Finally lvl 80 on my Death Knight

Well its taken some time since I first created him but Alithas my Death Knight (DK) finally made it to lvl 80 last night in Icecrown. To some degree I enjoyed leveling up my Unholy Death Knight more from the point of learning and skilling in playing my DK and the class. As well I was really quite happy to be finally done with the leveling process of leveling him up to say the least though. So another one of my goals is complete for now and that makes my 3rd lvl 80.

Repetition in leveling gets really old fast going through much the same content. But I just tried to find other ways to enjoy the leveling aspect while doing so to make it fun. I made my DK somewhere back in early April 09 after I came back from my long hiatus from WoW just to get the experience and feel since during the time I was actually in WotLK Beta I never spent any time playing one since I was just focused on Paladin stuff back then in beta.

It was fun to get the feel of the class playing a DK but I was never fanboy as WoW goes about playing one. Looking cool is one thing, but play mechanic is still something you have to actually enjoy after you get beyond the look of a class. What did appeal to me was that DK were a melee class which I liked and more easily understood to various degree. As well they were just anti-paladin and since I played a Paladin for what seem forever it was just good to play something opposite or anti class wise how I always played as my Paladin.

So started my DK Alithas and just leveled him up slightly to lvl 65 just to play around with Inscription at the time mostly. So for months he quietly made errands in Ogrimmar just milling/inking and selling Glyphs as side income. He did well in peaceful coexistence with the market at the time. Market has since changed a bit.

So since one my goals preparing for WoW Cataclysm was to get my current Alts leveled up so in action I had to level up my DK. A old friend rolled a DK and was now playing on my server so that played a bit into that since we both was playing one. So I spec'd and level my DK as Unholy because I found it appealing and just to be anti-paladin and anti what I've always played. Spread disease and pestilence vs curing it. Sometimes I really just swimming against the tide of things.

Leveling my DK I actually had to relearn how to play one since my DK sat for months not played. Was fun to level but more so learning and skilling part and going through the paces vs just going through the content. So the learning and skilling part was fun. Leveling is still and was much a pain. Nothing new leveling but it seemed easier to level. Dealing with casters leveling was a way to get revenge as a DK vs back when leveling my Paladin when casters were always a pain. I still found leveling my Shaman more fun overall vs a DK. But that's just my playstyle.

The last level was a pain just because it was one level more to go and just wanted to get it over with. Leveling without rest bonus sucks as well especially when you been through the content before also. But I'm finally glad to be done with leveling up my DK for now and maybe can do more fun stuff with him when I have the time. Only profession he's skilled in is Master in Inscription and First Aid, everything else is at lvl 1 so that's allot of work to skill him up.

Have yet to decide on another profession for him. More less can't decide really. I'm not one to like heavy crafting professions, I tend to prefer gathering overall vs heavy crafting professions. But Jewelcrafting have some appeal and I don't have a alt that does that. So that have some appeal. Overall lots of loose end stuff to do on him let alone put him in some semi decent gear when have time.

Only real thing I found slightly interesting leveling my DK is their self healing ability. Funny almost all the classes I play have some form of healing yet I don't practice the art of being a healer in any real fashion. But leveling up my DK I barely used Bandages or had to eat all that often to regain health unless soloing something difficult. I just ran off found a mob and Death Strike it back to full health often vs Bandaging or eating. When I leveled my Paladin way back then, eating and drinking for mana was all too common as well as using a ton of Bandages leveling up. Much different leveling a DK mechanic wise.

After learning and skilling and learning DK mechanics to some degree leveling up I think I can enjoy playing a DK to some degree vs letting him sit in a corner gathering corpse dust..... again. DK's are a very easy class to play right out the box, but can seem a more challenging time to master play properly mechanic wise. I still prefer playing my Paladin vs a DK. But Shamans are fun and enjoy playing a Shaman more than I enjoy playing a DK. All different play styles. One of those is going to win out eventually.

Blog Fix

Seems some visitors to the site been experiencing a login popup with the tag Claymorehill.com for the login box that came up. Appears that blog which was in my "Blogs I Read" section was causing a site login box to pop up as the RSS Feed tried to update from all the blogs in that section for some wired reason.

Also appears that blog above is now limited access or authorization required as well just checking. Anyway I removed the blog from my "Blogs I Read" section and that seems to have fixed the problem since the RSS don't have to try to pull updated info from there.

Thanks for the feedback letting me know about the login popup related to that.

Faction Change?

The recent announced new Faction Change service is amusing with the amount of Faction swapping going on. Blizzard sure will reap some huge profit from this new added service as well. What a way to reap some huge profit.

What does Faction Change service mean to me?

It don't mean a Damn Thing to Ardent Defender!

All my characters are born and raised in the Horde. I love the Horde. You couldn't get me to switch sides to join the Alliance. No Way! Absolutely Not!

For the Horde! May all the Alliance commit grant treachery to their faction and come join the growing Horde!

I know the Horde got many of you for sure.

Working on my Goals

Right now just working on some my "Immediate" goals and leveling up my Unholy Death Knight Alithas. I've got my Goals in order and I'm kicking them in gear to get them done........... before the next expansion of Cataclysm. So my current project is getting my Death Knight leveled up at the moment. So he's at 76 and moving on. Stopped to have a chat with the man Arthas. Don't our names seem so similar?

It really took me a while to get a hang of playing a Death Knight again after months. He was at 65 for quite a while just doing AH business in Orgrimmar. After that much time I had completely forgotten how to play a Death Knight. So it took me a while and with some EJ Forum research reading over some time. But I got the swing of things going after a while. I still prefer playing my Shaman for fun vs my Death Knight that's my personal flavor. But the DK is still fun and just a different play style. Getting the rotations down took some practicing but I got it down as well pretty much. As well as relearning how to properly use some abilities though still working on most.

Ran a few instances when I had some time so done several. Did a DTK run last night with a few 75-77 as a lvl 75 DK last night. I was most leet on the DPS meter. Duh I'm not even a real DPSer from a experience point of things. But I did make my best effort to just do DPS and give my best effort like I always do. I remember being in some Heroics on my Paladin where dps didn't even break 1K DPS or barely. My gear is just regular gear and nothing impressive. I couldn't believe I topped the DPS meter the entire run and usually on my previous Instance run usually #1 or 2. No loot, but it was just fun to know where I score among other people that DPS as well.

Did a regular Hall of Stone run didn't pick up any loot either nor did i have any the quests for it since I was lvl 75 as well when I did. I beat the lvl 78 Hunter for DPS by a few points. I think I can DPS i guess then seeing my numbers are up there.

We had a Paladin tank the run which seem like a new Paladin or a inexperienced one. I haven't played my Paladin for a while but still keep up with stuff. The young healing Priest healed the run fine. The Tank used Seal of Light to tank the almost entire run and drank for mana often. Never once did he ever use Seal of Corruption or did I even see him use Divine Plea or kept it up. He always pulled with throwing Avengers Shield and then stood right there as the mobs came to him and then right there and when mobs was on him dropped a Consecration then attacked. Was just funny to notice these things. Never say a Judgement drop on the pull either. But he was always out of mana it seems. Anyway we finished the run ok. A view from the other side looking at the mirror.

For now working on getting my Unholy Death Knight to 80 as one my immediate goals that needs focus in getting it done before the road to the next expansion in Cataclysm gets shorter and shorter. Just one of many things working on to get done before the next expansion. If you have stuff you need to do before the next expansion start working on it now if you haven't completed it yet.

Maintenance Day Post 09/01/09

Reason I haven't been posting as much is I'm just more focus at the moment with playing the game and trying to get a few goals done. Thus I've been a bit focused on doing that and a few other things that have me a bit tied up time wise.

For the most part I'm kinda working on some more immediate goals while planning for the future in WoW and instead of doing certain things later given all the news of recent BlizzCon in relation to the next expansion I'm doing them now and get them out the way of things first. So after leveling up my Shammy to 80 which I quite enjoyed allot I put him in some decent blues and one or two pieces of Epic. Overall his gear is ok for now.

I did pick up Dual spec on my Shammy so he's now Enhancement/Elemental so in my off time I can practice being a range caster in mail when I may not feel like doing melee. My Shaman stands a good chance of being my #2 behind my Paladin. For all that's uncertain I like playing him enough that he can be #1 some day possibly. Why don't more people play Shamans? Playing a Shaman and Dropping Totems is Fun!

In the past 3+ years I've never been much to devote allot of time to playing alts. But at the moment it will occupy some degree of my time considering the next expansion as well and how I will choose to continue to play the game if I do. One of my focus at the moment is getting all my alts that I plan to play ducks in a row and getting it all straighten out now vs later before the new expansion gets here for Beta and more. I should have to worry less about getting a alt leveled up later in prep for the new expansion and be able to focus doing other things. So i have chosen to do things now!

Dusting off the Death Knight

So I finally decided to blow the corpse dust off my 65 DK who been brewing up business for some months with Master Inscriptions selling Glyphs in Orgrimmar since early April. It was a hard choice considering other battles he's been fighting at the AH which in itself is another story I have to ink here. I'd forgotten how to play a DK as well. So did some research reading over several threads at the EJ forum to catch up with things and theory. But for other reasons also I started leveling up my DK which is spec'd Unholy. How opposite can you go from playing a Paladin. Holy to most Unholy!

So far I really an undecided as what to choose for my DK profession along side Inscription. So much undecided.

An Old Dear Friend

One the games I used to play before playing WoW was that I used to play SecondLife. I still do, but mostly just to log in and check up on friends that still play there and see what's happening. I probably started playing that around the exact time WoW started. But I had never heard of WoW back then. Back then SecondLife was interesting to me, more so for just being able to create your own stuff, model stuff, designing stuff and just creating whatever you wanted on a blank canvas. I enjoy being able to create stuff and actually enjoy rendering models as well as enjoying texturing and texturing model creation. So I played that for a while. During that time I remember meeting several friends some of whom also happen to also play WoW as well today.

One of my Secondlife friend Val who helped me learn that game and someone I used to build stuff with in Secondlife when I did plays WoW as well. On another server she played as a Alliance raid healing Priest. She asked me to join her on her server as .... Allaince. But I couldn't agree to play Alliance as a die hard Horde. So she eventually decided to roll Horde on my server as a DK and level up on my server but be fun as well leveling up with her. So one the reason I reluctantly dusted off my DK and started leveling him up for more the social game of things. Its been a bit fun leveling with someone else for a change vs my usual solo leveling atmosphere which I usual enjoy.

So its been able to run a few Northrend dungeons with Val for fun as well a few guildies leveling up as well in the same level range which was rather fun. So last night we had all guildie run doing UK, Nexus and AN. Was all fun as a young small guild group leveling up. Somewhat more important since its my Shaman's guild as well which he started somewhere around lvl 5 or so with all low lvl players mostly. My Shaman mostly out leveled everyone else. So coming of age playing my DK a few of us ran some new Northrend dungeons last night, so was fun.

Other Stuff to Do

I'll probably go ahead and level up my 70 Hunter when I get my DK to 80 since he has 2 pieces of Heirlooms the shoulder and the chest piece of mail to use left over from leveling my Shaman to put to good use. Hunters level pretty fast so it should also be another minor detour on my off time. I'll probably get my 22 Druid out of Tarren Mills and attempt to level him up to 60+ as the last character I'll ever level in the World of Azeroth as it is today before the next expansion changes things. That will be my collection of playing characters, none of whom wear cloth. As well all the minor alt distractions will be out of the way ahead of time for the next expansion so can just focus on things at lvl 80 with whichever character in the game at hand.

Preparing for Cataclysm

I've been thinking about the next expansion much and what I'll probably roll as a character to level in the new experience of Azeroth transformed anew. Horde will get the new Goblin race. I Worgen just looks more roguish and evil fun to play. But I'm for the Horde! And Goblins do look roguish as well. Sticking will all things melee I'll probably end up rolling a Rogue. I did level a BE Rogue once to 20 so I somewhat played the class before. So what that means I'll have to prepare and get me a set of lvl 1-80 Heirlooms in preparation for the new journey from 0-80 in Cataclysm.

My 22 Druid already have 1 piece of Leather Heirloom Shoulders which I can eventually use for my future Goblin Rogue. Will just need to collect the rest gaining lots of new Champion Seals. Then preparing for Cataclysm will be complete and out of the way as well as worrying about leveling any other alts based on current proposed classes.

If your going to be playing the new expansion, it really will be a damn smart idea if your already lvl 80 to start collecting a full set of Heirloom for your future character. I guess it helps as well knowing just what your going to play so you know what to get or how much Seals you will need to complete a set whichever you decide if you cant already decide.

I can tell you for sure 10% XP rate with one Heirloom Shoulder piece is nice. 20% XP rate with Heirloom Chest is awesome. If Blizz adds a 3rd piece for 30% XP rate leveling a Alt it will be Damn sure Awesome leveling from 0-80. Go get you some if you aren't already got some.