 level gear from the crate for doing 5. DEFINITELY worth doing.

- I suddenly got a few levels added (when finishing certain quests) with my faction level, so now I'm up around 15-16. Along with hitting revered, this opened up a few purchase options for gear and other things, which is nice. I think I can save more than 5 souls a week now too.

- RNG sucks. Did my third World Boss yesterday (in Bastion, this week). No drops prior on main - finally got a drop, and it was a Memory! Then I looked it up and it was one of the most useless Memories for my spec possible, based on the high-end player assessments. Thanks, RNG. It's taunting me now. But it really sucks to get nothing and/or a bad drop, since it's just once a week. Equipment and Conduit abilities are in the 200-2007 range, so if you get a good one, it's really helpful

- Started trying to bust through the final quest or two of Merrymaker (before Winter Veil ends at 6am Sat). Figured out how to do the Little Helper thing and have 18/50 of the required honorable kills, just from joining battlegrounds. Disguising myself via toys so no one griefs me... if you die, you lose the 30 minute buff and no more kills count, you have to reacquire it after the BG. The only other quest I have is the milkshake... I probably need to find someone to help me. Once that is done, I just have to finish the Easter and the Kids holidays to get the Holiday achivement and mount. it is possible I could have also continued to do this quest after Winter Veil, because I got decorations set up in my Garrison with the buffing machine that can persist. AS long as you have the buff (of being Santa's little gnome helper), you can do the achivement?

- Battlegrounds are weird. Did Isle of Conquest twice. No directions from anyone the first time, Horde got slammed, one guy just complained the whole time that we were awful but provided no advice. Second time, most people knew what they were doing, directions were given, and we trounced alliance. I also got on an airship and bombarded their castle endlessly, bwa ha ha.

 

[Stigmata]

I already don't feel competitive, a month in. My main is only about iLvl 154 and I'm already grouping on Winter Veil Greench kills with people in the 180-200 range.

I just hit 177 ilevel on my priest last night. Once you get to past like 158 and you can start to do heroics, you can gear up a lot faster. Heroics drop ilevel 171 gear, which around 160-ish you can transition into Mythic 0s that drop 184. Also at 170 you can enter LFR, which is pretty damn easy and serves as another avenue to gear yourself up.

I'm working on Mythic keys right now. One thing that is annoying about this game since gear score/ilevel really came to the forefront around WOTLK is that for keyed Mythics often times you may have one lower geared person making the group who wants everyone to be overgeared for the content to essentially carry them, so it has been a struggle for me to get in mid-higher key Mythic groups as I'm not 180 yet. I did however do a Mythic +6 plaguefall last night and we plowed through it with like 12 minutes left on the 38 minute timer, so that'll probably be another 190+ piece for me next week in my chest. Plus, once you get to LFR level you get a 200 piece for completing it through the dungeon finder.

Like I said, I'm not sure how much you care to do dungeon content but you're right on the cusp of things opening up a bit once you get your ilevel a little higher.

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.

I still need to do my Torghast....I'm not looking forward to it but those legendary item bonuses are absolutely insane for some classes.

 

[Totenkindly]

Like I said, I'm not sure how much you care to do dungeon content but you're right on the cusp of things opening up a bit once you get your ilevel a little higher.

Thanks for the input. That is definitely how i am feeling with this expansion -- it seems to trudge and you're just grinding with little progress, then blam, suddenly you feel like you do a bunch of things in short order and bump up quickly.

I'm philosophically okay with dungeons, I just feel like I have bad experiences with running current expac ones (whatever is current) as PUG because people are jerks.

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.

Ugggh. They should tune it better. Usually TW are blowoff runs, I don't think they should ever be hard -- we're just revisiting some old quests for fun. I mean, once the gear level is pointless, no one will do them anymore until the next expac.

I still need to do my Torghast....I'm not looking forward to it but those legendary item bonuses are absolutely insane for some classes.

I actually enjoy them -- ASIDE from the fact they are all gonna last 60-90 minutes (and do I have that block of time up front to invest?), and you have to clear out eight levels in 8-10 wings before you can just coast a bit. But I do like how powerful I feel, once i get going. I'm typically just chewing stuff up about ten minutes in -- and finding lots of cool abilities. I even got to turn myself into a horse whenever I wanted in my last run, through completion.

... and then I come back to the expac and feel weak and pathetic again.