2.4 observations
- From: EJH <ejhawman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 02:53:23 -0700 (PDT)
These days I tend to lag out and disconnect if I log on within
a couple of hours of powering up. With that in mind, the day 2.4
went live I powered up in the morning and left the machine on
while I went to work. I was ready to go when I got home.
I log on with Dorandy and explore Shattrath. New quests, new
event dialogue. I had down to IF and hop a flight for the far
north - I automatically have the flight point, it seems; I had
expected to have to fly to ZA and ride from there, with QD a
swimmable distance from Silvermoon. I am prepared for a long
flight, but no sooner do I reach the gates of IF than I warp
straight to the North Sea. Blizzard can be reasonable at times,
it seems.
My guild leader whispers me, offering a spot in a Magister's
Terrace group; I must decline, as I still need a nap before
raiding that night. I touch down, take a short look around,
and switch to Samery and bring her into the area for deeper
exploration.
I check out the SSO quartermaster. No engineering recipes;
a couple of enchanting recipes for Samery, one for turning
the plentiful void crystals into more useable prismatic shards;
and a hughe upgrade for Card's Alchemist Stone. Her current
stone costs +70 healing on another trinket; the new stone will
have +119 healing, making her competitive with beefier non-alchemist
priests.
I don't get actual quests done immediately; I take a long nap,
wake up barely in time for the raid, and spend all my time taking
down Lurker. Kill number two, one more and we consider him on farm.
Quests will have to wait.
Wednesday I finish all quests on all three 70's; my guild leader
does not show, so I assume there is no raiding that night. I
log on to Ayakochan to work on the final bubble to 68. It's rough
because I have neglected my bear in favor of my cat; now the cat
is 67, the bear is only 64, and neither can hold aggro on higher
level mobs. All I can do is grind through it.
Ayako gets 68. I switch to Samery for some AV action, checking
/who Omani - our guild leader is finally on, and has gathered a
lot of people in Hellfire Penninsula. Trying Kazzak? Might be
fun, but I expect they will be a while. Later in the game, though,
I check again - they are in Magtheridon's Lair! Our first Mag
attempt in five months. And without Dorandy! What is he thinking?
After the match I switch to Dorandy and wait for an opening to
get pulled into Mag's Lair. I get three attempts at him, all
go better than five months ago, we get a sense this fight is
now doable for us. But I can't exactly predict the guild leader
now, so I can't say what we will be doing next week.
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I grind away at the SSO dailies with all characters. One quest
gives me a scroll that teleports me straight to the Throne of
Kil'Jaeden, where Samery has never been, having no flying mount,
so that area on her map finally gets filled in. The mobs have all
changed there, from elites to mostly normal types. The Living Flare
quest is particularly forgiving - you don't even have to tag an
elemental, just be in the area when it dies. Large groups of mixed
Allies and Horde roam around killing elementals any way they can,
a rare instance of cross-faction cooperation.
During Card's time up there I find some herbs. There's Nightmare
Vines up there, which Samery can turn into Wizard Oil. One node
is at the foot of Kazzak's ramp, within his aggro range, exerting
a magnetic attraction on herbalists in the area and keeping Kazzak
busy killing noobs. I am not immune, but I only try once.
Another quest takes me out to the remote Bash'ir Landing, where
I have to kill ethereals for a phasing device. One phased, I get to
kill a lot of wyrms while other players ninja the quest items they
were guarding. /sigh. Eventually I finish that one and move on.
Sunfury Attack Plans is no challenge for Dorandy; I can use the
usual tab-dot-fear farming routine, taking out large camps at once.
For Card, unless I get lucky and get the drop within a few kills,
it could take a while.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday finds Gilneas in phase 2; we have the infamous bombing run.
I eventually settle on placing the Arcane charges in an unused spot
on one of my less-used alternate UI bars, and using the cursor
only to target. In this manner I can finish the quest in one run...
if the kills aren't credited to some other group that hit earlier.
Flying around the island, I see a few herbs from Outland have made
it back to Azeroth. After the run I go harvesting. One is at the
water's edge in the Dead Scar; I am mobbed by Scourge and Wrath
Enforcers, and have a heck of a time staying alive until some obliging
flyboy can bomb them.
Over the Weekend, both Card and Dorandy do regular Magister's
Terrace,
getting the right to do heroic mode. One run and you are in for
heroics,
not necessarily a smart move as some people need several runs to get
the
hang of the place.
Selin Fireheart is a junior Kalithresh, you can't really kill his
crystals fast enough to keep him from getting some buff but you can
keep the time short. Vexallus is a junior Curator, major damage seems
to come late in the fight; the wyrm packs before him are fun, though,
really huge AOE pulls. The cinematic was novel. Priestess Delrissa is
supposed to be modelled as a 5v5 arena fight, with some CC disabled
(MC, enslave) and some of much greater usefulness than against players
(sheep and fear do not suffer diminishing returns). As in a 5v5,
success depends heavily on group makeup - I can see some guild groups
completely switching their lineup just to beat this one fight.
Usually,
though, a mage-heavy group will have an advantage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Saturday, Gilneas goes into phase 3. We start the day at
95 percent on the armory; I do my part, then log off for other
business until the afternoon. I come back to find the armory at
99 percent, with a huge mass of people at the sanctum waiting to
storm the armory when it turns. I am actually on the beack collecting
herbs when it happens, but come back in time to see a huge clot
of people moving up the spiral ramp from one new quest giver to
another.
Sunday we started the day at 10% on the anvil. I switched over to
Dondle to check Doomhammer's progress: 37%. Apparently Doomhammer
guilds have been raiding less and questing more.
Soon, the new gear will flood into the player base, and guilds
that can barely do Kara will storm Tempest Keep. Will they find
any fundamentally new fight mechanics? Can they simply adjust
their old instincts and beat Kael and Vashj, or will they decide
they just aren't good enough as players?
Omani is planning to hit TK hard. Several other guilds have
already probed Hyjal. I am getting impatient myself. Last night
I avoided raiding to keep working on the anvil. Without me,
my guild mates one-shotted Lurker and went straight through Gruul.
I expect we are ready.
Dondle, 65 Undead Shadow Priest, Doomhammer
Firiona, 29 Blood Elf Paladin, Doomhammer
Cardrianala of <Omani>, 70 Night Elf Holy/Disc Priest, Gilneas
Dorandy of <Omani>, 70 Gnome Affliction Warlock, Gilneas
Keichan, 69 Night Elf Arms/Prot Warrior, Gilneas
Samery, 70 Human Frost Mage, Gilneas
Ayakochan, 68 Night Elf BM Hunter, Gilneas
.
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