Random Daily Heroic - Halls of Origination 4/11/11

Today the random daily heroic I completed on Wranngar was Halls of Origination. As you might have noticed I said completed. The first one I was in for my random daily was Deadmines. Deadmines is a tricky one and I would say the second hardest heroic after Grim Batol.

I got in to Deadmines right after the group I joined finished downing the third boss, Foe Reaper 5000. I figured it would be a pretty easy 70 valor points, boy was I wrong. I noticed in the very first fight that the tank, a Deathknight, was looking kind of squishy. The Healer had 103k mana using a flask so I figured we would be ok anyway. Wrong again. We made it through the trash between Foe Reaper and the boat without too much difficulty, but when we got to Ripsnarl, the next boss, things went downhill fast. The Healer was running out of mana about a quarter of the way through the fight, which tells me he had very low Spirit/Regen, I ended up innervating him a few times but it was not enough. To make a long story short we wiped on Ripsnarl 5 times before I finally bailed. I was doing 12k dps which was double what the next highest person was doing, we just didn't have the dps to get him down. Funny thing is we came the closest to getting him down on the first attempt.

After I bailed out of Deadmines I requeued and got Halls of Origination. Once again I didn't get in at the start, I got in right after the first boss. I figured that was from someone either getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving or not getting what they were after off the first boss and leaving. This group turned out to be pretty decent and we only took down the bosses we needed to so it was pretty quick too. I didn't get any gear, any upgrades I get from here on out will be coming from raid mobs/bosses, but I did get the Chaos Orb at the end so I was happy. I also got my 70 valor points for the day.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I strongly believe that a 329 item level is too low for a Tank or Healer to be entering heroics. It is too low for a lot of the dps too in my opinion. The bosses in heroics, as well as the trash mobs, have a lot of health and hit hard. Low dps makes the Healer run out of mana because the fights take too long. An under geared Healer is going to run out of mana anyway because they didn't have enough to begin with and an under geared Tank is not going to be able to stand up to the beating required to tank a heroic. If you get a 5 man group of people in a heroic who all have a 329 item level it's just not going to happen.

Buying gear with justice points combined with 333 item level drops from normal dungeons and rep gear can get you an item level of at least 340, why not wait?

Cataclysm - November 1st

I pre-ordered my copy of Cataclysm today at the local Game Stop. It is scheduled to be released on November 1st. As November 1st is a Monday and I will be working that day I will not be there at midnight to pick it up, I will pick it up after work.

This gives me 3 months to get my Mage, Shealin, to level 80, that will not be a problem. I am pretty sure Shealin is the last toon I will make but I am not ruling out a Worgen. I will have to see what they have to offer. It won't be as bad as the Deathknights because the Worgen and Goblin will be starting at level 1, so you won't have a lot of people that can't level a character 1 to 80 in their lifetime making one on their daddy's, or mommy's, account. I am so sick of DK tanks that can't tank. It takes more than plate armor to be a tank.

I am pretty excited about flying in Azeroth, that will be pretty nice. That means they will have to open up the entire map. There are some places you see while you are flying on public transportation that you just can't get to. I want to check some of those places out.

Wranngar 12/29/08

I got Wranngar to level 80 today. I hit 80 at 4:14PM Eastern time on 12/29/08. I ran out of quests and I ended up hitting 80 doing the dailys in Icecrown. I went and got my training which ran me close to 200 gold, used my talent point then headed to Storm Peaks to do some skinning. I got enough leather to make another Inscription bag which I sent to a guild member who could use it. That gave me another point in Leatherworking, my skill is now 418. I will work on that some more. Right now I am just happy to have finally gotten to 80. If I get back on later I am going to hit the battlegrounds, I have been waiting a long time to get back into them. After that I will probably work on Wrangar.

Update: I did some battlegrounds on Wranngar tonight. I fought in 4 AV's, all losses. It is also the daily battleground today. The Alliance was doing really bad in all 4 battles. We only had one battle where we were in Frostwolf Keep and ready to down Drek but the Horde got Vann first. In the other 3 we lost on reinforcements defending the cave. I got 76 kills and around 1200 honor so it wasn't too bad. It just felt soooo good to be back in the battlegrounds :). I am interested in winning right now though because I need honor. After that I went and did some exploring. I have all of Outlands explored and got the Achievement for that, now I am working on Azeroth. After that I will have to do Kalimdor and I will have Eastern Kingdoms done. All that will leave is North Rend. I have about half of that explored. Once I have all of those explored I will get the title: Explorer.

Wrangar 12/17/08

I played Wrangar tonight and got him to level 66. I was questing in Blades Edge at the time. As soon as I hit 66 I made a Death Gate and took it back to Ebon Hold for my training. After that was done I went back to questing. In Nagrand, before I headed to Blades Edge to see if I could get any quests, I rescued Corki for the second time. He keeps wandering off and getting captured by the Ogres then his father puts up some kind of reward for his return. I think they should just break his legs, that would keep him closer to home. I think I have one, maybe two, more rescues to go for him. Anyway questing in Blades Edge should give me good XP. I rode from there to Toshley's Station and got the flight path, Evergrove and got that flight path then over to Area 51 and got that one too. I was going to leave it at that but decided to see if I could make it to The Stormspire. I made it no problem, got attacked by a level 69 lion but took him down without any trouble, and got the flight point there too. I should be all set now on flight points as I move along. I only have about half of 67 rested so I will go back on Wranngar and let Wrangar rest up some.

Wrangar 12/14/08

I only did the Feast of Winter Veil quests on Wrangar today, the rest of the time I was busy leveling Wranngar. I have almost the whole level of 66 rested on Wrangar so I should be able to blow through that when I start questing on him again.

Wrangar 12/13/08

I leveled up my Herbalism some tonight on Wrangar. I got it up to 112. That's about all I got done on him tonight. I will go back to questing tomorrow and try to get to level 66. I have about 3/4 of level 66 rested.

Wrangar 12/11/08

I worked on Wrangar's Herbalism tonight and got it from 10 to 81. It is definitely not as fast as leveling skinning. I was getting herb's from Elwynn Forest, Redridge and Duskwood. It is going to be a long process I think. I was tired too and didn't realize I had hit 75 and needed to train to level any more. I wasted a few points before I realized it. I got my training done and got a few more herb's then went on Wranngar for a little while. I will work on Wrangar's Herbalism some more tomorrow.

Wrangar 12/09/08

I played my Deathknight Wrangar for awhile today and got him to level 65. I made a Death Gate and went to Ebon Hold to get my training done. He is making pretty good progress. I am questing in Nagrand and seem to be able to get quite a few quests so I am going with it. When I get to 66 I will see if I can start in Blades edge. Keeping all the quests yellow and orange gives me a lot of XP and they are still usually soloable. I would rather quest alone than in a group, less squabbling and you never have to wait for anyone. I think I will work on my Herbalism and maybe fishing tomorrow. Cooking too. That way I won't use up any of my rested XP and can build it up. My skinning is still at 425 because I didn't really have any quests that called for killing anything I could skin. I skinned anything that someone left and looted and a couple things that attacked me but I didn't get a level out of it.

Wrangar 12/08/08

I played Wrangar for a bit tonight. I got a few bars on him but stopped when I ran out of rested XP. I was questing in Nagrand tonight. I got my skinning to 425 and got a lot of leather. I don't know how high I will be able to get my skinning in the Outlands, I think I can get it to 450 there, it is just going to take a lot of skinning. The levels in skill are few and far between now because of the level of the mobs I am skinning. I am having no problem playing a Deathknight and I like it. I wasn't sure I would because I had a Warrior once, my first character actually, and I didn't really like it at all. I went to North Rend to see if I could learn any more bandages for my first aid and there was nothing. I looked it up and the manual for the next bandages is a BoP drop off a mob :(. I guess it is going to take me a while to get that as it drops off mobs in North Rend. I think I will get Wrangar to 65 tomorrow though, then I might try for a Worg Pup. I have the quest, I just have to go in and get one. This is a picture of a Death Gate, it is what Deathknights use to transport back to Ebon Hold.

Wrangar 12/07/08

I played Wrangar for awhile today and got him to level 64. I got his skinning up to 416. I am questing in Nagrand now, doing the Nesingwary Mastery quests. A lot of the mobs are level 66 or higher but I am having no problem with them and I am getting a lot of Thick Clefthoof Leather along with all the Knothide Leather Scraps and Knothide Leather I am getting. I have already made around 40 gold selling the lower level leather I was skinning and now I am getting into the stuff that makes really good gold on the auction house. I am about 1/3 of the way to 65 but I ran out of rested XP so I will probably be playing Wranngar until he is out of rested XP. I think he has about a level and a half rested.

Wrangar 12/06/08

I played Wrangar, my DeathKnight, some more tonight. I got his skinning to level 375 and went to North Rend to learn Grand Master Skinning. Now I can level my skill to 450. I did a bunch of quests around Allerian Stronghold and got about a half level in. I will play him some more tomorrow and get him to 64. So far the DeathKnight seems to be easy to play and I am having no problem doing the quests in Terokkar Forest. I want to see if I can do any quests in Nagrand when I hit 64.

Wrangar 12/04/08

I played Wrangar for awhile tonight and got him to level 63. I was questing in Terrokar Forest near Shattrath City. I would like to skip questing in Zangarmarsh in favor of leveling, hopefully I will be able to quest in Terrokar and move on from there. Zangarmarsh is just a depressing place. I will have to go back to a lot of places and work on my rep once I get done leveling. The quests in Terrokar Forest are pretty easy and I only died once when I lost my wireless connection and found myself dead when I logged back in. I got the flight point for Allerian Stronghold while I was there and picked up a bunch of quests. I went back to Ebon Hold and got my training done then went and got the key to Searing Gorge. Don't really need it, just wanted to have it. With the key you can open the tunnel between Thelsamar and Searing Gorge. I think I am playing Wrangar more now because he is leveling faster but I will have to get back on Wranngar soon and get him leveled up too.

2 Years - WoW - 12/01/08

December 1st is the 2 year anniversary of the first time logged into World of Warcraft. I was on a 10 day trial account. My first character was a Warrior named Durgan. I got him to level 19 then saw the Warlock mounts, the Felsteed and Dreadsteed, and decided I had to have one of those. That was when I started Gomorra. I leveled him to 70 and then just played him for awhile, I wasn't interested in making another character. Eventually I got interested in Druids and decided to try one out. That was when I made Wranngar. I leveled him to 70 with a friend Axeelina. Since then I spent a lot of time in the battlegounds on Wranngar, eventually getting over 50,000 lifetime kills. Now I am working on leveling Wranngar and my Deathknight Wrangar to 80. I am going to let Gomorra sit for awhile, I think, until I get both of those to 80.

12/1/08

I worked on both my characters tonight. I got Wranngar to level 72 and went and got his training done. I also got my skinning maxed out to 450 on Wranngar tonight. I think skinning is one of the best professions as you can skin most of what you kill as you go along. I also took up skinning as one of my professions on Wrangar but hadn't done anything with it. Tonight while I was questing on Wrangar in Hellfire Peninsula I had to kill Ravagers and Hellboars and I was getting aggravated because I was letting all that leather go that I was too low level to skin, level 1. Finally I had enough and decided to level up my skinning before I went any farther. I went back to Stormwind and started killing and skinning. It took me a little while but I leveled my skinning from 1 to 330 so now I can skin what I kill in outlands. I took Herbalism as my second profession but only got that up to around 10, I will have to work on that later. At least now I can skin as I go along and not waste all that gold I could have been making off leather. I will get Wrangar to level 62 tomorrow and maybe higher.

11/30/08

I worked on both my Druid Wranngar and my DeathKnight Wrangar tonight. I got Wrangar to level 61 and got his training done. I was questing around the Temple of Telhmat in Hellfire Peninsula for the most part. I also went to North Rend with him so I could get Grand Master First Aid training. He can now level his first aid skill to 450, he currently has a first aid skill of 390. I was playing Wranngar in North Rend and have him about 3/4 of the way to level 72. Right now I am questing in Dragon Blight. I am not finding the quests difficult there, they are easy and go pretty fast. I am starting to fill out my Alpha Map again with the locations of quest items/points so when I come through on Wrangar they will all be right on my map. I hope to get on tomorrow and get Wranngar to level 72 and maybe get Wrangar to level 62.

Wranngar 11/29/08

I played Wranngar some more this morning. I got a few bars in and went to Darnassus to train. I got a few new ranks to my skills. I am assuming that I will train every level from 70 to 80 just like I did from 60 to 70. I did a bunch of quests in North Rend but didn't seem to get many bars out of them. It is going to take me awhile to get to 80 as I just don't have the time to play anymore like I used to and I also have my DeathKnight Wrangar that I am leveling up too. Wrangar is level 60 now. I am going to try and get on again later tonight and then some more tomorrow. I would like to get Wranngar to 73 and Wrangar to at least 61 before the weekend is over.

Wrangar 11/23/08

I played Wrangar for a little while today but didn't have too much time. I didn't get another level in but got some bars of XP. I was questing in Hellfire Peninsula again. The quests still seem pretty easy and soloable on the DeathKnight. There are a lot of DeathKnights out there, I see them everywhere I go. They are easy to pick out, especially if they are mounted, because they all look the same at this point, wearing the quest gear. I am going to have to start really working on Wranngar and get him to go so I can start arena and get some good gear on him. Then I am going to finish getting my 100,000 kills and title. Hopefully I will have some time this week to get on and play.

Wrangar 11/22/08

I played both Wrangar and Wranngar for a little bit today. I got Wrangar to level 60 but Wranngar is still at level 70. I did some questing on Wrangar in Hellfire Peninsula then went to Ebon Hold to train when I hit 60. I am still finding this DeathKnight pretty easy to play. It has so many things that give you health back that I come out of most fights with full health and I can come out of a fight with 3 mobs a couple to a few levels higher than me with very little health loss when it is all over. It was also World of Warcrafts 4th anniversary and they gave everyone a Blizzard Bear pet. I made sure I logged into all my toons and got it out of the mail. It is a little baby white bear. It is the first pet I have on my DeathKnight. I am finding questing on Wranngar to be boring so I have been spending most of my time questing on Wrangar.

Wrangar 11/21/08

I didn't play too long tonight, I was pretty tired. I did get Wrangar half way through level 59 though. It seems to be leveling pretty quick. I was killing mobs 3 levels higher than me with ease. I saw a Horde DeathKnight flagged in Hellfire Peninsula but still don't think I am good enough to fight other people yet so I didn't attack him. I only did a few quests to get my half level. Leveling in Hellfire is pretty quick if I remember correctly from my other toons. I have this weekend off and it is supposed to be really cold here so I will probably be inside the whole time with a lot of time to play. I hope to get Wrangar to 65+ and Wranngar to level 72 at least.

Wrangar 11/19/08

I played Wrangar, my DeathKinght, for about an hour and a half tonight and got him to level 59. I was questing in Hellfire Peninsula and it went pretty good for the most part. I got to 59 there and went to Shattrath to get a Heartstone from the Innkeeper at Aldor Rise so I could set that as home. I went back to Ebon Hold and got training and changed the runes on my sword, thinking the whole time I could take that portal to Stormwind. Funny story, the portal was only there for the quest. I flew back to Stormwind and then went to Darnassus because I was going to do some battlegrounds with him but then decided not too. I haven't been playing it long enough and don't think I am good enough with it to hit the battlegrounds yet. Besides I want to get both Wrangar and Wranngar to level 80. I expected to get on early and get a couple levels yesterday but ended up not getting on at all. Tomorrow I might have another chance to get on early and, hopefully, get a couple more levels.