The World of Warcraft Thread

[Ustwo]

I will be canceling pretty soon. The 'new' devs doth suck.

[Destrox]

Originally Posted by Lasereth

I cancelled my account today. Oh well. The game sucks at 60...it's all about who has the most time and luck to do instance runs. Boooring. I'm now playing Battlefield 2.

-Lasereth

Oddly enough I did the same exact thing 2 days ago.

2 level 60 chars and both just bore me.

The hunt for loot at 60 requires WAY to much time, and WAY to many lost efforts in instances that have less then 2% drop chances for peices i need.

Some day I'll go back to this game, but I'm glad to be out of it atm.

[Lasereth]

Yeah, I just found the WoW atmosphere boring. The hunt for loot is old like Destrox said...especially when it has a 1% chance of dropping and it takes 4 hours for one shot of it, not to mention any other people in the group that want it. WoW is definitely the "best" MMORPG I've ever played...it's the funnest...it has the best combat system...but the atmosphere simply sucks. I hate it. I like EQ-style worlds where the world feels like an actual place instead of levels. The gryphons in WoW ruined the world-experience by teleporting you from level to level instead of having to go across the world. The boats teleporting you is stupid too...the game just feels like a level by level videogame instead of a living, breathing world. EverQuest may be waay too harsh on dying and waay too harsh on leveling up but at least it felt like an actual world. WoW's superb gameplay kept me to almost two 60's...but now I'm realizing that my hatred of the atmosphere makes the game boring to me. Not to mention I REALLY REALLY hate how you can lose your PVP rank (which was basically the only fun I had in the game at 60).

-Lasereth

[Frosstbyte]

Originally Posted by Lasereth

...but the atmosphere simply sucks. I hate it. I like EQ-style worlds where the world feels like an actual place instead of levels. The gryphons in WoW ruined the world-experience by teleporting you from level to level instead of having to go across the world. The boats teleporting you is stupid too...the game just feels like a level by level videogame instead of a living, breathing world.

That complaint never crossed my mind. Atmosphere is one of the things I'd rank highest about WoW. I would HATE to have to run all over the place all the damn time. Talk about a waste of fucking time. Even with an epic mount, mithril spurs and the riding speed enchant, you're still talking an unbelievable amount of time you'd have to spend doing nothing but traveling. I mean, getting to Feathermoon from Auberdine on foot? Are you kidding? That's enough time to do a tribute run. Maybe even enough to do a baron run with a really efficient group. I always felt like the world flowed together really well, and even more so after I read the histories and had a better sense of the different zones.

The thing that makes WoW "unreal" to me is the fact that nothing in the game changes. The game world renews itself every few minutes and really renews itself once a week. Everyone does the same quests for the same people and the same "unique" monsters get killed over and over again. Before anyone jumps on me, I understand that it's not possible to have a videogame in which this isn't the case, but it just throws me out of the world when I think about it like that.

The 60 loot grind is a real bitch, too.

Whatever, I'm still having fun.

[Jadedfox]

As requested, here's my levelling guide for mages (Human/Alliance) and talent progression. A quick note, you will NOT enjoy WoW at all doing this. In fact you'll be missing 99% of the quests and instances and you will never ever group with anyone. You will not explore anything, you will not get a good feel for the amazing environments that exist. This playstyle is meant to level you as fast and efficient as possible, not to enjoy the game (until 60). You will not waste time on travelling around, getting professions, hanging around Ironforge chatting. You will power level and that's it. The only time you visit a major town is to buy new skills and some new gear off the AH. I do NOT recommend first time players doing this.

1-12 Elwynn Forest

Regular lowbie quests in Elwynn forest. You usually run out of quests when you hit level 9-10 but just grind some gnolls/spiders/wolves etc until 12.

12-20 Westfall

Do the defias series of quests. Kill quests so you may as well get the bonus xp from the quest while grinding. At 14 start grinding Harvest Watchers lvl 15 (?) found on the farms. Do these until 18 when you can comfortably finish the last defias quest. As you're doing the last defias quest, don't stop until you're 20 and keep grinding those Highway bandits.

20-22 Redridge/Lakeshire

Tons of easy kill quests here and you should be able to get 2-3 levels off them alone. At 22-23 kiss this place good bye and move to my favorite zone in the entire game Duskwood.

22(23)-32 Duskwood/Darkshire

This place is grinding heaven at these levels. First of all you have the nighwatch line of quests, then you have the worgen quests, and sven, and the hermit and god knows what. Great great xp . If you find yourself "stuck" i.e. a level too low to do the next quest, just grind undead at Raven Hill according to your level. A lot of these quests involves running from Raven Hill back to darkshire and back again. A quicker way, if you are at Raven Hill and need to go back to Darkshire, is actually to run west back to sentinel hill in westfall and fly to darkshire and vice versa. Heads up, stay away from undead that put a disease on you which slows cast time, drain mana etc. Ghouls will usually give you this.

32-34 Arathi/Refuge Point

OK, these two levels suck. I'm not sure what is a good spot here. It used to be Yeti's in Hillsbrad, but then the honor system came and ruined that, and now we have BG's so Hillsbrad may be safe again. I don't know. To be safe, I just went and killed raptors around refuge point in arathi. You can also do Witherbark Village. Either way these two levels are relatively slow and painful.

34-38 Desolace/Naga Island (20-25k xp/hour)

An annoying run to get to Desolace but well worth it in the end.

Naga Island. This place is great. If you look at the map for Desolace you'll see an island in the top northwest corner. Swim out there. Here you'll find Naga's that little HP and die really fast. Also, you'll never run out of spawns if you grind circles around the island. I love this place. Heads up for the occasional horde and a level 40 elite giant that rumble accross the island sometimes.

38-39 Swamp Of Sorrows (20-25k xp/hour)

One more painful level here. There are lvl 35 green dragonlings in the southwest corner of the map. Grind those for one level and do some quests in this area.

39-43 Swamp Of Sorrows (20-25k xp/hour)

Swamp elementals, top northwest corner of the map. Elementals in WoW tend to have a weakness against fire so if you follow my talent build (See below) you'll gain xp very very fast off these. Usualy grind in a circle pattern works out well.

43-48 Feralas/Feathermoon (25-30k xp/hour)

Run south from Feathermoon until you get to the island south of...the island feathermoon is on. Isle of Dread I think it's called. Anyway, kill some naga's and make way to the cave. You want to grind the naga's inside that cave since they are the shammy/caster variety and have significantly less HP than the warriors outside the cave. They are also higher level, go figure. This place is the bomb. Fast xp, tons of pearls drop from the clams, lots of greens and in my case an epic as well, the gut ripper which promptly sold on the AH for 60g.

48-50 Tanaris/Gadgetstan (25k xp/hour)

Go to the southwest corner of the map, thistleshrub valley and kill the elementals here. Again, they are vulnerable to fire so you'll kill fast.

50-52 Un'goro crater (25k xp/hour)

Do the silly fedex quests available from the npc's at the top/mid map (forget what the camp is called). That should get you a quick 50k xp. After that perpare for fireball crit heaven. Tar elementals lvl 50-52. Believe it or not, these things are so vulnerable to fire, even if one fireball is resisted they STILL get a small DoT on them. My highest crit was 1362 at level 50.

52-60 Dire Maul East (50k+ xp/hour)

This is why everyone and their mom rolled a mage after the dire maul patch came out. Not only does it take you 2-4 hours to level, but the drop rate is supposedly great for epics and blues (I didn't find it that amazing). But let me tell you, there is much money to be made in these 8 levels from this place.

OK so basic idea is to aoe grind the 7 lashers right at the entrance. They are lvl 54 so at starting this at 52 proved more difficult that I thought at first. I actually had to repspec to get blastwave to pull this off at 52.

The build that worked for me in here at 52 was:

Arcane:

Arcane Focus 5/5
Arcane Concentration 5/5
Evocation 1/1
Improved Arcane Explosion 5/5

Fire:

Improved Fireball 5/5
Ignite 5/5
Flamwthrowing 2/2
Pyroblast 1/1
Improved Flamestrike 3/3
Burning Soul 3/3
Incinerate 2/2
Blastwave 1/1
Critical Mass 3/3
Fire Power 2/5

This worked fine for me. People also say a frost spec works wonders in there, but I never played a frost mage and probably never will so I played what was comfortable to me. Basic strategy was:

Flamestrike
Flamestrike (around you so it hits when they reach you)
Cone of Cold
Blastwave
Arcane Explosion until dead.

A few times at 52 I was forced to use a health pot if the initial flamestrike pull got messed up. This doesn't happen very often. At 54 and onward you'll have no problems. You will the bulk of your money during these 8 levels selling greens on the AH. Especially Living Essence which is required for Hide of the Wild epic pattern. I AH'd these for 5-10g a piece and they sell. Note, I killed nearly 7000 lashers during these 8 levels which means I reset the instance almost 1000 times. I used a macro for this:

/invite [nameofpersonalreadyinagroup]
/script LeaveParty()

This way you can do a /who molten core and a pick a person that is in an mc group (or other high end instance) and put that name in your macro. This will reset the instance for you and you don't have to bother with a friend accepting your invites. The person you send an invite to won't even notice that you are using him.

Total time /played 1-60: 7 days 20 hours. I'm sure it can be done faster.

Have fun!

--jaded

EDIT: Oops, forgot to include talent progression as you level. You want to go down the fire tree since that's where you most efficient dps is. Faster kills = faster xp. Here's how:

Levels 10-14: Improved Fireball
Levels 15-16: Flame Throwing
Levels 17-21: Ignite
Levels 22-26: Improved Arcane Missiles
Levels 27-31: Arcane Concentration
Level 32 : Evocation
Levels 33-34: Incinerate
Levels 35-38: Burning Soul
Levels 39-43: Impact
Levels 44-46: Critical Mass
Levels 47-51: Fire Power

52 Respec to DM aoe build (see above)

Before you go: What no Pyroblast? The spell quite frankly sucks in my opinion. 6 sec cast = 2 fireballs in the same amount of time. And when you're in a grind mode you don't want to be casting a spell for 6 seconds.

[MrFlux]

Woot reached 58 this morning, only 2 more levels to go!

Here's me a couple days ago rockin' out on not one, but two Noggenfogger's.



I'm all out now, so any further pictures I post will be of a non-rockin' out night elf....

Until I go to Gadgetzan and buy some more.

[Halx]

Just got my epic mount today...

anyways, if any of you TFPers wanna come and make a character on Silvermoon, you've got a spot in our guild.. Brothers of the Snake

[Cardinal Syn]

Heres my Character on Stromreaver.

[akito]

Halx, what side? Horde or Alliance?

[-Ever-]

I feel you Lasereth. At one time I was considering rerolling and playing "my own" game and not using the gryphons at all to extend the reality aspect.

Too bad you quit though. I finally rolled a priest on Bleeding Hollow to play with you and your bro. I actually found a guy that knows you IRL but he said you hadn't played in a long time..

[Cynthetiq]

Originally Posted by Frosstbyte

That complaint never crossed my mind. Atmosphere is one of the things I'd rank highest about WoW. I would HATE to have to run all over the place all the damn time. Talk about a waste of fucking time. Even with an epic mount, mithril spurs and the riding speed enchant, you're still talking an unbelievable amount of time you'd have to spend doing nothing but traveling. I mean, getting to Feathermoon from Auberdine on foot? Are you kidding? That's enough time to do a tribute run. Maybe even enough to do a baron run with a really efficient group. I always felt like the world flowed together really well, and even more so after I read the histories and had a better sense of the different zones.

The thing that makes WoW "unreal" to me is the fact that nothing in the game changes. The game world renews itself every few minutes and really renews itself once a week. Everyone does the same quests for the same people and the same "unique" monsters get killed over and over again. Before anyone jumps on me, I understand that it's not possible to have a videogame in which this isn't the case, but it just throws me out of the world when I think about it like that.

The 60 loot grind is a real bitch, too.

Whatever, I'm still having fun.

If Monty Python were still together as a group doing what they do best, I know that they would do lots of takes on WoW ala Holy Grail and the "mechanical" nature of the quests.

I hate the traveling aspect of it, mounts or gryphs it's still such a long time to get from place to place, and maps aren't any help since each one is is it's own scale. I don't have infinite game time. I have plenty of other interests that take me outside of the house.

What I do like is that I can play with my wife and best friend who lives in LA.... and as time has come on... I've got 2 other old coworkers that have also jumped on as well.

[Drider_it]

hal you all use Teamspeak or a voice prog?

[-Ever-]

Since posting I travelled from Orgrimmar to Grom'gol (STV) and forced myself to walk to Stonard (SoS) instead of flying. All I was out to do was buy a Stonescale Oil recipe and I wound up ganking in duskwood and westfall for about 45 minutes, enjoying Elwynn nostalgia, and dancing with some alliance. It's funny how much more I immediately enjoyed the game from doing this and not skipping over the world. I think I'ma try to keep it up

-T

[Halx]

We're alliance.. forgot to mention that.

Right now, we're too small to bother with TS.. we're growing though.

We're looking for casters.. mage/warlock/priest

[akito]

Bah Halx... I've been a caster for too long. I've been wanting to make a warrior though. I can be persuaded to be a mage though, lol.

I'll roll a character on Silvermoon tonight when I get home from work.

[Frosstbyte]

Originally Posted by Halx

We're alliance.. forgot to mention that.

Right now, we're too small to bother with TS.. we're growing though.

We're looking for casters.. mage/warlock/priest

There's no "too small to bother with TS." My guild has maybe 10 active members plus a few friends who join us. There are nights when it's just two of us chatting away on it. And it makes 5-manning the endgame instances SO much easier. Typing's just clumsy. Easier to talk.

[akito]

just found out that Silvermoon is a 'Normal' server... sorry Halx, I need PvP. Why couldn't you be on a PvP server?

[Cynthetiq]

Originally Posted by akito

just found out that Silvermoon is a 'Normal' server... sorry Halx, I need PvP. Why couldn't you be on a PvP server?

Halx didn't start on silvermoon. I did. I started there with a few other friends because I wanted to play the game without distractions of getting "mugged" or "ganked" when I least expected it to just play with my friends.

The PvP aspect of the game is interesting to me, but not a draw, the draw to me was being able to play with my friends in concert and a connectedness.

[Artermis]

I was on SC but the game is not what I would say is a long term solution.

Lack of a true crafting system. It is a joke in the game. The best equip should be crafted not looted except for maybe trinkets and rings.

There is no end game content for the true causal gamer. MC is a huge time sink and so is the PvP system, which is horrible. There are no guild goals, which is a huge mistake not allowing guilds to go in as a 40 man group or what not.

I have a 60 druid (Tauren) since January, so it is not like I have not given the game a chance.

I will check back in 6 months and see what the hero classes look like and if they have done anything to make guilds worthwhile.


Art

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by Halx

We're alliance.. forgot to mention that.

Right now, we're too small to bother with TS.. we're growing though.

We're looking for casters.. mage/warlock/priest

I got a 37 mage but Im on a different server.
and also a 37 priest



So Halx if I start a char on Silvermoon what is your players name, so I can PM to add me to the guild?

[Halx]

my character is Halarkin - 60 NE Druid.. ask around, I'm quite popular

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by Halx

my character is Halarkin - 60 NE Druid.. ask around, I'm quite popular

Ok might do that later tonight if I get time!

[Irishsean]

Hey Hal... I'm actually gonna be back on silvermoon tonite. I've got some of my scheduling and stuff finally worked out, so I'll be back. I'll shoot one of you guys a tell when I get on.

The job I got down here in austin is the bomb! I do have to say tho, even with all the bad rap Dell gets from IT people, it is an excellent place to work.

[Gabbyness]

Hey . . . . .

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)? I know it's possibly a bannable offense but I'm really curious about what's lurking behind those walls. The bottom half of Sithilus too. Cool stuff, I bet.

If you did - pique my curiousity!

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by Gabbyness

Hey . . . . .

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)? I know it's possibly a bannable offense but I'm really curious about what's lurking behind those walls. The bottom half of Sithilus too. Cool stuff, I bet.

If you did - pique my curiousity!

Is it even possible to get in there?

[Zeraph]

I just came back from a couple month break. While I have some renewed interest I can tell I won't be playing much longer. The only thing that bugs me though is that Ive never gotten to max level on any MMORPG I've played (played 5). I always get bored toward midlate level (like here it was level 45ish). Not that it should matter, but I always feel a little sad leaving these games and not "finishing" them. Don't know why.

It also kinda makes me feel like I somehow wasted all that time since I didn't finish it (even though i didn't because I still had lots of fun).

Anyone else like this?

[Scorps]

Nope I still love the game

[Halx]

I think it helps to play with someone. If you have someone who you're measuring up against, you're always driven to get to the next level. You also have someone to pass the time with while the grind gets boring. That's why I think you should all come to silvermoon!

[Cynthetiq]

Originally Posted by Gabbyness

Hey . . . . .

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)? I know it's possibly a bannable offense but I'm really curious about what's lurking behind those walls. The bottom half of Sithilus too. Cool stuff, I bet.

If you did - pique my curiousity!

I have screenshots of Caverns of Time in Tanaris... what a wild place that was... simple bug got me into that place. now where did I put those shots...

[Gabbyness]

That's awesome Cyn, ha.

Apparently you can Train, I have no idea how to do it though.

[Cynthetiq]

to leave you some surprise...

I reduced the pic sizes so that you get the idea... but the total wow factor won't be lost when you get there the first time. Also the people that brought me here... well they don't know I'm posting these snapshots.. so a little privacy for them too.

[Gabbyness]

That's pretty badass Cyn.

I was once stuck in the zone behind Stratholme, to the north, after a really bad lag session. It wasn't exciting. Just flat lands with different textures.

Your screens = mucho badass.

I see that you're a hunter! As am I, sir!

[Scorps]

Originally Posted by Halx

I think it helps to play with someone. If you have someone who you're measuring up against, you're always driven to get to the next level. You also have someone to pass the time with while the grind gets boring. That's why I think you should all come to silvermoon!

Silvermoon is cool lots of people in the general chat........hell I got 11 lvls in 3 hours

[-Ever-]

I wandered into the Caverns of Time as well, it's an awesome area. Very end-of-the movie Contact-style.

[asshopo]

Ok, so technically, Blizzard can ban you for this, but Im about to cancel anyway. Is there a website or anyway to sell your account to somewhere else? I mean, I don't have a ton of gold (~65 if I remember right), mount, and my main char is at 40, but Im sure someone will find it remotely valueable.

[Drider_it]

Has anyone snuck into the unfinished zones like Mt Hyjal and Zul Gurub (sp)?

we went all though the tail end of windterspring at that elite demon area down there but never found a way into MT Hyjal..

I got into the souther part or was it norther part of silithus.. bleak and screams starship troopers.. heh

basicaly to get into any of those areas that arent instances you just run up the mountains.. sooner or later you find a glitch in the terrian. and off you go.

barrens at bramble scar at the mountain next to mulgore you can do this .. we slip over it to raid on Thunderbluff all the time. makes for a quick raid.. 90% of the time starting at northwatch hold which is friendly to alliance we can cut across the barrens and into mulgore with out a single horde knowing till they see us on the lift to TB.

after that its just a quick right following the path to the chiefs tent.

[Gabbyness]

According to "sources," you can easily slip into Hyjal by dying at the gate and simply rezzing on the other side. For some reason, that seems entirely too easy to work. Which is why I haven't exerted the effort to try it.

That's a cool trick about Barrens/Mulgore. I might try that once.

[akito]

someone come make a character on Mannoroth (PvP) server tonight, I'm getting bored by myself, hehe.

[Zeraph]

Speaking of bugs, I just had controll of a griphon! Was pretty cool. Never happened to me before, never even heard of it happening before. Sometimes lag will make you stand still but I actually had controll of it. Wouldnt give me any up and down movement though, so I kept rubber banding (not from lag) when I'd catch hills or fences. Took him from searing gorge to loch modan, went underwater, lost controll, went under the world, then it resumed its normal flight path. Had it under controll for like 10-15 mins though. Would have taken it to IF but it was really hard to control.

Now Im trying to view my screenshots of it, but can't figure out how to view them??

EDIT: Figured it out.

[Frosstbyte]

Just as a note, be really careful about going into unfinished areas, particularly repeatedly. That's a big no-no in the Blizzard books and they have and will ban you for it.