Friday (10 Dec) - Back in Action

Friday (10 Dec) - Back in Action

Wild was back on the grinding trail Friday night. It's funny how we now have more guildies in game every night than we ever have, and yet guild chat is much quieter than usual. I think we are all just focused on grinding our way to 85 and there is little time for chatting in between quests.

We have about a half dozen level 85s now and a growing number of level 84s. Wild made level 83 Friday night, but just barely, wrapping up just before midnight. Wild ran out of quests twice in Mount Hyjal. There are still plenty of quests there, but Wild couldn't find them and decided to move on to Deepholm (rated for levels 82-83).

Wild had a tougher time against the mobs in Deepholm despite being level 82 at the time. There were a lot of elemental mobs who could stun, absorb damage, and were immune to some of Wild's spell casting. They also hit a lot harder. The grinding got a little longer, but the quests were still interesting and definitely challenging.

The most fun series of quests brought back jousting - with a twist. Wild was directed to a stalactite and stalagmite filled underground cave bursting with lava pools and falling rocks. Wild was given a lance (the same type of lance used in ToC) and a flying mount. There was one difference with this mount than with other flying mounts. This mount only flew when it's wings were flapped. Yep, there was a mount button labeled "Flap" and repeatedly hitting that button made the mount fly. There were some practice quests which Wild managed to muddle through. Wild is bad enough at jousting as it is, and adding a "Flap" requirement just made it worse. But I have to admit it was fun. Eventually Wild got to chase flying birds around the cave, trying to stick them with the lance. Then the quests got harder as Wild had to joust the birds while avoiding burning rocks and lava falls. The big test was to fly from one outcropping to the next, collecting bird eggs - forty of them. There was one other player also on that quest, so we had a competition on getting those eggs. The burning rocks and lava falls were still coming, so it was pretty challenging. Stopping the dang bird was one of the more difficult maneuvers to make - I lost count of the number of times Wild skittered right off a rock full of eggs because I couldn't get the thing stopped in time. Don't forget to flap, either, or the bird mount will start falling out of control.

Wild had collected a good number of eggs, but was very low on health. Wild stopped on a convenient rock and jumped off the mount so I could heal. That was a mistake. My mount flew off, leaving Wild stranded. The quest giver was on another rock far above Wild. Wild tried to find a way out, but there didn't seem to be any way without flying. And no, neither Wild's own mount or his flying form worked. Wild finally drowned himself in the lava, figuring I could get back as a ghost. While returning as a ghost Wild discovered the ground floor npc who would provide a new mount just for this situation.

The quest chain grants an Achievement, too, and quite a bit of experience. It was worth carting out Wild's rusty jousting skills to get that done.

In another quest Wild got to chase frightened bunnies and squirrels to save them from wildfires. If you've ever seen grown men trying to catch a greased pig you kind of get the idea what that was like. Even more fun was climbing trees to rescue bear pups. Not only did Wild have to climb trees to get to them, he had to toss the bear pups down to a trampoline on the ground. I really get a kick out of quests like these.

In Deepholm the alliance and horde have to work together in the shared battle against Deathwing and it's minions. That doesn't always work so well, as Wild found out when he was dispatched to a flying ship where the two factions had come to blows against each other and Deathwing assassins had managed to get onboard.

That was how Wild ended up helping an npc alliance dwarf (with a distinctly Irish accent) interrogate an ogre who was working for the Twilight Council on the side of Deathwing. The dwarf threatened to drop the ogre into the ship's propellers if he didn't talk. The exchange of threats and pleas between the dwarf and ogre were pretty funny, including one line where the ogre, near his limit, growled in frustration and fear, "Stop it, you tiny angry woman!"

Wild had some luck with gear, as well. Fourteen pieces this time, although just two that looked promising. What made those two drops a little extra special is that one was a necklace, and the other was a pair of bracers. Well, what a coincidence. Those are the two remaining slots where Wild was wearing less than i264 gear. There was i251 gear in those slots. The Cata gear turned out to be nice upgrades for Wild that overcame the loss of +spi I'd reported yesterday. The two pieces are:

[Calcified Gizzard] which is the necklace, a green i272

[Burning Bind Bracers] a green i289

You know, even knowing what was going to happen with gear and stats in Cata, the numbers really boggle the mind. You have to see the numbers to get it. I track ten stats associated with Wild's healing. I'm just going to talk about four: Health, Mana, spell power, and in combat mana regen. The others are important, too, but these are the guts that keep Wild alive and kicking things.

Wild's pre-Cata/Pre 4.0 patch gear was about as good as it could be short of Heroic ICC. Wild was proud of that gear set.

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388

When Patch 4.0 came out, our "base" stats were adjusted for the coming Cata expansion. Wild's gear remained exactly the same, but this is what happened to the numbers:

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388
Pst-4.0: Health: 31,987 | Mana: 42,804 | SP: 3,449 | Regen: 593

With 4.0 also came some new ways to adjust the gear using Reforging, and players were granted a bonus if they used 100% gear of the appropriate type. In Wild's case that was leather. Wild took advantage of those and here is how that affected the stats:

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388
Pst-4.0: Health: 31,987 | Mana: 42,804 | SP: 3,449 | Regen: 593
Adjustd: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,201 | SP: 3,523 | Regen: 598

Well, pre-Cata those would be big improvements. Compared to the 4.0 jumps, though, these were more like tweaking. Wild made some more gem, enchant, and gear changes that put him at his best ever stats prior to Cata:

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388
Pst-4.0: Health: 31,987 | Mana: 42,804 | SP: 3,449 | Regen: 593
Adjustd: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,201 | SP: 3,523 | Regen: 598
PreCata: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,546 | SP: 3,543 | Regen: 600

And then there was Cata. I'm putting two sets of stats up. The first is the baseline - Wild's gear remained the same, the only difference was the Cata release. The second set of stats further below is what Wild's current stats are now, including the four pieces of Cata gear Wild is now wearing.

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388
Pst-4.0: Health: 31,987 | Mana: 42,804 | SP: 3,449 | Regen: 593
Adjustd: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,201 | SP: 3,523 | Regen: 598
PreCata: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,546 | SP: 3,543 | Regen: 600
Catabse: Health: 43,370 | Mana: 42,158 | SP: 3,549 | Regen: 769

Yet another big spike in the numbers! Finally, below are the improvements Wild has made with his gear and his leveling (83) since the release:

Pre-4.0: Health: 20,977 | Mana: 24,516 | SP: 3,220 | Regen: 388
Pst-4.0: Health: 31,987 | Mana: 42,804 | SP: 3,449 | Regen: 593
Adjustd: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,201 | SP: 3,523 | Regen: 598
PreCata: Health: 32,037 | Mana: 44,546 | SP: 3,543 | Regen: 600
Catabse: Health: 43,370 | Mana: 42,158 | SP: 3,549 | Regen: 769
Current: Health: 52,758 | Mana: 47,272 | SP: 3,688 | Regen: 881

If you look at pre-4.0, and then at what Wild has now, you can now see how mind boggling these stats are. Pre-4.0, a druid with over 52,000 health was a tank. A druid tank now probably needs over 100k health to survive Cata bosses.

Note: I will be out of town 12-17 Dec. We're taking the RV to Monterey. Back before Christmas!