Shealin - Level 52 Fire Mage - 9/19/10

I got on Shealin for a little bit today and got her to level 52. I did some questing in Un'Goro Crater and one dungeon, Blackrock Depths Prison.

I was having some problems with lag while we were in the dungeon but I made it through and that is where I leveled to 52. I did a couple quests you get when you first go into Un'Goro from Tanaris and made my way to the flight point and grabbed a bunch of quests there. I am still a long way from 80 and I only have a month and a half to get there before the expansion comes out.

I ported myself to Ironforge after I leveled and got my training done. I hit the auction house to see if there was anything I could upgrade but the only thing that was better than what I had, the person wanted five times what it was worth so I passed. It is really not worth spending too much gold on stuff when you are leveling because you outgrow it so fast.

Hopefully going forward I will have more time to play and will get Shealin to 80 before the expansion comes out. If not, it is not the end of the world, I still have 5 more I will have to level up to 85 and regear.

Shealin - Level 51 Fire Mage - 8/14/10

I haven't been getting on much lately and if I don't watch it I'm not going to have my Mage, Shealin, to 80 before the expansion comes out.

I am not too worried tho, it is going to start getting cold here soon so I will be sticking to the indoors more which will give me more time to play :).

I did two dungeon runs through Temple of Atal'Hakkar, A.K.A. Sunken Temple, on Shealin Saturday. That got me to level 51. We had a couple nice runs. The first group I got into was already in progress, they were about half way through. We finished up without any mishaps, then the next group I got into had the same Druid Tank and Pally in it. That run went really smooth too. I got a nice pair of gloves out of there on the second run.

The Tank in both those runs was great. The Druid was Tanking and the Pally was off-tanking and I didn't pull anything off them, they were holding aggro really well. I was running about 200 DPS more than the next highest person and finished the second run over 80K DPS ahead of the next highest overall. That is the BoA gear tho, that and a lot of AoE's which really add up to some nice DPS because you are hitting and damaging so many mobs at once.

I did a little bit of questing in Tanaris too while I was on. I have the rest of level 51 rested and who knows how much of level 52. Add the double XP to the 20% XP gain I get from killing mobs while wearing my BoA gear and it doesn't take long to level.

I am going to try and get on during the week more, there are people I used to talk to every night that I haven't talked to in awhile.

Shealin - Level 50 Fire Mage 8/7/10

I got on Shealin for a little while this afternoon and got her to level 50. It has been a couple weeks since I last logged on, I have been pretty busy.

I did a run through Blackrock Depths Prison and that got me leveled to 50. Me and another person from my server leveled to 50 at the exact same instant and everyone thought we were doing "Recruit A Friend" but we didn't even know each other, it was just a coincidence. Anyway that got me to level 50 and I teleported to Darnassus to learn to make a portal to Darnassus, then teleported to Ironforge to get my Mage training.

I did part of a quest in Tanaris while I was on too but didn't get to finish it in the time I had. I talked to a few people who were wondering where I had been. I had a lot more time on my hands before and was on all the time, now I am lucky to get on for a few hours every weekend. I am planning to get on tomorrow and get a few more hours in, I have a lot of rested XP and might be able to get to level 52.

Shealin

I didn't get a chance to get on at all during the week, but I finally had some time to get on this weekend for a couple hours.

I did a couple dungeons on Shealin and some questing in Tanaris and got her to level 49.

I did 2 runs through Maraudon Yellow and a run through Blackrock Depths. The run through BRD was a lot of fun and we kept on going after we completed the Prison so I got a lot of good XP out of it. I also had lag so bad towards the end I couldn't move most the time and ended up disconnecting a couple times before I finally gave up.

The farther we went into BRD the lower my DPS got. The reason for that was the farther in we went the higher the level of the mobs got. The higher level the mobs got the more casts I missed, resulting in lower DPS. My hit rating is pretty low even though I drink a potion to raise it by 10 for an hour. There is just not a lot of cloth gear with hit on it. I have +5 hit enchanted onto my boots and an amulet for my neck with +11 hit but that is only 16. With the potion it is 26, still not great. When I get to level 80, the gear I will be getting will have hit on it as well as some trinkets I can get. Hit cap for a caster is 17%, right now my hit rating is about 2.5%. I have a long way to go. I was missing about 1 out of 3 casts towards the end of my run through BRD on mobs that were 4 to 5 levels higher than me.

Like I have said before, I am in no hurry to get to level 80 on this one, I am going to take my time and enjoy leveling it. My job now keeps me away from WoW during the week for the most part but I get on when I can and make sure I get some time in on the weekends. I will get to 80 eventually :).

Shealin - Level 48 Fire Mage - 7/18/10

I didn't have time to play much at all this week. I got on for a half hour here, an hour there but didn't really get much done on Shealin.

I did have a few hours between last night and this morning though, and got her to level 48. I did only dungeons this morning as the wait time was really low so I could get in fast. I did dungeons and some questing last night.

I am still stuck in Maraudon for the most part. I did 3 runs through Orange and one through Yellow last night along with one run through Zul'Farrak, which we queued into, and one run through Blackrock Depths, which we queued into. I was with a pretty good group last night and we stuck together, running dungeon after dungeon. I got a lot of XP from that. I hit 48 last night.

Today I did one and a half runs though Maraudon Yellow. About half way through the first run I started getting bad lag and really high latency, around 1200ms. I stuck it out even though I thought I was going to disconnect a couple times I was lagging so bad. After I got out I logged out and back in and my latency was good again, around 300ms. I queued for another dungeon, got Maraudon Yellow again and made it about half way though that before the lag hit me again. It got so bad I would freeze up for a full minute and when I unfroze everyone would be gone, onto the next mobs. I finally made it though that one too though. When I got out my latency was normal and the lag was gone.

I decided to try one more and got Temple of Atal'Hakkar, a.k.a. Sunken Temple. That went pretty well until we got down into the middle area, then the lag hit worse than ever. After 5 minutes of that I finally disconnected and didn't bother logging in again. I might try to log on for a while again tonight, I'm not sure.

Shealin - Level 46 Fire Mage - 7/11/10

I did some more questing and some more dungeons on Shealin and managed to get her to level 46. She is moving along nicely. As usual I was in queue for a random dungeon the whole time I was playing, except when I was in a dungeon, and I did quests while I waited. I got caught in a sandstorm in Tanaris while I was questing, it wasn't too bad, I have been in worse.

I finally got out of Maraudon Purple and into Maraudon Orange. I also had one run through Zul'Farrak that I got a lot of XP and a level out of. Then it was back to Maraudon Purple again. The speed at which I am leveling I should be done with these soon tho.

When I turned in all the quests I completed in Zul'Farrak and a couple I didn't have time to turn in before I went in there I leveled again to 46. Only 34 more levels to go.

Fail Tanks

I had a couple pretty bad runs today on Brieonna. The main problem was the tank, what's the hurry?

The first one was in Zul'Farrak. I zoned in and the first thing I saw was the tank had typed "I hope you're good at healing and dispelling Brieonna". The next thing I saw, when I looked up, was the tank was at 40% health and nowhere in sight... They had mounted and gathered up the first 3 groups of mobs. Not the first group of 3 mobs but 3 groups of 3, 4 and 3 mobs. That was 10 mobs. I barely made it to them in time to heal them before they died. When those were finally down they said "Do you see why I said that?", to which I replied "Yeah, because you're an idiot. This has fail written all over it, I'm outta here", and I bailed. I don't understand why these tanks think they need to set some kind of new speed record doing these instances. I had another one in Maraudon that was doing something similar, they were running on to the next group before the last group was dead. What do I do, stay and heal the people that are fighting the last group or run ahead and heal the tank that is fighting the new group? I have just been bailing on groups like that.

I had another group in Maraudon where everyone was a tank. The tank was pulling and tanking and so was a Paladin, Warlock and Druid. I was supposed to keep all of them alive... I bailed on that group too. What ends up happening in a group like that is, I end up getting attacked and take a beating or die because the mobs come after me when I heal.

When I am in a good group, and there were quite a few that were good, I can usually keep the tank healed with HoT's (Heal over Time) and an occasional flash heal. I rarely have to heal anyone else unless we are fighting something that has some kind of AoE (Area of Effect) attack that hits everyone. The other people that might need heals are melee fighters like Warriors, Paladins, some Shamans and Rogues because they are right there fighting full contact. That is the way it works. A Warlock, Mage or Shadow Priest, someone who wears cloth, should not be melee fighting anything. They are wearing cloth, they are not melee fighters, they are ranged fighters that should not come in contact with anything. I end up burning all my mana just trying to keep them alive and don't have time to take care of the people who really should be receiving the healing.

At the first sign of trouble, tank going recklessly fast, people other than the tank pulling, I give them a warning. If it's the tank I tell them to slow down. If someone other than the tank is pulling I tell them we have a tank, let them do their job. If they listen fine, we can continue on. If they continue in the same manner I tell them I am leaving and bail. I never do it during a fight or going into a fight, I wait until we are at a standstill or as much of a standstill as some tanks allow.

I realize that some of these people are on their first characters and don't really know what they are doing, although in the mid forties they should have a better idea than some seem to have, and try to give them some advice. Some take it but some already know everything there is to know. The ones that already know everything there is to know are the ones I usually end up bailing on because they are the ones that will not listen and continue right on doing what they were doing.

You can usually spot someone who has an 80 and is familiar with instances, they move along at a pace everyone is comfortable with, they don't pull anything if they are not the tank, and they seem to know what they are doing, those are the groups I like best.

Brieonna - Level 45 Holy Priest

I have been spending most my time working on my priest, Brieonna lately. I haven't even done the random heroics on any of my other characters in a few days.

I have been doing random dungeons on Brieonna as well as questing and that is leveling me up fast. Lately I have been through Scarlet Monastary Library, Armory and Cathedral as well as Uldaman, Maraudon, and Zul'Farrak. As the dungeon finder usually puts you into the dungeons at the earliest level there is a lot of experience to be had doing them, that helps leveling go quicker.

At level 40 I was able to use the Reins of the Armored Brown Bear, which I had purchased earlier, after training for 150 riding skill. Now that I am on a 100% speed mount questing is going even faster too. I am now 13 levels away from Outlands and once I get there, leveling from questing will go even faster not to mention all the dungeons there are to do there.

More Random Dungeons 4/8/10

I did some more questing and dungeons on Breeonna last night and got her a couple more levels, to level 53 now.

I got my quest done in the Temple of Atal'Hakkar, more commonly known as the Sunken Temple. I got a nice trinket, Enamored Water Spirit, out of it when I handed it in. That was worth it and was a pretty easy quest to do. I am at the level now where Sunken Temple is pretty easy, not that is was hard to begin with. I got queued into Sunken Temple twice last night but got the quest done the first time. A lot of times you will get queued into a dungeon because someone left for whatever reason and that makes it a little harder to get quests done, but I did 2 full runs.

I also did 4 runs through Blackrock Depths. I am at the level now where that is a lot easier than it was although there are still a lot of quitters that break up the groups. Out of the 4 runs I did manage to get the random done twice. In the last one I was in we lost a person, the healer, after we had killed the boss to complete the dungeon. We wanted to kill more bosses but we couldn't go back into dungeon finder for another person because it would have queued us into another dungeon as we had finished that dungeon's requirements. We decided to try 4 manning it and see how far we could get. I took over the role of healer and we did pretty well, we got 4 more bosses down and completed a quest I had before we wiped. I think we did really well considering we were short a person and had a DPS for a healer. I was alternating between DPS and heals during the fights so I was kept pretty busy.

Random Dungeons 4/7/10

I broke from my normal routine tonight and didn't do the daily cooking, fishing or even the daily random heroic dungeon on Gomorra or Brieanna. Instead I concentrated on leveling up my Shaman Breeonna.

What I am doing to level her up as fast as possible is a combination of questing and random dungeons. I am always either in queue for a dungeon or in a dungeon. I quest in between dungeons. There is a lot of XP to be had doing dungeons and the dungeon finder puts you into dungeons as soon as you are eligible for them. That gives you maximum XP and some nice rewards that are your level or a couple levels higher than you.

Using that technique I was able to level Breeonna 3 more levels tonight, from 48 to 51. She hit level 50 with 3 days 14 hours /played so she is on track to hit level 80 in under 10 days /played. I am doing this without using any leveling mods or helpers.

I was in 2 different dungeons tonight. The first one I was in was Sunken Temple located in Swamp of Sorrows. I got a nice cape out of there for her. The next dungeon I was in was Blackrock Depths. This one is a hugh dungeon and a lot harder than any I have been in so far. It took me 3 different groups to actually complete it once. It was a reminder of why I stopped doing dungeons in the first place, at the first sign of trouble the group falls apart, people leave and you are left without enough people to finish. Finally in the 3rd group I ended up with in there we completed the dungeon, by killing the required boss, then continued on to some of the other bosses. Altogether I spent 4 hours plus in Blackrock Depths with the 3rd group and we still did not get all the bosses down. The place is that big, we just ran out of time.

I got a Shaman quest to go back into Sunken Temple and collect some feathers so hopefully that will fall into my dungeon rotation tonight.

Breeonna

I have been working on Breeonna a little bit lately and have gotten her to level 46. Breeonna is an Elemental Shaman. She will be my fourth level 80. I don't have a lot of time played on this one and I am trying to get her to level 80 in under 10 days /played.

/played in the game tells you how much actual time you have spent playing a certain character. At level 46 Breeonna has less than 3 days /played. Each character I level is faster than the last one, Gomorra took me 49 days /played to get to level 70. Wranngar took me 23 days /played to get to level 70. Brieanna took me 11 days /played to get to level 70 and another 4 days /played to get to level 80 for a total for 15 days /played to level 80. I spent a lot of time going back and leveling Brieanna's skills and a lot of time in the battlegrounds on her. I think if I don't waste time on that I will be able to get her to 80 in under 10 days /played.

Basically what I have been doing on Breeonna is a combination of questing and random dungeons. When questing I only do yellow, orange and red quests, if a quest is green when I get it, or turns green in my quest log when I level, I drop it, not worth the time for the experience it will give. I can usually get a level or 2 in a few hours time that way.

Yonezoe 5/11/08

Wranngar ran Yonezoe through Zul'Farrak tonight so she could get her Carrot on a Stick. It is a trinket that increases your mount speed by 3%. She also grabbed all the other ZF quests she could find. We ran the instance without any problems. When she got out and turned in her quests she leveled to 42 :). She also got a lot of items to disenchant for enchanting supplies.