Alteriffic – Back to Healing

Well I’ve not updated the blog in a while, due to being stupidly busy at work, and then getting taken into hospital for an operation.

The upside – signed off work for 3 weeks,

The downside – Macbook Pro is toast when I return from hospital, so no real wow capable machine available

So while I’ll not  be returning to work before the baby arrives (yay), I’ll probably now not get to play WoW til October (depending on when I can get the MBP fixed, thank god it’s under warranty).

Well I’ve decided to move my blog across to my own webspace, and it can now be found at www.noileum.com/mmo

This site will remain for a week or so just incase someone happens to look at it (unlikely as my readership is virtually non existant)

I think I only managed to get onto WoW twice last week, for about 3 hours in total which meant that I didn’t get anything done that I wanted to. 

It’s not all bad though, as I’ve now moved into Zangarmarsh having been left with only group quests (or ones suggesting 2 players).  I hope I can get them done with some guildmates who are in the early 60’s this week, if I haven’t managed to then I’ll pop back when I hit 64 and give some of the easier ones a go solo.

I have managed to get Herbalism up to 357 and Mining to 335 though, so not long to go until they’re at the maximum.  I’ve also now got enough cash on my bank alt to buy Chunder his epic flying mount as soon as he dings 70. 

I’m going to keep selling the mats that I mine\herb so that I’ve got a nice healthy bank balance in preparation for life at (and beyond) 70

I’m also thinking that once Chunder hits 70, I will probably stop playing WoW once my gamecard runs out.  I’ve been toying with this idea for a while, and I think that’s the way to go.  I’ll then have 2 70’s ready for the expansion (a pure DPS class in my Warlock, and a probable Healer in Chunder) and the gear\progression reset that comes with it.

GTA IV is out tomorrow, so WoW time will drastically reduce once again while I immerse myself in Liberty City for a while   I’ll try to log on every couple of days and work my way through Zangarmarsh, and aim for a couple of levels every month.  The lighter evenings are also going to take their toll on WoW, as I can now get home and out to the trails in enough time to get a couple of hours on my MTB a few times a week.

Well I started Sunday night a couple of bars into level 24, and had a night of questing and managed to ding 25 as I was handing in the last lot of quests I had chained together.  I then logged on this morning to run to StoneTalon and Zoram Strand to grab the FP’s but on the wayI  was asked if I wanted to tag along on an RFK boost session by a friendly 70 pally.

I tagged along for 2 runs, and was told to grab all the loot.  I got myself the following . .

Now the Robes I’m wearing are possibly a little better, but there’s not that much in it.

Considering we cleared the place twice, and I only managed to get 2 of the drops I wanted I’m hoping that I got all the crap drops out of the way and that the next time I get the drops I’m after.  Just about all the other drops would’ve been upgrades for our alt group but as it was just me that was looting (the other guy had everything they needed from the instance) there was a lot of stuff just left on the dead bodies (as my bags were full).   

I did get the quest done for my new shoulders though, which means I got 2 definate upgrades, and 1 possible upgrade (if I bother getting it enchanted). 

I also got a level and a bit, and am now after quest turn ins about 75% of the way through level 26 and hope to get level 27 this evening.

Chunder ran Blood Furnace on Saturday night, and had a mare with people dropping out of the group.  At one point a level 70 Druid joined and then promptly wiped everyone on his first pull and then HS’d out of there blaming the group.  The healer followed shortly after, with the rogue who was bickering the whole run as he didn’t seem to understand the concept of a kill order, or aggro.  So it was just me and the tank (a guildmate) left and within 5 mins we had three 70’s come to our rescue after asking in G Chat if anyone wanted to help on the 2nd and 3rd bosses.  I would’ve preferred a level appropriate group, but as we’d already spent 2 hours in LFG and wiping in the instance we decided to just boost through the last bit.  I was really enjoying the instance as well, but nevermind.

Focus for this week . . .

I think I’m going to have to slow Bandaid down a bit (which is a shame as I’m starting to really enjoy the priestly ways again) or maybe just run the alt night with App for a while to let everyone catch up.  I can’t wait to get to 35 though with him to get up to 300 Alchemy although I don’t think that’s going to happen this week. 

• Get Chunder’s HFP quests finished, and into Zangarmarsh (long shot, as my playtime is limited on evenings this week)
• Get Chunder’s Fishing up to 275 (this is going to be tough I think)
• Get Bandaid to 28 before Wednesday (another tough one) if possible, the end of the week at the latest
• Ditch Mining for Enchanting on Chompi, and Herbalism for Tailoring on Bandaid.  Then level tailoring up and send items to DE to Chompi to level Enchanting.  Get both to 225 before end of the week

No real easy ones there, but I’m confident I can at least get Bandaid to 28 before the end of the week, and at least start levelling tailoring\enchanting with Bandaid\Chompi.  Once Chompi hits 275 enchanting I think I’m going to drop it on Boog, and take up something else, possibly alchemy again but I’m not really sure to be honest, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it I guess.

Well here’s the Blue drops that Bandaid can equip (excluding quest rewards at the moment) from Black Fathom Depths & Razorfen Kraul.

Of these items, the only Items that are of no real use to me are both the  three daggers.  I could possibly use the Swinetusk Shank if everyone else that wants it has it, as it has Spirit and Stamina, but to be honest this is very low on the want list.  There’s a lot better loot out there for me in the weapon  category, and I hope to already have better.  Of the other drops, it’s nice to see that most of them have Spirit (which is a stat I’m now going to focus on, as if I’m solo’ing Spirit Tap will need to be refilling my mana pool as much as possible) and also some +DMG\HEAL.  I think if we run this instance as many times as we have SFK and WC I should be able to get everything I need.  This is helped by the fact that there’s no other clothies in our group.  I just need to hope for a leather\mail wearer if we PuG the last spot.

It’s quite a list, and there are a few duplicates (legs, shoulders, staff etc) but if I can get my hands on some (if not all) of these I’ll be a happy priesty !! 

Quest rewards to follow . . . .

Well last night was alt night with a couple of friends, and although I was 1.5 hours late logging in I managed to squeeze in a 4 man WC run with Glaive (kit), Nayeli (mia), and Lenare (lin).  No deaths, and a couple of upgrades for mia and lin and we were done.  No one needed anything from Kresh so we let him live this time   (turtle genocide ftl) .  Bandaid also dinged 23 while in there, and has a full bar of rested Xp to burn through before next weeks alt instalment.  Bandaid’s also nearing the level cap for alchemy, sitting at around 223 now.  Getting Bandaid up to 35 to be able to train Artisan Alchemy is going to be the next (giant) step. 

I think I can push Bandaid up to 25 without too much trouble over the weekend and the start of next week, and I’ll try to aim for 5 levels a week which may mean I outlevel the rest of the alt group in the short term in order to get my alchemy to 300.  I do however have Chompi and App waiting at 29 and 31 respectively to join the group.  This would mean I step back from healing instances and go DPS (not something I want to do with this group) but I’m sure Nayeli could pick up the healing duties for a week or two while everyone catches up with Bandaid.  This is purely speculative at this stage, anyway, and I think I’ll drop herbalism on Bandaid and pick up tailoring.  Mainly this will be to provide Chompi with some of the mats to level enchanting, as the next stage for him is to drop mining and go enchanting, then level up to 35.

Instance wise for this alt group, next up is Black Fathom Depths (somewhere I’ve always liked for some reason) and Razorfen Kraul.  Probably not in the same night,  but who knows

Chunder’s had a few nights off, although I have managed to get his fishing up a bit, thanks to being in Ogrimmar to train my level 62 spells and abilities, I hopped across to XR to fish up a couple of stacks of Deviate Fish and managed to skill up fishing to 264. 

I’m really enjoying playing Chunder as Enchancement, and if I can find enough groups as melee dps I will probably not go Resto.  I’m unlikely to raid with him, as I’m not really able to have uninterruptible WoW time due to famliy constraints so 5 man & Heroics will probably be his limit.

Two new experiments are on the horizon (or have been started) . . .

Well I’ve started a free trial on EVE Online just to see what it’s like.  I will probably just create another trial once this one has finished and try a different playstyle\race etc.  If I find I really like it I may buy a gamecard, but I can’t see it taking over my WoW playing.   I want to just get a feel for the game (which is unlikely in 14 days considering the amount of free time I have at the moment), and I think a couple of trials will give me enough of an insight as to whether I’m going to enjoy it or not.

I was intrigued by reading the EVE ONLINE 0.0 EXPERIMENT and also the MMO trial experiment going on over at Sweetflags blog and thought that as it was free, and I could download the client (only 600mb or so for the mac version) so I wasn’t losing out on anything.  

The other (possible) experiment in the pipeline at the moment is to delve into the world of dual-boxing.  I’m planning on creating a trial account and see how far I can get a toon in 2 weeks using my lock to powerlevel them through instances.  Having been an avid reader of such blogs as Three Druid Noob, Twenty Totems, and Lightning Overload and greatly enjoyed their tales of multi boxing, I thought I’d go for the cheap and easy option .  WoW Insider also had a Multi Boxing segment (well whole show really) with Xzin and I have to say he came across very well.  Mike was constantly trying to push how unfair it was, but Xzin had reasoned answers for just about everything.  I’m only going to dual box\power level one toon to see how easy it is.  To be honest I think there’s very little chance that I’ll actually buy another copy of the game and pay for an additional sub, so it’s more just to try the experience out.

(not sure if this will be a regular blog feature, but it’s a slow day at work so I’m composing a mega post!)

Of course, at the end of next week GTA is out, and I can see this getting me back on my 360 (which has been played about twice this year so far) and being about the only thing to get me off WoW.  I loved GTA3, and it saved my sanity as I was recovering from an operation and was immobile for 6 weeks and my flatmate at the time kindly chipped my PS2 and got me tons of game backups.  Vice City was awesome, and I completed the story missions of that game but I couldn’t really get into San Andreas for some reason.  I think it was that I loved the setting of Vice City (grew up with Miami Vice) and although my teens were spent listening to the music that was in GTA:SA it just didn’t have same appeal.  I’m hoping that GTA:IV is a welcome return to form, and keeps me hooked.

I may also purchase an eee pc and put windoze on it and WoW to do a bit of AH’ing during the day over the unlocked wifi spots I can pick up from my desk   I know if I get one the wife will want to keep it at home, as she finds the macbook pro a little too large (she much preferred our old macbook, which she spilt a pint of water into).  I would probably end up having to buy two, but I could possibly pick up a cheap 2nd hand one for her from ebay (as our 2 year old son would have access to it).

Also this week in the UK the 8gb  iPhone had £100 chopped off it’s price tag, and this makes it super tempting.  Only problem is that my company pays for my Blackberry, and they probably wouldn’t do the same for my iPhone (even with possibility of exchange push email) .  I could always jailbreak it and put my own pay as you go sim in – but I really want to wait for the 3G one (which I will not be able to convince the wife we can afford).  I’ve got my iPod touch, so I dont really need one, but as with all gadgets I really want one lol. 

Well I managed to ding 62 last night, it meant playing for about 40 mins longer than I really wanted to (had a fairly early start this morning) but I was so close I wanted to get that last bar out of the way.  I had a couple of quests that I knew would take me to 62 once completed, and they weren’t difficult, they just involved a bit of travelling around.

I’ve still got a full Quest Log as well, which means that I can be well on my way to 63 before I hit ZangerMarsh

Here’s a couple of pics of Chunder in his 62 attire.  I’m sporting some leather wear, which I had accumulated for App (but as he’s stuck at 29 I’m sure he wont mind me stealing it)

Professions at 62 are as follows

Well after a slow WoW weekend (my sons birthday on Friday so parties and family visits) I’m still sitting at 61, but with plenty of rested XP which will take me about 75% of the way to 62.

Friday was awesome, as the photo shows below my son and I went to Diggerland and had an absolute blast!  It’s a great day out, and even though my son’s only 2 he was still able to go on a lot of the diggers on my lap.  I can’t wait to go again when he’s a little older, as from 5 years old kids can pretty much go on any digger they want unaccompanied.  I thought it was great, and it really brought out the kid in me, I mean who doesn’t like the idea of driving a Digger around and digging holes !!!

I got my Fists of Reckoning enchanted with Crusader. 

I was torn between Crusader and Potency, as there was someone with the Crusader enchant online in my guild, and someone willing to trade me 4 orbs for 4 LPS and some dust I had in my bank on Boog (.  Plus Elitist Jerks say that crusader is the one to go for (I’m damn sure I’m not putting Mongoose on anything not epic).

I’ve found that it procs every couple of fights, and when both hands proc, I usually pop Blood Fury if the mobs got more than 50% health, or there’s a add waiting to be smacked upside the noggin.  This gives me a massive boost to AP (especially if I’ve got a SoE totem down as well) and means the damage goes through the roof (not ideal if it’s at the start of a fight and the tank hasn’t built up that much aggro).

Now that the levelling has slowed down considerably (I think I have about 400K xp to level to 62) but I’m only about half way through the quests in HFP, and have the quests in Ramparts and Blood Furnace to do.  I’m going to clear out all the HFP quests before moving onto Zangarmarsh this time.