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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 7, 2016 4:23:30 GMT -5
I only read it now! (I tend to not log into my email over the weekends and Mondays) But I am still definitely keen and I've replied now.
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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 7, 2016 5:29:43 GMT -5
So as I've mentioned, I've been working on Loremaster as well as Ironman. The whole idea isn't to just get the title, but to fully experience the game and all its questlines. I have three main characters I've been using for Loremaster - A monk, a mage and a warlock. I also try not to use heirlooms on them, unless I need a little power boost to finish a quest. I completed all the Horde side Vanilla zones with these three characters before I began on Ironman, and I took a break from Ironman when I reached Outland in order to scout out the starting zones / work a bit on Loremaster. Ah, Outland. Home of getting mobbed and low drop-rate item quests. To think the first time I quested through Hellfire Peninsula I was on a PVP realm as well. No wonder I have only bad memories of it. So I took my monk through Hellfire Peninsula. I died a few times, though to be fair I wasn't exactly playing safe. Then I took my mage through Zangarmarsh. I died about one million times. To be honest, I'm terrible at playing a mage, (and it's why I chose my mage - I wanted my weakest character to get a feel of how challenging the zone can be) but still, I was surprised at how hard Zangarmarsh quests can be at level 60. Hellfire Peninsula creatures have a tendency to mob, and that's my biggest fear as a hunter, but then so do Zangarmarsh creatures, and at least on Hellfire Peninsula they're lower levels (I mean apart from the level 70 Fel Reavers) and you can usually see them coming. So instead of taking my Ironman to Zangarmarsh as I had planned, I'm slowly and carefully chipping away at Hellfire Peninsula quests one by one. It is nerve destroying though. At one point, Tagar Spinebreaker, a rare elite, spawned right behind me and stunned me with his 8 second stun. Thankfully, his attention turned to my pet while I was stunned, and after the longest 8 seconds of my life I managed to ice trap him and escape. I've had to play dead and let my pet die more than once. One of these times, I was fighting Burning Blade orcs when that dreadful sound, earth shaking combo that means a Fel Reaver is approaching happened. On the other hand, I'm not quite as squishy as I expected. I even managed to kill the rare spawn Mekthorg the Wild. Some of the quests that I thought would be impossible, (like killing Worg Master Kruush) have turned out totally fine as long as I'm extremely careful at all times. Honestly my biggest threat right now is to find myself ambushed by another rare elite, or else mobbed, or both. Unfortunately the chances of that happening are pretty high. I've noticed Hellfire Peninsula creatures love to call for help or run. So much for Shattered Hand orcs being super brave. I'm really hoping to be level 64, maybe even 65 (though I doubt I'll manage that) before questing in Zangarmarsh. I'm 63 at the moment. Plus, there's plenty of mushrooms which make kiting much easier. Also of note: * Rather Be Fishin' is a Level 64 quest that's available at level 62 at the Orphanage in northern Shattrath City. The eels are hilariously underpowered and will be the weakest quest NPCs you will run across in the entire Burning Crusade expansion by a large margin. (They also give greatly reduced xp when killed.) * The caves in Zangarmarsh has an invisible mob that seems to have a thing for killing iron Hunters. Never met it on my Rogue, but the trigger may have something to do with AoE and/or pets. * Most of Hellfire Peninsula isn't that bad if you know what to look for (at least from the Rogue perspective)...but it only takes missing one patrolling mob to ruin your day, and HP has lots of patrollers, including the overpowered Fel Reavers. However, don't do any questing there if your aggro dump is on cooldown. Thank you! I'll definitely go grab the Rather Be Fishin' quest. I'm also going to avoid the cave in Zangarmarsh completely. I actually ran into the invisible mob on my non Ironman mage, which is weird because my mage was specced as Arcane at the time - no pet or AOE. I think the worst thing about Outland is there's no such thing as distracting them with your pets while you run like hell. If you run, you'll only run into another creature. So feign death is sometimes the only option, but it's a risky one all on its own. Not only have I found that the ability sometimes bugs out, but if I feign death too close to some creatures, and they don't move far enough away, then they're going to kill me the moment I get up.
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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 8, 2016 6:13:25 GMT -5
So this morning, after heading over to Shattrath City to do the eels quest as well as the quests where Khadgar gets a minion to walk you around the city, I finished up in Hellfire Peninsula. I had a few more close calls with Fel Reavers, (thank goodness for the warning that one is near). The only quest I found scary was Marking the Path, where you have to light beacons. The moment I lit any beacon it aggro'd all the mobs close by. Since I'm a hunter, dealing with this was a simple case of Feign Death, but I'm never 100% comfortable with situations like these largely because I've had Feign Death bug out on me more than once before. (For example, I've lost an Ironman to this in the Cape of Strangelthorn). The last quest I wanted to do before moving on was Cruel's Intentions, where you have to kill Arazzius the Cruel. I had already decided not to do the Foot of the Citadel, because it was nearly impossible even on my monk, but I couldn't remember Cruel's Intentions being so bad. Besides, it's worth over 14,000 experience. (This actually raised some red flags, but the temptation of that much XP overcame the worry I had that maybe there's a reason why it's worth so much.) I saw that two mobs patrolled around Arazzius, which is never ideal, but figured a combination of Ice Trap and taking Arazzius down as quickly as possible would be enough. Everything was going well. At one point Arazzius and and his one un-iced Mistress of Doom aggro'd me, so I quickly played dead to drop the aggro, then continued to take down Arazzius's health. Suddenly my pet was dead. My pet was dead and I was losing health fast. And I'd just played dead, so couldn't again. I'm not even sure what happened. Arazzius was dead, but the Mistress of Doom that had been patrolling around him seemed to be casting a rain of fire spell that was destroying my HP. I tried to get out of it as fast as possible. What happened next is a blur. Concussive shot. Disengage. Bandage. Attacked by another mob. Running. I'm going to die. Running. Health almost gone. And then, play dead. My feign death spell was ready again and I hit it, only just in time. I was down to so little health, I couldn't even see green in my health bar. Feign Death lasts for six minutes so I just kinda lay there for awhile. I only got up and mounted after my health had almost fully recovered. I turned in the quest, then I took my character to an inn, and logged out. That was way too close for comfort. If a single thing had gone a different way my Ironman would probably be dead now. I think I'm going to go fly around on my level 100 hunter that's absolutely allowed to die for a bit......
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Towny
Challenger
Posts: 299
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Post by Towny on Jun 13, 2016 18:14:39 GMT -5
Wow that was a close call! It got my heart racing just reading about it
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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 15, 2016 2:47:25 GMT -5
Zangarmarsh was pretty straightforward. I focused on not getting mobbed and didn't go into the cave. God I hate Naga though. Now that I've reached Outland, scouting out an area has become even more essential. It helps to work specifically on Loremaster with my scouts as well, because that makes sure I really hunt for quests and learn what they involve. When it came to deciding whether to join Aldor or Scryer, I discovered accidentally that I can do both. I joined Aldor, did a few quests for them, then picked up the quest that allows you to transfer to Scryer. Then I had to build up rep for Scryer, which was a simple case of running around the lake outside Shattrath for awhile killing basilisks and collecting their eyes. (This gives good killing rep too.) Once I had turned in about 40 eyes I could do a bunch of quests for Scryers. I did a few of those, and then I did the quest that allows you to go back to the Aldor. (It didn't transfer me back to the Aldor, that would take more grinding, only this time for venom sacks). All in all this resulted in quite a nice chunk of XP. I did most quests in Terokkar, following Tanee's advice with some of them, especially the advice about Tomb of Lights and Vengeful Spirits. I didn't even try to do the quests for Private Weeks, and I left Evil Draws Near, Escaping the Tomb and What Book? I Don't See Any Book for after the level 71 squish party. I tried to do the Skywing quest but it bugs out every time, so I gave up. On to Nagrand, where it didn't take long for me to hit level 70. I went and grabbed cold weather flying and, after scouting it out with another character to make sure it's safe, explored Northrend. That took me just over half way to level 71. I know plenty of people have said do some quests in Northrend to get to 71, but I couldn't bring myself to take that risk and went back to Nagrand, where, because of the XP squish happening at 70 while one-shotting only happens at 71, getting to 71 took me a frustratingly long time. I had discovered on my scout that turning in Oshu'gun Crystal Powder Samples will grant me XP every time, but it's not a lot, and it's even less after the squish. I also knew to build up rep for the Consortium so that I could do two extra quests at Friendly. The only real close call I had in Nagrand was while attacking an Elekk. I suddenly found myself mobbed by two owls and a rock elemental, and had to play dead. wait quite awhile for the owls to fly away, and use ice trap to keep the rock elemental at bay as I flew away. Most of Nagrand is fairly safe, but there are areas where mobbing is going to happen no matter what, like underneath Oshu'Gun, at the Forge Camps and at Sunspring Post, so I avoided the quests I needed to do there until after the squish. But now I am 71, so party time in Outland! After scouting it on a level 71 monk, I decided I could do the first four Ring of Blood quests but skipped on the last 2. (I'll use my monk to scout any group quests after this.) Other than that, I finished up in Nagrand and Terokkar, and it's onto Blade's Edge Mountains next! I don't think I've ever quested in Blade's Edge in my life before, so this zone needs some serious scouting before I can bring my Ironman in. (Same goes for Netherstorm, and all I remember about Shadowmoon Valley is really, really hating anything green.) I probably don't need to stress quite this much after the level squish, but the paranoia this challenge gives you is hard to shake after awhile. I haven't found any dailies yet. I figure that comes later.
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Post by Anaralah on Jun 16, 2016 1:51:08 GMT -5
You're right, Trolls, Orcs and Undead are great, and Blood Elf is probably, as I said, the worst race. But hey, everyone has their freakish little personal challenge. Some people refuse to do dailies at all, others try levelling without a pet. I'm going for the first Blood Elf Ironman. This is my first post here since I registered 10 days ago--I just wanted to briefly chime in to say that I'm rooting for you, and really hope you succeed at this! I mainly play Blood Elves in WoW (it's the only race I play on Horde; I play Draenei and Night Elf on Alliance, but my beloved "main" is a BE Warlock) because I love the lore, history and aesthetics of Sin'dorei civilization. I know it's not the ideal race for this challenge, but I feel most at home playing a Blood Elf. It's fun. I think that the more enjoyment one feels playing a particular race in Warcraft, the better they perform gameplay-wise. This is obviously important in the Ironman challenge. I'm pretty sure it's not just min/maxing racial traits that drive one to victory. Perhaps you feel similarly. Anyway, I'm currently leveling an iron Blood Elf as well, and it is inspiring to see your admirable progress and determination. Seeing this gives me hope that it is actually possible to successfully reach high levels as a Blood Elf, and reassurance that this race is definitely viable for a challenger to choose. Best of luck and Al diel shala, fellow Sin'dorei! ^-^ "All we can do is walk the road we are given with such dignity as we can muster, each to our own glory or demise, and pray that there yet remains something of our own hearts when all is said and done. By the Sunwell, I hope that there will remain something of mine." -Lor'themar Theron In the Shadow of the Sun us.battle.net/wow/en/game/lore/leader-story/lorthemar-theron/
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Post by Anaralah on Jun 16, 2016 4:10:51 GMT -5
6. Blood Elf: Sorry to say Blood Elf is just as bad if not worse 1% crit strike and a silence. Just a note to clarify the current state of Arcane Torrent--it has evolved and is not just a silence, it restores a portion of our class resources: mana, chi, rage, focus, holy power, energy and runic power. It's actually quite powerful and I use it a lot. It has a short cooldown, lowered to only 1.5 minutes from 2 minutes in 6.2.2. Spending less time trying to build resources to spend on more powerful attacks does result in a dps increase. Very nice to have in a tough fight if one is resource-starved, I certainly know it has saved my life before. From: www.wowhead.com/race=10/blood-elfWoD Changes: Arcane Torrent restores resources and silences, +1% crit, +10 enchanting, 1% reduced arcane damage taken. Racials: Arcane Torrent: Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec and restores 3% of your Mana, 15 energy, 15 rage, 15 focus, 1 Holy Power, 1 Chi, or 20 runic power. Non-player victim spellcasting is also interrupted for 3 sec. Arcane Acuity: Increases critical strike chance by 1%. Arcane Affinity: Enchanting skill increased by 10. Arcane Resistance: Reduces Arcane damage taken by 1%.
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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 16, 2016 7:17:39 GMT -5
Thank you Anaralah, and welcome! ^_^
I do love Blood Elves, especially lore wise, but I also love Orcs, Pandaren and Goblins. I just get very attached to characters.
I have actually found Arcane Torrent quite useful. It's definitely in my rotation.
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Post by gnumbers on Jun 16, 2016 10:19:47 GMT -5
I haven't found any dailies yet. I figure that comes later. I started with wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Burning_Crusade_daily_questsA few notes: * The dailies get noticeably easier as you gain levels. (They also award less xp, but ya can't have everything...) The stat squish boosts your offense much more than your defense so fighting large groups at 71 is not recommended. * The Netherwing Daily areas have mobs with Aimed Shot, which one shots irons. Some of the intro quests are doable. * Ogri'la has a memory game (very similar to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game), which was a big thing in the late 1970s/early 1980s) which can kill you. As far as I know, it can't one shot you, but I suggest making as few errors as possible and healing and/or leaving the game area if you do start making errors. * The Skettis dailies area has flying birds who can and will do air-dismounts. Gravity can kill so careful flying is in order. (I probably would have lost Sepa if rogues didn't have Safe Fall.) After that close call, I tried flying so that any dismounts wouldn't kill. The birds don't seem to bother you if you're close to the platforms, so 'flying under the radar' should work. * The Shattered Sun Dailies are found by going through a portal in the central dome of Shattrah. Some quests are done on that island, some will send you back to Outland. * I recommend scouting ANY quest that suggests that you bring five players. Those tend to have mini-raid bosses that can take gigantic amounts of damage, deal stuns, do large AoE attacks, etc., etc. Some of these are doable (but you'll find safer xp elsewhere). * There's a few WoTLK Alliance dailies that can be done safely in the low 70s: www.wowhead.com/quest=11153/break-the-blockade and www.wowhead.com/quest=11391/steel-gate-patrol. As far as I can tell, there are no Horde equivalents. (Blizzard seems to have a thing about making Iron runs harder for Horde toons. That's likely unintentional.)
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Post by Anaralah on Jun 16, 2016 11:41:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I did loremaster on both factions in Northrend and unfortunately there is no Horde equivalent on those dailies :/ The only Horde-specific ones before Icecrown are the PvP dailies in Grizzly Hills. Here is a list of dailies in Northrend, most of which can be done on both factions/have faction equivalents: wow.gamepedia.com/Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_daily_questsI definitely would recommend scouting some of these out with another character first to assess how comfortable one is with the danger factor.
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Post by gnumbers on Jun 17, 2016 0:41:06 GMT -5
My thought process was that the resource boost is only really relevant to Warriors and Rogues. Like i said before i dont think Blood Elf Warriors are viable, go maybe Troll or Orc even Undead is a better option, as for Rogues i think they are the best option behind the obvious choice of hunters, if you want to be a Blood Elf. As an iron rogue, I think the silence is much more interesting than the resource gain. If your class doesn't have an interrupt, gaining one is great. If your class has an interrupt, gaining an extra one is still pretty damn good. And, if you're a Blood Elf rogue, enemy mobs are going to be spending quite a bit of time doing absolutely nothing. Kick a spell, Kidney Shot an "uninterruptable" skill, Arcane Torrent another spell, Kick should be off cooldown about right now...
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Post by Anaralah on Jun 17, 2016 11:36:50 GMT -5
My thought process was that the resource boost is only really relevant to Warriors and Rogues. Like i said before i dont think Blood Elf Warriors are viable, go maybe Troll or Orc even Undead is a better option, as for Rogues i think they are the best option behind the obvious choice of hunters, if you want to be a Blood Elf. As an iron rogue, I think the silence is much more interesting than the resource gain. If your class doesn't have an interrupt, gaining one is great. If your class has an interrupt, gaining an extra one is still pretty damn good. And, if you're a Blood Elf rogue, enemy mobs are going to be spending quite a bit of time doing absolutely nothing. Kick a spell, Kidney Shot an "uninterruptable" skill, Arcane Torrent another spell, Kick should be off cooldown about right now... Agreed. The silence has saved my life when playing Blood Elf, non-iron included. In pve and pvp. There was an arena tournament last year (or the year before, can't remember at the moment) where Arcane Torrent gave one team the edge at the last minute to silence an opposing caster and win. Same advantage in pve, with all classes. It is underestimated. Anyway, best of luck and wishes herrena--you have the kind of determination and perseverance will inevitably reward one with success. I think I'm just going to go back to lurking and reading/playing, the comments (not yours) about how BE is the worst of all races gameplay-wise have made me feel discouraged and a bit demoralized. Just being honest. Good luck, friend.
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jingoistic
Cadet
I live the ironman challenge. None of my clothes are magical and I haven't died yet.
Posts: 14
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Post by jingoistic on Jun 17, 2016 14:42:09 GMT -5
As I see it, Night Elf is a pure-defense, negative-offense decision.
You're wagering you will make mistakes and the benefit of escaping them is more than the general benefit of a per-fight ability. It is negative-offense value in the sense that the enemy also resets their health (raiding as a rogue this would not be the case since the enemy stays in combat).
Anaralah makes the compelling case here and a general reason why Blood Elf can be a great tank choice horde side.
Offense: Blood Elf: Offense+/Defense+ active interrupt and resource gain Orc/Troll: Offense++ burst dps increase.
Defense: Panda/Tauren: Defense+ stun reduces incoming damage or ability. Goblin: Offense+/Defense/Movement+ - rocket racials share a cooldown. Human/Tauren/Undead: Defense+ passive damage reduction (versatility/larger health pool/leech) Draenei: Defense++ self heal Night Elf: Defense passive dodge increase. Gnome/Human/Undead: Defense+ break CC.
Utility: Panda/Troll: XP+ Boosts.
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Post by Discordiankitty on Jun 18, 2016 2:20:07 GMT -5
Hey, Ironman is a challenge. If choosing a Blood Elf makes it even more challenging, so much the better, right? Anyway. Maybe discuss this further on the thread dedicated to discussing Iron races? ^_^ Gnumbers, your advice is invaluable. I've been following your threads closely, and I hope you'll do another set of gnotes when you've cleared your way to 100. So after completing Blade's Edge Mountains, (it's the first zone where I was able to get the Loremaster achievement for it), the Orgri'la intro quests + dailies, the Skettis intro quests + dailies, (I used a scout to see if I would be able to do the kill Terokk quest on my Ironman. Hahahahahaha no) a couple of other dailies I found around Shattrath, and the million and two Shattered Sun intro quests + dailies, (holy hell I can't believe how demanding the Shattered Sun are) I'm sitting at 35% into level 73. It's time for another break as I take one of my Loremaster characters through Netherstorm. The Midsummer Fire Festival is coming up as well, which is almost perfect timing. Hopefully it means it won't take me too long to get to the Northrend level squish.
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Post by gnumbers on Jun 18, 2016 7:50:46 GMT -5
Gnumbers, your advice is invaluable. I've been following your threads closely, and I hope you'll do another set of gnotes when you've cleared your way to 100. You mean that getting Sepa to 100 was just a dream? Ack! Oh, wait, never mind, that happened. Levels 90-100 aren't anywhere as interesting as levels 1-81, but, eh, I'll do a mind-dump anyways.
In general, the stat squish doesn't squish that much in Pandaria. You won't ROFLstomp Pandaria at 91 like you did to Cata zones at 86. The difficulty level of Pandaria is inconsistent. Lupello, a level 86 quest mob, is far more dangerous than most unnamed level 90 mobs. (You do NOT want to get hit by Lupello's Pounce attack; you'll likely die if you cannot remove the bleed.) I greatly underestimated how many quests/daily quests I could do in Pandaria, mostly because of fear of seeing what level 85-86 named mobs can do. Rares are marked with skulls on the map for a reason. Don't even think about attacking them.
-- I couldn't do Angler dailies. I don't think they'll talk to you unless you have fishing.
-- Cloud Serpent dailies range from easy to no-thank-you: Scouting named bosses remains wise. The Orchard Needler can do massive AoE short-range damage. The Seed of Doubt can sic the nearby mini-spiders on you. The others probably have similar tricks I can't recall at the moment. I never tried fighting duels vs. members of The Order.
-- Tillers are great for rogues (and still pretty good for other clasess): There's usually a few non-combat quests and a few combat dailies. Some of the combat dailies are much easier than I would have imagined, but scouting is recommended. Didn't have much difficulty killing the hozen on the perimeter (near the Burn the Ropes ropes). I wouldn't suggest going deep into the Hozen camp without Vanish and Preparation on cooldown. (I wouldn't go there on a non-rogue. Too much patrolling.) The laser statue can kill very quickly.
Never got around to doing much with the Klaxxi. There's probably quite a bit I missed here. August Celestials are good but variable. Quite a few duels, which I avoided. The Cradle of Chi-ji has two non-combat quests which can be done on the perimeter of the zone. Some students have polearms; they have specials you can dodge. Assume unarmed students are ranged casters; interrupting their spells is recommended if you must fight them. As always, scout when in doubt.
-- Golden Lotus dailies. The Setting Sun Garrison dailies are generally awesome. Roll Club and shooting Mantid with the cannons are safe. The throw-oil daily is a bit trickier--sometimes a mantid will hang out near an oil station. The Battle Ring has a useful gimmick: you drop all student aggro if you run outside the ring of students. Scout the Survival Ring. It's doable but getting hit leads to knockback which leads to disorientation... I did the Flames one but avoided the Blades one. I didn't even consider the quests that went underground. Too many deathtraps.
--Shado Pan dailies: SCOUT SCOUT SCOUT SCOUT SCOUT. Some of these are doable but one of my fastest scout deaths happened when a Shado Pan daily mob blew her into bits with one AoE spell. 'nuf said. The Isle of Thunder is mostly off limits. You can do a bit of the intro but you'll eventually be asked to start a scenario. Starting a scenario isn't possible if you don't have a spec.
The Krasarang Wild dailies (Operation: Shieldwall for Alliance, Dominance Offensive for Horde) should be approached with caution. One of my non-iron 90s died during a Domination Point quest when she got nuked from orbit. There might be some do-not-fly-here stuff going on near the enemy bases. Questing in Draenor is mostly like late Vanilla, only harder. Scouting named bosses is recommended; you may find some quest chains inaccessible. Grinding is slow but surprisingly easy once you find the right mobs. Treasures are awesome and consume rested xp. Rogue goes from below-average iron class to Best Iron Class Ever in the late 90s because Vanish and Sap are the best skills for hunting down treasures in Draenor.
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