Author: Kurn

[Wrath Classic] Professions and Decisions

Kurn / / paladins, professions, wrath classic

In Vanilla WoW, I had a hunter named Kurnmogh. Kurn was my main. Did everything with him. I was a skinner and leatherworker and got Finkle’s skinner and skinned Core Hounds (when people would remember to loot their bloody hounds!) and I enjoyed farming Black Dragonscales for the Black Dragonscale Mail set…

And I created a paladin, Madrana, and decided she should get herbalism and alchemy.

When Burning Crusade arrived, I elected to drop alchemy in favour of jewelcrafting and drop skinning in favour of mining. So Kurn would supply Madrana with ore until I could afford to just buy ore outright.

It worked nicely but I swapped Kurn back to skinning to supply my own leather for leatherworking.

Classic WoW saw me actually change things up. I rolled a hunter, Kurnmogh, who was a miner and an engineer. And Madrana became… an herbalist and alchemist. Okay, so I didn’t really change things there. But I didn’t pick up JC when BC Classic came out. So now, a week away from Wrath Classic, I’m sitting here with mining/engineering and herbalism/alchemy on my two level 70 toons. I also have a level 62 toon who is also an herbalist/alchemist. (Sue me, I like transmutes in the later expansions.)

While perusing the various pieces of gear available for holy paladins, I deliberately skipped out touching things that are available to people with specific professions.

And then, this weeekend, I was going through the professions and found… the Figurine – Sapphire Owl.

Okay, to be clear, it’s not like I didn’t know about it. As a JC through from BC to present day (even if I don’t actually play retail much), I knew about the Sapphire Owl. I used the Sapphire Owl in Wrath.

I didn’t remember how good it was until I looked up the stats. +42 intellect? Two sockets? Add 16 int in each and you have a trinket with 74 intellect that will restore 2340 mana over 15 seconds every five minutes. Now the mana restoration isn’t all that amazing, let’s be fair. A Runic Mana Potion is basically double that. And, later in Wrath (Ulduar, while facing Vezax), I remember having a mana pool of over 30,000, fully buffed, with a Flask of Distilled Wisdom. So, like, 2340 mana is not the selling point. The 74 intellect is the selling point. I even used that trinket (along with my Pendant of the Violet Eye) for that fight, because it’s all about the size of the mana pool.

So now I’m looking at my toons… Kurn is 70 and mining/eng, Madrana is 70 and herb/alch and my priest is 62 and herb/alch.

So maybe I should make Madrana a JC…

I’m not going to be able to afford a Darkmoon Card: Greatness. I will probably make myself a Mercurial Alchemist’s Stone, but there are no other trinkets with any intellect on them in Phase 1. The next phase, Phase 2, has two nice trinkets, one from Algalon, and one from Mimiron. In Phase 3, there’s Tears of the Vanquished, off the Black Knight in TOC, which all of my lowbie healers used. But in Phase 1? Just the Greatness card and the Figurine.

But am I even going to play that much?! No idea. So not sure if it’s worth it!

For anyone playing a holy paladin seriously, though, I highly recommend Alchemy and Jewelcrafting as professions. Engineering is interesting too, if only for the haste tinker on gloves, which you can use every minute. Early in the game, the haste will be useful, but could be overkill later in the game when you naturally hit having a 1s global cooldown.

The reason I stick with alchemy is the mercurial stone that is a solid trinket to start with and gives you 40% more mana per mana potion. Instead of ~4300, we’re looking at about 6k mana per potion with the stone equipped. That is not bad. Plus, you get the Mixology perk, which is super nice.

If you decide to power-level alchemy or JC, check out the guides at wow-professions.com.

So, what do you think of my choices? What are you going to enter Northrend with as your professions? Let’s hear it!

[Wrath Classic] Pre-Raid Loot

Kurn / / gear, paladins, wrath classic

Friends, Raiders, Paladins, lend me your ears! Or, well, I guess eyes, really, right? Anyhow, here is my pre-raid loot list for Wrath Classic. Please bear in mind that it’s not a “BiS” list, for the most part. The reason for that is that Wrath opening tier content isn’t very difficult and you can definitely get through large chunks of it with some crappy gear. Looking back, the only fight I actually struggled on with my crappy gear was Sartharion with three drakes up. Basically, don’t worry if you don’t get a ton of this gear. Aim for it, but don’t wig out if it doesn’t happen, okay?

My stat priority is:

  • Intellect: Always the best stat for us. Adds to our mana pool, adds to our spellpower, adds to spell crit. Intellect is tops.
  • Haste: In later tiers, paladins will argue over haste versus spellpower. In Tier 7? Just pick up haste.
  • MP5: Unlike retail (or Cataclysm and beyond), holy paladins have no real benefit from Spirit. MP5 is part of how we regenerate mana. What’s good about it is that it’s consistent. If you always have 85 mana per 5 seconds regenerating (as an example), you will always have that regenerating. That’s why I rank it slightly higher than…
  • Crit: 30% mana back is sad-making, especially after having 100% during Vanilla and BC. Still, this is a regen (and a throughput) stat. However, unlike mp5 and haste, it is inconsistent. You can have some really lucky or really unlucky streaks, which is why they give us Divine Favor, so that we can force that crit heal when we need to. Yes, on average, you’ll have more regen and throughput with more crit, but it’s unreliable.

 

Additionally, I will prefer plate to mail, leather or cloth on this list. If a lower armor class is on the list, let the appropriate classes have a shot at it first. Don’t be a jerk.

Oh, and no PVP gear, either. Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not go healing in dungeons with PVP gear. (Or tanking. Or DPSing.)

Finally, avoid hit and spirit. Period.

Helms

Yo, let me say that our plate choices here are not great. We’ve got three main choices, barring engineering options:

Faceguard of the Hammer Clan: Drops in Heroic Ahn’kahet from Jedoga. The worst of the three options, as it lacks a meta gem slot. Still, if you can’t get the other two…

Helmet of the Constructor: Drops in Heroic Utgarde Keep from Skarvald. Decent, but nothing to write home about. You can ignore the socket bonus, just make sure you get the meta gem requirements met. (More on gems and enchants in another post.)

Helm of Purified Thoughts: Feel like grinding some rep? Sure hope so! This is available when you become exalted with the Argent Crusade. The socket bonus is more intellect, so you may want to consider that.

Necklaces

Slightly better options here, especially if you can afford the JC neck.

Amulet of Dazzling Light: Drops off Anomalus in Heroic Nexus. Strictly average, but meh, better than nothing. (And, trust me, you will be hanging out in Heroic Nexus a lot, unless you’re super lucky.)

Lattice Choker of Light: Available from the badge vendor in Dalaran. Nothing to write home about, but better than the Amulet above.

Titanium Spellshock Necklace: Stat-wise, this isn’t too different from the other two… but it has a socket. Add 16 int there and this comes out ahead by a wide margin.

Shoulders

I feel like Blizzard hated us over a decade ago and still hates us…

Ferocious Pauldrons of the Rhino: More plate, dropping from Gortok Palehoof in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Bonus: they have a socket, so this is effectively 60 intellect.

Dark Runic Mantle: This BOE set of cloth shoulders drops out of Heroic Halls of Stone and have a socket, which makes this worth about 60 intellect. Plus they have haste, so I’d put them just above the Pauldrons.

Spaulders of the Violet Hold: These mail shoulders drop off Cyanigosa in Heroic Violet Hold. LET A RESTO OR ELEMENTAL SHAMAN TAKE THEM. If there is no resto/ele shaman in your group, grats. These come in at 58 intellect after gemming, but they have haste! So grab these if you can.

Cloak

Yowza. Legitimately two choices prior to raiding.

Ancient Dragon Spirit Cape: This comes out of Heroic Oculus, which are two words that make me shudder violently. If you are exceedingly poor, this is your choice. Otherwise, pony up for…

Wispcloak: Some farming of eternals, some other mats, a Frozen Orb, and go to your friendly neighbourhood tailor. Or just go to the AH.

Chest

Lots of choices here, so I’ll just stick to the top four.

Ornamented Plate Regalia: Drops from Ymiron in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle and has two juicy sockets. That’s 92 intellect on this puppy.

Insect Vestments: This leather chest drops from Anub’arak in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. Please, let druids take this over you. That said, gemmed up, this provides 92 intellect as well, plus a tasty bit of haste!

Drakewing Raiments: This cloth chest drops from Drakos the Interrogator in Heroic Oculus. (shudder) Let cloth-wearers get this before you, please. That said, gemmed up, this will give you 101 intellect and a chunk of haste.

Robes of Crackling Flame: This cloth chest is a purchasable reward when you hit exalted with the Kirin Tor. Yes, it has less intellect than the other two options here, but it has 42 haste, 104 spellpower and 33mp5 which should make up for it. Plus, you’re not stealing from a clothie.

Bracers

Again, lots of choices (unlike, you know, Tier 11 in Cataclysm content…), so here’s a few choice ones.

Azure Cloth Bindings: These cloth bracers drop from Cyanigosa in Heroic Violet Hold. Nothing to really write home about. Let a clothie have them before you take them, folks.

Limb Regeneration Bracers: These mail bracers drop from Prophet Tharon’ja in Heroic Drak’Tharon Keep. Let a resto/ele shammy have these before you snag them, please. The haste is very nice.

Bands of Fading Light: Plate bracers! That have a socket! And haste! What sorcery is this?! Grab them from Dragonflayer Seer in Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. Despite being blue, these are just a little weaker than the Limb Regeneration Bracers and they have a socket, which is really very nice and makes this the winner in terms of total intellect. There’s more spellpower on the LRB, and slightly more haste, so this is kind of a toss-up, but at least a shammy won’t ninja this from you.

Gloves

Web Winder Gloves: These BOE plate gloves are a zone drop in Heroic Ahn’kahet and should be easy to snag on the AH. No socket, but they have haste.

Grips of Fierce Pronouncements: Are you exalted with Wyrmrest Accord? Check out these mail gloves which you don’t have to fight over with a shaman! Just a bit more intellect than the WW gloves above and no haste, but some beefy mp5.

Traditionally Dyed Handguards: These cloth gloves have a socket, with a non-crappy bonus that you’ll easily activate with a 16 int gem in there, so this is effectively 69 intellect and 48 haste. They drop from General Bjarngrim in Heroic Halls of Lightning. Please let a clothie get them before you.

Belt

Bear in mind that all belts can have Eternal Belt Buckle, which adds a socket to it!

Sjonnir’s Girdle: Drops from Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Heroic Halls of Stone, to no one’s surprise. Without a socket, this isn’t as great as another belt could be, but it’s got some beefy mp5, so if you’re struggling a bit with mana, this isn’t a bad choice.

Girdle of Ice: On the other hand, this belt has a socket. So if we gem it with 16 int and then add the belt buckle, we’re looking at 76 effective intellect. Too bad it’s got crit on it, but it’s not bad. It drops from Ormorok the Tree-Shaper in Heroic Nexus. (Again, you’ll probably be spending a lot of time there.)

Magroth’s Meditative Cincture: I probably could have just ignored the other two options because this is what we want. A bunch of int with the socket as well as the belt buckle, plus haste? Yes, please. This one.

Legs

There are a lot of legs we can wear, but these are the two that really stuck out to me.

Shardling Legguards: Plate legs off of Krystallus in Halls of Stone, and they have a socket and haste. Not a bad choice by any means.

Leggings of Protective Auras: Two sockets and a ton of haste on these plate legs mean you’ve effectively got 100 intellect on them. Drops off Ley-Guardian Eregos in… Heroic Oculus. (shudder)

Boots

Sabatons of Erekem: Theoretically, these plate boots drop off one of the random bosses (Erekem) in Heroic Violet Hold. If they do, you’re looking at 73 int and a bunch of mp5, so not awful. That said, the chance of seeing the boss they drop from is low and then seeing the boots drop is… well, you may be luckier than me! That said, there are other, easier options for boots.

Sandals of Crimson Fury: Are you exalted with The Wyrmrest Accord? Then you can buy these cloth boots with 66 effective int and some nice haste.

Revenant’s Treads: No socket here, but at least they have haste and you can probably find them on the auction house or get mats for a leatherworker to craft them for you.

Rings

Good gravy, so many rings.

Signet of the Kirin Tor: If you’re rich, this is pretty great! If you’re not rich, keep reading.

Signet of Hopeful Light: Here’s hoping (haha, get it?) that you’re exalted with the Argent Crusade to pick up this ring with a nice amount of intellect and haste.

Annhylde’s Ring: This ring with haste on it drops from Ingvar the Plunderer in Heroic Utgarde Keep.

There are some other options, but these are some of the best-itemized ones, I think. You could also look at Band of Guile, which is not (to my surprise), an agility ring. It drops in the chest in Heroic Culling of Strat. It’s basically equivalent to Annhylde’s Ring, so these four options should be plenty.

Trinkets

Eesh.

Basically, if you can swing it, you need Darkmoon Card: Greatness. I mean, you don’t need it, but holy cow is it nice. Other options:

Spark of Life: From Sjonnir the Ironshaper in Heroic Halls of Stone. Haste and some mana regen? Not bad.

Je’Tze’s Bell: Northrend world drop, so check your AH!

The Egg of Mortal Essence: Vendor trinket, so you should be able to grab this.

Weapon

Gavel of the Brewing Storm: You can get this 1H mace if you’re revered with Wyrmrest Accord.

But… Remember I said you’d be spending a lot of time in Heroic Nexus? This is why.

War Mace of Unrequited Love: Off Keristrasza in Heroic Nexus. Good luck and godspeed to you, paladin.

Shield/Off-hand

Now listen, I have always preferred shields. I don’t like being smacked in the face by a boss, thank you kindly, so we’re just going to look at shields. 3 options right off the bat, in rough order of preference:

Facade Shield of Glyphs: Drops from Krik’thir the Gatewatcher in Heroic Azjol-Nerub. It’s better than no shield, IMHO.

Zom’s Crackling Bulwark: This is a BOE shield that is a Heroic Ahn’kahet zone drop. Reasonable stats, too.

Protective Barricade of the Light: Vendor shield. It has more of a variety of stats than Zom’s, which is why I would value this a bit more, but hey, if you get Zom’s, don’t worry about this and buy something else.

Libram

… like your libram! You will basically be using Libram of Renewal for the entire expansion. 113 mana off the cost of Holy Light is just too good. I think if you stick with the Holy Light playstyle, you’ll be using it all expansion and if you go with a spellpower/FoL build, you might want to use one of the PVP librams that increases spellpower for Flash of Light.

Next time…

We’ll discuss enchants and gems and all that kind of “fun” stuff! In the meantime, what do you think about these gear choices? Comments? Questions? Have at it!

 

 

[Wrath Classic] Holy Paladin Talents & Glyphs

Kurn / / paladins, wrath classic

I may not have played in quite some time, but I played the heck out of this expansion. So if you’re playing Wrath Classic (and I’m still wondering if I will), here’s a look at possible talent trees for you!

I should note that I am overwhelmed with nostalgia when looking at this calculator! (And, for the record, I’m using the Wowhead WotLK Classic Talent Calculator.) Also, in re-reading at least one of my blog posts from… 2009, it says that some failadin I was in a dungeon with had Blessing of Kings and improved Blessing of Kings in their spec — but that doesn’t exist in the calculator? Stuff from 13 years ago is a wee bit fuzzy. I presume some of the balance/quality of life changes are going to be live from the start?

Levels 70-80

Okay, so I’m assuming you’re healing your way to 80 primarily by way of dungeons. If that’s the case, here’s a good build to start with:

52 / 5 / 4

It’s not pretty, I know, I know, but I like having Aura Mastery and 2/2 Enlightened Judgements for the range even at level 70. I am the type of healer who stands wayyyy the hell in the back, much like I did as a hunter. There are so many great talents you can’t even touch yet, which is of the sad-making. Still, let’s go over these, shall we?

Holy Tree: 52 points

5/5 Spiritual Focus is a no-brainer, because as soon as you swap to Concentration Aura, you don’t get any pushback at all on spells. Way better than the damage bonus granted by Seals of the Pure.

5/5 Divine Intellect is next. Intellect is your main stat, period. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Anything that increases your intellect is worth it.

3/3 Healing Light increases the amount healed by your heals. Another no-brainer to take.

0/2 Unyielding Faith because this is largely a PVP talent, especially as it’s so low in the holy tree. Don’t get me wrong, it has its uses, but skip it for now.

5/5 Illumination is still worth it because mana back from a crit is still mana back from a crit.

2/2 Lay on Hands is a yes for me. It adds a big bonus to physical damage reduction and reduces the Lay on Hands cooldown by 4 minutes. (I had to actually look it up. The base cooldown for Lay on Hands is 20 minutes. If you get 2/2 Lay on Hands and use the Lay on Hands Minor Glyph to reduce it by an extra 5 minutes, you now have an 11 minute cooldown on Lay on Hands.)

1/1 Aura Mastery is my choice here, but you don’t super need it. That said, it should help out in The Nexus with the frost stuff at the end, when paired with Frost Resistance Aura. Any fight that fire, frost or shadow resist comes in handy, this is where you can use Aura Mastery. I still lament the fact paladins don’t have a nature resist aura because oooooh, Halls of Lightning would suck much less with it.

2/2 Improved Blessing of Wisdom is my choice, if only because I like to make sure I have one of my preferred buffs. If you’re running with an elemental shaman who’s going to drop improved Mana Spring Totem reliably, this may not be super necessary.

0/3 Improved Concentration Aura, just because we don’t need the improvement to be virtually unstoppable at casting, short of an actual stun or interrupt.

0/2 Blessed Hands makes me sad to skip just because I love Hand of Sacrifice with all of my heart and soul. But it’s something to pick up as you gain levels.

1/1 Divine Favor? Yes please! Guaranteed crit on your next FoL, HL or HS? Glorious. This was part of my “oh shit!” toolkit for ages. You need to run but the tank is about to die? DF, HS, instant Flash of Light, boom! (Instant Flash of Light? Yes. Patience, I’m coming to that.)

3/3 Sanctified Light is, uh, good. Holy Light and Holy Shock increased crit percentage chance by 6%? Bigger heals, more mana back.

0/2 Pure of Heart is more of a PVP talent, although I do have vague recollections of trying this out on Yogg Saron…

5/5 Holy Power means all your Holy spells increase their crit chance by 5%. Cheap of them to make us spend five points here, but yeah.

0/2 Purifying Power, as this is, again, more of a PVP talent or a talent for a niche fight… like Yogg Saron. (SO MUCH CLEANSING, OMG. Fadorable? Are you out there? WTB your dispells, even now.)

1/1 Holy Shock. Well, I’d be shocked (haha) if you didn’t take this one.

3/3 Light’s Grace is absolutely key, especially later in the expansion when we’re just dropping Holy Light bombs. That half-second is absolutely key and is the difference between your target living through Saurfang’s Mark or Algalon’s attacks or Sindragosa’s parry-hasted attacks. Trust me.

0/3 Blessed Life is more of a PVP talent again, except it also doesn’t entirely suck on some niche fights.

5/5 Holy Guidance is amazing and is yet another reason to stack unholy (hahaha, get it?) amounts of Intellect.

0/3 Sacred Cleansing is another PVP talent, but again, this is freaking amazing on Yogg Saron. (I’m sure there are other cleanse-heavy fights this expansion, but clearly Yogg made an impression on me. hahaha.)

5/5 Judgements of the Pure. Oh, I had a love/hate relationship with JotP. Love it for the haste, because that is super overpowered and awesome. On the other hand, finding a global to even judge something, anything, was sometimes really hard. (Twin Valks in TOTGC, Algalon, Saurfang, etc.) Still, this is sick in the face and you should endeavour to have like 95%+ uptime on this, no joke.

1/1 Divine Illumination because who doesn’t want a sweet throughput cooldown that will reduce the mana cost of all spells by 50% for 15 seconds on a 3 minute cooldown?!

2/2 Infusion of Light. So when I was talking about Divine Favor earlier, I was like “why do I remember having instant-cast Flashes of Light?!” This is the reason why. Divine Favor forces a crit. Infusion of Light means that after a crit Holy Shock, your next Flash of Light cast time is reduced by 1.5 seconds, making it instant. The way these three spells/abilities complement each other is just beautiful. (If you don’t need the instant FoL, it boosts your HL crit chance by 20% for the next cast, which makes another great “oh shit!” tool.)

2/2 Enlightened Judgements. Well, okay, this isn’t necessary, at least not at 70. But like I said, I like to stand waaaaaay the hell in the back and this allows me to judge something from wherever I am, basically.

1/1 Beacon of Light. Oh, Beacon of Light. I have such feelings about you. But obviously take it. And enjoy the 100% heal transfer.

Protection Tree: 5 points

Can you guess? :D Yes, 5/5 Divinity is what we want here right now. All healing done to and by you is increased by 5%.

Retribution Tree: 4 points

I go for 4/5 Benediction here. Why is that? Because it reduces the mana cost of all instant cast spells.

“But Kurn, that’s silly,” you might say, “we only have Holy Shock as an instant cast spell!”

Nope, we have: Judgements, Sacred Shield, Blessings, Beacon of Light (yo, that’s 35% of base mana, folks!), Aura Mastery, Cleanse, Divine Favor, Divine Illumination, Divine Plea, and, oh yeah, Holy Shock. (I’m probably forgetting some.) When you’re casting like mad(rana? haha) and your Sacred Shield needs to be refreshed AND your Judgements of the Pure need to be refreshed AND your Beacon is falling off AND your mana is low, you’ll be really glad you have points here. This is probably the first thing I’d max out at 71.

Kurn’s Suggestions for Talents to 80

  • 71: Max out Benediction
  • 72-73: You may or may not want to start putting points into Improved Blessing of Might. It really depends on what your group looks like and such. I like improved blessings myself, so I’d probably drop 2/2 in there. If you don’t need Imp Might, because you’re always with a warrior who’s keeping up Battle Shout or whatever, look into 2/2 Guardian’s Favor in the Prot tree, because we want to get a little further down there.
  • 74-76: If you went for Guardian’s Favor, get 3/5 Anticipation. We do this to open up the third tier in protection, which holds Divine Sacrifice and Improved Righteous Fury. If you went for Imp Might, that’s cool, now go for Guardian’s Favor and a point in Anticipation. (Why Anticipation and not Divine Strength or something else? Because healers have an unfortunate habit of getting beat on by angry mobs. Anticipation is straight-up chance to dodge. If you’re facing the mob, they’ll have a slightly harder time hitting you, which may allow you to bubble/hearth or cast Divine Intervention on someone to save a wipe.)
  • 77-80: 1/1 Divine Sacrifice and 3/3 Improved Righteous Fury if you have the points. If not, get Divine Sacrifice and 1/3 Improved Righteous Fury. Why Improved Righteous Fury? You should not use Righteous Fury all willy-nilly, but on fights with persistent auras and few to no adds, this is godly. I used this on Heroic Sindragosa… and other fights, I’m sure.

Level 80: Raiding Spec 1 (no DG, no Imp Might)

This spec presumes you have access to the equivalent of Improved Might, either through another paladin (a ret or prot) or a warrior. It also presumes it’s not a gimmicky fight that requires a ridiculous amount of cleansing or where Divine Guardian would come in super handy.

54 / 12 / 5

Basically, here, I just fill up Blessed Hands, then get Benediction topped out and add Divine Sacrifice. DS is not a bad cooldown on its own, but Divine Guardian is superior.

Level 80: Raiding Spec 2 (Divine Guardian)

This makes me sad because oh the things we cut out to have DG!

52 / 17 / 2

Like it hurts to drop to 2/5 Benediction. If your mana is suffering too much, you can steal from Enlightened Judgements for a point there and, depending on the fight, might want to get rid of Aura Mastery. This allows for a 2/2 Divine Guardian build. In Wrath, I would typically use DS/DS (it was DS/DG, really) in Heroic Putricide, on Heroic Valks, Heroic Sindragosa… yeah, it came in handy. You can also steal from Imp Wisdom if you have a reliable improved mana spring totem available.

Level 80: Raiding Spec 3 (CLEANSE ALL THE THINGS!!!)

59 / 7 / 5

Here, we drop to the basics in Prot and Ret, going with 5/5 Divinity and 2/2 Guardian’s Favor and 5/5 Benediction so we can go all in on:

2/2 Pure of Heart. This only affects you, but I don’t know about you, when there’s some curse on me and I can’t decurse, it’s happy times if it doesn’t last full duration.

2/2 Purifying Power reduces the cost of your Cleanse etc by 10%. MORE CLEANSING PLZ.

3/3 Sacred Cleansing is sick because it has a 30% chance to increase your cleanse target’s resistance to Diseases, Magic and Poison effects by 30% for 10 seconds. I remember testing this on Yogg where it’s basically CLEANSAPALOOZA and it made a difference.

Level 80: Raiding Spec 4 (Conviction)

51 / 5 / 15

If you don’t need Aura Mastery and want even more crits, look at Conviction in Ret. It increases your chance to crit with all spells and attacks by 1/2/3/4/5%.

Glyphs!

Geez, I almost forgot about Glyphs.

… oh lord. I forgot about these glyphs.

Major:

  • Glyph of Seal of Light (5% more healing!) / Glyph of Seal of Wisdom (5% less cost on healing!)
  • Glyph of Holy Shock (reduces the cooldown by 1 second)
  • Glyph of Flash of Light (5% extra crit!) / Glyph of Holy Light (splash healing!)

Basically, these glyphs are on a per-fight basis except Holy Shock. I hate using a glyph slot on it but it’s a spell we should be using super freaking often. Unless you are seriously JUST Holy Light bombing, you should have the Glyph of Holy Shock.

As to the others, if your heals are lacking a little oomph, use Glyph of Seal of Light. If you’re overhealing like whoah or are running out of mana, use Glyph of Seal of Wisdom. Remember (and I had to look this up!) that you can judge anything as long as you have a seal up. So you can still judge light if you use Seal of Wisdom or judge wisdom if you have Seal of Light up.

Glyph of Flash of Light vs. Glyph of Holy Light… while it doesn’t matter at the start of the expansion so much, it will matter later on as paladins decide whether or not to sort of “specialize” in spellpower and Flash of Light builds or haste and Holy Light builds. In a 25-person raid with lots of clumped people? Glyph of Holy Light all the way. Otherwise, probably Glyph of Flash of Light.

Also, Glyph of Divinity doesn’t suck — it gives you and your target back mana when you use Lay on Hands. But again, probably situational.

Minor:

  • Glyph of Lay on Hands: This is the only real game-changer in the minor glyphs.

I would recommend Glyph of Blessing of Kings (cost reduced by 50%, which is handy when you’re the pally buffing kings and someone gets rezzed in-battle), as well as Glyph of the Wise, which just reduces your Seal of Wisdom cost by 50%.

In closing…

I tend to like a deeper Prot build than a Ret build, and I’m big on utility. So if I’m not going to have Imp Might, I’m gonna aim for Divine Guardian in Prot and also have Blessed Hands and Aura Mastery and such if I can eke out the points.

How about you?

Thoughts on WotLK Classic & Dragonflight

Kurn / / classic

Well, hi there! Long time no see. And there’s a good reason for that, I haven’t posted in more than two years.

Sorry!

In fairness, I haven’t played any Blizzard games in a good long while. Part of it has to do with the various scandals the company has faced in the last while. Part of it has to do with my lack of desire to play retail WoW — the auction house changes, the level nerf, etc, have left me not wanting to play retail at all. And while I did get Kurn to 70 in TBC Classic (and got epic flying!), I basically stopped playing shortly thereafter. Poor Classic Madrana is still 58.

And part of it has been a lack of time on my part. I was super burnt out at a previous job, leaving me not wanting to do anything when I’d be done for the day. So I found a new job, quit the old one and have been training, basically, for the last six months. It’s challenging and I’m loving it. I just haven’t had much time for other stuff.

Yet, here I am, wondering if I should dip my toes into WotLK Classic or Dragonflight or both.

Wrath of the Lich King Classic

A whole lot of this blog is dedicated to my adventures throughout Wrath of the Lich King. I know it is, because not only did I write it, but I also just reread a bunch of entries.

Wrath is the expansion with dungeons like Oculus. >.> Wrath is the expansion where Onyxia came back out. Wrath is the expansion with Naxx and Sarth and Eye and Ulduar and TOC and ICC. Wrath is the expansion when the LFG tool launched when ICC did.

Rereading about being the only healer in the Thorim tunnel with a Blood DK instead of a Frost DK brought back loads of aggravation and frustration.

Rereading about the idiocy of my raid leader on Bronzebeard brought back a ton of bad memories.

Rereading about the idiocy of my MT on Proudmoore brought back even more bad memories.

And rereading about my missing Apotheosis so badly during Wrath, which was the reason I started Apotheosis back up in Cataclysm, makes me wistful for those days (ie: the BC-era Apotheosis) again.

The thing I realized during Cataclysm, when I reformed Apotheosis, is that you can’t go home again. You just can’t. Those times, even those people, no longer exist. Apart from anything else, we’re all older (and hopefully wiser). Demands on time are different now. I wouldn’t have the time to be a GM these days, at least not the way I would want to be. And I’m pretty sure I still would end up getting promoted to officer in any guild I joined because, as Majik has pointed out to me, I fail at being bad.

So, my question is… do I do Wrath? At all? I wouldn’t need to learn a lot. My hard-mode Ulduar experience is lacking, but apart from that, heroic Anub 25 and heroic LK 25 are the only 25-man bosses I haven’t downed, though I have had the pleasure of wiping on them. A lot. And I liked a lot of the dungeons, even. I levelled my shammy and a druid and a priest through Wrath. (And maybe a mage?) The content was pretty cool. I know I can make a crapton of gold in Wrath.

But to what end? What would the point be? If I’ve done X and Y and Z, why do them again? I do not have a burning desire to do Mimiron’s Firefighter achievement (haha, I made a pun). I really don’t know that I ever want to do heroic Sindragosa 25 again. (Your pathetic magic betraaaaaays you!) Would it just be to pass the time? I mean, I have other things I could do.

Still, it’s tempting… And my brother wants to roll on a fresh start server and I’m like NOPE HAVE FUN ENJOY BYE.

Dragonflight

So, I mean, dragons. One of the things I love to do in WoW is kill dragons. And I like learning more about the big dragon aspects and everything.

But:

  • I am still pissed off that Kurn is level 50. Excuse you, I have hit 60 on that toon before. And 70. 80. 85. 90. 100. 110. 120. I know that the number of levels just gets ridiculous. I know. But while I am okay with the concept of redoing whole expansions I’ve done before, the sheer gall of having to re-do my levels 50-60 and 60-70 is so unappealing to me. I think I might have finished the intro to Shadowlands but that’s it???
  • The Auction House. The changes they made… whenever they did, I guess in BfA (?) where they completely changed everything about auctions just absolutely ruined the game for me. I did not adapt and I don’t agree with the change. I had been able to make money in WoW for over a decade with the old system and I feel like the new system sucks. Maybe I just need to relearn how to do things yet again but UGH, I don’t wanna. And if I can’t make gold in the game, why should I even play???

Still, if I do end up playing at all, I’ll probably want to pay for my sub with WoW Tokens. Which costs in-game money. And if my sub includes retail (well, there’s the cost of the game too, I know), then I might as well play retail and learn to make money there so that I can support my sub.

What’s hilarious is that, nowadays, the sub cost is like nothing to me, but back in the day of me being a poor college student, sometimes it was hard to get that sub money! And yet if I can pay with in-game gold, then, by golly, I want to pay with gold!

Nerd Stuff

One of the things I have to do in my new job is, I’m not joking, log dive. Obviously, it’s not diving through logs from WoW (boy, do I wish!), but rather logs from customers’ servers and stuff. It dawned on me, though, that all of my WoW log dives are responsible for my comfort in scrolling through customer server logs. And I miss doing that in WoW. I miss teaching that in WoW. Maybe I don’t even have to play in order to do that. I can ask you to submit logs to me and I can review them and/or use them as teaching moments? Maybe? Hm.

So…

Lots of thoughts, no decisions made. But that’s one thing I’ve always liked about the blog. I could always write out my thoughts to better understand things, whether it’s the mechanisms of holy paladin healing or why I hate various raid leaders.

What are your plans for Wrath Classic and Dragonflight? Let me know in the comments. :)

Classic Lesser Arcanums of Voracity and You

Kurn / / classic, guide

A few weeks ago, I got myself into an Onyxia pug of 30 people and the Dragonstalker’s Helm dropped. I rolled a 94.

So I decided I should probably get a helm enchant. With Zul’Gurub out, there are some pretty great helm enchants that require a Voodoo Doll for your class, as well as a Primal Hakkari Idol, and then you get Falcon’s Call (for a hunter). I mean, that’s freaking sweet. Alas, a Primal Hakkari Idol drops only from Mandokir and Jin’do, both of which aren’t exactly the most easily accessible bosses in ZG. It’s not like Venoxis or even Jek’lik.

As a temporary enchant for what is probably the best helm I’ll ever have in this game, I decided to go with the +8 agility enchant.

However, as a bit of a noob back in Classic, at least when it came to enchants and such, it wasn’t until last night that I fully understood what a pain in the ass it was to get an arcanum for your helm or legs. Someone was in Ironforge selling the application of an arcanum for 250g. I was like, hah, screw that, so I embarked on the adventure of finding out everything I needed to know to get my own.

My final thoughts: 250g is a reasonable price for all the nonsense I had to go through.

First, I had to get a Libram of Voracity. These are world drops from mobs that seem to be 50+ or thereabouts. So naturally, I hit up the Auction House and dropped 90g on one.

Then, I had to go talk to a dude in Burning Steppes. At Morgan’s Vigil? No. At the tiny cave in the northern central cave, Mathredis Firestar. Doing this basically shows me what I need to get to turn in the libram for one of the Lesser Arcanums of Voracity. You can get +8 to agi, int, strength, spirit or stam.

What I needed was a Black Diamond, 4 Whipper Root Tubers and 4 Crystal Forces, in addition to the libram. I got the diamond for like 60s on the AH and I knew Whipper Root Tubers were found in Felwood, but I had no idea what a Crystal Force was.

Fun fact, after doing the Power Crystals quests at Marshall’s Refuge in Un’Goro Crater and then finding all the pylons, you can turn in 10 Green Power Crystals and 10 Blue Power Crystals for 6 Crystal Forces at the Eastern Pylon.

This took an exorbitant amount of time and running around. I had to run back and forth probably about 8 times because I didn’t read ahead and didn’t realize I had to finish all of the quests in order to get access to the exchange function on the Eastern Pylon. Finally did that, plus collected all of the 20 crystals I needed and finally got the Crystal Forces. Whew.

Then it was off to Felwood!

I had to do quests for Maybess Riverbreeze in southern Felwood. Specifically the Cleansing Felwood quest. This involved running my ass up to northern Felwood, killing 15 warpwood elementals (thankfully it’s a 100% droprate) and then running my ass back down to southern Felwood.

Now, luckily, while I was levelling, I’d already collected 20x Patch of Tainted Skin, as a skinner. This allowed me to turn in 5 of them at a time for 2x Cenarion Plant Salve each turn-in thanks to the Salve via Skinning quest.

At that point, it was like, great! Almost done!

Except then you have to find a Whipper Root plant, either corrupted (which you can cleanse with your salve) or already cleansed. I ran all over the damn map until I found this map:

http://www.blizzardguides.com/whipper_root_tubers.html

Killed a few felstalkers and finally was able to loot a cleansed Whipper Root plant and thankfully it gave me all 4 Whipper Root Tubers that I needed.

Armed with my Crystal Forces, Whipper Root Tubers, the Black Diamond and the libram, I made my way back to Burning Steppes to hand in the quest and receive my Lesser Arcanum of Voracity.

What a process.

Now, to be fair, most of the issues I encountered were because I had skipped quests when I was levelling there. So next time (on my paladin), I won’t skip them. But that was still a major pain in the ass. As I ran up and down Felwood or around and around Un’Goro, I was just thinking to myself “250g is a freaking bargain, this is awful”.

Worse, there are other kinds of arcanums that require slightly (or very) different things.

So if you can’t get a hold of a Primal Hakkari Idol for your ZG enchant, then you probably want to do the digging through the quests on Wowhead to see what’s needed for your arcanum of choice. But I promise you, if you see someone offering 250g in trade, it may well be worth it instead of the pain if you haven’t done all the quests. (Assuming you have 250g. I have like 2500g. I really should have done it.)

It’s All Coming Back…

Kurn / / classic, dungeons

So in December, my video card died. My beautiful, gorgeous, GTX 1080Ti died.

Naturally, this put a crimp in my WoW playing in that I basically couldn’t play anything that required hardware acceleration.

Thankfully, my 16-month old video card was still under warranty, so I got a free replacement. Unfortunately, this was all happening over the holidays so it took over a month to get my card. I had other stuff to do with some personal projects, but I’ve finally gotten back to playing WoW.

And I’m level 58! And almost a half!

I’ve run a bunch of the high-end instances for the first time in over a decade since properly doing them at level.

Dire Maul West – a couple of wipes, but ultimately I got the Backwood Helm.

UBRS – No loot but I didn’t have to kite Drak! I did get my Pyroguard Emberseer quest done (Eye of the Emberseer) for Duke Hydraxis and got attuned to BWL and got my Blood of the Black Dragon Champion for Onyxia. So with one run, I was attuned to everything except Molten Core.

LBRS – This was a weird-ass run. Four wipes (I feigned through two of them) and these people didn’t drop down to the right at Hordemar City. Why… why would you not do that? We ended up not clearing the hallway where the recipe for the Greater Fire Protection Potion drops, nor the other one on your way to Troll side. It was weird. But I got my Beaststalker’s Gloves and Beaststalker’s Mantle (thank you, Voone and Wyrmthalak!) as well as Trueaim Gauntlets.

Strat UD – No loot to speak of, but I got the holy water quest done and got the key.

Haven’t done Live or Scholo or DM North yet. Oh, and I soloed my way to attune myself to Molten Core. Plus got my Royal Seal of Eldre’Thalas all by myself. Plus assembled a video of five ways to mess up Jailbreak.

It’s a very interesting experience, to be really knowledgeable about stuff and yet unable to convince anyone to take you anywhere when pugging because you’re a hunter and no one thinks you can CC worth shit. My brother has promised to tank me through anything I need, so that’s good.

And I have more than enough needed for my epic mount. I’m pretty pleased about that.

The most interesting thing about this experience, though, is how old memories come back.

We were in that LBRS run and we’d killed the quartermaster up the hallway from Halycon and were clearing trash towards the dogs and I’m like … there’s something here. There’s a pat. I hit Track Humanoids and wouldn’t you know it, there’s a pat coming from the upper hallway just as our pally tank is going to run at the group at the far end of the corridor. I pinged the map multiple times, averting certain disaster as the tank stopped to get that pat before the group.

And while in Strat, the goddamn Eye of Naxxramas kept showing up during boss fights, but guess who killed the damn thing each time? That’s right. Me. Too many memories of being wiped by the Eye and its summoned thingies.

But the thing is, that pat in LBRS, the Eye in Strat UD, these aren’t memories I would have consciously thought about. They’re not things I would remember if I were talking about the instances to someone. But as soon as I was in those particular positions, it was like an old neural pathway just lit all the way up.

It’s been fun, relearning this stuff or, perhaps more accurately, rediscovering that I still have this knowledge.

Runecloth Bags, Gold & You

Kurn / / classic, classic instances, gold

Friends, I am currently level 42 in WoW Classic.

That… is not great. I know it’s not great. I should be nearing 60, like my brother (52) and some of our friends (both 55).

It’s not that I haven’t been playing, rather it’s that I haven’t been levelling.

Why is that?

Well, you see, dear reader, as I write this, I am standing by a vendor in Everlook. Yes, at level 42. I’ve been coming here frequently since I was level 30. Shockingly, it only took about 12 deaths (all in Felwood and the furbolg tunnel) to get here. Anyway, I got the flight point in Felwood and in Everlook and so now it takes me 12 minutes to get from Ironforge out to Everlook and stand at this vendor.

Why am I doing this?

Well, the vendor is Qia, the Trade Goods vendor. She sells four limited-supply recipes. What’s a limited-supply recipe? Glad you asked.

A limited-supply recipe means (generally) that the vendor only has one of them in stock at a time. Here’s an example.

So you see the (1) on the icon for the pattern for the Frostsaber Boots? That indicates a limited supply. At any given time, this vendor can have 0, 1, 2, 3 or all 4 patterns in limited supply available for sale.

Pattern: Frostsaver Boots
Formula: Enchant Chest – Major Health
Pattern: Runecloth Gloves
Pattern: Runecloth Bag

I have spent literal hours camping this vendor for the pattern for the Runecloth Bag. It costs 1g20s and I have sold it for a wide variety of prices, from 3g to 25g or thereabouts. I have sold about 30 of these patterns, some of which I bought off the AH cheaply and resold and most of which I camped.

On my server, Westfall, the price has only gone up. We’re talking from 10-14g to upwards of 20g apiece. But why is this so popular?

It’s simple. Bags, big bags, are very rare in the game. The recipe for the Mooncloth Bag (16 slot) exists in the game but is a rare world drop, plus requires mooncloth (4-day cooldown) to make. So the next biggest bag, which is far easier to craft, is the Runecloth Bag. On my server, these bags sell for between 2-4g apiece. So even a tailor purchasing the pattern at 25g is worthwhile, because you will definitely be able to make 8-12 bags and sell them to make your money back. Everyone wants bags.

Also, because it’s a recipe that isn’t always available, a lot of people don’t know where it’s sold. Or, if they do, they don’t stand at the vendor long enough to see it show up.

Now, it’s important to note that when dealing with a limited-supply vendor, you cannot just keep the window open and expect to see changes. You need to close out the vendor window and reopen it to see a potential change in their inventory. I’d recommend doing this about once every 1-2 minutes for best results.

If, by some chance, you see a limited pattern in the vendor’s inventory but right-clicking on it doesn’t work, this means someone else beat you to the purchase.

Using this method, I have made at least 380g with a net profit of 310g. I’m currently selling them, on average, for about 20g. I had my mount money when I hit 40. I’ve been able to train all my skills and I used the money to level up my leatherworking, which has been at 300 since I hit 41.

So there you go, I hope that’s been helpful!

Also, once I actually get to run the dungeons, I’ll be putting out some Classic Dungeon Guides for BRD, Strat Live, Strat UD, Scholomance, LBRS, UBRS and, since it’s coming out sooner than expected, Dire Maul. Check out my YouTube channel where I already have a few videos about BRD and subscribe in order to keep up to date on my videos:

Kurn’s YouTube Channel

Currently, the most useful video on there will be how to get the key to Blackrock Depths.

The First 30 Levels

Kurn / / classic, ramblings

It’s been a little while since I’ve had a chance to write. I’ve been spending most of my free time split between Classic WoW and a programming project.

I’ve gotten Kurn to 31. Madrana remains at 10 and I’m writing this as my mage is level 3, running around Northshire. Wow, what a difference between 8am now and launch time a couple of weeks ago! The goal is to get her to 5 so she can pick up Tailoring (and make use of all the linen I no longer need for First Aid) and Enchanting.

I’ll get back to Madrana soonish — gotta level her soon — but in the meantime, I’m loving running around on Kurn. I got Aspect of the Cheetah at 20 and it was life-changing. As someone who hasn’t been without a mount of some sort in like, a decade, it was amazing. (I have the chauffeur for my toons under 20 on retail.)

And at 30, I got Feign Death. HOLY CRAP THE BEST EVER. Even if I get resisted every so often, I can now, once again, do Stupid Hunter Things. Frankly, that’s one of my favourite things to do in this game.

Example: There’s the Preserving Knowledge quest up in Alterac. I was level 30. My brother was 31 on his warrior. There is no WAY we should have been able to get that done, at least not retrieving the Worn Leather Book. But I found the place where the book was and we used my pet to distract a level 38 elite ogre and my brother ran over to join me. Then I feigned after my pet died. And then, just at that moment, a group of people came up and destroyed all the things for us so we just ran in and got the book. But my pet could have tanked the boss for a second (turtle with shell shield!) if needed. Ahhhhh, Stupid Hunter Things. I love them.

I’ve also made a serious effort to level my professions. Skinning isn’t a problem, I’m already at like, 230. Training Artisan skinning for 5g was not my favourite thing in the world to do, but I did it.

Leatherworking is hard at this point. I’m at about 200 and can’t wait to hit up the Hinterlands at 35 to train Artisan.

But I’m also at about the 150 mark at Fishing and First Aid and my Cooking is approaching 200! (I may have spent money to get there by buying stuff off the AH. Oops.)

I’ve done Deadmines once and Stockades once, both with my guildies. (Though we pugged a healer for Stocks.) I am planning to skip Razorfen Kraul and Gnomer entirely, thank you kindly. Next up for me will be Scarlet Monastery.

The world feels big again. And it’s not just the lack of mounts, it’s the lack of flying mounts. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of my flying mounts on retail, but flying from Ratchet to Auberdine means flying down to Theramore first. It’s altogether ridiculous, but there’s a certain something to it.

And the danger! I don’t tend to die on retail, not unless I’m in a raid or something. As a hunter, I can feign, as a pally, I can bubble, etc, etc. So there is no real danger involved on retail. But it’s all around you in Classic. I’m not saying I like dying to murlocs or elite orcs or Bellygrub, but it does happen and I do enjoy knowing I have to be alert when kiting or pulling.

I also really enjoy working towards various goals that are achievable, but difficult. Like, 90g or whatever it is for a 60% speed mount? That is going to suck. But it’s also so rewarding when you get there. It’s been hard to get Leatherworking to 200! It’s been challenging to get Kurn to 31. There’s like a dead zone for quests around 25-27 where things seem to be really hard. I ended up questing in Wetlandsand Redridge with a touch of Duskwood and Southshore and did a lot of just killing of whelps in the Wetlands.

Killing whelps and dragons in this game — and then skinning them — is truly one of my favourite things to do in this entire game. Love it all day long. I must have ground out at least a level or so doing just that over the course of a few days.

So I’m having a great time. Do I miss some of the creature comforts of retail? Of course. Mounts, flight, even some high-level abilities like Blink on my mage or Cleanse on my paladin, not having to stable one pet to call out another… All of these would be nice to have but I know I’ll appreciate Cleanse more on my paladin when I get it in my 40s. I’ll appreciate my slow mount SO MUCH when I get it.

What are you up to in Classic, if you’re playing? Let me know!

Classic Thoughts

Kurn / / classic, ramblings

I’ve been very quiet over the last couple of days. This is because I’ve been busy playing Classic, primarily. Well, you know, and working, celebrating my nephew’s fifth birthday, etc.

But I’ve been playing a lot of Classic. Naturally, I have Thoughts and Feelings!

Honestly, props to Blizzard for keeping the servers up. My group and I landed on Westfall, after originally planning to go to Pagle. By and large, most of us got the names we wanted, which was nice. Anyway, on Monday evening, a bunch of us logged in and were amazed by all the people in the starting zones.

I have never seen so many people in Northshire in my life.

Of course, with this concentration of people came the lag. As, I presume, more layers were created, I saw things fade in and out of existence. Eventually, my brother and I, plus one of our friends, Kam, all managed to group together and did all of Northshire together. Eventually, Kam got her imp, we finished our Northshire quests (after I got Judgment — so useful for tagging mobs instantly!) and we went off into the wilds of Elwynn Forest.

While primary professions only cost 10 copper apiece to train at the Apprentice level, FUN FACT, secondaries are a whole silver each! (Part of me is still amazed that I have five million gold on retail and I’m struggling to scrape up silver to train, etc.)

The hardest part of the evening wasn’t the lag, but rather tagging mobs. Props to Kam’s imp for being on aggressive and tagging some kobolds in Fargodeep Mine and some Murlocs at Crystal Lake!

It took us dozens of tries to get Garrick Proudfoot back in Northshire. At least half a dozen to get Princess in the pumpkin patch (once we found it). Let’s not even talk about Hogger.

But props to my group for mostly living through everything!

I eventually had 10 silver and made my way up to Stormwind to get a guild charter. Coming into Stormwind… well, it was an experience. I turned on the music to get the full effect and got chills down my spine as I entered the original Stormwind for the first time in years.

I managed to get a bunch of random folks, as well as a few of my friends, to sign the guild charter and our guild, Faded Heroes, was born. I thanked the randoms and booted them and we went about inviting all our friends as they logged in.

The goal had been, for me, to spend a couple of hours running around and earning silver to make the guild charter in Stormwind, which is quicker to get to from Northshire than Darnassus is from Aldrassil. Then, I was going to swap to Kurn. But it took me FOUR AND A HALF HOURS of playtime to get ten silver to use on a charter, so I was already nearly ten and I stuck it out to get to level 10 on the paladin.

After day 2, my hunter was also level 10. I died a LOT. The Barrow Den is The Worst, and Ursal Mauler, well, get yourself a group. At level 9, I joined up with a random level 9 rogue and we wiped four (?) times before we got him down. But we got it done! And what lies next for Kurn is getting a pet! Very excited.

Hilariously, I had to turn in a couple of quests to Fandral Staghelm. Now, I remembered him from Vanilla when I was fighting him in Firelands, but it was really very weird to meet him again for the first time, with that context! I remembered him being a jerk, but he is REALLY a jerk. And so, as I read the quest text and such, I remarked, aloud, how happy I was to have killed him a number of times in Firelands.

So what do I think about Classic? Loving it. There are a lot of things I’m having to untrain myself about — sparkling quest objectives, quest stuff on the map, the hunter dead zone, aspects and tracking vanishing once you die and needing to be re-enabled. The retail game has made me soft!

I’m also having to re-learn how to hunter. Paladin, less so, but wow, the dead zone is bigger than I remembered, Concussive Shot isn’t as effective as I remembered… Without a pet, against higher-level mobs, I had to kite them! I was never the BEST kiter, but I could certainly kite Drakkisath. I used to kite some blue dragon up to Everlook, over in Winterspring. (Can’t, for the life of me, remember its name.) Still, there I am, in Teldrassil, kiting furbolgs all over the damn place. And mostly living! It was the harpies in the Oracle Glade that wrecked me.

Looking forward to having a pet so I can stay at range!

Overall, I’m loving what I’m doing in Classic.

Tell me about your Classic experiences!

It’s Go Time

Kurn / / classic, ramblings

Well, more like “It’s Go Day”, but close enough. Today is launch day. In just under four hours, as I write this, WoW Classic will launch.

I am, and this is an understatement, thrilled.

For over a decade, now, I have eagerly awaited the launch of each new expansion, only to pair with it the fact that everything I once knew no longer meant anything. It’s draining. Exhausting. To know all the nuances about your class and spec and just things in the game in general to knowing basically nothing? It’s annoying. But new content brings with it new challenges and new information, so it’s generally a decent trade-off.

Today, however, I sit here, eager to jump into a world that I know oh-so-well.

My encyclopedic knowledge of Blackrock Depths matters. (See my YouTube channel for detailed video guides of BRD and, eventually, more!)

My knowing various old farming spots in Swamp of Sorrows and Dustwallow Marsh and Felwood actually means something.

Understanding what’s required to get the key to Upper Blackrock Spire is important again!

Knowing the best place to raise your weapon skills is finally useful once more!

The content may not be new, but my knowledge is right up there, my friends. I’m thrilled these nuggets of information are going to be put to use once again. And the adventures? The adventures will be brand-new, and I can’t wait to embark upon them and see what the original World of Warcraft has in store for me.

That said, I have some tips!

Tips for WoW Classic Launch

  • You may want to log in as your alts first and get them to a city to get them rested XP while you play on your main! My paladin and mage will be parking their butts in Stormwind while I play on Kurn. (That said, if your nearest capital city is far, look for an inn at the first real zone. No point in running to Goldshire if you can run to Stormwind, but Dolanaar is a better bet than Darnassus)
  • You may be on a different “layer” than someone else. To be on the same layer, someone can invite the other person. The party leader’s “layer” becomes the layer for both people at that point. (I think guild members will also all be on the same layer as each other, could be wrong.)
  • Remember that flight points are few and far between. When you need to head to the Eastvale Logging Company in Elwynn, you may as well run a couple more minutes to grab the flight point out at Lakeshire as well. You may even want to grab the Darkshire FP in Duskwood while you’re over there, though you may end up dying if you’re too low-level.
  • Night elves who want to level in Westfall, search for videos on how to skip from the Wetlands to Dun Morogh (where you can then take the tram). If you don’t do this, you may just want to wait until you’re in your early-to-mid 20s to make your way by boat over to Menethil Harbour because there are a lot of crocolisks who are eager to kill you otherwise.
  • Vendor all your greys, don’t destroy them.
  • Anything that is coloured white (apart from crappy armor/weapons) can be useful to someone. Bear that in mind when killing animals and getting various meats and such.
  • Don’t forget to train fishing, cooking and first aid, as well as your primary professions.
  • Don’t forget to train your abilities and place your talent points! Talent calculator here: https://classic.wowhead.com/talent-calc
  • Most of all, HAVE FUN! :)

 

Happy WoW Classic launch, everyone. I’ll see you in Azeroth.