Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Last Thursday (24 May) - The Diablo Auction House

Last Thursday (24 May) - The Diablo Auction House

At the end of Act IV we get to battle Diablo himself, after proving ourselves against a number of lesser elites. At level 32 and with the best gear BW could scrounge up from drops off of kills, Barbedwire tested himself against the great One. Diablo cheated. BW didn't just fight Diablo, but several other elites that would step in and take Diablo's place whenever BW seemed to be getting the upper hand. BW had the power to bring down both Diablo and his minions, but not the health. Despite using all his tricks to stay alive, BW was eventually beaten down and defeated. He tried twice.

BW could have continued to take more shots at Diablo, and probably would have eventually managed to take him out, mostly by getting lucky with health pot drops. BW wanted something more decisive than that. BW went back to farming gear and experience. He eventually raised his level to 33, but did little to improve his gear. After the first clear of an area, the game gets very stingy with additional loot. I think that is a failure in the game, myself, as I was prepared to spend the extra time working to improve the gear.

It was suggested that I try the Auction House. One look at what was being sold caused BW's jaw to drop in shock. Before the AH, BW thought he'd made an awesome weapon improvement when he jumped from a 2-hand 39 DPS weapon to a one-hand 44 DPS weapon. BW's first buy off the AH was a new one-hand. He spent 5,000 gold (BW has over 100,000 gold) for a dagger that does 70 DPS, nearly double what BW was currently using. OMFG. There were a couple more buys for other gear slots, specifically to get a stat called Life Steal. That stat is a barbarian's best friend, BW would soon learn, because every bit of damage done to the bad guys gives health back to BW. Suddenly, BW had a crushing weapon to wield and his health issues nearly evaporated with all of the life stealing.

I sent BW back to the beginning of Act IV and had him run the whole Act all over a second time. It was awesome! Nothing could stand in his way. BW earned level 34.

And soon enough, it was time to face Diablo once again. This time, it was Diablo who was quaking. It was a great battle, but the outcome was never in any serious doubt. Diablo fell.

With that came the words: Congratulations, you have completed Diablo 3! More challenges still await you.

Those "more challenges' is an invitation to play the exact same game again, from beginning to end, only against a higher level of competition against tougher foes. BW completed D3 in Normal difficulty. The next level is called Nightmare. And there are two more higher levels after that.

In addition to the new difficulty level, I still have level 13 demon hunter, Ratatatat. There haven't been many opportunities to run as a group, which is what Rat was created for, but hopefully our team will get together again soon.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Wednesday (23 May) - Riding out the String

Wednesday (23 May) - Riding out the String

Wildshard and JB have been taking it easy for a number of days now and are pretty much ok about that. Happy was running our of herb bags, though, and on Tuesday managed to rouse JB long enough for her to gather up some mats and send them over to Wild. Wild waited until after his siesta to check in. While in game he checked on the status of guild raiding. There were few guildies about, none of whom were in any of the guild raids. Wild learned a few things just poking around on the raid calendar, though. By the way, Wild never did get any responses to his guild website post letting folks know Wild's non-raiding status.

All three of the guild raids remain active, but there have been some changes. The weekend G3 continues to refer to themselves as "still forming" but Sb is determined to make it work. Wild helped out a couple of times before his temporary retirement, but we spent almost as much time trying to fill the raid as we did on bosses. The G1 appears to have lost their raid leader. Can't tell if the change is temporary or permanent, but the RG2 raid leader, Bd, is leading the G1 raid this week. G1 is apparently undergoing some rebuilding as well. Lady Hunter is running RG2 this week. None of the raids have more than a handful signed up.

JB participated in her last guild raid on 14-15 April with G3. Wild's last guild raid was on 18 April with RG2. It was on 10 May that Wild officially informed the guild that Wild was "greatly reducing" his WoW time and would not be actively raiding.

In the opening sentence I mentioned a "number of days" away from raiding. The actual count for Wild is now 34 days. And counting . . .

As for BW, he has reached level 30 and killed the spider woman and Azmodan. There are some interesting developments at that stage, but I won't spill the beans. Jewel crafting may actually be a useful thing to train up in. For example, the skill can be used to craft Flawless type gems. One such gem, socketed in a weapon, adds 20-30 damage. BW ratcheted up his rare one-hand from 39 to 44 damage and I don't even have a flawless gem yet. Sockets are the way to go, and lower end gems are used by the jewel crafter to make higher end gems.

Barbedwire Update: BW has pushed forward to level 32 and has cleared Act IV. Well, almost. Everything is done except for that last task. Silver knows what that is, as I saw that her toon has reached at least level 50 (level 60 being the max level). BW failed in two attempts to finish Act IV. I could have kept throwing BW into the ring and eventually the odds would grant me a win, but I decided instead to do a little farming and try to earn some additional gear to make the fight a little less dependant on health pots. I've been using a heavy +strength build for faster killing, but I felt it was time to start upping BW's health for the tougher battles to come. BW was already starting to die more than I wanted, so it was probably past time to change up the stats. Those mobs with the big, thunderous slams were taking big chunks out of BW, and he was having trouble living through stuns/freezes that have been more and more of a problem.

I've also decided to give the Enchantress follower a chance to prove herself. I thought I would have to level her up, like I did Templar, but apparently they level up even when they aren't played. I wish I had noticed that. Anyone playing Diablo should upgrade the gear of all three followers as you advance. I was only interested in the templar, and let a lot of gear go by that the other followers could have been using.

That hurt the Enchantress. I didn't keep any of the staffs that dropped, so "Tress" (BW's name for her) will be weak in that area until one drops for her. The reason for trying her out is that she has some interesting group attack and defense skills that could be helpful. BW needs extra help staying alive. Her much lower armor, though, could mean she'll die a lot more, which of course won't help BW. We'll see.

Update #2: BW took Tress out for spin, redoing some of the dungeons that lead up to the final battle of act IV. Tress did well. I like the abilities she adds. The only problem is that she often Fears mobs that BW is actively trying to kill, forcing BW to change targets or, more often, chase down that fleeing elite I almost had killed.

Frankly, banging through old dungeons was a lot of work with not much gain. BW made it to level 33 and almost halfway to 34. The gear drops have gotten really pathetic, though. Not a single rare dropped, and three out of every four drop were useless gear for witch doctors, wizards, and monks. I'd like to finish Normal before moving up to a higher difficulty, but maybe BW should go pound in the next higher difficulty level and then drop back to finish normal.

Well, better get this posted or I'll just keeping adding things ... 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Tuesday (21 May) - Gathering a Group

Tuesday (21 May) - Gathering a Group

Ratatatat is my demon hunter. On Monday night she and two friends, playing a monk (Silver) and a mage (DB), got together as a group. Our levels ranged from 7 to 10 I believe, which meant that we were not all at the same spot in the storyline. That wasn't a problem, though. Diablo manages to keep everything moving forward, tracking our different positions in progression while still allowing us to play as a group. "Rat" soloed up to level 10 before joining the group. She does not have many abilities, yet, but she does have a pretty devastating crossbow that can be fired at machine gun speed. Imagine the 1930s tommy gun era. The only difference is that in Diablo Rat quickly runs out of ammunition (unlike the movies). Rat generally uses single shot mode for normal mobs; short, rapid sprays for when the number of mobs gets too stifling; and long, murderous bursts against the nastier foes.

Group work is a lot of fun, and goes very fast. We raced through field and dungeon wrecking havoc at every turn. Initially Rat was battling through areas she had already been through solo. Later, when Rat teamed with just DB, she got to see areas she had not yet visited. How that affects her solo play I'm not sure, but then I don't intend to play her solo very much. For solo play I have Barbedwire. Another benefit of group play is that players can trade gear. Rat nearly doubled her damage rating when DB won a rare crossbow and passed it to Rat to use. Wow, could she really blow things away with that!

In addition to that powered up crossbow, Rat does have a couple of defensive moves to stay out of trouble. Her favorite is the tumble, which is a very fast move that she uses to rocket herself out of immediate danger. During boss fights with the group she typically will empty her magazine on the boss right at the start, which attracts a lot of attention from the boss. If it actually succeeds in reaching her, she tumbles away and lets her ammo replenish while single shotting mobs (bosses are always surrounded by piles and piles of mobs). The others in the group are also attacking, of course, but if the boss isn't already down when her ammo loads up she can usually finish it with another long burst.




Ratatatat Level 1

Rat at Level 13

BW, meanwhile, continues to progress, but the going has gotten slower. As with WoW, each new level takes longer to complete than the one before. The gear upgrades come a lot slower, as well. However, BW did retrieve a new weapon that sent him back to blade and shield instead of a two-hander. BW found a very rare single hand weapon with a damage rating that was higher than the two-hander he was using. BW is now wielding that blade and has his big shield back. BW will likely be trading back and forth single and two hand weapons, depending on what combination delivers the most damage.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Monday (21 May) - Pacing Myself

Monday (21 May) - Pacing Myself

The obvious eventually occurred to me over the weekend in Diablo. That first flush of excitement has worn off. No matter how large the pile of carcasses BW stacks up, there is always another dungeon and more mobs to kill. There is a plot line, of sorts, and for those who want to talk to each and every npc encountered, it's probably an interesting story. The gist, though, is that whether you know the story or not, the game is a series of dungeons full of mobs to kill. Every now and then we have to kill a particularly bad-ass one, and then back to more dungeons and more mobs.

I'm not getting bored, necessarily. The goal now is to reach the finish line. Which, when I think back on it, is pretty much how all of these single player games go. I suspect that even in multi-player it's much the same goal, only we can do it with friends. It's still nice to get new gear, but BW has to empty his bag many times now before seeing a new piece he could use.

For awhile I was saving gear that would be useful when I started up another character. The "Stash" where I can store gear is a common stash that all my characters can use. So, if barbarian BW gets demon hunter gear, for example, he can put it in the stash. Then, if I had a demon hunter, he could use that gear. Now, though, that doesn't seem necessary. Gear drops so routinely that saving anything but the rarest gear seems pointless. BW generally sells every magic item he doesn't need, and just throws away the junk that isn't magic. There are some npc craftsmen - there's a blacksmith and a jewel crafter so far. I spent considerable gold leveling the blacksmith and made three pieces of gear at additional cost. That gear was replaced so quickly it was next to useless, as BW quickly acquired gear far better than anything the blacksmith could make. I haven't decided yet whether to bother with the jewel crafter or not. The gems for sockets are nice, but I'm already seeing better and better quality gems, so it may not be worth it.

Meanwhile, BW continues to bash his way through the dungeons. Since BW is so attuned to staying alive, he has always gone with a single-handed weapon and a shield. Even when some pretty nice two-handed weapons started showing up, BW stubbornly stayed with his shield. I couldn't blame him - shields offer huge protection. However, when a very rare two-handed weapon dropped that had a socket (for additional stats) and a damage rating a full third better than his single-handed weapon, that shield went into his bags.

It was awesome how much faster mobs started going down. BW has to be more on his toes, always on the lookout for a free health bulb, and retreating quickly when things aren't going his way. BW also began trying out some of the newer abilities the game kept tempting him with, and a couple of those became a staple of BW's attack. Under the right circumstances entire rooms full of mobs now go down is seconds!

As of Sunday morning Barbedwire is now well into Act III and had reached level 27. I'm not really sure where the finish line is, but that remains my goal.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Thursday (17 May) - Diablo 3 Act I and More

Thursday (17 May) - Diablo 3 Act I and More

Note: My somewhat obsessive focus on Diablo 3 has outpaced all my attempts to write about it. So, the below is a somewhat rambling account of my progress prior to the weekend. I did have to slow down over the weekend because I wasn't home much on Saturday and will be away much of Sunday, as well. So, hopefully, I'll get caught up early next week. Here goes . . .

Diablo 3 really brings back memories of those old single player games. It was just me against the computer, and I played a lot of them. Diablo 1 and 2 were my favorites. A close second was Dungeon Siege I and II. Of course I played all three single player Warcraft games and completed the first Starcraft game, too. When I was in between releases of my favorites, I grabbed other games: Sacred, Beyond Divinity, Harbinger, Syberia, Throne of Darkness, and others. I still have all of those games, and they probably even still play on my XP computer.

Diablo 3 takes advantage of all the things Blizzard learned when they created World of Warcraft, while still giving the game the very same feel of the earlier Diablo games. I was stunned when I learned that the game still used Checkpoints instead of letting players save the game at whatever point we want. During actual game play, though, it really hasn't been a factor or even a minor irritant. There are a lot of checkpoints, so even in the worst case you don't lose too much if you quit the game in between checkpoints. My worst moment was when Blizzard shut down for maintenance. I was off in my own world and didn't know about it until I was booted out of the game. Even then, the game remembered everything right up to that second. The only thing that seems to be affected is exploring and clearing areas. Several times I would return to an area I had explored, only to find I had to go do it all over again.

Getting around in Diablo 3 is a lot easier than with the earlier games, too. Waypoints allow travelers to teleport to every major spot in the game, and single purpose waypoints are also used to move between areas, such as when following a quest chain. For example, when exploring a dungeon with two levels, players must pass through a portal to go back and forth between levels. The handiest feature in the game (which I can't recall whether earlier games had it or not) is that once players reach a certain level (like level 5 or something low like that) we get our own personal portal between our home town and where were are currently. That makes it really easy to portal to town, clear the junk in our bags, and then portal back right where we were. It's more convenient than even WoW's portal process.

When I started playing these games, a lot of those conveniences didn't exist. If you were killed, depending on the game, it could be a real pain. Imagine working and working to clear through a long chain of monsters, and then die right before the end with the game putting you back at the beginning to do it all over again. Maybe in part because of that, I really, really hate dying. It took several years playing WoW before dying was just another facet of the game. Just rez and go on.

With Diablo, I've fallen back into my barbarian opinion that dying is for wimps. Barbedwire's gear and ability decisions mirror that opinion. BW is heavily armored. He wears quite a bit of armor that adds additional health, or provides health regeneration. It's nothing as elaborate as WoW, but it's very similar. Everything else is designed for killing. All of BW's abilities give him more fury, or higher damage, or strike multiple targets, or stun/knockback the bad guys. As BW has leveled the game keeps presenting him with new abilities to try. From my perspective, though, they gave BW all of the good ones up front. All of BW's abilities come from the first or second rank, and he has access to four levels of abilities now.

BW still has his templar follower with him. The Templar levels right along with BW, although he is usually one level behind. Which is just like hunter pets in WoW. Bw was offered a Scoundrel (like a rogue), which BW turned down. So far BW has only been allowed one follower, so I'd have had to give up my templar. I like my templar. In truth, I wish templars were playable characters. Later on BW was offered a sorcerer type, but I stayed with the trusty templar. To be absolutely honest, the follower doesn't really help much (ie, a WoW hunter pet is much more powerful than a follower), but he does talk a lot, so I guess he's good company.

I've played enough to start seeing some patterns. Based on that, here is a description of a typical battle when going into an area for the first time.

BW and Templar teleport into a new area. We are in a small room. The map doesn't show anything but the immediate area around me. We'll have to move to start drawing in the map of the area. Templar immediately sets up a few yards in front of BW. The guy is earnest and sincere, and determined to protect BW by attacking anything and everything nearby, even if it's currently minding it's own business. No problem, because killing everything in our path is what's on the agenda.

Our first contact is with a group of mobs, including some really nasty ones. The game likes to get the adrenaline popping right at the beginning with a large pile of mobs which often hides a smaller group of elites. Templar gets the scent and he's off, BW on his heels. BW weighs into the fray, swiping multiple targets with single swings of his axe/sword/dagger/mace/whatever he's using at the time. If mobs are going down in two to three swipes, BW will keep massacring them, adding Stomps to stun groups before cutting them down. Left click swinging and right click stomping, BW piles up the carcasses. As long as health bulbs appear in the carnage, BW can keep plowing through mobs. When something meaner than the run of the mill mob starts taking chunks out of BW, BW targets the attacker for personal attention. If health starts to become a problem, BW has his special, practiced move. He retreats, forcing the mobs to follow, which also causes them to spread out and become easier prey.

Retreating is good strategy if part of the goal is not to die. There is no penalty for dying, though. Sure, dying damages gear that then have to be repaired. Gold is plentiful, though, and gear is easily repaired. Dying might also mean having to restart at a checkpoint that requires re-killing some mobs, but again that's a minor inconvenience. It's just fun for me to try to avoid being killed.

Ok, about the mobs. Mobs are stupid. Some mobs follow, some stay back, and they quickly get strung out if BW stays on the move. BW can saunter back, his health now back to full, and crush them in smaller groups. It works for the big bad elites, too. Just wear them out, get out of range when health is low, and they'll eventually go down. One ability of BW's is that mobs will literally explode when certain conditions are met. There's a certain finality to that blast of blood and flesh, particularly when it's an elite. BW will even save the health pots that randomly drop, leaving them available in his path of retreat so he can heal up faster.

BW is facing a lot of mobs recently that spread acid and other corrosive goop as an attack or when they die. Standing in that stuff does more damage than anything else. BW has to reposition often to stay out of that stuff, and retreat to heal when he can't help it.

Templar ignores all that. He jumps into every fight with genuine enthusiasm. He does pitiful damage, but he's just about indestructible. When BW first started using the back off and come back approach I figured Templar would die, because he just doesn't know how to quit. But I learned right away that Templar would immediately try to follow BW. If BW out ran him, which is easy to do, in a few seconds he'll still pop up out of nowhere next to BW, ready to go again.

For most battles, though, BW and Templar don't need to back off at all. The two of them leave piles of rotting corpses in their wake with the only pause being to port back to town to sell off the gear bulging in BW's bags.

Barbedwire is level 23 and has completed Act 1. BW is near the end of Act II, with just two more king-sized elites to deal with.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tuesday (15 May) - Diablo 3

Tuesday (15 May) - Diablo 3

At midnight on the 15th of May, Diablo 3 was officially released. I know of one friend who was awake at midnight. His report: "As soon as 1201 hit I was anxiously trying to log into the game to get a whiff of the sweet aroma of demons and death as glimpse of world’s first to log on achievements flashed in my eyes! ;) Sadly it took me about 10 tries and a few minutes to get past the log-in screen, and then when I finally got to the character select screen it was so laggy that I couldn’t even create my character. . . Overall I spent about 15-20 doing nothing!"

I made my first attempt to download the game on Tuesday morning. I probably tried twenty times without getting past "Updating Setup Files," which would hang at about 40% and then do nothing. I couldn't even get to the actual download of the game. I read through the technical Support forums and tried every plausible tip. And then I started trying implausible tips, and even some stupid tips - like making changes to Microsoft Explorer settings even though that program had nothing to do with anything if you didn't actually use it, which I don't.

Along about 7pm I finally found the culprit that was hanging up the process - it's called "agent.exe" and it's used to assist in installing programs. Well, it's "assistance" was causing the problem. The solution was to delete it from the computer. And then things started working. From that point forward, it took about an hour to get the game fully downloaded and installed.

Blizzard complained that my video card was a piece of crap, even though it met the minimum requirements. I told Blizzard to shut up and logged in anyway. There are some opening video clips, but I'd already seen them online before the game launched. I went to the character screen. Even with my crappy card the resolution and detail is pretty good. Better than WoW, which should be expected given it's a new game. Yet, it is much like WoW in the way the character screen is set up. I would learn that it is a lot like WoW in a lot of ways.

The first thing to do was to create a character. I've known for months that I would be playing this game, but didn't put much thought - ok, no thought - to what I would name that first character. I wanted my first toon to be a Barbarian, which is the class of character I used in both Diablo 1 and 2. I was tempted to start with a female character, but the female barbarian was eye tearing ugly. I thought about making another Wildshard, but decided I wanted to start fresh with this game. Again, without a whole lot of thought, my first Diablo 3 toon came to be known as Barbedwire.

I'll get into all of the details in a second post. It's 2:30am and I've been playing a good while now. Barbwire is level 7. I'm loving this game so far. Good night!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Thursday (10 May) - Message to the Guild

Thursday (10 May) - Message to the Guild

I just want to let folks know that I am greatly reducing my WoW in game time. For all of you wonderful, crazy, and superb G2 raiders, I apologize for not making raids in recent weeks. I hear that Wild's spot has been very capably filled and many Gratz! to downing Deathwing!

Part of the reason is that I'm just busier with other real life things right now. I have to admit, though, that I have a hard time building up any enthusiasm for the coming Mists of Pandaria, and with Cata drawing to a close I'm looking elsewhere for entertainment. I've been playing WoW since it was first released, and that's a very long time.

I'm going to give Diablo 3 a try, so maybe we can hook up there, for those who are going to play. I'm not quitting WoW, though, and may check in on raid nights to see if you need a spot filled, but I won't be actively raiding, at least for now.

I posted the above on the guild website, where it most likely won't be noticed or read. I spoken with the guild leader, though, so it won't be a complete surprise. I'm excited about Diablo 3. I loved the first two. That was before WoW, though, so I have no idea how the two will compare now. I plan to solo play a barbarian class, which is what I played in D1 and D2. For multiplayer I'm leaning toward the templar class, which is part reckless killer and part healer, and sounds pretty cool.

Diablo 3 launches on 15 May.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Weekend (7 May) - Nada, Until Monday

Weekend (7 May) - Nada, Until Monday

The weekend was full of RL baseball for the most part as we went to both day and night games. Philly did do a couple of BGs, but I'm still baffled over some kind of glitch when I attempt to mouseover heal Philly. I can mouseover heal other players in the BG, but not Philly. Makes staying alive rather awkward. If I can't figure it out I may have to put in a trouble ticket, but that's a long shot - Game Masters don't typically deal with macro issues.

I've been looking over the new class that Mists of Pandaria will bring, called Monks. Although this is a new class, it has clearly been patterned after druids, sprinkled with rogue-ish style melee abilities. Monks will be able to tank (Brewmaster form) and heal (Mistweaver). Monks will also have a melee form (like cat form) and a ranged DPS form (like balance/moonkin form), but there isn't any information on those two forms yet. Monks will play more like rogues than druids, though, even as a healer. Many talents require monks to actually roll their body into a ball and bowling ball their way through mobs and players, for damage and healing. Mistweaver healing is mostly group heals - in fact, they may not need to directly target friendlies at all. Most monk heals do both healing and damage. That seems to be the model for MoP - the line between a healer and a DPS is getting very squishy, with nearly all classes able to do both to a much larger extent than before. What bothered me, though, is that the signature ability at level 90 for all three forms - tank, DPS, and even healer - are damage only abilities. So, as it looks now, monk healers have no level 90 healing spell.

So far, what I've read hasn't really got me interested enough to think I might roll one. Like I said, monks seem to play more like a rogue than a druid, with a lot of melee style contact, even when healing. I prefer healing classes that can move and heal at range. And I'd prefer to focus on healing instead of also having to consider damage roles as well. Perhaps this melding of DPS and healing is really focused toward PvP, which would be fine, but based on what is out there right now, pve healers will be expected to contribute to DPS as well. Personally, I'd rather be a healing specialist.

Late Monday night Philly took to the battlegrounds again. The macros that Philly was using were pretty old, although they had been working fine until Philly reached level 85. That might be a coincidence. I think what really happened is that a patch or hotfix changed something that affected how those old macros worked. I upgraded the macros to match the newer and more extensive macros I wrote for Wild.

Philly's first test was in Twin Peaks. The updated macros worked. Philly also had a lot of fun as the horde team was good. We won 3-0! Philly also joined an Eye BG that was already in progress. That wasn't so good, as it was obvious the horde were well on their way to losing. Philly hung in there as a double check on those macros and to scrape a few more honor points together. Philly hates her priest counterparts on the alliance, especially those in shadow form. Philly needs to learn to mana burn them before they can mana burn her, as more than once Philly found herself without mana because it had been stolen away from her. Overall, though, she did ok considering her gear level.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Thursday (4 May) - But Of Course, Says Wild, and then there is Philly

Thursday (4 May) - But Of Course, Says Wild, and then there is Philly

Wild took two weeks off from raiding, so of course Wild's RG2 raid downed Dragon Soul's 8th and final boss, Deathwing, on Thursday night while Philly puttered about in the unfriendly battlegrounds. It seems almost a shame to break up such a good raid team by putting Wild back in next week, but there are no ball games to get in the way, so Wild is considering signing up ... although he'll be pretty grumpy for a few days.

Philly was back at it again on Thursday:

Warsong Gulch: Loss, 61%, 3757 HP
Conquest: WIN, 67%, 3907 HP
Warsong Gulch, Loss, 67%, 3949 HP
Dailies: 70%
Deepholm questing: 81%

Horde pvpers have been pretty awful this whole week, but it's best to be philosophical about it. Philly should be moving up to a whole new brand of deadly battles once she hits level 85. Philly will be getting a starter set of level 85 pvp gear, courtesy of Wild's tailoring and Happy's money. The i377 gear will be quite an upgrade, given that Philly doesn't have any gear over i333.

Lunch Break:

Buy More JPs: 3574
Twilight Highland questing: 87%
Conquest: WIN, 92%, 3713
More Twilight Highland questing:

DING! DING! DING! Philly is LEVEL 85 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS - Philly, Wild and JB gathered resources and built a level 85 pvp gear starter set. She now has an i353 gear score. Philly is in desperate need of trinkets and weapons, but otherwise is in decent shape with about 2.3k resilience.

Just for practice, Philly entered the random battlegroup queue and was rewarded with a BG she'd never seen before: Twin Peaks. It took a few seconds, but Philly quickly realized that it was a different version of Warsong Gulch. Why haven't I ever seen it before? There are two reasons. One, it is level 85 only, and two, it's a Cata BG and neither JB nor Wild have done BGs in Cata. Strange but true. For the record, the horde lost that first battle as most of the team seemed as confused about what to do as Philly was. There seems to be some kind of defensive strategy at work, and if that's true only the alliance knew it. The horde wandered about trying to play mid while the alliance ran back and forth between the two bases capping our flag. It was fun, though, and the best part was that Philly did not run out of mana, which was an occupational hazard with her pre-pvp gear. Of course, not running out of mana could have more to with her being immobilized for half the fight than the amount of mana she had.

On Friday night DB and Philly got together for a couple of BGs. We won the first one and lost the second. The level of competition is much, much higher at level 85. Healers are a major target, and Philly was constantly attacked and "crowd controlled," spending a lot of time Feared, turned into a frog, Iced, etc. Philly has two methods to break many types of CC, but once they are used there isn't much Philly can do but wait until it wears off - if she isn't killed while helpless. Philly would have done better if she hadn't suddenly started having a user interface problem that still has me baffled. Everything was fine in the BG Philly joined right after reaching level 85. But in the two BGs on Friday night, Philly discovered that her "mouseover key" method of healing did not work when the target was Philly herself. In other words, Philly could not heal herself, which, obviously, is a very bad thing. In between the two BGs on Friday night, Philly tested her healing and everything worked fine. In the second BG, before the BG began, it was still working fine. Once actually in the BG, it would no longer work. I'm going to do some more testing, but this really has me stumped.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Wednesday (2 May) - Bloody Battlegrounds

Wednesday (2 May) - Bloody Battlegrounds

Wild decided to peek in on the guild about five minutes before the RG2 raid leader typically started invites to the evening raid. Wild had signed up as tentative, and intended to participate in the raid only if they were short folks. Not only did they have a full raid, invites were already done and the raid was already in Dragon Soul. Now why does that never happen when Wild is in the raid? Gv, the hunter with the druid alt, was again filling in for Wild. Wild was half convinced he would be raiding when he logged in, so it was with mixed feelings when he saw that he wasn't needed. Bd, the raid leader, was quick to whisper Wild to let me know that when Wild was ready his spot was still there.

Philly moved in after Wild bowed out, but her night went poorly, to say the least. After a ho hum loss in an Eye BG that barely moved her leveling bar, she got tangled in one of those never ending Alterac Valley BGs. It was, perhaps, the worst battle I've ever had the misfortune to be a part of. From the horde perspective, anyway. It began normally enough, with each team rushing from our bases, taking objectives and killing reinforcements. In most of these battles, within a few minutes each side has taken over the other side's main base and then fight it out for the chance to attack and kill the main boss. In this particular battle the horde took the alliance base, and then shockingly lost it. It's pretty rare to lose that base once it's captured, but it does happen now and then. We always take it back. We did take it back, but only momentarily, and were stunningly destroyed and sent packing a second time. The alliance expanded back toward the horde base, operating like they had an actual plan, working in groups that our own scattered forces could never match. There were many pitched battles, and the horde fought fiercely. Many times we pushed them back, winning a number of battles despite being out manned each time, but unable to gain any traction. With what looked like the entire alliance army on the march toward our base, and our own forces unable to punch through, Philly decided to find out if the alliance had left their own base unguarded. Alliance were organized enough to have all of the main routes contested, but Philly managed to slip past during one pitched struggle. Philly made it safely to the bridge linking the alliance base, and all was quiet. Philly slipped in, and was "allowed" to get well inside when a troop of five alliance rushed from the keep next to the bridge and slaughtered her. So much for that bright idea. The AV eventually, mercifully, ended with the horde backed all the way to our base, completely surrounded by the alliance.

Philly did eventually win a BG, which she swore she would do before checking out for the night, and finished at 60% of the way to level 85. Philly maxed her honor points again and had to buy some more Justice Points to bring her total down. Philly is starting to feel like she's going to really, truly, reach level 85, but it will be a few more days.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Monday (30 Apr) - Philly's Dance Card

Monday (30 Apr) - Philly's Dance Card

Philly is trying to make good her plan to reach level 85 by the end of the week. Here's how her day went on Monday:

Starting Numbers: 15% to level 85, 3734 honor points
Isle of Conquest: WIN, 21%, 3878 HP
Dailies: 23%
Questing Twilight Highlands: 32%
Warsong Gulch: WIN, 36%, 3960 HP (max allowed is 4000)
HP Spending: Bought 250 Justice Points for 375 HP, now at 3585 HP
Questing Uldum: 40%

Adventurers JB, DB, Tea, and Silver hoped to meet up on Monday night for some lfr raiding and pvp, but Tea and Silver got better offers and it was up to DB and JB to represent the team. We started with a Siege of Dragon Soul lfr raid. JB was still looking to improve her elemental spec gear; DB wanted an upgrade to his weapon. On the first boss, Morchok, JB was very rusty, having not raided in almost three weeks. Some problems with screen freezes further exasperated her return to raiding. JB's DPS was so poor she refused to divulge her fail dps numbers. Morchok did go down, though. JB hoped for better results against the second boss, Warlord Zon'ozz. As always, each fight has mechanics that can raise or lower the DPS across the raid for the 17 DPS raiders.

Warlord Zon'ozz
DB: 12th, 33.2k dps
JB: 13th, 31.1k dps

Yor'sahj
DB: 8th, 25.4k dps
JB: 13th, 20.7k dps

Hagara
DB: 4th, 24.9k dps
JB: 10th, 18.6k dps

Db and JB parted ways for a bit after completing Siege. DB partnered up with a guildie pvper and JB bowed out so that Philly could get in some more work:

More Battlegrounds for Philly
Gilneas: WIN, 43%, 3665 HP
Altarec Valley: WIN, 49%, 3798 HP
Warsong Gulch: LOSS, 50%, 3858 HP

DB and JB then went after the second set of Dragon Soul bosses:

Ultraxion
DB: 6th, 22.0k dps
JB: 10th, 18.8k dps

Warmaster Blackhorn
DB: 3rd, 22.5k dps
JB: 13th, 17.2k dps

Spine of Deathwing
DB: 4th, 49.2k dps
JB: lower than 9th, missed recording it

Madness of Deathwing
DB: 3rd, 46.6k dps
JB: 16th, 31.4k dps

Overall, JB was pretty happy about her performance. Her elemental spec DPS is improving, although it's still far lower than her melee spec DPS. From a gearing up perspective, JB wasn't any better off after her evening of killing eight raid bosses. She had chances for Tier legs, chest, and shoulders, as well as a ring and trinket, and did not win any of them.

DB was more fortunate. At long last DB could retire his i378 staff and replace it with a new i390 weapon. Nice!

Wild was in game for a bit after the lfr raids to craft some enchants for DB's new weapon and off-hand. The RG2 raid leader, Bd, was in game and we talked for a bit about Wild's situation. Bd, who has missed chunks of raid weeks before due to real life issues, completely understands and supports Wild's situation. The raid last week went well, and they came within 13% of downing the 7th boss encounter, Spine. There is a sense that this week will be the week that Spine goes down for the first time. Wild's spot was filled by the alt of one our regular DPSers, a hunter. He did very well, according to Bd, hanging right up there with the other two regulars in the 11-12k hps range. I'm glad they can manage without Wild. I would also have to admit, privately, though, that stepping away from the raid makes Wild a little nervous about losing his spot in the raid. Right now, Bd says that spot is safe, and Wild knows they would rather have Wild's 18-20k hps healing than our hunter's alt healer.

JB had fun in the lfr raiding Monday night. Could the pull to raid already be affecting Wild? Not really.