Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Life at 85, now what....

Its now been just slightly over a month since since reactivated my WoW account for Cataclysm. Since then have had to play ALLOT of catchup on class and talent changes of some of the lvl 80 classes I played back in WotLK and re-learn how to play those classes among the changes for Cataclysm. And so over the month that followed since Cataclysm launched have gotten three of my five lvl 80 characters that I elected to play that were at max level in WotLK now to lvl 85 for Cataclysm.

It really was the most busy of times in all of WoW for all of 2010 the last month reading many blog post and old posts about class changes. As well as reading Elitist Jerks forums and compodiums of class changes and analysis to really get up to speed on class changes. As well understanding mechanic changes for someone that hadn't payed much attention to WoW for almost the entire year.

It was allot to catch up on and understand all the changes. Still day to day playing Wow depending on which class I'm playing I find myself having to look up re-read stuff at times to be able to recall what I had read of class mechanics. So for the last month it was allot of time spent doing allot of WoW reading in various places.

So of my 5 level 80 characters from WotLK I've elected to level up three. I leveled up my Paladin first to lvl 85 which was a no brainer and easier to understand how to play even if I didn't understand anything much at all. Immediately after that then I worked at leveling my Shadow Priest and Shaman roughly at the same time though it was easier to play Shadow vs Toteming as a Shaman. And so I leveled up my Shadow second and lastly my Shaman which took more time to get used to playing again. I decided not to level up my Death Knight. And my Hunter I may level up given the class has changed mechanic wise and curious to how it now plays among the changes.

Though I did spend some time doing some the reputation dailies on my Paladin at 85, overall just didn't spend that much time at it nor on my other 85's as they got to the max level. It just wasn't long after trying to do dailies that deep down I already felt tired of doing it. So just spend the time leveling up my characters.

Now having characters at lvl 85 and overall just a person who likes to complete doing things, spent some my game time leveling up my character professions from WotLK max level mostly to at least make them useful to various degree in Cataclysm.

  • So have max leveled Mining from 450 to 525 on my Paladin mostly doing so while leveling to lvl 85. Leveled up Alchemy from 450 to 525 a bit after which wasn't too bad to level. As well have leveled up both Fishing & Cooking to 525 on my Paladin. I've elected not to waste good expensive Embersilk Cloth atm to level up First Aid at 450 just for bandages.
  • Leveled up Tailoring from 450 to 525 and that was painful to leveled with the price of Embersilk Cloth which I farmed all myself and some little gained from leveling up my other characters. Managed to pick up all the new crafted Epic Tailoring patterns for Shadow and didn't waste time picking up the new blue pvp Tailoring patterns that I will never craft for any reason. As much as I would of liked to, I decided leveling up JC which was at 220 from WotLK era that it was a waste of time. Crafted a few items for a few points of JC and my hearth wasn't in it to sink gold into leveling up a very expensive profession material wise in JC. I'm just not going to do it! So I stopped before I got too far ahead. But I did level up both Fishing & Cooking on my Shadow Priest both from 450 to 525 which was no gold sink at all.
  • For my Shaman leveled up Herbalism from 450 to 525 which wasn't too difficult. Then spend allot of extra time questing after hitting lvl 85 to do extra quests for quest rewards to DE for material to level up Enchanting from 450 to 525. That was really quite painful having to obtain the materials to DE to level the skill knowing full well how much the material dust and essences can sell for. Yet was even more painful to know just how expensive the mats are all the way and to see other people sell their enchants on AH for less than 1/5 the material cost. That's just sickening and no fun while leveling the skill. Yet leveled the Enchanting skill and managed to pickup all the new enchants except the 3 new ones that require the Maelstrom Crystals for obvious reasons. Leveled up Cooking on my Shaman from 450 to 525. Fishing remain at a low level on my Shaman at around 75.
While most my active guildmates a few that were spending time running Heroics day in day out all day long. I was spending time leveling up my character profession skills to make them useful. So guess who get asked to cook everyone else's guild Food Buffs, do Transmute Truegold with Alchemy, as well as do Enchanting for guildies gear? Whats also painful about leveling up Enchanting is when other people want you to enchant their gear and seemingly expect you to do it for free as well and the cheap asses who barely want to pay for your services after having leveled up the expensive skill.

So at this point I'm just about done with really leveling up profession skills. I'm not all that excited with having to do dailies day in day out for faction reputations. Nor am I excited to Pug Heroics. My experience with running Pugs go back years when I gloriously ran them in good old days of BC Heroics way before Dungeon Finder and way before Pug ever became popular as it is today with Dungeon Finder. A person also change over time as well playing a game which has lasted years. Some the Cataclysm dungeons have run as dps leveling having been that great, some were, most overall wasn't in Pug groups. So I'm just not all that excited about having to endure grinding Heroics for gear to advance in the rat race that's the endgame of WoW.

I promised myself that on returning to playing WoW for Cataclysm that I will take it easy, I will relax more when playing, I will just have a good time and not worry about too much and not take things so seriously anymore, that I won't try to do much to burn myself out which occur's frequently. So a bit now pondering now what...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"So I'm just not all that excited about having to endure grinding Heroics for gear to advance in the rat race that's the endgame of WoW."

That's where I am right now. I told myself I was going to take it easy too, and I'm not eager to get started on that never ending treadmill. Problem is, I think I'm taking it too easy :P I haven't played the game much in the last two weeks. I started doing things like leveling my professions and trying out archaeology as well, and I found I could only do that so much. Maybe my WoW phase is truly over now, perhaps it's time to look into maybe leveling up another character, which is what I truly enjoy, or maybe it's time to take a break again.

Unknown said...

It seems to be a running trend. I got my first toon to 85 (paladin), got my professions maxed out (inscription/blacksmithing), realized that the dungeon queue was too long, and then decided to level other alts. I've since leveled my mage, warrior, and druid to 85. Their professions are maxed out, too. The daily grind just doesn't appeal to me. I could tank/heal dungeons on my druid, but the regular dungeons I've run while leveling left a really bad taste in my mouth. I'm not trying to turn my play time into more stress. I get enough of that at work. Now I'm burned out on linear questing from 80-85, so I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm pretty sure I'm just about done with this game.

They built the end-game on running heroics, and then made running heroics so frustrating that it's not worth the effort. I refuse to sit in a queue for 45 minutes to wear a tabard/gain rep with a faction that gives a gear reward that will make running more heroics less painful? I know that was the model for the past expansions, but it just seems so much more transparent now. I'm not sure what it is. The reward doesn't match the amount of effort/time required. There should be a happy medium between WOTLK lolaoe and TBC trash that hits harder than bosses. Fewer things to do at end-game + long dungeon queues = nothing to do but level alts and grind professions. At least with the limited free time I have after work.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/01/11/breakfast-topic-has-cataclysm-let-you-down/

I highly recommend the comments. Very insightful and thoughtful opinions from a very diverse group of players. The general consensus is that we're not alone. Something is wrong.

Anonymous said...

Hello ppls,

I am running a Protection paladin myself, just recently reached level 85 so still in the gearing process.

Without wanting to sound too noobish, I have to say I am curious regarding all the ruckus around Heroics - has the difficulty increased that much, or simply a different approach is expected from players going in there( more cooldown usage, more CC, more strategy usage)?

On another topic and regarding the queues, can someone explain to me why is it that people are still getting such looong queues? Shouldn't the cross realm queuing change that or something?

Thanks for any forthcoming feedback.

Telurion
http://casualpaladin.wordpress.com/

Ardent Defender said...

@Telurion.

Heroics in Cataclysm is a bit more challenging than they were compared to WotLK era Heroics. Cataclysm Heroics does require more strategy, use of skill and more so CC ability. That is much different to WotLK Heroics which were much more AoE everything till the end of the dungeon.

So much different in Cataclysm as its likely to wipe or have a group go wrong on mobs in Heroics from some failure to use proper CC or effectively working together. More use of skill is required.

Much more group effort required in Cataclysm than WotLK. You could say its more like BC Heroics again. As for long queues for Dungeons even across servers the reason can be many. There are much more dps players than tanks and healers naturally.

Its also more challenging to gear up and run Heroics and Tank them as a Tank and Heal as healers. So not as easy for many that don't normally do so to just switch and jump into a dungeon as a Tank or Healer. And some don't want to tank or heal for many LFD groups as compared to WotLK era.