Post by loopus on Apr 3, 2012 15:13:07 GMT -5
My main these days is a druid, which I leveled feral and on which I raid as resto. I didn't want to try Ironman as a druid because I thought I'd have too many bad habits from being so used to playing with gear and spec. On the other hand, my main in BC was a mage. That same mage is level 85 today, but still I've played it very little since the end of BC. I figured I was familiar enough with mage that I wouldn't have to spend a lot of time figuring out what the heck I was doing, while not so familiar anymore with playing a mage regular-style that I'd have bad habits. And that's really the only reason I decided to try an Ironman mage.
Enferrujo was my fifth try. My previous four died at 25 (trying to kite in an enclosed area without an escape plan), 19 (respawns while on an escort quest), 15 (went AFK in an area I thought was safe), and 60 (entered lava to fight an enemy without appreciating how much damage it would do). My first two were draenei, and I realized that both of those first two deaths could have been prevented by shadowmeld, so I went with night elf from then on.
Honestly, the most difficult part of the challenge for me was the 25-45 range, while I was waiting on incredibly useful skills like mana shield and mana gem. After getting mirror image at 50, things really got a lot easier. Mirror images are a great tank. They hold aggro automatically, not based on threat generation, as long as they are attacking the target. There are three of them, and all three of them have to die before the mob turns its attention back to the mage. They only last 30 seconds, but they provide a tank when you need it most. So while I'll gladly accept the honor of being the first non-pet class to 85 as an Ironman, strictly-speaking I kinda thought of my mage as a situational pet class. Of course, mirror images can't be controlled and they have an annoying propensity to attack anything in range whether it's attacking you or not. I don't know how many times I've finished killing something and left combat, only to see my mirror images fire blast an unsuspecting bystander mob and despawn.
I won't say it was "easy" after 50 per se, but I definitely settled into a routine after that. Up until Cataclysm, killing things went pretty much the same every level. Frostbolt to slow, arcane blast for efficient DPS, fire blast for damage on the move, frost nova to gain distance, ice lance for efficient DPS while frozen. If I really needed it while frost nova was on cooldown, I'd cone of cold and blink away. Mirror images for named mobs or emergencies. I ran with mana shield up at all times.
I went to Outland at 61 and Northrend at 71, and both transitions were quite smooth with no real problems.
I first tried going to Cataclysm at 83. I did the first two quests in Hyjal, but I found that I didn't have enough mana to kill anything by myself without using mana gem, evocation, or mirror image on every single pull. Also, while my health level was acceptable, considering the issues I was having with the mobs I decided to go back to Northrend for another level.
Even at 84, you can get over half a million experience points per day by maxing out on Northrend dailies, making it technically possible to go through 83 in maybe 8 days and 84 in maybe 18 days without ever stepping foot in Cataclysm. However, I didn't want it to be said that I ducked it, and besides I wanted the challenge, so I went back at 84.
I still needed a mana cooldown or mirror image for every pull, but I got used to that after a while. I couldn't afford the mana to use mana shield anymore, and it no longer absorbed much damage relative to my total health anyway. The other difficulty of Cataclysm was that sometimes named mobs had so much health that it was impossible to kill them before mirror images expired, so I had to do things like kite them around for awhile, then summon mirror images so that I could evocate in peace, and then finish them off after mirror images finally expired. Of special note is A Prayer and a Wing in Hyjal. Blaithe was the first named mob I faced in Cataclysm, and imagine my horror to see something with 74,000 HP show up and automatically aggro. I eventually was able to kill it my kiting back and forth across a short walkable area atop the mountain next to the nest, summoning mirror images midfight. Also of note is Sethria's Demise, also in Hyjal. You can summon NPC help to fight Sethria, who is an elite, but only after she assumes dragon form, which she only does after losing a certain amount of health. I didn't know how much health that was. However, while trying to get her to that point I managed to run her out of mana and go through two mirror image cooldowns. That was quite the kite-fest. Finally she assumed dragon form and I got the NPCs to come in and save my butt.
Of surprising use in Cataclysm was flame orb. It does fire damage to its closest target once per second for fifteen seconds, and each time it does damage it has a chance of proc'ing arcane missiles. And arcane missiles are free. If I cast flame orb at a mob being held in place by mirror images, I could pretty much spam arcane missiles for a good 10 to 15 seconds straight, which was a great way to conserve mana.
At final count, I did 122 quests in Vashj'ir, 92 quests in Hyjal, and 325 daily quests. I did 2176 total quests, and questing was the entirety of my leveling experience. I never stopped to grind mobs just for the experience, though doing the Northrend dailies every day did feel like a grind in itself.
The single most valuable thing that helped me complete this quest was foresight. Knowing what was coming made it easy to anticipate and plan. Surprises were always bad. Whenever I was unsure of what was going to happen on a quest and I thought it might get ugly, I looked it up on Wowhead. Secondly, I always had an escape plan in mind no matter what I was doing. A safe route to run, a safe spot to shadowmeld, a cliff to jump off of and slow fall, whatever. I always had a way out.
I'm going to keep Enferrujo around and do things like safe holiday quests, just so it feels like he's still alive. But he's definitely decided to retire from adventuring.
Enferrujo was my fifth try. My previous four died at 25 (trying to kite in an enclosed area without an escape plan), 19 (respawns while on an escort quest), 15 (went AFK in an area I thought was safe), and 60 (entered lava to fight an enemy without appreciating how much damage it would do). My first two were draenei, and I realized that both of those first two deaths could have been prevented by shadowmeld, so I went with night elf from then on.
Honestly, the most difficult part of the challenge for me was the 25-45 range, while I was waiting on incredibly useful skills like mana shield and mana gem. After getting mirror image at 50, things really got a lot easier. Mirror images are a great tank. They hold aggro automatically, not based on threat generation, as long as they are attacking the target. There are three of them, and all three of them have to die before the mob turns its attention back to the mage. They only last 30 seconds, but they provide a tank when you need it most. So while I'll gladly accept the honor of being the first non-pet class to 85 as an Ironman, strictly-speaking I kinda thought of my mage as a situational pet class. Of course, mirror images can't be controlled and they have an annoying propensity to attack anything in range whether it's attacking you or not. I don't know how many times I've finished killing something and left combat, only to see my mirror images fire blast an unsuspecting bystander mob and despawn.
I won't say it was "easy" after 50 per se, but I definitely settled into a routine after that. Up until Cataclysm, killing things went pretty much the same every level. Frostbolt to slow, arcane blast for efficient DPS, fire blast for damage on the move, frost nova to gain distance, ice lance for efficient DPS while frozen. If I really needed it while frost nova was on cooldown, I'd cone of cold and blink away. Mirror images for named mobs or emergencies. I ran with mana shield up at all times.
I went to Outland at 61 and Northrend at 71, and both transitions were quite smooth with no real problems.
I first tried going to Cataclysm at 83. I did the first two quests in Hyjal, but I found that I didn't have enough mana to kill anything by myself without using mana gem, evocation, or mirror image on every single pull. Also, while my health level was acceptable, considering the issues I was having with the mobs I decided to go back to Northrend for another level.
Even at 84, you can get over half a million experience points per day by maxing out on Northrend dailies, making it technically possible to go through 83 in maybe 8 days and 84 in maybe 18 days without ever stepping foot in Cataclysm. However, I didn't want it to be said that I ducked it, and besides I wanted the challenge, so I went back at 84.
I still needed a mana cooldown or mirror image for every pull, but I got used to that after a while. I couldn't afford the mana to use mana shield anymore, and it no longer absorbed much damage relative to my total health anyway. The other difficulty of Cataclysm was that sometimes named mobs had so much health that it was impossible to kill them before mirror images expired, so I had to do things like kite them around for awhile, then summon mirror images so that I could evocate in peace, and then finish them off after mirror images finally expired. Of special note is A Prayer and a Wing in Hyjal. Blaithe was the first named mob I faced in Cataclysm, and imagine my horror to see something with 74,000 HP show up and automatically aggro. I eventually was able to kill it my kiting back and forth across a short walkable area atop the mountain next to the nest, summoning mirror images midfight. Also of note is Sethria's Demise, also in Hyjal. You can summon NPC help to fight Sethria, who is an elite, but only after she assumes dragon form, which she only does after losing a certain amount of health. I didn't know how much health that was. However, while trying to get her to that point I managed to run her out of mana and go through two mirror image cooldowns. That was quite the kite-fest. Finally she assumed dragon form and I got the NPCs to come in and save my butt.
Of surprising use in Cataclysm was flame orb. It does fire damage to its closest target once per second for fifteen seconds, and each time it does damage it has a chance of proc'ing arcane missiles. And arcane missiles are free. If I cast flame orb at a mob being held in place by mirror images, I could pretty much spam arcane missiles for a good 10 to 15 seconds straight, which was a great way to conserve mana.
At final count, I did 122 quests in Vashj'ir, 92 quests in Hyjal, and 325 daily quests. I did 2176 total quests, and questing was the entirety of my leveling experience. I never stopped to grind mobs just for the experience, though doing the Northrend dailies every day did feel like a grind in itself.
The single most valuable thing that helped me complete this quest was foresight. Knowing what was coming made it easy to anticipate and plan. Surprises were always bad. Whenever I was unsure of what was going to happen on a quest and I thought it might get ugly, I looked it up on Wowhead. Secondly, I always had an escape plan in mind no matter what I was doing. A safe route to run, a safe spot to shadowmeld, a cliff to jump off of and slow fall, whatever. I always had a way out.
I'm going to keep Enferrujo around and do things like safe holiday quests, just so it feels like he's still alive. But he's definitely decided to retire from adventuring.