It's monday.... and I'm bringing you a Tooth & Arrows instead of a These Ancient Eyes post. Why? Well, because there hasn't been a T&A post in awhile, and also because I wasn't sure where to go with the TAE post I'd been writing. So, without further ado, a bit on love for a catbird.
I tried valiantly to get Kalitri, my feral worgen druid, to L60 last night, only to pass out about four bars from finished. However, a situation arose that brought up to me just how far I’ve advanced since I was having so many issues with her back when she was a Night Elf (pre Cata, as I remade her Worgen the day after Cataclysm came out).
I started playing Des because Kalitri’s original form taught me that I didn’t have the focus necessary to play a melee class, or so I thought. Questing through Darkshire, I would find myself with 2 mobs on me and be very suddenly dead. The mobs were even lower level than me. I’d just get so caught up in what was going on, and I’d switch targets, not knowing who I should focus on… and then I’d be a dead little nelf kitty. I essentially ragequit the character in frustration, though I didn’t delete her – she was my first character, no matter how upset I’d become with her. And one day I would figure out druids.
In the meantime, I rolled Des, who would eventually become my first level cap character, and started several others. Then Cataclysm was launched and the worgen were released. I played through the starter zone on a hunter the night it launched, but quickly discovered I had no interest in leveling yet ANOTHER hunter. I was looking at my character screen and my eyes settled on Kalitri. The nelves allied with the Worgen and helped them. What if one of their envoys was bitten?
The story continued in my head until even the worgen’s human form was explained – a nelf, cursed with the Forsaken plague, would turn into an undead human (as we all know, there are no non-human Forsaken). So during the battle, she was cursed. But before the plague could fully pull her into undeath, one of the quick thinking Worgen bit her, hoping the power of the wolf would fight off the plague. It worked – but at the cost of her original species. She was now human/Worgen instead of Night Elf… and even her forms had changed.
No, I didn’t pay for a character change, though I thought about it. But then I realized I’d just be stuck where I was, with a Worgen instead of a nelf. I needed to relearn the class, now in my much more experienced state. So… I clicked the delete button on the original Kalitri, and immediately remade her as a worgen. By the time I’d left Darkshore, I already had a much better handle on playing the class than I had when she was a nelf. I’d even tanked a couple of dungeons as a bear. (Another big deal for me, as I’d never tanked anything before.)
It seemed very quick that Kalitri got to L40 – even with me playing most of the time on Des to get to L85, and playing through all the new Cata zones. But then she just kind of… stuck. I wasn’t having trouble playing her so much as playing her took a lot of focus, and I wasn’t in a place where I could do that. As a Hunter, I can tab off the wow window and do something else at any time. If I look back and something’s attacked me, my pet has usually taken care of it and my only frustration is that I lost out on loot. On any non-pet class, however, you get yourself distracted with, say, writing a paper for school, or responding to a friend’s text, and you click back on to find yourself dead. So… I stopped playing her for a while.
From the moment I’d created the original druid, what I’d looked forward to the most was L60 – the flight form. No mounts to fly, no need! Just leap into the air, become a bird, and fly away. Never mind that it’s one of my favorite real life daydreams – I would actually be able to DO it as a druid. And it was even cooler for Kalitri who, until recently, used no form of transportation other than herself. She used Running Wild as her mount, or simply dashed around in cat form. Also, the ability to cast flight form while moving will make for some awesome saves. Being chased by something through Howling Fjord? No problem! Turn, leap from the cliff, insta-cast Flight Form and you’re in the air! An excellent way to drop agro – which is the one thing the class is lacking, as far as I’m concerned. But I’ve been spoiled by my Hunter’s Feign Death.
So recently, as the only thing I’ve been doing on Des is rep grinds, I started playing Kalitri again with the decision to A) learn to focus better – clicking buttons should not make that much difference in speed from hitting hot keys. And B) to see some of the higher level Cata-changed zones. So began her quests. I started in Desolace, finished that zone, and then moved on to Burning Steppes and then Blasted Lands. I can now reliably take on up to 3 enemies at the same time that are at least 2, if not 3, levels above me, and win. I’ve mastered shifting out of cat form to heal myself, but keeping the DoT of thorns and Rake on the mobs at the same time, so sometimes they actually die while I’m still healing myself. This was put to the test in Hellfire Peninsula last night with dramatic results.
I was sent into a Fel Orc encampment to mark their sentry towers with smoke signals so they could be bombed from above by the Gryphon riders of Honor Hold. This isn’t too hard – I Prowled into the middle of the camp and no one even saw me. I neglected to realize that when I used the item it would take me out of stealth mode, however. And that’s when it got fun. The 3 tower guards came down on me. It was only then that I noticed they were L61. I was L58. THAT was a bit of a level difference. I freaked out, and I don’t even have my panic button anymore of shifting to bear form and tanking them with the extra armor, since I had to split my DPS spec from my tank spec at L50 – the talent trees start to get mutually exclusive at that point – so I was throwing everything I had at them. I pulled Tiger’s Fury, I Ravage!’d, I Raked, I Mangled like there was no tomorrow. I put up Thorns and Nature’s Grasp, shifted to caster and leaped back to heal myself as they were grabbed by the Entangling Roots proc of Nature’s Grasp and therefore were out of range while I healed myself, then I shifted cat and Feral Charged right back into the fight. I almost died several times, but I finally pulled it off, and the 3 mobs lay dead at my paws. I looted them and realized in shock that I was fine – I was better than fine, actually. My last round of healing me had stuck, and I had full health and full energy. I stealthed again and headed for the next tower. But this time I Feral Charged in the moment I was within range.
A repeat of the previous battle occurred, except that it went faster because I’d had time to hit myself with a heal over time and put Thorns on before I initiated. Two more times, I repeated the fight, and by the time I completed the quest, I was impressed. Gone was the druid who didn’t know what she was doing and died to 2 low level undead npcs could easily kill, and here was a seasoned feral warrior able to take down three mobs that were each three levels above her.
Tonight, Kalitri will ding 60 and finally gain her illusive flight form. What I’ve been working towards on her since creating the character originally. Onwards to 60!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Heroic Leap
Trying to fix 85 levels of bad habits when gaming on Destylae lately is my big focus, along with my usual reputation grinds and the new Molten Front dailies (I want that Hippogryph!). I spent all of the game focusing on armor when I should’ve been stacking stats, and now at the end game level, I’m paying for it. Grinding for justice points to purchase gear I should’ve already had the equivalent of through normal leveling – but I picked up whatever gave me more armor, no matter what stat it effected… and recently I was so bad in dungeons I was doing less than 4k DPS.
But you’ve all heard me complain about that before. The point being that I’ve now gotten my iLevel up high enough that I can get into L85 Heroics, though PlayerScore says that the difficulty for me is “light,” I have other things to say. Heroics aren’t called heroics because they’re easy – they’re called heroics because it’s more than just item level or gear – it’s skill and teamwork that gets you through them. And now, having been along on the completion of Stonecore, Vortex Pinnacle, and now The Lost City of the Tol’vir, I have to say – I’m not entirely certain I have the skill level to be running Heroics yet.
The thing is, though – sometimes I’m damn good. It’s performing consistently that I have an issue with. If I eat my agility boost food, and use an agility scroll, I can pull DPS as high or higher than Nyx. But if I screw up, for even a few seconds – if I pull too much agro and have to run to the tank to avoid getting my little Draenai tail handed to me on a plate, or if I do what I did last night and accidentally pull a mob because my hand just happened to hit my “Target-FIRE” macro button while we were talking about the fight (thankfully that didn’t happen in a heroic, and it wasn’t a boss, but my point still stands) – then my DPS drops by more than half and I wind up doing so low that I spent the rest of the dungeon trying desperately to catch up to Nyx in overall DPS. Then I have the problem that my eyes are so much on the DPS meters that I forget the mechanics of the fights.
Now, last night, I actually don’t think it was specifically me that screwed up at any given time other than the ones I already mentioned – agro pulling and the one shot botch I somehow managed to do – but it still stands that… Well… The Lost City of the Tol’vir, on regular, takes a good group about 20 minutes to burn through. On Heroic, the average time to rip through a dungeon is doubled or tripled, because you can’t skip individual mobs in most places and so spend longer killing the trash on the way to the bosses. But last night – we were in Lost City for nearly 3 hours.
Given the normal ratio, it shouldn’t have taken us more than an hour at most to complete that dungeon – and that’s on the long side. We had a good group, all five of us knew what we were doing… and yet it still took 3 hours and a lot of character-shuffling on the part of our 3rd DPS as we tried to find a good fit for us. His Warrior pulled too much agro off the tank, his healing Pally was instance locked and couldn’t come help us, he wasn’t practiced healing heroics on his Priest… eventually he wound up pulling in a pinch hitter for us on the last boss, and he sat the fight out while she healed. She and I were the only two to die in that final battle, and we finally got our pattern down. But it doesn’t change the fact that it took us 3 hours to get through what should’ve been a 1 hour dungeon, and part of me wonders if it’s my skill level that’s contributing to the problem. I wasn’t really on my game last night, I admit. Not like other nights.
Last weekend, we spent the day doing random regulars. And I was on the BALL that day. My DPS was high, my focus was good, every time we ran through Halls of Origination, I easily pulled off the “jump-pull lever-run from snakes-reenter fight” sequence on the first boss – something I usually get confused by and wind up running around down in the snake pit looking for the stairs – every single time without fail. I CC’d when my Frost Trap was needed, and I didn’t miss. I kept control over Hatari (who has now been joined by Nzuri, a white Hyena who I’ll probably talk about in a later blog), and I made sure I knew where he was at all times. I timed my shots and my Kill Commands perfectly. I was a damn good Hunter that day, and my low agility didn’t even seem to matter.
But last night, I was out of it. And it translated into the real world, even, when I managed to burn the pad of my right thumb badly when picking up a hot dish, after we’d finally finished the Heroic. I was struggling to stay where I should be on the DPS charts, I ran out of agility scrolls and had to fight that much harder – I lost nearly 400 DPS when I ran out of scrolls. And now I need to make more agility food, which means I have to go fishing in Uldum along the coast for Fathom Eels. I haven’t gotten around to that, yet.
To sum up, while I’ve taken the “Heroic Leap” (an actual Warrior ability, but I thought it was an appropriate title anyway), I worry that I may have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But only continuing to do it will I learn. Especially since, when I cap my engineering skill, I’m going to want those Chaos Orbs so I can make myself a better gun.
So, with more in front of me, I’m just going to keep trying. In the wise words of the Eleventh Doctor – GERONIMO!
But you’ve all heard me complain about that before. The point being that I’ve now gotten my iLevel up high enough that I can get into L85 Heroics, though PlayerScore says that the difficulty for me is “light,” I have other things to say. Heroics aren’t called heroics because they’re easy – they’re called heroics because it’s more than just item level or gear – it’s skill and teamwork that gets you through them. And now, having been along on the completion of Stonecore, Vortex Pinnacle, and now The Lost City of the Tol’vir, I have to say – I’m not entirely certain I have the skill level to be running Heroics yet.
The thing is, though – sometimes I’m damn good. It’s performing consistently that I have an issue with. If I eat my agility boost food, and use an agility scroll, I can pull DPS as high or higher than Nyx. But if I screw up, for even a few seconds – if I pull too much agro and have to run to the tank to avoid getting my little Draenai tail handed to me on a plate, or if I do what I did last night and accidentally pull a mob because my hand just happened to hit my “Target-FIRE” macro button while we were talking about the fight (thankfully that didn’t happen in a heroic, and it wasn’t a boss, but my point still stands) – then my DPS drops by more than half and I wind up doing so low that I spent the rest of the dungeon trying desperately to catch up to Nyx in overall DPS. Then I have the problem that my eyes are so much on the DPS meters that I forget the mechanics of the fights.
Now, last night, I actually don’t think it was specifically me that screwed up at any given time other than the ones I already mentioned – agro pulling and the one shot botch I somehow managed to do – but it still stands that… Well… The Lost City of the Tol’vir, on regular, takes a good group about 20 minutes to burn through. On Heroic, the average time to rip through a dungeon is doubled or tripled, because you can’t skip individual mobs in most places and so spend longer killing the trash on the way to the bosses. But last night – we were in Lost City for nearly 3 hours.
Given the normal ratio, it shouldn’t have taken us more than an hour at most to complete that dungeon – and that’s on the long side. We had a good group, all five of us knew what we were doing… and yet it still took 3 hours and a lot of character-shuffling on the part of our 3rd DPS as we tried to find a good fit for us. His Warrior pulled too much agro off the tank, his healing Pally was instance locked and couldn’t come help us, he wasn’t practiced healing heroics on his Priest… eventually he wound up pulling in a pinch hitter for us on the last boss, and he sat the fight out while she healed. She and I were the only two to die in that final battle, and we finally got our pattern down. But it doesn’t change the fact that it took us 3 hours to get through what should’ve been a 1 hour dungeon, and part of me wonders if it’s my skill level that’s contributing to the problem. I wasn’t really on my game last night, I admit. Not like other nights.
Last weekend, we spent the day doing random regulars. And I was on the BALL that day. My DPS was high, my focus was good, every time we ran through Halls of Origination, I easily pulled off the “jump-pull lever-run from snakes-reenter fight” sequence on the first boss – something I usually get confused by and wind up running around down in the snake pit looking for the stairs – every single time without fail. I CC’d when my Frost Trap was needed, and I didn’t miss. I kept control over Hatari (who has now been joined by Nzuri, a white Hyena who I’ll probably talk about in a later blog), and I made sure I knew where he was at all times. I timed my shots and my Kill Commands perfectly. I was a damn good Hunter that day, and my low agility didn’t even seem to matter.
But last night, I was out of it. And it translated into the real world, even, when I managed to burn the pad of my right thumb badly when picking up a hot dish, after we’d finally finished the Heroic. I was struggling to stay where I should be on the DPS charts, I ran out of agility scrolls and had to fight that much harder – I lost nearly 400 DPS when I ran out of scrolls. And now I need to make more agility food, which means I have to go fishing in Uldum along the coast for Fathom Eels. I haven’t gotten around to that, yet.
To sum up, while I’ve taken the “Heroic Leap” (an actual Warrior ability, but I thought it was an appropriate title anyway), I worry that I may have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. But only continuing to do it will I learn. Especially since, when I cap my engineering skill, I’m going to want those Chaos Orbs so I can make myself a better gun.
So, with more in front of me, I’m just going to keep trying. In the wise words of the Eleventh Doctor – GERONIMO!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Still Kicking...
With all my WoW blogs, you'd think I don't play anything else. But that's not true - I play many other games. WoW just tends to be the only thing in which anything interesting enough to blog about happens. However, that changed today.
I was playing Hunting Unlimited 2009, my usual "play me for five seconds to calm down" hunting game. I chose to go after a group of Bison. I'm very good at sniping and getting head shots on larger prey (bison and elephants, specifically), so I did that from a distance. I watched the bison I chose and shot stagger and fall.
However, watching it through my rifle scope as I prepared to mount my horse and head over to collect my trophy, when I noticed something strange. The downed bison's leg was still twitching.
Ok, so maybe that was a glitch. It was about 300 yards away. I figured it'd have stopped moving by the time I got over there. But no - it hadn't.
In fact, when I got up close to my trophy, I could see that it was quite literally not a glitch.
The bison was still alive.
It was on it's side, mouth opening and closing, trying to struggle to it's feet over and over, and it kept falling back down. I stared at it for a long moment. I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures in hunting games - never have I seen a virtual animal go DOWN and still be alive. Usually when they fall, they're dead.
I walked around the Bison and gave a close look at it. The bullet had entered the head behind one ear, and exited the other side in front of that ear, cutting cleanly through the brain.
But the Bison was still alive. Standing right next to it, the "claim" button wouldn't work, because the trophy was still... kicking.
I walked around in front of the bison, leveled my rifle at it's head, and the next time it fell back to the ground in it's struggle, I fired. Right between the eyes. And then, only then, did I get the "Head shot!" exclaimation, and the bison stopped moving.
I pulled it into my bag, then went out into my trophy room to get a look at it, and I took the following screenshot.
I was playing Hunting Unlimited 2009, my usual "play me for five seconds to calm down" hunting game. I chose to go after a group of Bison. I'm very good at sniping and getting head shots on larger prey (bison and elephants, specifically), so I did that from a distance. I watched the bison I chose and shot stagger and fall.
However, watching it through my rifle scope as I prepared to mount my horse and head over to collect my trophy, when I noticed something strange. The downed bison's leg was still twitching.
Ok, so maybe that was a glitch. It was about 300 yards away. I figured it'd have stopped moving by the time I got over there. But no - it hadn't.
In fact, when I got up close to my trophy, I could see that it was quite literally not a glitch.
The bison was still alive.
It was on it's side, mouth opening and closing, trying to struggle to it's feet over and over, and it kept falling back down. I stared at it for a long moment. I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of creatures in hunting games - never have I seen a virtual animal go DOWN and still be alive. Usually when they fall, they're dead.
I walked around the Bison and gave a close look at it. The bullet had entered the head behind one ear, and exited the other side in front of that ear, cutting cleanly through the brain.
But the Bison was still alive. Standing right next to it, the "claim" button wouldn't work, because the trophy was still... kicking.
I walked around in front of the bison, leveled my rifle at it's head, and the next time it fell back to the ground in it's struggle, I fired. Right between the eyes. And then, only then, did I get the "Head shot!" exclaimation, and the bison stopped moving.
I pulled it into my bag, then went out into my trophy room to get a look at it, and I took the following screenshot.
The bullet wound in the forehead is the kill shot. The wound on the side of the head is the initial bullet wound that felled but didn't kill the bison. The trophy itself isn't that impressive (I have much more impressive bison trophies), but I will NEVER let go of it for this reason.
I spent an hour or two after this trying to recreate the situation with other creatures as well, unsuccessfully. Near as I can tell, this was a one in a million shot, and I don't think it'll happen again... But that doesn't change that it was... kind of awesome.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Oh, THAT'S Why...
So Nyx and I did some comparison today after I once again had crappy DPS in a dungeon, and we finally, FINALLY figured out what is wrong with me- my global cooldown is MUCH longer than hers. If she called out the rotation and I followed, I would run out of focus, trying to keep up with her, despite the fact that my haste was more than hers. It makes me wonder how slow I'd be if my haste was as low as hers.
But the ultimate culprit? My agility sucks. And I mean horribly. It was 2k below Nyx's. No WONDER I couldn't get off the DPS she could. Working my rotation on a single target, I was doing really well... but in the dungeon there're these long moments when I'm just not firing because I'm out of focus or everything's on cool down. I could do burst damage and cap out high, but then my DPS would crash, and for a lot longer, it would be low while I waited for my cool downs to reset.
So I've started gemming and enchanting my gear for agility - we'll see how I do in a dungeon in another couple of days. I also made a note of gear I want to buy when I finish getting Exalted with the Cata factions.
So! Perhaps it isn't a skill issue at all - perhaps I do NOT suddenly suck at being a Hunter... I can't wait to see the DPS I'll do in BM as well once I get my agility up where it should be.
Endgame? Please. I'm just getting started. :D
But the ultimate culprit? My agility sucks. And I mean horribly. It was 2k below Nyx's. No WONDER I couldn't get off the DPS she could. Working my rotation on a single target, I was doing really well... but in the dungeon there're these long moments when I'm just not firing because I'm out of focus or everything's on cool down. I could do burst damage and cap out high, but then my DPS would crash, and for a lot longer, it would be low while I waited for my cool downs to reset.
So I've started gemming and enchanting my gear for agility - we'll see how I do in a dungeon in another couple of days. I also made a note of gear I want to buy when I finish getting Exalted with the Cata factions.
So! Perhaps it isn't a skill issue at all - perhaps I do NOT suddenly suck at being a Hunter... I can't wait to see the DPS I'll do in BM as well once I get my agility up where it should be.
Endgame? Please. I'm just getting started. :D
Monday, July 11, 2011
Ganked By An NPC
A warning for those who will read this who have NOT played through the Death Knight starter area, in Wrath Of The Lich King and beyond. Here, there be spoilers. Skip the block quoted part of the post to avoid them.
I've talked about Ionaria, my Troll Druid, and how she's the first Horde character I've ever had that I really liked. Well, now I have two. At Lona's suggestion, I decided to make a Death Knight on the same server, solely because they start at high level (55) and come out of their starting zone geared in blues for Outland, and I would be able to make some quick cash to help bankroll the server. The problem is, while I've made multiple Death Knights in the past, there's only one that I've ever felt like playing beyond the starting zone, and that's Reyune, my Worgen DK on Galakrond. And that's because I put so much thought into creating him and his design and personality and back story that I not only fell in love with him as a character, but he's the first WoW character that I've bonded.
Therein lies the problem, however - I didn't like the way any of the Horde races looked as DKs. The Worgen DK... well, he was a nightmare coming at you, twice cursed, huge fangs... I mean, what's more terrifying than a super-powered undead werewolf? Then Lona suggested I build a story for my Horde DK as well, so I'd enjoy playing her. And then she made the best suggestion I've ever heard - Why don't I build the DK as whatever class/race combo she would've been BEFORE being a DK, and then click the DK class button to convert that? Suddenly, creating her became SO much easier.
I built her as a Tauren Druid, and already a story was building up in my head. She was Exalted with Cenarion Circle, and one of their advance guard sent to replant and clear the Scourge's taint from the Plaguelands. However, in doing so, she was killed in battle and her body taken by the Scourge.
I clicked the "Death Knight" class button, and her whole life ended... and was reborn. Reborn as a DK, she was under the thrall of the Lich King, her connection to the Earthmother severed - that is, except for a tiny Cenarion Hippogryph Hatchling that followed her wherever she went - the hatchling baby of her mount that had been killed in the same battle where she lost her former life. (I went to the mail box that's a PITA to get to the moment I created her, pulled all my BOA pets out of it, and summoned the hatchling immediately when this part of the story came to me.)
If the Death Knight, Koratana, saw the hippogryph, she paid it no mind. Though in the story, it was constantly hiding. The Hippogryph mounts are incredibly intelligent, and being born of the Cenarion Circle itself, this one sought to reestablish Koratana's connection to the Earthmother. Slowly, the Lich King's voice quieted in her mind, and the more people she killed and hurt, the more some part of her began to cry out in desperation. So when she reached a certain quest and had to take the life of a certain NPC, that was all it took to all but snap the Lich King's hold over her mind.
Now we reach the part of the story where the player, IE, me, made a decision that the character wouldn't have made. And herein lies the spoilers.
So then, there I was, at the end of this "epic battle," when the mock cut-scene takes over and you get the last of the DK story, basically. However, the last NPC I'd been attacking remembered me for some reason. During the actual battle, you have a huge health regeneration buff on you, so even if you're being beaten on by five or six Elites, you actually have a fairly good chance of killing them before they kill you. But the moment the counter reaches the correct numbers and the battle ends, you lose that buff.
However, this particular NPC remained pissed at me. I walked over to kneel where I usually plant a DK character during this sequence... and the NPC leaped up out of where he'd been kneeling for his OWN part of the cut scene, came running over, and killed me with a single blow.
Huh, I thought. That's weird... I walked back to my body, rezzed... and he immediately jumped up, charged me, and killed me again. I blinked. I tried rezzing from further away this time - and he still came running up and ganked* me. It was as if I was in PVP and had annoyed another player to the point that they were corpse-camping* me and taking every opportunity to kill me. I realized by the 3rd time that I was caught in some sort of glitch, because there was no way that this was supposed to happen.
The person you turn the quest that all of this is a part of was standing right next to my nemesis when the cut scene was over. It took four more deaths before I could turn the quest IN, and get sent back to Ebon Hold to finish out the zone. Normally, I would have simply used my Death Gate spell to return there, however the NPC still had aggro on me, and the DG spell is a lot like a Hearthstone or mounting - you can't do it if you're considered by the game to be "in combat." And because of one NPC who apparently was holding a grudge against me, I couldn't do any of those things. So I went with the time-honored tradition I practice regularly on my main (which has lead me to get the strange compliment recently of being "really good at surviving") - I ran away.
But the NPC kept chasing me, and even when he STOPPED chasing me, I was still under constant aggro warning. So I couldn't mount, I had no speed boost, and it was a damn long way back to the Scourge Gryphons, if they were even still THERE given that I'd phased out of the zone at that point. So I did the only thing I could do - I kept running.
In case you're wondering - no, this was not part of my character's story. She witnessed the events the way a DK is supposed to, then Death Gated on to her next quest after reuniting with the hippogryph hatchling, who finally came out of hiding when she was free of the Lich King's taint. She still cannot channel her former Druid abilities, and never will again - something she is in emotional agony over at the moment... but the little hatchling is a reminder that the Earthmother is still there, even if she can no longer feel her, and Koratana is determined to find a way to feel nature again, the way she should as a Tauren and a trained Druid - she refuses to be nothing but a blind instrument of death, no matter what happens to her. I plan on her story to include befriending Ionaria (who I had to log into to send her 10 gold by the end of all the times the NPC killed me, by the way - she'd racked up that high of a repair bill, and definitely didn't have that on her - I pity anyone who has this glitch where a DK is their only character on the server), and slowly learning how to reconnect to life and nature, despite her Death Knight status. She will become exalted with the Cenarion Circle again, and will ride a Hippogryph - at which point the hatchling following her will have grown up, and have a hatchling of it's own.
Ultimately, it was a fun and interesting situation and now I have another DK that I enjoy playing and who's story I enjoy greatly. I haven't bonded her... yet. I say yet, because I spent last night dreaming about Taurens and things that I think were her living-world past. Either that's a bond in formation... or just the writer in me filling in the gaps. I'll know which depending on if she starts commenting on things in the next few days. :P
I've talked about Ionaria, my Troll Druid, and how she's the first Horde character I've ever had that I really liked. Well, now I have two. At Lona's suggestion, I decided to make a Death Knight on the same server, solely because they start at high level (55) and come out of their starting zone geared in blues for Outland, and I would be able to make some quick cash to help bankroll the server. The problem is, while I've made multiple Death Knights in the past, there's only one that I've ever felt like playing beyond the starting zone, and that's Reyune, my Worgen DK on Galakrond. And that's because I put so much thought into creating him and his design and personality and back story that I not only fell in love with him as a character, but he's the first WoW character that I've bonded.
Therein lies the problem, however - I didn't like the way any of the Horde races looked as DKs. The Worgen DK... well, he was a nightmare coming at you, twice cursed, huge fangs... I mean, what's more terrifying than a super-powered undead werewolf? Then Lona suggested I build a story for my Horde DK as well, so I'd enjoy playing her. And then she made the best suggestion I've ever heard - Why don't I build the DK as whatever class/race combo she would've been BEFORE being a DK, and then click the DK class button to convert that? Suddenly, creating her became SO much easier.
I built her as a Tauren Druid, and already a story was building up in my head. She was Exalted with Cenarion Circle, and one of their advance guard sent to replant and clear the Scourge's taint from the Plaguelands. However, in doing so, she was killed in battle and her body taken by the Scourge.
I clicked the "Death Knight" class button, and her whole life ended... and was reborn. Reborn as a DK, she was under the thrall of the Lich King, her connection to the Earthmother severed - that is, except for a tiny Cenarion Hippogryph Hatchling that followed her wherever she went - the hatchling baby of her mount that had been killed in the same battle where she lost her former life. (I went to the mail box that's a PITA to get to the moment I created her, pulled all my BOA pets out of it, and summoned the hatchling immediately when this part of the story came to me.)
If the Death Knight, Koratana, saw the hippogryph, she paid it no mind. Though in the story, it was constantly hiding. The Hippogryph mounts are incredibly intelligent, and being born of the Cenarion Circle itself, this one sought to reestablish Koratana's connection to the Earthmother. Slowly, the Lich King's voice quieted in her mind, and the more people she killed and hurt, the more some part of her began to cry out in desperation. So when she reached a certain quest and had to take the life of a certain NPC, that was all it took to all but snap the Lich King's hold over her mind.
Now we reach the part of the story where the player, IE, me, made a decision that the character wouldn't have made. And herein lies the spoilers.
During the battle for Light's Hope Chapel, I normally do what my conflicted character would do - I hide. Nothing the player does can make the battle go any faster - it's dictated by numbers and the NPCs massacring each other is more than enough to cause what is going to happen to happen. And as all DKs are in the part of their progression where they're shaking off the Lich King's control and remembering the heroes they once were, it isn't a hard jump to imagine that the DK "Champion" of the Scourge would get as far out of the battle as they can and hide while the last vestiges of the Lich King's control over their minds is shattered by the Light itself.
This being said, I normally hide in Light's Hope Chapel during this part of the storyline. But this time, I decided to participate in the battle. So I followed one of the Scourge Highlords around and attacking anything he attacked.
So then, there I was, at the end of this "epic battle," when the mock cut-scene takes over and you get the last of the DK story, basically. However, the last NPC I'd been attacking remembered me for some reason. During the actual battle, you have a huge health regeneration buff on you, so even if you're being beaten on by five or six Elites, you actually have a fairly good chance of killing them before they kill you. But the moment the counter reaches the correct numbers and the battle ends, you lose that buff.
However, this particular NPC remained pissed at me. I walked over to kneel where I usually plant a DK character during this sequence... and the NPC leaped up out of where he'd been kneeling for his OWN part of the cut scene, came running over, and killed me with a single blow.
Huh, I thought. That's weird... I walked back to my body, rezzed... and he immediately jumped up, charged me, and killed me again. I blinked. I tried rezzing from further away this time - and he still came running up and ganked* me. It was as if I was in PVP and had annoyed another player to the point that they were corpse-camping* me and taking every opportunity to kill me. I realized by the 3rd time that I was caught in some sort of glitch, because there was no way that this was supposed to happen.
The person you turn the quest that all of this is a part of was standing right next to my nemesis when the cut scene was over. It took four more deaths before I could turn the quest IN, and get sent back to Ebon Hold to finish out the zone. Normally, I would have simply used my Death Gate spell to return there, however the NPC still had aggro on me, and the DG spell is a lot like a Hearthstone or mounting - you can't do it if you're considered by the game to be "in combat." And because of one NPC who apparently was holding a grudge against me, I couldn't do any of those things. So I went with the time-honored tradition I practice regularly on my main (which has lead me to get the strange compliment recently of being "really good at surviving") - I ran away.
But the NPC kept chasing me, and even when he STOPPED chasing me, I was still under constant aggro warning. So I couldn't mount, I had no speed boost, and it was a damn long way back to the Scourge Gryphons, if they were even still THERE given that I'd phased out of the zone at that point. So I did the only thing I could do - I kept running.
In case you're wondering - no, this was not part of my character's story. She witnessed the events the way a DK is supposed to, then Death Gated on to her next quest after reuniting with the hippogryph hatchling, who finally came out of hiding when she was free of the Lich King's taint. She still cannot channel her former Druid abilities, and never will again - something she is in emotional agony over at the moment... but the little hatchling is a reminder that the Earthmother is still there, even if she can no longer feel her, and Koratana is determined to find a way to feel nature again, the way she should as a Tauren and a trained Druid - she refuses to be nothing but a blind instrument of death, no matter what happens to her. I plan on her story to include befriending Ionaria (who I had to log into to send her 10 gold by the end of all the times the NPC killed me, by the way - she'd racked up that high of a repair bill, and definitely didn't have that on her - I pity anyone who has this glitch where a DK is their only character on the server), and slowly learning how to reconnect to life and nature, despite her Death Knight status. She will become exalted with the Cenarion Circle again, and will ride a Hippogryph - at which point the hatchling following her will have grown up, and have a hatchling of it's own.
Ultimately, it was a fun and interesting situation and now I have another DK that I enjoy playing and who's story I enjoy greatly. I haven't bonded her... yet. I say yet, because I spent last night dreaming about Taurens and things that I think were her living-world past. Either that's a bond in formation... or just the writer in me filling in the gaps. I'll know which depending on if she starts commenting on things in the next few days. :P
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Massacre - A DK Tanking Experience
Reyune is my 3rd Death Knight. On the same server. Yes, I know, you can only have one per server. :P The other two have been deleted. One without ever even getting out of the starting zone. But Reyune is different. He's a Worgen, and... He's awesome. I love his facial customization, I love his attitude... I really love him. I built him carefully, using a dual spec of Blood and Unholy, so he would be capable of tanking should I get up the nerve to do it. But, until last night, I hadn't tanked at all as anything other than a Druid.
Then, again, my fiance nudged me. :P She had a healer who was right at Rey's level range, and she's working on leveling her currently. So she asked me to tank for her. I was freaking out at first, but she urged me. She's been tanking on a DK at that level for awhile, so she gave me some quick pointers, we partied, and we queued.
I freaked out at first, but... No one died. And when I did die, it wasn't my fault, it was actually that Lona hadn't healed in awhile and she had some issues. Another time it was because she got silenced by a mob, but we actually never completely wiped. I was thrilled.
She then pointed out that she was a couple of levels above me, and I should probably do a little catching up before we continue, and get used to other healers so I wouldn't be afraid to play the character without her. I agreed, we disbanded the party, and I queued solo.
I did just as well with the other healers! And, over the course of the night and several dungeons, I had a Hunter and a Warlock who insisted on pulling around me. And a Rogue that stealthed ahead of me and pulled - and I kept working well. I got stuff off of them, I held aggro, I Death Gripped things when they got too far away... I was GOOD.
I can now Tank as a DK and as a Druid... I'm actually impressed with me. 0.o Warrior's my next learning curve, but I want to get my DK to L85, and my Druid to L60, as well. I have a lot of goals. It's exciting. :)
Then, again, my fiance nudged me. :P She had a healer who was right at Rey's level range, and she's working on leveling her currently. So she asked me to tank for her. I was freaking out at first, but she urged me. She's been tanking on a DK at that level for awhile, so she gave me some quick pointers, we partied, and we queued.
I freaked out at first, but... No one died. And when I did die, it wasn't my fault, it was actually that Lona hadn't healed in awhile and she had some issues. Another time it was because she got silenced by a mob, but we actually never completely wiped. I was thrilled.
She then pointed out that she was a couple of levels above me, and I should probably do a little catching up before we continue, and get used to other healers so I wouldn't be afraid to play the character without her. I agreed, we disbanded the party, and I queued solo.
I did just as well with the other healers! And, over the course of the night and several dungeons, I had a Hunter and a Warlock who insisted on pulling around me. And a Rogue that stealthed ahead of me and pulled - and I kept working well. I got stuff off of them, I held aggro, I Death Gripped things when they got too far away... I was GOOD.
I can now Tank as a DK and as a Druid... I'm actually impressed with me. 0.o Warrior's my next learning curve, but I want to get my DK to L85, and my Druid to L60, as well. I have a lot of goals. It's exciting. :)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Flame Warden Destylae
Last year, when Des was only around level 50 or so, the Midsummer Fire Festival hit. I saw the Honor The Flames achievements and thought, "That's what I want. I can use these to help me get Des closer to the Explorer title!" And so, I set out on an epic journey.
I died. A lot. Running through high level areas - nowhere was harder than Outland, though. I was ten levels below where I should've been to be running around out there, and the Path Of Glory was my death SO many times.... But then I'd done it. I had all three achievements complete... Though I hadn't Desecrated any of the Horde's flames. I felt quite accomplished.
This year, as I'm now 85 and actively working toward the What A Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement, the Midsummer Fire Festival was the next achievement and title in line for me. Remembering the hell it had been to do all that traveling last year, I wasn't really looking forward to this. This festival contained a Holiday Boss, something I'd never been able to participate in before, as well as a hell of a lot of traveling AND deliberate assaults upon the opposing Faction's main cities. I expected this to take the full 2 weeks of the festival, honestly.
Imagine my shock when I came out of my first day doing the Festival with the title of Flame Warden... as well as the title of Assistant Professor, as during my wanderings to honor and desecrate the fires of the world, I also found a rare archaeology item and earned THAT title. As well as the ability to, ah... encase myself in amber for five minutes at a time, for no reason other than that it's amusing.
So yeah, as my fiance put it - this is the easiest Holiday ever. :P Another step down on the path to What A Long Strange Trip... and all the more to show for it!
On another note, I noticed something that I feel is awesome, as a Hunter, when the latest patch dropped. Now, when I mount on a ground mount, my pet doesn't despawn - he stays and runs beside me! This is something that existed in Vanilla WoW that I'd wished they'd bring back, but didn't see a way to in these days of all-world flying... However, they did! The moment you jump on a flying mount and take to the air, it acts as it always did, with your pet despawning and respawning when you dismount. But for ground mounts? Hatari never leaves my side now.
It's an encouragement, to me, at least, to take the slow path of the ground more often. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing him at my side. :)
I died. A lot. Running through high level areas - nowhere was harder than Outland, though. I was ten levels below where I should've been to be running around out there, and the Path Of Glory was my death SO many times.... But then I'd done it. I had all three achievements complete... Though I hadn't Desecrated any of the Horde's flames. I felt quite accomplished.
This year, as I'm now 85 and actively working toward the What A Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement, the Midsummer Fire Festival was the next achievement and title in line for me. Remembering the hell it had been to do all that traveling last year, I wasn't really looking forward to this. This festival contained a Holiday Boss, something I'd never been able to participate in before, as well as a hell of a lot of traveling AND deliberate assaults upon the opposing Faction's main cities. I expected this to take the full 2 weeks of the festival, honestly.
Imagine my shock when I came out of my first day doing the Festival with the title of Flame Warden... as well as the title of Assistant Professor, as during my wanderings to honor and desecrate the fires of the world, I also found a rare archaeology item and earned THAT title. As well as the ability to, ah... encase myself in amber for five minutes at a time, for no reason other than that it's amusing.
So yeah, as my fiance put it - this is the easiest Holiday ever. :P Another step down on the path to What A Long Strange Trip... and all the more to show for it!
On another note, I noticed something that I feel is awesome, as a Hunter, when the latest patch dropped. Now, when I mount on a ground mount, my pet doesn't despawn - he stays and runs beside me! This is something that existed in Vanilla WoW that I'd wished they'd bring back, but didn't see a way to in these days of all-world flying... However, they did! The moment you jump on a flying mount and take to the air, it acts as it always did, with your pet despawning and respawning when you dismount. But for ground mounts? Hatari never leaves my side now.
It's an encouragement, to me, at least, to take the slow path of the ground more often. I don't think I'll ever tire of seeing him at my side. :)
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