What class are you playing on release

[Tacks]

Somebody has a case of the Monday's.

[The Kizzy]

Chill out, and reread my two posts back to back. Wash the sand out, its all good. Im going for Mexican, and then I have to go home and clean my house so I can play later. Talk to you all after lunch.

[Goose_Man]

Another thing of intrest, next patch you will no longer be able to eat/drink during battles, sucks to be a priest.

Yeah I was reading about that. The rumor on the block is that once you are combat flagged you will stay that way for 10sec or so then it will fade off... we shall see though.

[Arlos]

Silv, you don't just have to quest right now, you know. You can hit instance dungeons for really excellent XP and loot from named. At about L20, lemme think, hrm. Well, there's Shadowfang Keep in Silverpine that should be about right, and there's definitely Deadmines in Westfall, though that's a little tougher for you to get to, for true. Probably your best bet would be to catch the boat from ratchet to booty bay, then swim up the coast to Grom'Gol, get that griff link, then swim on up to Westfall. Deadmines are in Moonbrook. Also, the newer of the Razorfens down in South Barrens is about right, or if not, you're close to it. That's the one that's on your left as you head down the road towards Thousand Needles. (to the right is the other Razorfen, the older one.) You may have outleveled Wailing Caverns in Barrens, but wouldn't hurt to check it out either. In a few more levels you can hit Gadgetzan, which is in Dun Morogh, dwarf starting area, so a bit of a pain for you, but not too bad.

About the only dungeon you don't have any access to at all is the Stockade, and that's cause it's inside Stormwind, but don't worry, it doesn't have named loot dropperrs anyway, it's mostly a location alliance people get sent to for quests. Plus they mentioned putting in a counterpart to it in Ogrimmar, I think it is. As you level up, once you hit about 30ish or so, you can head to the other Razorfen (the older one), and by 33-35 or so, you can head to Tirisfal and start doing runs on Scarlet Monestary, which has some really nice stuff for those level ranges. (Pope Hat, illusionary rod, etc.) Above SM is Uldaman, which you can do once you hit 40th-ish or so, though be warned, the end fight is kinda challenging until you get a full group of 43-45 or so. After that is Zul'Farrak in Tanaris, which runs from low-40s all the way up to 50, though by 50, only the pyramid/prisoner script is terribly challenging. The top instance in the game right now is the sunken temple, Atal'Hakkar, which has some really nice events to it, and the final fight is the first real dragon-model you encounter, so it's definitely a fun trip.

As for other random stuff: Warriors can be reasonably effective damage dealers, though once everything is in place, they won't do as much as mages or rogues, nor probably as much as warlock + succubus pet, though I'm not sure on that last one. However, as Taxx said, making a warrior and then not actually using him to tank at all is pretty silly. You can do it, but don't expect to find groups. Now, if you can go into offensive stances and still a) hold general aggro and b) get good snap aggro to pull stuff off healers or casters, then by all means go for it. If necessary, there are potions or items that with right-clicks can give you sometimes significant amounts of rage, so you could go offensive a lot, then when you need to taunt, switch stances, drink the rage potion, taunt til the mob's back on you, then swap stances again. Also, there's a warrior talent that lets you retain certain amounts of rage when you swap stances, though I'm not certain how much, since I don't play a warrior.

Priests should definitely have no trouble finding groups later on, especially as quests involve tougher mobs, making grouping more necessary. Same thing for once people starting hitting level ranges for the instance dungeons, they'll definitely want to have a priest in the group for hitting those. At early levels, sure, most everyone solos, cause it's not that hard to do so. The difficulty ramps up as you go along though, as I'm sure you'll see.

Tradeskills aren't too hard to get up through journeyman levels, it's once you start getting up to 200ish or so that they start to require more work. At the high end, more and more of the recipes are mob drops, so without a support network of guild or friends to pass on recipes you don't get yourself, or without buying them on the open market, you won't be as good as someone who does have that access. Also, once you start getting to that level the components become more and more challenging to acquire. Once you get into the 230-240 range, getting single point increases are happy events, simply because getting all the components to make something solo is not easy. For example, the 250 skill elemental leatherworking hat (Fireball helm) needs 40 thick leather (only reliably farmable off L45-46 mobs, below that you get heavy leather a lot), 12 hearts of fire (semi-rare drop off very high level elementals in Searing Gorge), 4 Cores of Earth (very rare drops off high-30s earth elementals, less rare the higher level the elemental), some thick hide (< 5% drop rate compared to thick leather), deeprock salt to cure the hide (uncommon drop off earth elementals/rock-bodied mobs), and not quite 1g in vendor-purchased stuff. Needless to say, farming for materials to make one of those solo can take a while. Smithing at the top end has the same sort of necessary conditions, just it needs ore that is mined from zones like hinterlands or searing gorge, plus gems, some of which are really damn rare, and only occasionally dropped from the high level ore veins. Top level herbs are located in similarly difficult zones and locales. As for me, my leatherworking is at 267 right now, and I can't see it going much above 270 until new patterns are in, if I even raise it at all.

Disabling eating/drinking in combat doesn't surprise me, really. Being able to do so makes a lot of encounters pretty trivial. Removing that ability will certainly increase the desireability of mana potions for sure, and will likely mean more groups bring more than just 1 healer along. That or paladins/shamen will be really sought after, if for no other reason than their mana-regen increasers, which help offset losing the ability to drink.

-Arlos

[The Kizzy]

Thanks Arlos, I was under the assumption that the instanced dugeons were only active when you got the quest. I appreciate the info =)

[Goose_Man]

Yeah great info thanks!

[Lyion]

Really good info, Arlos. Thanks!

[Arlos]

No problem, guys. Basically, anyone, any time, can go into any instance dungeon they want to, assuming they can make it past whatever guard critters are in the (usually caverns) in front of the instance. Of course, once you GET there, unless you're of reasonabl level ranges, you'll die horribly, but you CAN go. heh. While there are any number of quests which send you to instanced dungeons, those quests merely provide you extra benefits to going, they're entirely seperate from the instanced concent. Most named inside dungeons have specific loot tables they drop from. Some loot tables are relatively small, like the Hound Master in the library wing in SM can only drop 1 of 2 items, neither terribly good. Most common is about 3 items, like Herod in the armory wing in SM, who can drop mail shoulders, a mail helm, or a 2h axe with an AOE proc. Most (but not 100%) of named mob drops in instances are bind-on-acquire at this point, meaning you have to go into the instance to get it, you can no longer buy them on the open market. (As of a push or 2 ago, due to major economy problems they had with people power-farming SM and selling the drops.)

The lowest level instance dungeon is Wailing Caverns, which is in the Barrens not too terribly far from the Crossroads. It is, as I recall, mostly raptors, with a smattering of other stuff around it. Shadowfang starts off in the high teens, but has a much broader level range than WC does, so it accomodates higher levels than WC tops out at. One other dungeon I forgot to mention that you could do in the 20s is Blackfathom Deeps. This is located in way NE Darkshore, so again, somewhat tricky for Horde to get to, but shouldn't run into too many problems with alliance-NPCs if you stick to the road, and don't take the fork that goes into the alliance town. That dungeon actually has some of the best-designed encounters in any of the dungeons, which is impressive for a low/mid level zone. (Hint: Put out the burning braziers ONE AT A TIME, heh. You'll know what I mean if you go there and get that far.)

The big thing I like about the instance dungeons compared to EQ, is that when you go in, you know where the named are, and you know they'll be there. No going to frenzy room and camping 6 hours only to not see any spawn, etc. You can even repeatedly farm the dungeons, if you reform the group once you leave, and it can be viable to level up that way, actually, since everything in them tends to be elite mobs. You can often find pickup groups going too, so if your regular group isn't on, just look for others heading there. Shouldn't take too long to find something, especially for a priest.

If anyone has any questions they want to ask me in game, feel free, tho obviously you eeeeevil horde types won't be able to send me tells. heh. Not playing a whole lot at the moment, due to a combination of a) waiting for the patch, and b) am spending a lot of time house-sitting at my parents' place, which means no WOW, since they haven't lifted the restriction on installing it to more than 1 PC. My druid's name is Ulfias, my paladin's name is Altanor. I do have a L10 horde character, from back in alpha, with the Arlos name (a shaman), but I haven't played him SINCE alpha, and I Can't really see myself doing so much now. heh.

-Arlos

[Caladore Buhbong]

Human, Alliance, Paladin.


Represent.

[The Kizzy]

I played a human alliance paladin, and they suck, they cant maintain or gain aggro. And there heals are SLOOOOOOOOOOOW

[Goose_Man]

Well as it stands right now I'll be playing a troll or undead priest.

[Hurlen]

It is possible for paladins to hold agro.. with the right weapon in combonation with seal of fury. Currently playing a 50 Paladin. It is no wear near as afective as the warrior taunt, but if you don't have idiots chain nuking then it is possible. The heals are 3 second cast, which isn't that bad imo. Current heal at 50 is a 900/1200 heal.. w/o any major int gear you can easily cast the spell 3 times and have a tad left over. Whats awesome is when grouping with a warrior that likes to use dual wield.. cast seal of reckoning on them.. heals 36 health per hit. The paladin needs some work deffinatly, hope to see their talents soon after this current patch.

[Caladore Buhbong]

I played a human alliance paladin, and they suck, they cant maintain or gain aggro. And there heals are SLOOOOOOOOOOOW

Its a paladin thing, you wouldnt get it.

[Minrott]

Tauren Shaman or Warrior

[Jangos]

Ive played rogue to 50 (wow needs work)

Priest to 28 (wow they own)

Warlock to 39(when i want it anal i log on my warlock)

War/mage to 15 (both classes are insane)


Rogues really reminded me of bards at first, then reminded me of dry ham sanwiches the more i played them. Ham sanwiches are ok by themselves. but if across the table you see a guy eating a steak , well they don't seem to taste so good.


Warlocks *were* a blast the previous push, they were not overpowered by any stretch of the imaginateion, but got nerfed to hell for like, no reason. Really not worth your time right now in beta till they get work. No reason to test something that is utterly broken.


Priests are not EQ clerics, they are wicked damage dealing soloers, they are fantastic healers, and dangerous opponents in PvP. If you like a powerfull class, priests are one option

Mages are the ultra uber overplayed overbalanced class. They are basically the bane of rogues, since both classes have identical roles, and they own rogues in every single way.


Warriors, If you have EVER enjoyed playing a tank, you will be in for a treat with WoW warriors. MY war can run into a flock of 5-6 mobs and hold agro with ease while the group kills them off one by one. (granteed i need a healer) WoW warriors are the best concieved tank class in any mmorpg ever. If they want damage, they can switch stances, if they want to be tanks , bang, touch of a button


Druids will be diffrent on release. The forms they have, the abilities AC and damage are level based not gear based. So a 50 druid in Cat form will outdamage a 50 rogue with shitty gear. A 50 druid in bear form is a better tank than warrior with shitty gear. The reason I mention this is becuas blizzard puts level caps in beta. So while waiting for the next patch to raise the cap., people just farm the hell out of gear. Live, people leveling up will not farm stuff for gear they will level and move on.
So that alone might help druids alt farms be a bit mroe helpfull.


Gonna go back to training people in Jangolode mine (its in westfall Taxx)

[Arlos]

Jangos, armor and HP in dire bear form is based on your gear. It ups HP per stamina, gives a HP bonus, and there's a multiplier to whatever your current armor value is. With no buffs, my armor when I transform is just about 900 at L50. My L32 paladin, with absolute crap gear (Every single piece except for helmet is Green Iron that he made himself, + a shield about like the Lion shield from the Balgeras quest) has an armor value of almost 650ish, at L32. When I hit 40+ in him, and can go to plate, even if I just use generic smithed stuff not even mithril or truesilver, that paladin will have a LOT more armor than the dire-bear druid does. That's not even counting the armor aura, either. Now, by the time someone hits 50th, even if they haven't farmed, and are just using blacksmithing gear, but have gone to ornate mithril or truesilver, there's just absolutely no comparison.

As for Warlocks, they were NOT specifically nerfed. What happened is they fixed how channeling spells worked. From way back when, with a spell that needed channeling, if you got hit, the spell stopped. For a while in beta, that wasn't worknig right. They made it work right again, and that's what caused warlocks who were used to non-interruptable channeling issues. From what I understand now, as long as you use Voidwalker pet so it taunts, you can still use the channeling stuff. Just whip out the Succubus if you're grouped, and have someone who can hold aggro instead of you. One of my spells, the group heal, was changed in the same change, is how I know it absolutely wasn't class-specific.

-Arlos

[The Kizzy]

Jangos, I still LOVE my warlock. She is just a damage dealer, not a tank, or a healer, (although Taxx thinks I am, GIVE ME ANOTHER HEALTHSTONE) I like her though.

[Mudcrush Durtfeet]

I suspect rogues will be much better after the coming push/patch/whatever.

I LOVE my rogue and look forward to talents and such.

[Jangos]

you may love your warlock but you have one pet (succubus is ONLY good for pvp, and if you summon an imp in groups for buffs you are a dumb motherfucker since your blueberry can TM 3 mobs)


Warlocks are better at croud control than mages or rogues by a long shot due to the blueberry tank and taunt abilities. The damage they do eats much steaming piles of shit tho. A priest has a single insta cast dot that lasts 18 sec that puts yours to shame.

The fact you cannot channel through drain soul and drain life fucks you in alot of ways.


For groups you are a soulstone since people are too fucking stupid to realize your blueberry is 100000x better than mage sheep. Warlocks overall are lacking and need help.

Fun != balanced silverstra. You can have fun till your undies are drippin with jizzz, that doesnt make them balanced with other classes.

[Lyion]

Fun != balanced silverstra. You can have fun till your undies are drippin with jizzz, that doesnt make them balanced with other classes.

Actually, fun is more important than balance. Something I hope Blizzard has learned from their games, and EQs failures due to trying to make everyone equal.

From what I've seen, the classes are mostly balanced, with some (Mage, Warrior) much better than others (Warlock, Druid).. I'm curious if the Hunter will completely suck, since that class makes me think early EQ Ranger.

[The Kizzy]

You dont have to get mean, I was merely stating my opinion like you did yours. You used to be a sweetheart, now Im mad because you hurt my feelings. See look right there *points at bruised feelings*

[Zanchief]

I'm curious if the Hunter will completely suck, since that class makes me think early EQ Ranger.

But ranged attacks are a viable dmg source in WOW, where as EQ the dmg is negligible. They do sound pretty gay though.

[Tacks]

I think they have a good possibility of being an overpowered Warlock...think warlock who can wear leather/mail armor, has more dps than a warlock and whose pet does more dps than a warlock's.

[Jangos]

I think they have a good possibility of being an overpowered Warlock...think warlock who can wear leather/mail armor, has more dps than a warlock and whose pet does more dps than a warlock's.

From what has been shown us thats basically it.

Add FD, add group SoW. Hunters make warlocks look like... poo


Thats why I said warlocks need serious work

Actually, fun is more important than balance. Something I hope Blizzard has learned from their games, and EQs failures due to trying to make everyone equal.

I played a bard for jeje how many years before they were a viable class =). I understand the importance of fun.. bards were fun but in no way balanced for the longest time. Let me tell you, I will never go through that frustration again. Ever.

Fun is important for the game to be initially successfull. Balance gives it longetivity. If you play a FUN and BALANCED class, you are in bliss.

[The Kizzy]

Maybe Ill have a hunter as well, but Rangers left a bad taste in my muth after being married to one for 8 years. Hes still a dick