WOTLK Combat Conversions...

Found this on the web somewhere - it looks legit however we'll know more about the true numbers for level 80 later on.. enjoy

WOTLK Initial Thoughts and Impressions...

It's been some time from my last update so I thought I'd journal my initial impressions of the second WoW expansion pack (XP). Being only 1 month in to the XP, I'll limit my thoughts mostly on PVE. At the time of this writing I've only been able to hit 75 so my experiences thus far are limited. I'll defer my comments on PVP since I am waiting to hit 80. I've rated each of the categories below on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the best, 1 being abysmal)...

Questing (rating 4):
The quests themselves are much improved from the first XP. There seems to be much more integration between the storyline and quests available. A stellar example of this is the quest line that starts in Dragonblight and ends at the gates of the Ice Crown followed by a fantastic assault on Undercity. There are, I will add, cut-scenes which are really enjoyable to watch and enhance the overall pve game experience. I was living out my MJ dreams during the Undercity assault. Aside from the DB quests, there seem to be a LOT of PVP based daily's in Grizzly Hills which provides some much needed variety. Without giving things away, there are notably many more quests that involve mounted creatures on land/air. In Borjean Tundra, there's even a group of Druids that seek the elimination of Nesingwary (the hunter from Nagrand) which is kind of interesting - continuing a storyline between XP1 and XP2.

I would have given it a solid 5 but I did come across a few quests that were completely ridiculous - namely the "Riding the Red Rocket" and one other that I can't recollect the name where you need to either drop 20+ gp on an engineer'd part of know someone who can make it.


Landscapes and Creature Modeling (rating 5):
in one word..fantastic! The folks at Blizzard did a remarkable job at creating beautiful landscapes... if you look closely at the details, they made a lot of enhancements around fire, smoke, waterfalls, magics, etc... The layouts of each zone is unique but in some way has a feel as if they are part of the same land mass (Northrend). Creature modeling seems to be much improved. Mob's have more facial detail and seem less toon'ish. The most important thing for me was that it didn't require me to upgrade my hardware but improved enough to take notice.

Class Diversity: (rating 1):
Having played many online RPG's and MMO's (including an extensive paper and die RPG run), I have found some things that were fairly consistent: In a group setting, spell caster/Healer classes were relatively weak in melee range, had exceptionally low durability and armor, but were ultra-powerful when defended properly in the backdrop. Then you had your close range melee classes, which had medium to exceptional armor, were ultra powerful in close range single point melee. And then you had your hybrid classes, that were either a combination of ranged/melee or melee/casting which had greater utility in small group settings.

This to me, translates to tighter integration and a more enjoyable playing experience as you are dependent upon your other classes to do what they are supposed to do. You see this to some extent in group/dungeon/raid settings in WoW, however Blizzard took this in what I think is the wrong direction. Blizzard decided to blend class attributes from class to another. For example, several classes have the ability to do *single-point melee* DPS that equals or exceeds some top end raiding rogues. A great example of this are the new Death Knight's (DK's) or Retribution Pallys. Lots of DPS potential, great defensive capability - no down side. Even on the rogue side I've seen another manifestation with the introduction of Cloak of Shadows, giving them some magical defense capability, followed by Killing spree - what now rogues have multi-target AOE capability? I realize that Blizz is trying to give classes better play survivability in PVP but I don't think it was done correctly.

Conclusion:
So far I am enjoying the overall game experience of PVE, barring a few minor quest annoyances. Blizzard is one of those game companies that I have no regrets plunking down loot on - despite our gross differences in class diversity, I found the second XP well worth trying out. I'll post an update, when I go full PVP - there are some general concerns with aforementioned classes however I'll give it a go.

PVP Status Check and Next Steps

In absence of a better title, I wanted to leave some personal notes regarding my overall PVP status in areas such as BG, Arena, thoughts about the Mutilate spec., and my current guild/realm status:

My overall PVP progression has been exciting to say the least. After settling on a key-bind layout, combat maneuvers and a fair amount of practice, I've been able to amass slightly over 6K of HP, several PVP items ranging in quality from S1 to S3 and have gained some valuable insight into PVP-land. I have also gained insight into other classes strengths/weaknesses as this is an essential element in PVP game-play.

As far as the specific areas of PVP-land (Arena/BG), my strategy up to this point is designate 1/2 nights a week for Arena, 3-4 nights for BG and perform dailys to raise capital when my loot supply is low.

I created a new Arena team "Cows in da hood" which was created out of a news incident observed on a podcast a few weeks back about some cows going buck wild in a remote neighborhood out in the mid-west - my description doesn't give it any justice whatsoever. I was able to bring on 2 Shaman from an earlier Areana team. I'm really happy they decided to join as we've played before in Arena and have developed a good rhythm with them. We also have a new hunter but am seeking 2 more to complete the team composition.

As far as the mutilate spec, its wicked evil. With the combo point build up of Seal-Fate + Initiative, I'm able to rack up CP's fairly quickly. I am also utilizing finisher's more effectively based on the class I am up against. One in particular that I am particularly fond of is Envenom as it appears to mitigate armor completely. I also use rupture on occasion but its dependent on if I want to be near the target or back off. One slight annoyance with the assassin build - its a positional talent which means you have to be behind your target to get off a mutilate. Some PVP'ers (not many) spot that out and try to keep their backs away from my front side.

I still want to try ShS build as this is the only talent build configuration I haven't tried as of yet. The only drag here is I hear this build works best with higher damage based weapons coupled with Hemo + lots of attack power which might mean I may need to get a new set of weapons.

One more note - I left my guild - it basically disbanded. I wish all members, class leads and GM the best of luck.

I don't think I'll be in a guild going forward - I switched to the dark side.

PVP Key Binds

Hello again,

I'm hooked on PVP'ing (Both Arena and BG) and have recently made the switch to a mutilate spec (43/0/18) - to accommodate for the faster game play, I had to remap all my key bindings. Previously (in PVE-land) I didn't have to worry about that split second key sequence but now I do.

This is a first cut so it will probably go through some minor modifications as I feel it out - unfortunately there are roughly 24 key bindings that I have to commit to memory so its no doubt that this will take some time before it becomes 2nd nature.

COMBAT
1 shiv
2 sinister strike
3 gouge
4 eviscerate
5 mutilate
6 cheapshot

SHIFT KEY STUFF (denoted s)
sC kick
sA Thistle Tea
sR slice-n-dice
sS Expose armor
sD rupture
sF envenom
s1 Distract
s2 Sprint
s3 Evasion
s4 cloak of shadows
s5 Vanish
s` Cold blood

MISC
` stealth
mouse3 deadly throw
s + m3 = throw
sV insignia of alliance
sG macro - quick bandage

STEALTH
1 ambush
2 garrote
3 sap
4 pickpockets
5 shiv
6 cheap shot

Note: I have to work on repositioning the s2 key - I have to shift my hands to get to this key combo. Also I had to move my escape key to the right side of the keyboard as I am constantly hitting it during battle.

Later on, I'll post some observations about the mutilate spec - still feeling it out.

Regards,
TJ

Time off...

I've been away from W0W for some time due to life's consistent time constraints - I don't know how some of my peeps do it (yes they have kids and full time jobs).

Basically I've made some decisions about what to do and when to do them based on these constraints:

1. Starting to PVP - this has changed dramatically since I last went into BG or Arena - the queue times are drastically down and the in/out times seem to have went down as well. This works well for me since I can't be on a schedule (its all adhoc) and I don't have much steady time to be on WoW - approx 1, 2 hours in a clip.

2. Getting my Epic - about 60% through collections and am running the 3,4,5 man group quests in BEM, SMV and NS - if I get a good group, we're basically going to roll through 4/5 of these in a clip - thats not bad l00t in one setting.

3. Rep building - need to get revered with some factions and considering exalted for 1/2 factions based on rep. rewards - some of them are real sweet such as skyguard.

4. Potion Mastery - I still need to run through bot and get my potion mastery - this will greatly increase my ability to make pots in quantity on occasion. I hope to get this before my epic as farming for herbs will no doubt be much quicker.

5. Skill Building - need to boost up fishing/cooking, as well as swords and thrown skills. Most of my other areas are max'd out already.

As for raiding, well this is not a focus area right now - its not the actual runtime through the instance that gets me its the setup, and the commitment to the scheduled time that I can't seem to fit in - oh well - luckily Bliz has provided enough rewards in BG/Arena to minimize the urge to raid.

More to come...

TJ