At the behest of some much more experienced guys I know, I've been rep farming in hellfire peninsula. I am now to the point that I will be going THROUGH those 2 instances only 1 more time. I will get the quests FOR the instances so I can run through and get what I need. This should be the last time I run regular ramparts/bf.
I'm so excited I can't even express it. I've been bored with Mcgoo since all I could do is group up and do instances. Most everything I found in outland is either demon or an orc, so I totally plan on using my succubus. I can banish demons and I can seduce the orcs. I will mow these fools down. Its been so long since I've solo'd anywhere except to help buddies out in various parts of the world, I may be a bit rusty. Maybe still use VW for a bit then, right? Couldn't hurt.
The guys in outland seem to be all orange to me. I mean, most everyone is higher level. Like I'm lvl 4 running in westfall or something. I mean I'm a bit worried I'll find an elite that will smoke me like yesterdays tobacco. Plus I have found lots of these orcs are immune to deathcoil. Which, to this point, has been my "OS" handle. I can get distance and drop a quick shadowbolt/shadowburn on someone and drop them 2k points just in a snap. My problems come with mobs that are even slightly immune to shadow damage. I'm at over 300 shadow damage, which makes my corruption a lethal instrument, to be sure. I think I get like an additional 30% to my corruption.. so thats almost another 100 damage. If I use my curse of shadows (and I always do, just in case of nightfall proc), that adds even more. So my corruption is how I kill things. Everything else is pretty much icing. Siphon Life? Icing, helps me regen life in longer fights, and helps me in my drain life, if I'm drain tanking. Immolate? Well thats kinda icing, for some reason it REALLY ticks ppl off and I pull aggro from my VW. It does good damage, but who needs the hassle? This is for if I have a real tank. Or if I'm in PvP, where aggro doesn't matter.
My new Addon Omen will keep me in check when it comes to pulling aggro off the VW. VW is still pretty much king for me for handling multiple mobs. I can deal with 2 64's with the VW on one, and his guy dotted up, plus me dotting up mine and drain tanking him. Its fun, but I am going to give my succubus a try, just to see. Some locks swear by her, some don't.
Oh well looking forward to tonight an maybe my last ramp/bf runs.. /dance.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Blood Furnace, wasn't so hot..
Went on a run through the blood furnace, and it turned out to be more of a sprint. We spent more time waiting for people to come back from bathroom breaks than actually regaining mana/healing up.
Tank was good. A bit hasty for some people (I was shocked), but literally downed one mob of 3, then charged the next mob. I can be ready to go in a very short time with dark pact and lifetap.. but I think our mage felt a mana pinch. We didn't get close to wiping.. ever. There was one time when we had 6 guys on us, but with rooting/fearing/sheeping.. it wasn't a big problem.
I think the benefit here was the rogue in our party. I'm not a big fan of rogues. This is just something that's known. I find all but a few of their abilities dumb. The one in particular he was using was backstab. With almost NO exception, backstab and sap are premier abilities. Sap takes one guy out of the equation, and backstab does big damage, plus you aren't getting hit! Spam Sinister Strike, and then do backstab until you get full points for an eviscerate. I do that with my lvl 14 Rogue (Felorinn). Having a tank means you don't have to sneak behind.. you just walk there. Also, unless you crit too much, you won't pull aggro. You'll be doing big damage without getting hit, all while not pulling aggro. Its a great thing really. Now he got mind controlled once and put a beating on me.. but still. This was a good rogue. It may have revolutionized my viewing of rogues altogether.
Priest was good, but not exceptional. His HEALING was exceptional. He knew when to bubble me, and when to put big heals on me, and when to let me heal myself with drain life. All this without voice or text coordination. He was either a lock in a former life or he is VERY familiar with how we roll. I got bubbled when I started hellfire, when the bubble faded, I got HoT'd.. and then a big heal when I hit 50%. So after I helped AoE 5 guys down, I was at full life, and almost full mana (loving the imp mana battery).
Mage was Frost/Arcane I think, cause I saw a water elemental, but also saw some arcane missles blasting away. He beat me with damage on allthe boss fights but in general I was doing more damage than him. Frost mages are awesome for crowd control, slowing everyone down and rooting with the nova. That is usually when I came in and did Hellfire actually. A bunch of guys all stuck in one spot.. sounds like they are asking for it to me.
I wasn't at the top of my game, but I did really well. Nothing to be ashamed of like the last ramparts run I got in.. Gosh I was so terrible I put myself on ignore... LOL!
Tank was good. A bit hasty for some people (I was shocked), but literally downed one mob of 3, then charged the next mob. I can be ready to go in a very short time with dark pact and lifetap.. but I think our mage felt a mana pinch. We didn't get close to wiping.. ever. There was one time when we had 6 guys on us, but with rooting/fearing/sheeping.. it wasn't a big problem.
I think the benefit here was the rogue in our party. I'm not a big fan of rogues. This is just something that's known. I find all but a few of their abilities dumb. The one in particular he was using was backstab. With almost NO exception, backstab and sap are premier abilities. Sap takes one guy out of the equation, and backstab does big damage, plus you aren't getting hit! Spam Sinister Strike, and then do backstab until you get full points for an eviscerate. I do that with my lvl 14 Rogue (Felorinn). Having a tank means you don't have to sneak behind.. you just walk there. Also, unless you crit too much, you won't pull aggro. You'll be doing big damage without getting hit, all while not pulling aggro. Its a great thing really. Now he got mind controlled once and put a beating on me.. but still. This was a good rogue. It may have revolutionized my viewing of rogues altogether.
Priest was good, but not exceptional. His HEALING was exceptional. He knew when to bubble me, and when to put big heals on me, and when to let me heal myself with drain life. All this without voice or text coordination. He was either a lock in a former life or he is VERY familiar with how we roll. I got bubbled when I started hellfire, when the bubble faded, I got HoT'd.. and then a big heal when I hit 50%. So after I helped AoE 5 guys down, I was at full life, and almost full mana (loving the imp mana battery).
Mage was Frost/Arcane I think, cause I saw a water elemental, but also saw some arcane missles blasting away. He beat me with damage on allthe boss fights but in general I was doing more damage than him. Frost mages are awesome for crowd control, slowing everyone down and rooting with the nova. That is usually when I came in and did Hellfire actually. A bunch of guys all stuck in one spot.. sounds like they are asking for it to me.
I wasn't at the top of my game, but I did really well. Nothing to be ashamed of like the last ramparts run I got in.. Gosh I was so terrible I put myself on ignore... LOL!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
PvP tips for hunters (AB edition)
Firstly, please read the WSG edition. I went over some basics I won't (on purpose) repeat. Remember this is for in general lvl 49 hunters, I'm not looking back to see what I had and when.. look at your skills and see if you can do this stuff. Also remember I am marksman, I have trueshot aura, as well as aimed shot/scatter shot, and even a point or two in Beast mastery for the improved hawk aspect (otherwise known as holy smokes rapid fire). A must for all hunters is the 3 points in survival for the longer range.
Arathi Basin. Its a beautiful place with a ton of possibilities, mostly.. Death.
Defense:
As a hunter you won't always be on the fringe of an attack, but sometimes defending something. Surprise is always an element you like in your favor though. So don't forget to hide, and do it in a place where you MIGHT get an aimed shot off. This levels a playing field FAST.
5 guys coming to the mine, and suddenly the healer has a mana drain on him and 3/4 his life is gone. Healing himself means he's low on mana and WON'T be an element for the coming fight. Ignoring himself means he'll die fast and STILL won't be an element in the coming fight. If you get jumped by anyone in melee range, if you are over-ran.. I ignore them. I continue raining pain on the people that are at range. I put my pet on the guy melee'ing me. Least I could do to bug him. Or I'll put a freezing trap down to stop him cold (always fun). Keep in mind Melee is not your Forte. You do the most damage from 40 yards out, and don't forget it. POUND the guys that are in range. Take out clothies/rogues first. Clothies either cause big problems with their big damage (mage/lock) or cause big problems with healing. So they are #1, #2 target is the rogue/stealthed druid. These guys can do some wild things to you. Drop flares around your team mates so they aren't surprised and can stop them. If you see one who is un-checked, aimed shot his butt. He wears better armor than cloth, but you can still devastate him.
Skills/practices:
Use your hotkeys if you don't already.. In a group I use a spamming motion with my poison shot. Everyone needs it. Tab targets people quick, but has its shortcomings. Use tab and your hotkey for poison shot to poison a group quickly. For me its Tab +#2(the number 2 above the "w" key on the keyboard). I will sit out of the way and just literally toggle those 2 buttons till I notice my next tab has it already. It won't turn the tide of battle, but it keeps healers busy,and helps in a skirmish (where you aren't seen) to be more of a damage dealer. Remember you can do this while running /strafing.
Real Estate:
Like in real life, being a hunter requires location/location/location. You WILL be found most times, but if you play your cards right you could have already lowered the whole attacking team's life by 20-30%, AND killed a few. Keep in mind doing well in Battlegrounds means doing well with your team. No solo.. not at all. Unless a particular node is calling for help, don't be alone.. ever. Hunter's make great defenders as they can "track" the enemies movements, and no matter what anyone says.. KNOWING what's coming is always better than "SURPRISE!!" 6 guys in your face. Once you get feign death, use it. I have let whole groups of horde run right by me cause I was faking being dead. Best is to put your pet somewhere else (or stealthed) and do it. Let them run by and when they are starting to claim the flag or when your people engage and they push forward come up from the flank and pick some guys off.. Remember most people can't see very far in back from their vantage point in playing WoW. SO if you are far enough behind, they won't see you pop up and cast aimed shot on their back. In surprise scenario's beware of using the hunter's mark. This gives away that there is a hunter around.. and people generally look for you then.. so you loose a bit of surprise by not using it during the aimed shot, but put it on immediately afterwards (as they will now KNOW you are not dead and want you to die a painful death).
Some specifics on Real Estate:
Find a mage and follow him around. They have good grounding abilities and even have polymorph if you get in trouble. Plus they do great damage and are expected to do so, few of their spells are 1 hit kills so you can finish some folks off with him/her. Don't go anywhere without a guy in plate. This is lame, but unfortunately, rogues exist and will cause big hits.. the guys best able to absorb that damage are warriors/pally's. THEN once the rogue is known you and the mage can wipe him out quick. Rogues do the most FAST melee damage, so they are priority, second would be the charging bulls (warriors, usually tauren). If you and the mage focus on someone, they die. Period. Make sure you guys are on the same page. If he wants to go for the healer, follow his lead. We are more consistent with damage, but they have BIG booms to put on people. If your warrior is fighting someone, its better to take him/her out. Keep in mind he won't be fighting 1:1, it'll be 5:1 easy. That's why I say rogues first.. THey do the most the fastest, so get rid of them first. Multishot them if you can.. and have him sheep a healer or something.
Absolute best assualt group: Warlock, and 2 hunters. Seduce can take 1 guy out of an equation from the word go, and fear takes out another (just not an undead guy cause they are tricky). Hunters can mark the other two and the lock can dot them up while the hunters unload and put pets on them. I've taken out 5 man groups this way lots of times. Never has the guy who was feared came back to the flag. He runs away, always. Cause the feared guy is almost always a rogue. Rogues are good 1:1, but can't take a group.. Especially a lock and 2 hunters. Affliction locks are great but, sometimes can't take people down fast enough. Destruction locks are my personal favorite (when I'm a hunter, since mcgoo is affliction and partial destro)
Just don't forget your: Scope, sharpening stones, potions (loose these only in serious situations)
If I think of more it will be added to this post so if you are referencing this in the future come back to the 2 posts.
Arathi Basin. Its a beautiful place with a ton of possibilities, mostly.. Death.
Defense:
As a hunter you won't always be on the fringe of an attack, but sometimes defending something. Surprise is always an element you like in your favor though. So don't forget to hide, and do it in a place where you MIGHT get an aimed shot off. This levels a playing field FAST.
5 guys coming to the mine, and suddenly the healer has a mana drain on him and 3/4 his life is gone. Healing himself means he's low on mana and WON'T be an element for the coming fight. Ignoring himself means he'll die fast and STILL won't be an element in the coming fight. If you get jumped by anyone in melee range, if you are over-ran.. I ignore them. I continue raining pain on the people that are at range. I put my pet on the guy melee'ing me. Least I could do to bug him. Or I'll put a freezing trap down to stop him cold (always fun). Keep in mind Melee is not your Forte. You do the most damage from 40 yards out, and don't forget it. POUND the guys that are in range. Take out clothies/rogues first. Clothies either cause big problems with their big damage (mage/lock) or cause big problems with healing. So they are #1, #2 target is the rogue/stealthed druid. These guys can do some wild things to you. Drop flares around your team mates so they aren't surprised and can stop them. If you see one who is un-checked, aimed shot his butt. He wears better armor than cloth, but you can still devastate him.
Skills/practices:
Use your hotkeys if you don't already.. In a group I use a spamming motion with my poison shot. Everyone needs it. Tab targets people quick, but has its shortcomings. Use tab and your hotkey for poison shot to poison a group quickly. For me its Tab +#2(the number 2 above the "w" key on the keyboard). I will sit out of the way and just literally toggle those 2 buttons till I notice my next tab has it already. It won't turn the tide of battle, but it keeps healers busy,and helps in a skirmish (where you aren't seen) to be more of a damage dealer. Remember you can do this while running /strafing.
Real Estate:
Like in real life, being a hunter requires location/location/location. You WILL be found most times, but if you play your cards right you could have already lowered the whole attacking team's life by 20-30%, AND killed a few. Keep in mind doing well in Battlegrounds means doing well with your team. No solo.. not at all. Unless a particular node is calling for help, don't be alone.. ever. Hunter's make great defenders as they can "track" the enemies movements, and no matter what anyone says.. KNOWING what's coming is always better than "SURPRISE!!" 6 guys in your face. Once you get feign death, use it. I have let whole groups of horde run right by me cause I was faking being dead. Best is to put your pet somewhere else (or stealthed) and do it. Let them run by and when they are starting to claim the flag or when your people engage and they push forward come up from the flank and pick some guys off.. Remember most people can't see very far in back from their vantage point in playing WoW. SO if you are far enough behind, they won't see you pop up and cast aimed shot on their back. In surprise scenario's beware of using the hunter's mark. This gives away that there is a hunter around.. and people generally look for you then.. so you loose a bit of surprise by not using it during the aimed shot, but put it on immediately afterwards (as they will now KNOW you are not dead and want you to die a painful death).
Some specifics on Real Estate:
- Mine
- Spot above the mine (structure) is great for sniping people, but its a known place so expect company
- off by the water will be a good place to hang out especially if you are a dwarf. You may get ignored even if you AREN'T faking being dead.
- Hiding inside the mine itself is not so hot, you can't track people outside the mine (or inside if I remember correctly, but that means if you are outside you track outside, inside: inside tracking only)
- The crates besdie the mine is a great hiding spot, nelfs can shadowmeld there and do a peek-a-boo with people at the flag no worries.
- Smith (probably the worst hunter spot)
- For defense from Farm side, get on the rocks overlooking the bridge from the Farm/mill crossroad.
- beside the building itself in shadowmeld (night elf only)
- Playing dead.. by the graveyard is best. No one expects you to pop up from there and unload.
- Lumber mill
- (dwarf) the woodpile at the mill structure for sniping at folks coming up the hill
- overlooking the hill from farm
- at flag. This is debatable as most ppl run FOR the flag, but I like it since I can hit people on the hill still from there
- Stables
- I play dead IN the stables facing the mill all the time
- Rocks on the shore by the bridge towards mill
- Farm
- This is heaven, by the way cause if you take farm, you are guaranteed tons of hits/kills as their home is just beyond the farm
- bushes accross the road from the flag (its good distance, and a bit of cover)
- play dead by the windmill on the farm you can snipe some ppl running for the mine to avoid you at the farm. Or stop an advance if they swarm the farm from their base.
Find a mage and follow him around. They have good grounding abilities and even have polymorph if you get in trouble. Plus they do great damage and are expected to do so, few of their spells are 1 hit kills so you can finish some folks off with him/her. Don't go anywhere without a guy in plate. This is lame, but unfortunately, rogues exist and will cause big hits.. the guys best able to absorb that damage are warriors/pally's. THEN once the rogue is known you and the mage can wipe him out quick. Rogues do the most FAST melee damage, so they are priority, second would be the charging bulls (warriors, usually tauren). If you and the mage focus on someone, they die. Period. Make sure you guys are on the same page. If he wants to go for the healer, follow his lead. We are more consistent with damage, but they have BIG booms to put on people. If your warrior is fighting someone, its better to take him/her out. Keep in mind he won't be fighting 1:1, it'll be 5:1 easy. That's why I say rogues first.. THey do the most the fastest, so get rid of them first. Multishot them if you can.. and have him sheep a healer or something.
Absolute best assualt group: Warlock, and 2 hunters. Seduce can take 1 guy out of an equation from the word go, and fear takes out another (just not an undead guy cause they are tricky). Hunters can mark the other two and the lock can dot them up while the hunters unload and put pets on them. I've taken out 5 man groups this way lots of times. Never has the guy who was feared came back to the flag. He runs away, always. Cause the feared guy is almost always a rogue. Rogues are good 1:1, but can't take a group.. Especially a lock and 2 hunters. Affliction locks are great but, sometimes can't take people down fast enough. Destruction locks are my personal favorite (when I'm a hunter, since mcgoo is affliction and partial destro)
Just don't forget your: Scope, sharpening stones, potions (loose these only in serious situations)
If I think of more it will be added to this post so if you are referencing this in the future come back to the 2 posts.
PvP tips for hunters (WSG edition)
(Preface: I am mostly a marksman hunter. I don't really see the use in PvP of being survival or beast spec. Sure the kitty gets red, but when that's OVER, the guys the kitty didn't kill.. kill you. Not saying that I haven't been with some good survival/BM spec hunters.. Just sayin, it wouldn't work for me)
Ok I have battled untold numbers of folks with my hunter, dwarfenstuff, and reaped good results. I have even managed to beat higher levels than me with other hunters (as I level them). I have been asked for "training" in this, and I think this is where I'm putting it.
Post lvl 10 (so you have pet):
Your attack should begin, with putting your pet on aggressive. If dueling, or if in a battleground (usually best on defense), aggressive is best because you can only see some of the field, and your pet seems to target things on proximity and line of sight, even if not looking in that direction. I advise warlocks in all PvP bg's to put detect invisibility on me, and my pet. Jury's out on whether this really helps or not, but if it does.. Great if not.. what does the lock loose like.. 100 mana? As a lock I do this without being asked. I don't really have buffs to help in groups so in battlegrounds I try to pass healthstones to flag carriers and/or healers.. but that's off topic.
If you are uncomfortable sighting enemies from your pet, or prefer to have your pet focus on a specific guy, go passive. This requires you to be MUCH more active in ordering the pet tho.. So I don't do it much. I don't have the "shot rotation" that a lot of the bigshot hunters have in WoW. Its just not a habit I picked up. What I DO have is a knowledge of how my shots work. Arcane/Poison can be shot while running. These are really all I do from the stings area, cause strength shot, doesn't help enough to really gimp a warrior.. and the viper sting (mana drain) doen't drain enough on its own to really stop a good caster. Aimed shot is for peeking into a skirmish and eliminating a healer who's casting a big heal. Multi shot is for flag carriers and when you come in to a place after your team got beat up on by some guys (so they all hopefully aren't at full health). Traps are mana expensive and best when used in special situations (YMMV).
typical engagement @ 49 WSG:
Find midfield and if there is an offensive push of less than 4, go help. If not, stay and wait for the inevitable horde guy to try to run past and get to the tunnel/ramp of his base. If you are alone, you will probably die. WSG is not about alive/death, its about flag captures. Your JOB as a ranged guy is to #1 Mark the guy (helps cause more damage for anyone attacking him), #2 Poison sting the guy (this slowly takes life away), #3 Slow him down with any/all of your tricks.
Put your pet on the flag carrier, forget anyone else. If you have enough time you MIGHT get an aimed shot off, this usually means you can kill the flag carrier. This is great, but not your ultimate goal. The ultimate goal in this situation is to get him close enough to dead that he gets ran into by YOUR team escorting YOUR flag carrier, so they can capture your flag back. Why? Nobody runs the flag alone, it just never happens. This means the guy probably has 1) a healer, or 2) a bunch of guys LOOKING for you. You will in most cases NOT survive this encounter. A good hunter can die leaving a group of guys at 50% health. This is your secondary goal, to hurt everyone. If you are alone focus on slowing the Flag carrier and viper shot the healer (if one). The healer will try to keep the flag carrier at full health while your pet wails on him, so viper shot works out okay (since he/she is casting they may not notice which will work out good when your group runs into them and crushes them). In general though its straightforward.
All shots have the ability to crit. So shoot as much as you can. Don't waste rapid fire on a large group of people, use it to kill the flag carrier. Find sniper positions and take them up. Always ALWAYS have track humanoids on and tell people when someone is coming (when on defense), they will love/adore you for this since non hunters wait to SEE someone. Saying (undead rogue from horde in tunnel) will make people on your team love you. If you get ambushed (from not looking at the tracking screen, or from a rogue) put that info in the battleground chat so people know where a problem is being started. Use your range! Get the 3 talents in Survival that maxes out hunters' range. This is imperative, and DON'T try to melee. Your melee skills will suck in comparison to anyone but a priest. If someone closes to you, you have 3 options.
Side notes:
Ok I have battled untold numbers of folks with my hunter, dwarfenstuff, and reaped good results. I have even managed to beat higher levels than me with other hunters (as I level them). I have been asked for "training" in this, and I think this is where I'm putting it.
Post lvl 10 (so you have pet):
Your attack should begin, with putting your pet on aggressive. If dueling, or if in a battleground (usually best on defense), aggressive is best because you can only see some of the field, and your pet seems to target things on proximity and line of sight, even if not looking in that direction. I advise warlocks in all PvP bg's to put detect invisibility on me, and my pet. Jury's out on whether this really helps or not, but if it does.. Great if not.. what does the lock loose like.. 100 mana? As a lock I do this without being asked. I don't really have buffs to help in groups so in battlegrounds I try to pass healthstones to flag carriers and/or healers.. but that's off topic.
If you are uncomfortable sighting enemies from your pet, or prefer to have your pet focus on a specific guy, go passive. This requires you to be MUCH more active in ordering the pet tho.. So I don't do it much. I don't have the "shot rotation" that a lot of the bigshot hunters have in WoW. Its just not a habit I picked up. What I DO have is a knowledge of how my shots work. Arcane/Poison can be shot while running. These are really all I do from the stings area, cause strength shot, doesn't help enough to really gimp a warrior.. and the viper sting (mana drain) doen't drain enough on its own to really stop a good caster. Aimed shot is for peeking into a skirmish and eliminating a healer who's casting a big heal. Multi shot is for flag carriers and when you come in to a place after your team got beat up on by some guys (so they all hopefully aren't at full health). Traps are mana expensive and best when used in special situations (YMMV).
typical engagement @ 49 WSG:
Find midfield and if there is an offensive push of less than 4, go help. If not, stay and wait for the inevitable horde guy to try to run past and get to the tunnel/ramp of his base. If you are alone, you will probably die. WSG is not about alive/death, its about flag captures. Your JOB as a ranged guy is to #1 Mark the guy (helps cause more damage for anyone attacking him), #2 Poison sting the guy (this slowly takes life away), #3 Slow him down with any/all of your tricks.
Put your pet on the flag carrier, forget anyone else. If you have enough time you MIGHT get an aimed shot off, this usually means you can kill the flag carrier. This is great, but not your ultimate goal. The ultimate goal in this situation is to get him close enough to dead that he gets ran into by YOUR team escorting YOUR flag carrier, so they can capture your flag back. Why? Nobody runs the flag alone, it just never happens. This means the guy probably has 1) a healer, or 2) a bunch of guys LOOKING for you. You will in most cases NOT survive this encounter. A good hunter can die leaving a group of guys at 50% health. This is your secondary goal, to hurt everyone. If you are alone focus on slowing the Flag carrier and viper shot the healer (if one). The healer will try to keep the flag carrier at full health while your pet wails on him, so viper shot works out okay (since he/she is casting they may not notice which will work out good when your group runs into them and crushes them). In general though its straightforward.
- Send pet after Flag carrier
- Concussive shot Flag Carrier
- Poison sting FC (flag carrier)***If FC is pally, he will take this off quick.. then use viper sting to drain as much mana as you can.. pallys are lame without mana.
- viper sting healer
- If you don't have a big warrior hitting on you by now, do multishot
- If you still don't have a big warrior on you, hit rapid fire and blast away
- when the FC gets in range, wing clip them THIS IS A MUST
- When the warrior gets to you, wing clip him
- Same with healer, wing clip to slow them down
- Run (if you can) to the FC and renew the poison (if not pally)
- Concussive shot the FC again
- RIGHT BEFORE YOU DIE, scatter shot the FC, and do a frost trap to slow the group
- Die in peace
All shots have the ability to crit. So shoot as much as you can. Don't waste rapid fire on a large group of people, use it to kill the flag carrier. Find sniper positions and take them up. Always ALWAYS have track humanoids on and tell people when someone is coming (when on defense), they will love/adore you for this since non hunters wait to SEE someone. Saying (undead rogue from horde in tunnel) will make people on your team love you. If you get ambushed (from not looking at the tracking screen, or from a rogue) put that info in the battleground chat so people know where a problem is being started. Use your range! Get the 3 talents in Survival that maxes out hunters' range. This is imperative, and DON'T try to melee. Your melee skills will suck in comparison to anyone but a priest. If someone closes to you, you have 3 options.
- Freezing trap
- this is great for stopping a rogue and letting you get the heck out of dodge
- watch for DOT's. this will break the freezing effect
- Wing clip
- slows better than any other affect I've seen in WoW
- requires you to take possible more than 1 hit.. so pray its not a steroid Tauren with a Fiery axe banging you in the head
- Frost trap
- slows well.. and a big area
- Immune to dots (won't affect the slowing affect)
- Unfortunately, costs more mana ( I think) than #2, and has same side affect
Side notes:
- Find some +strength scrolls for your pet and use them right after you rez and are going after the other team, you'll die and the buff will end.. So don't spend a lot of money on this crap.
- Agility Potions RULE! They help you dodge, and increase your crit % chance. They tend to cost a crapload, so unless you can find an idiot alchemist that will give them to you on the cheap.. this will be a rare assistance for you, don't depend on them.
- Sharpening Stones/frost oil.. etc. These all augment your melee weapons. All have good uses too. Frost oil usually costs more than sharpening stones, get the cheapest you can cause you SHOULDN'T melee unless forced to wing clip and run. But doing a bit more here/there is always a good idea. Same as the others though, don't spend a ton on these..
- Scope: If you don't have a scope in PvP.. I'd smack you. I'd totally smack you for going into PvP with no scope. There is always SOME scope on the AH. Get one. Even if its +1 (cause the good ones aren't on the AH at the moment). You'll replace it with a better one. My advice is to just KNOW when you can get a new scope.. and get one. Buy them in advance if you want. Buy a couple if you trade off weapons mid-stream. Just make sure you have one.
- Armor Kits/enchantment: If you can't have a +agi weapon enchant, don't cry. I don't have one either. But my armor is always padded up for extra survivability in the battleground. As a hunter, if you know a high level Leatheroworker.. beg/whine/cry for the knothide leather kits on your pants. They can't be BOP pants, but they give a crap load of stamina and agility on your legs (who cannot be enchanted, btw). Other pieces, just do what you can when you have the money. If you're a big spender, get enchants. I can tell you the +agi enchant for a weapon will cost you (mats ONLY), about 70-100g. So if you are lvl 18 and think you can swing 100g for a weapon enchant.. make sure its THAT much gold. Its a great enchant, and I hope to have it someday on my POS 2h sword. but I digress.
- Gear: Some go all out for agility, and resign themselves to a quick death.. Some go for the middle of the road for agi/stam.. and some go all out for stam, and forget about agi. Whichever way you go keep in mind your playstyle. If you (
) end up doing melee, get something with some +attack power, and agility. It'll help you hit harder and help you dodge more. For you guys like me who like to stay 40yards out from the horde, all out agi is good. I'm not all out agi anymore as I am trying to boost my stamina, then save up for the agi enchants EVERYWHERE. Plus some good 1h weps.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Boring..
For the last several levels I have almost exclusively been dealing with Mcgoo, but lately.. I'm bored with him. The whole idea of not questing.. JUST running ramparts and blood furnace, of which I can barely ever find a PUG, has just worn me out.
So I've been leveling my fleet of alts. My sub 10 toons, are almost all 10's now, with very few exceptions, and my mage.. well she's moving well too. My most dusty alt was Trollstomper on Eonar, who I thundered through several levels to get to where he sits now. He's on a 10 day rotation, :).
My mage, and my top secret warrior are the two that I'll be working on in the conceivable future, or till I just miss Mcgoo too bad to leave him sit any longer. Hey maybe if I get some good rested XP I can thunder Mcgoo up from 61 to 63 in a blink of an eye (otherwise known as 2 ramp/bf runs)?? Could be, who knows. I did play with Mcgoo for like 20-30 seconds last night.. Logged in.. checked my mail, bought a yellow gem to socket in my belt (rockin +crit!!).. Then logged off to play my priest. He's still sub 10, but he came up from 6, and I got his first aid/fishing/cooking all pretty close to maxed. I am really having difficulty not putting jewelcrafting on him, since I have no intention of doing any PvP with him, ever.. Ok maybe 1 or 2 just to see how I handle it. But I won't be twinking at all. I want only to go holy with the guy till about 35, then respec over to 100% shadow. I always wanted a shadow priest to measure against my lock.. :)
So I've been leveling my fleet of alts. My sub 10 toons, are almost all 10's now, with very few exceptions, and my mage.. well she's moving well too. My most dusty alt was Trollstomper on Eonar, who I thundered through several levels to get to where he sits now. He's on a 10 day rotation, :).
My mage, and my top secret warrior are the two that I'll be working on in the conceivable future, or till I just miss Mcgoo too bad to leave him sit any longer. Hey maybe if I get some good rested XP I can thunder Mcgoo up from 61 to 63 in a blink of an eye (otherwise known as 2 ramp/bf runs)?? Could be, who knows. I did play with Mcgoo for like 20-30 seconds last night.. Logged in.. checked my mail, bought a yellow gem to socket in my belt (rockin +crit!!).. Then logged off to play my priest. He's still sub 10, but he came up from 6, and I got his first aid/fishing/cooking all pretty close to maxed. I am really having difficulty not putting jewelcrafting on him, since I have no intention of doing any PvP with him, ever.. Ok maybe 1 or 2 just to see how I handle it. But I won't be twinking at all. I want only to go holy with the guy till about 35, then respec over to 100% shadow. I always wanted a shadow priest to measure against my lock.. :)
Friday, September 14, 2007
Ho Hum..
Well nothing was happening in Hellfire Pen. last night, so I popped over to my twink hunter and ran some buddies around.
LORD I do a lot of damage for only lvl 49! I mean scaling these figures with what I do NOW as a warlock, no wonder ppl want to "nerf hunters"! I am sure there is a level issue at hand, and I was running ppl through defias quests to get to Van Cleeth so I was one shotting teen mobs.. but still. I may run some ppl through VC tonight with Mcgoo just to see what the difference would be. I wanted to do it last night, but I was nodding off. As a reference for future posts, I was seeing WHITE damage in the 400 range. ( now all you mages shut up, cause that is firing once every 1.9 seconds, with ZERO mana.. so shutty)
I had my share of poopy shots that only did about 300 and there was some below that.. I noticed NO crits at all. Which is because my agility sucks badly.. but I'll be adding to that in a major way someday in the really distant future, by the clefthoof armor to my scorpid leggings, and a agi enchant to my big 2h sword ( I mean really 20 stamina.. I hate the thing.. but dang.. thats a ton of stamina). So I figure if I can chunk on some agi to that massive stamina.. I got a great weapon.. Even if the damage isn't too hot.. I don't plan on doing more than wing clip and that instant attack thingy.
1 shotting things made me lazy and I almost forgot about grendal (my wolf pet), he's a hunter/seeker and I keep him on aggressive all the time. I usually follow his targeting and wail on folks in PvP.. I have a tiger for prowl.. but really.. you have to get SOO close to hitem with the prowl attack bonus.. I used to leave mine at the mine by the flag in aggressive mode. and I would feign death next to the mine shaft. It was a good trick, but I didn't actively level the tiger, so its several levels under Grendal. So Grendal, with the advent of cobra reflexes, is now my main pet. (I don't care about his damage really.. I want him to attack as much as possible to piss off casters. The damage comes from my aimed shot and multishot combo, and if that procs rapid fire I can toast more than 2 ppl at a time.. hehe)
So an update of Mcgoo in Westfall is forthcoming. I hope I can remember to beg a guildy to run my shaman through WC for that fang armor.. LOVE that fang armor!! Maybe get a blue mace for when mana runs out I can SMACK some folks.. hehe.. Well hopefully.
LORD I do a lot of damage for only lvl 49! I mean scaling these figures with what I do NOW as a warlock, no wonder ppl want to "nerf hunters"! I am sure there is a level issue at hand, and I was running ppl through defias quests to get to Van Cleeth so I was one shotting teen mobs.. but still. I may run some ppl through VC tonight with Mcgoo just to see what the difference would be. I wanted to do it last night, but I was nodding off. As a reference for future posts, I was seeing WHITE damage in the 400 range. ( now all you mages shut up, cause that is firing once every 1.9 seconds, with ZERO mana.. so shutty)
I had my share of poopy shots that only did about 300 and there was some below that.. I noticed NO crits at all. Which is because my agility sucks badly.. but I'll be adding to that in a major way someday in the really distant future, by the clefthoof armor to my scorpid leggings, and a agi enchant to my big 2h sword ( I mean really 20 stamina.. I hate the thing.. but dang.. thats a ton of stamina). So I figure if I can chunk on some agi to that massive stamina.. I got a great weapon.. Even if the damage isn't too hot.. I don't plan on doing more than wing clip and that instant attack thingy.
1 shotting things made me lazy and I almost forgot about grendal (my wolf pet), he's a hunter/seeker and I keep him on aggressive all the time. I usually follow his targeting and wail on folks in PvP.. I have a tiger for prowl.. but really.. you have to get SOO close to hitem with the prowl attack bonus.. I used to leave mine at the mine by the flag in aggressive mode. and I would feign death next to the mine shaft. It was a good trick, but I didn't actively level the tiger, so its several levels under Grendal. So Grendal, with the advent of cobra reflexes, is now my main pet. (I don't care about his damage really.. I want him to attack as much as possible to piss off casters. The damage comes from my aimed shot and multishot combo, and if that procs rapid fire I can toast more than 2 ppl at a time.. hehe)
So an update of Mcgoo in Westfall is forthcoming. I hope I can remember to beg a guildy to run my shaman through WC for that fang armor.. LOVE that fang armor!! Maybe get a blue mace for when mana runs out I can SMACK some folks.. hehe.. Well hopefully.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Being a mage in DM
Ok I note that I used DM to denote deadmines, and that bothers people. But if you can run my lvl 21 mage through Dire Maul, I will give you 20g.
That being said, I suck at being a mage. We were in deadmines and we had a warrior, healadin, elem shaman, hunter, and me. Well we were all really too high for the instance (all 20's). I really wanted to just get some greens to DE, and I wanted to practice grouping with my mage. Firstly, I was dropping BOMBS in that place. As a fire mage, I really bring the heat on anyone I target. However I found that the group as a whole, typically killed off folks before I could get in 2 fireballs. Now on the boss fights I was amazing. I threw out pyroblast then 2 fireball, then another pyroblast. This dropped the bosses life really fast. The tank was good at holding aggro, but a terrible tank aside from that. He tanked well and all, but he would pull 2 or 3 at a time instead of one and letting me sheep one of the two. So when things got bad, they got REAL bad. I tried doing flamestrike (aoe on the ground with fire), but he'd move off of it ( he must've thought it was from the defias guys). In the end fireball, pyroblast, and arcane missiles were my big spells. I will try to get a group in stockades but, I am thinking maybe to just forget the mage altogether and just delete her.
That being said, I suck at being a mage. We were in deadmines and we had a warrior, healadin, elem shaman, hunter, and me. Well we were all really too high for the instance (all 20's). I really wanted to just get some greens to DE, and I wanted to practice grouping with my mage. Firstly, I was dropping BOMBS in that place. As a fire mage, I really bring the heat on anyone I target. However I found that the group as a whole, typically killed off folks before I could get in 2 fireballs. Now on the boss fights I was amazing. I threw out pyroblast then 2 fireball, then another pyroblast. This dropped the bosses life really fast. The tank was good at holding aggro, but a terrible tank aside from that. He tanked well and all, but he would pull 2 or 3 at a time instead of one and letting me sheep one of the two. So when things got bad, they got REAL bad. I tried doing flamestrike (aoe on the ground with fire), but he'd move off of it ( he must've thought it was from the defias guys). In the end fireball, pyroblast, and arcane missiles were my big spells. I will try to get a group in stockades but, I am thinking maybe to just forget the mage altogether and just delete her.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Mithril... and Loving it
I whine, cry and complain constantly that I hate mining. I do. I really dislike running around whole zones trying to find a node to mine. I hate it. Note: I am using the word HATE.
Really though, nothing sells quite as good as minerals do for me. Iron moves pretty slow on my server, but I got upgraded to Mithril, and that stuff MOVES FAST! I barely can hit create auction before seeing its been bought out. I fully intend to keep some of each of my minerals for my up and coming jewelcrafter, and the never-present pally (who will be an engineer). Something I have noticed on my particular runs though that I dislike, is.. If I find a node and mine it.. I usually gain 1 skillup point per node. Not per time I mine, per NODE. So if I have good luck and have 4 pieces of mithril from the node, I get 1 skillpoint, if I have 1 ore in the node, I get 1 skillpoint. This is TERRIBLE. It sells like hotcakes, but what a pain in the tush.
For any aspiring miners out there, my advice.. get an epic mount and just find a spot and run around. Personally elwynn forrest all but satisfied my need/want for copper, and that was PRE mount with my warlock. Blasted lands is suppossed to be really good for mining, but I have never found anything there.. Which is something else that bothers me, This stuff is so hard to find. How do people on PvP servers EVER get any mining done? I am constantly racing a orc/tauren/troll to a node. I don't ninja the nodes though. I mean I have thought of it, but its not worth tickin someone off for 1 MEASELY skill point. Now if I got 1 point each time i mined a node, yeah.. I so would.. Don't doubt it for a second!
Well I'm about 5-10 points from getting to Thorium I think, so thats good.. I don't know when I'll push mining again, but wanted to say, no wonder that stuff costs so much on the AH.. its a lot of work finding those nodes and mining them.
Really though, nothing sells quite as good as minerals do for me. Iron moves pretty slow on my server, but I got upgraded to Mithril, and that stuff MOVES FAST! I barely can hit create auction before seeing its been bought out. I fully intend to keep some of each of my minerals for my up and coming jewelcrafter, and the never-present pally (who will be an engineer). Something I have noticed on my particular runs though that I dislike, is.. If I find a node and mine it.. I usually gain 1 skillup point per node. Not per time I mine, per NODE. So if I have good luck and have 4 pieces of mithril from the node, I get 1 skillpoint, if I have 1 ore in the node, I get 1 skillpoint. This is TERRIBLE. It sells like hotcakes, but what a pain in the tush.
For any aspiring miners out there, my advice.. get an epic mount and just find a spot and run around. Personally elwynn forrest all but satisfied my need/want for copper, and that was PRE mount with my warlock. Blasted lands is suppossed to be really good for mining, but I have never found anything there.. Which is something else that bothers me, This stuff is so hard to find. How do people on PvP servers EVER get any mining done? I am constantly racing a orc/tauren/troll to a node. I don't ninja the nodes though. I mean I have thought of it, but its not worth tickin someone off for 1 MEASELY skill point. Now if I got 1 point each time i mined a node, yeah.. I so would.. Don't doubt it for a second!
Well I'm about 5-10 points from getting to Thorium I think, so thats good.. I don't know when I'll push mining again, but wanted to say, no wonder that stuff costs so much on the AH.. its a lot of work finding those nodes and mining them.
Boredom will do that to ya..
Well as I ran around frantically trying to find the pieces I needed to get into scholomance (instance #1 of 2 for my epic mount), I got.. Lets say bored. I was stuck in the WPL staring at a lvl 61 elite with about 7 elites around him. I gotta kill this guy to get my key made. There was only 2 (TWO) people in this area both were 50-ish rogues, with not enough spine to try it. I believe we could've done it, I make a good decoy and with soulstones and curses of exhaustion I could have held the group while the rogues double backstabbed the guy (whom I would have dotted the ears off of). And then we could pick off the lower elites to loot the body. They however, were not down with this. So I stood in this ramshackle town staring at the guy keeping me from scholomance.
Thats when it happened. I knew it would eventually, I just never thought it would be so soon. I thought, "I don't want to play any of my alternates.. maybe a new one?" and boom. I now have a warrior. I'm not putting him on the map anytime soon, but so far he's lvl 6 and just got his "seed money" of 3g, and 4 14 slot bags. This gave me a huge advantage with Mcgoo, cause I could just keep going and going with quests/grinding till I was almost full.. THEN go back and turn in/vendor and reap big rewards for little-no effort. I attribute this alone to Mcgoo's good wealth in gold, well that and his occupations (skinning/mining). So my new guy here has no professions just yet. As a matter of fact, I left him outdoors (I've been to my first inn, just didn't park there). I have set him up for first aid (not getting cooking, cause I have a high level cooker in mcgoo.. why do it 2x's?. I am thinking the same professions would be best, but I may go with herbalism and skinning. I don't know that herbalism is that good of a money maker, but what on earth would I do with all the ore if I went mining again? Well sure I'd sell it, but still! Mining is a pain to level, and has been more stressful than I originally thought. Then there are the more abstract things I could get a profession in.. Like tailoring!.. Or enchanting. I'd like to have a high level enchanter, and I know mcgoo will probably go to tailoring eventually (some good tailoring things now). I'd like an alchemist, but my rogue is one, even if a low level one. The pots are great for grinding.
Well anyway, boredom has spawned another member in the Mcgoo family of alts. Unlike my other alts, this guy is really fun to use. I don't need anyone's help, at all. I can handle 2 mobs at level without problems. Plus I feel more active in the fight (Mcgoo dots, then redots.. then either shadowbolts/life drain/wands them to death), which is always good. I still have that low level drenai priest HealYoSelf. He'll be shadow spec all the way, cause there's no way I could be a healer.
Thats when it happened. I knew it would eventually, I just never thought it would be so soon. I thought, "I don't want to play any of my alternates.. maybe a new one?" and boom. I now have a warrior. I'm not putting him on the map anytime soon, but so far he's lvl 6 and just got his "seed money" of 3g, and 4 14 slot bags. This gave me a huge advantage with Mcgoo, cause I could just keep going and going with quests/grinding till I was almost full.. THEN go back and turn in/vendor and reap big rewards for little-no effort. I attribute this alone to Mcgoo's good wealth in gold, well that and his occupations (skinning/mining). So my new guy here has no professions just yet. As a matter of fact, I left him outdoors (I've been to my first inn, just didn't park there). I have set him up for first aid (not getting cooking, cause I have a high level cooker in mcgoo.. why do it 2x's?. I am thinking the same professions would be best, but I may go with herbalism and skinning. I don't know that herbalism is that good of a money maker, but what on earth would I do with all the ore if I went mining again? Well sure I'd sell it, but still! Mining is a pain to level, and has been more stressful than I originally thought. Then there are the more abstract things I could get a profession in.. Like tailoring!.. Or enchanting. I'd like to have a high level enchanter, and I know mcgoo will probably go to tailoring eventually (some good tailoring things now). I'd like an alchemist, but my rogue is one, even if a low level one. The pots are great for grinding.
Well anyway, boredom has spawned another member in the Mcgoo family of alts. Unlike my other alts, this guy is really fun to use. I don't need anyone's help, at all. I can handle 2 mobs at level without problems. Plus I feel more active in the fight (Mcgoo dots, then redots.. then either shadowbolts/life drain/wands them to death), which is always good. I still have that low level drenai priest HealYoSelf. He'll be shadow spec all the way, cause there's no way I could be a healer.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Mcgoo on grouping
As usual, I am an affliction lock, with some destruction cred to my name. So my advice is STRICTLY for affliction locks like me.
I love grouping with druids and shaman. For all things. Druids and shaman can both drop a heal on me if I need one, and both can get down to the "nitty gritty" and duke it out with some mobs if need be also. Druids are a little cooler IMO.. Simply because of their flexibility. Literally changing from rogue like abilities to warrior type abilities... Then when need be, they can heal themselves (like I do.. drain tanking) or heal me (cause I got ganged up on and couldn't heal all the way).
Shaman are really neat. I LOVE the totems. Loving the totems, like I do means that I appreciate everything they give to me. More armor? Lovin it.. Fire resist? Lovin it.. More mana? Lovin it..
And with wearing mail, they are pretty darn close to perfect, in shorter fights. Most shaman I've seen are like... mages with smaller mana pools. They do massive damage but their mana dries out quick. ( I know this because in PvP.. I drain mana to kill them). The longer things take for a shaman, the worse things can become. Windfury is nice on their weps if they HAVE a good wep. In the end its an auto attack jamboree with occasional shocks. My dots help them dwindle life down quicker, and they help me with being a tank, and healer. I have a buddy on Frostmane who has a 70 shaman (resto), and he's really good. I've only ever seen 1 person with more +healing than him.. He must just REALLY lay down good heals. But he can still run up and throw down if need be (remember, in mail..). He can't take the beating a real tank could, but he can still throw down damage.
For farming though, I prefer druids. With a druid putting 2 HoT's on me and still throwing heals I can bust out hellfire and almost negate the damage it causes me. Plus that "gift of the wild" thing. That armor and resistance points go a long way. Priest/druid/shaman/pally all have their pluses, and minuses. Big thing is they all can do lots of things but some of them do it better than others. Personally, the only reason I even like preists is their fortitude buff. As a lock, stamina is king.. So having that plus an imp is usually close to +100 stamina. Pally's I love for all the aura's they can put on me. They seem to be able to dispel EVERYTHING debuff wise. So having one on your team is always a good thing if you are running through a lock heavy area (I hate pally's in PvP). I always had to find them during a fight and dot up.. then drain mana. Like shaman, they can do great damage, but only with their spells. Luckily I can get their mana down quick enough that they aren't that hairy. Unstable affliction was meant for them and for priests. Sure take it off.. but see what happens to you! hehe
Warriors are great in groups (farming/questing) because they can get a bunch of folks REALLY ticked fast. So can have like 4-5 guys on him at 1x.. Then I can just dot them all and focus on the one he's on and we drop it FAST. Plus warriors love my imp's stamina buff too
I love grouping with druids and shaman. For all things. Druids and shaman can both drop a heal on me if I need one, and both can get down to the "nitty gritty" and duke it out with some mobs if need be also. Druids are a little cooler IMO.. Simply because of their flexibility. Literally changing from rogue like abilities to warrior type abilities... Then when need be, they can heal themselves (like I do.. drain tanking) or heal me (cause I got ganged up on and couldn't heal all the way).
Shaman are really neat. I LOVE the totems. Loving the totems, like I do means that I appreciate everything they give to me. More armor? Lovin it.. Fire resist? Lovin it.. More mana? Lovin it..
And with wearing mail, they are pretty darn close to perfect, in shorter fights. Most shaman I've seen are like... mages with smaller mana pools. They do massive damage but their mana dries out quick. ( I know this because in PvP.. I drain mana to kill them). The longer things take for a shaman, the worse things can become. Windfury is nice on their weps if they HAVE a good wep. In the end its an auto attack jamboree with occasional shocks. My dots help them dwindle life down quicker, and they help me with being a tank, and healer. I have a buddy on Frostmane who has a 70 shaman (resto), and he's really good. I've only ever seen 1 person with more +healing than him.. He must just REALLY lay down good heals. But he can still run up and throw down if need be (remember, in mail..). He can't take the beating a real tank could, but he can still throw down damage.
For farming though, I prefer druids. With a druid putting 2 HoT's on me and still throwing heals I can bust out hellfire and almost negate the damage it causes me. Plus that "gift of the wild" thing. That armor and resistance points go a long way. Priest/druid/shaman/pally all have their pluses, and minuses. Big thing is they all can do lots of things but some of them do it better than others. Personally, the only reason I even like preists is their fortitude buff. As a lock, stamina is king.. So having that plus an imp is usually close to +100 stamina. Pally's I love for all the aura's they can put on me. They seem to be able to dispel EVERYTHING debuff wise. So having one on your team is always a good thing if you are running through a lock heavy area (I hate pally's in PvP). I always had to find them during a fight and dot up.. then drain mana. Like shaman, they can do great damage, but only with their spells. Luckily I can get their mana down quick enough that they aren't that hairy. Unstable affliction was meant for them and for priests. Sure take it off.. but see what happens to you! hehe
Warriors are great in groups (farming/questing) because they can get a bunch of folks REALLY ticked fast. So can have like 4-5 guys on him at 1x.. Then I can just dot them all and focus on the one he's on and we drop it FAST. Plus warriors love my imp's stamina buff too
Ramparts and Blood Furnace
Ok, I'm new to outlands. That being said, these 2 instances seem so easy to me. I am just 60 almost 61 so I'm not doing heroics or anything, just saying.. With a tank/healer, the rest is all gravy for these places. I've gone through Ramparts like 6 times, and Blood Furnace only 2x's. Ramparts seems easier, but I get more use as a "lock" in BF. Decent drops, I seem to keep finding lvl 61 and up items, so till I hit 61 you won't see me sporting anything cool.
I have been running through in balanced groups, healer/tank + mage/shaman/lock/druid. Even went through 1 time with a druid and a warrior tanking. I keep finding myself in big groups wanting to jump in the middle and do hellfire and have the healer heal me up. I LOVE doing hellfire in groups. A healer who knows that, and can keep me alive while the other party members finish off the guys is an exciting and sure fire way to kill everyone in a radius of me. My ideal for that in these instances would be to have a pally/shaman put up fire protection and then allow me to do hellfire longer for less life. Then a Rogue or 2 could make short work of anyone (as they would be behind them, and could backstab.
Good tanks seem to be around in outlands, where in azeroth all these jokers want to show up with a 2h mace, or 2 swords. I have found a DEEP appreciation for Prot spec warriors. They really seem to hold aggro much much much better. Managing sunder's and other things seem to be really effective. I have been in groups where the tank tries to pump up 5 sunders right away, and still looses aggro. The higher up the warrior, the more likely they are protection, or at least HAVE some protection skills. Unlike in pre lvl 60 encounters, I don't think a pally can tank anymore. They are handy to have around, cause they can do damage and stay alive all by themselves. Even if it is just to off-tank (what shamans tend to do, and do well).
Off-tanks have all the fun. They are basically a warrior that is a lone wolf. In big pulls, when 3-4 guys show up.. 1/4 is sheeped, 1/4 is tanked (MainTank), 1/4 is off tanked, and the last guy, is "burn down". By burndown, the tank usually smacks him with a sunder and then goes after the main guy he is tanking. And my job, as a damage machine, is to put all my stuff on the burn-down while mage/hunter puts their damage on him. (side note) Hunters are great in these scenarios. They can put out as much DPS as a mage, and come with a tank (pet). There is no delusion that the guy we are "burning down" fast will stay with the pet tank, or even close to the main tank. I take it as, the guy is going to come for me or the mage or even the healer. So as soon as he breaks from the herd I start up everything I got. If he goes for the healer, he gets searing pain(which steals aggro EASY), then I drain tank. Most of the time the guy is dead before he makes a few steps, since the 2 tanks are handling their guys all the other guys are concentrated on THIS 1 guy. The coordination, everything is so good now in groups. I like it when they put up the raid symbols, I really like it when there are demons around so I can banish one (BF mainly). Banish is one of my most favorite abilities. It is (to me) the best crowd control in the game. You can do so much. I have leveled wands when banishing things in outlands. (they are immune to damage, but you still skillup your weps as they are banished). Fun fact would be to banish a elemental or whatever lower level than yourself and just level up all your weps. (should have thought of this long ago). Warriors seem to love this. "I'm not maxed on this wep" is something I hear from time to time, and this gives them a damage free environment to level it up.
Anyway, more to come on outlands in the future!
I have been running through in balanced groups, healer/tank + mage/shaman/lock/druid. Even went through 1 time with a druid and a warrior tanking. I keep finding myself in big groups wanting to jump in the middle and do hellfire and have the healer heal me up. I LOVE doing hellfire in groups. A healer who knows that, and can keep me alive while the other party members finish off the guys is an exciting and sure fire way to kill everyone in a radius of me. My ideal for that in these instances would be to have a pally/shaman put up fire protection and then allow me to do hellfire longer for less life. Then a Rogue or 2 could make short work of anyone (as they would be behind them, and could backstab.
- Shaman/Pally for fire resist and helping heal
- Warrior (boss fights require one, period)
- Rogue (backstabs, FTW!)
- Healer (I prefer priests, but whatever)
Good tanks seem to be around in outlands, where in azeroth all these jokers want to show up with a 2h mace, or 2 swords. I have found a DEEP appreciation for Prot spec warriors. They really seem to hold aggro much much much better. Managing sunder's and other things seem to be really effective. I have been in groups where the tank tries to pump up 5 sunders right away, and still looses aggro. The higher up the warrior, the more likely they are protection, or at least HAVE some protection skills. Unlike in pre lvl 60 encounters, I don't think a pally can tank anymore. They are handy to have around, cause they can do damage and stay alive all by themselves. Even if it is just to off-tank (what shamans tend to do, and do well).
Off-tanks have all the fun. They are basically a warrior that is a lone wolf. In big pulls, when 3-4 guys show up.. 1/4 is sheeped, 1/4 is tanked (MainTank), 1/4 is off tanked, and the last guy, is "burn down". By burndown, the tank usually smacks him with a sunder and then goes after the main guy he is tanking. And my job, as a damage machine, is to put all my stuff on the burn-down while mage/hunter puts their damage on him. (side note) Hunters are great in these scenarios. They can put out as much DPS as a mage, and come with a tank (pet). There is no delusion that the guy we are "burning down" fast will stay with the pet tank, or even close to the main tank. I take it as, the guy is going to come for me or the mage or even the healer. So as soon as he breaks from the herd I start up everything I got. If he goes for the healer, he gets searing pain(which steals aggro EASY), then I drain tank. Most of the time the guy is dead before he makes a few steps, since the 2 tanks are handling their guys all the other guys are concentrated on THIS 1 guy. The coordination, everything is so good now in groups. I like it when they put up the raid symbols, I really like it when there are demons around so I can banish one (BF mainly). Banish is one of my most favorite abilities. It is (to me) the best crowd control in the game. You can do so much. I have leveled wands when banishing things in outlands. (they are immune to damage, but you still skillup your weps as they are banished). Fun fact would be to banish a elemental or whatever lower level than yourself and just level up all your weps. (should have thought of this long ago). Warriors seem to love this. "I'm not maxed on this wep" is something I hear from time to time, and this gives them a damage free environment to level it up.
Anyway, more to come on outlands in the future!
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