Having written two posts with tips for leveling specific classes, I feel like it's time I write a post with tips for leveling any class, considering that leveling alts is what I spend most of my time doing these days, so it's a part of the game I know quite well. This guide will assume you know the basics already and are simply considering leveling an alt on the side. After all, if you have gotten into the WoW blog scene, you are probably already fairly familiar with the game, so I don't imagine anyone reading this will be unfamiliar with the basics. (Though if you are, I apologize for my assumption and applaud you for involving yourself in the greater WoW community.)
1. Stick with it.
This seems like a pretty basic tip, but it's only recently that I started heeding it myself, so I figure it's worth mentioning. Classes are supposed to be simple when you first roll them. This is to make it easier for a newbie to acquaint themselves with the game; if they had to juggle five or six abilities in addition to learning all of the things we take knowing for granted, it would be a very confusing experience. As such, expect one-button spamming at first, and don't expect it to get much more interesting quickly. Classes evolve slowly as you level up, and you really can't get a feel for a class until you have a few dozen levels under your belt. As such, don't give up on a class just because you find the first few levels boring. My shadow priest didn't become as fun as it is until I got Vampiric Embrace and Shadowform at level 30 and 40, respectively, so stick with it.
2. If you use mana, carry water with you during the middle levels.
During earlier levels, you mana regeneration is greatly increased, so you won't need to use water. During later levels, many classes gain abilities that allow them to regenerate more mana, so you won't need to use water as much. During those middle levels, you'll likely find yourself running out of mana, and many classes can't fight without mana. As such, you should always have some of whatever is the best water you can drink so you can reduce your downtime. You can buy water from most Innkeepers and general suppliers, as well as bartenders. Of course, it helps to practice smart combat practices and try to conserve mana as you fight, but water will likely be helpful anyways, no matter how little mana you use. I remember questing on my shadow priest, using only three spells at the beginning of the fight and doing the rest of the damage with my wand, and still running out of mana. Point is, keep water on you until you stop using all together.
3. Keep any and all healing potions you get from quests or that drop from enemies.
Some quests award healing potions, and most humanoid enemies drop healing potions from time to time. You may want to sell them for a bit of extra gold, but you should keep them when you get them. No matter how careful you are, you will run into situations that spiral out of your control, and that little bit of health can really help. Think about it this way: the money you get from selling a potion will be less than how much a repair bill costs; which is the better deal? I keep my healing potions in a bag I dedicate to holding things like my hearthstone, crafting tools and supplies, and bandages, so they don't take up space in my regular bags. You should drag your healing potion(s) down to your action bars on the bottom of your screen so you can have them handy when you need them in a pinch.
4. Take First Aid
Even if you are a class that can heal yourself, it helps to be able to save that mana for fighting. Bandages allow you to heal yourself without expending mana, which makes them good for healing classes and great for classes that can't heal themselves. You may end up abandoning the profession in later levels if you can heal yourself and you won't run out of mana doing so (that happened to my shaman once he hit Outland), but until then, you won't regret keeping bandages in your bags to heal yourself.
5. Switch around between zones so you are always questing.
Outland and Northrend were designed so you could move from one zone to another in a linear fashion: Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms were not designed that way. If you want to keep your leveling interesting and fast, you'll need to move around between zones so you are always questing. If you finish all the quests you can reasonably do in one zone, move to another zone in your level range. You can look on the Wowhead zones page to see which zones are in your level range, though make sure you look at the quests page of each zone to see if it will actually offer you any quests.
6. Keep quests that take you out of the zone you are in so you can do them when you eventually go to that zone.
Because Azeroth was not designed for fast leveling, there are many quests that start in one zone and end in another. If you get one of these quests, take it and keep it in your quest log. You will likely go to that zone at some point in the future. Doing that extra quest will give you more experience and give you more to do once you enter the zone. The one exception to this rule is if the quest takes you to a zone you have already out-leveled or a zone that doesn't offer any quests for you because it favors one faction; in that case, don't let that quest take up space in your quest log.
7. Turn on quest tracking and take advantage of quest tooltips.
Go to the map screen (m button) and check the "Show Quest Objectives" box. This will make your leveling much easier as the locations of the objectives of most of your quests will be shown on your map. You can then click the diagonal arrow to make the map smaller so you can look at it and locate your objectives without blocking your view of your character. As for the quest tooltips, if you move your mouse over an enemy or object that you need to kill or collect for a quest, a little blurb should appear under it telling you which quest it is for and your progress on that quest. It helps to scroll your mouse over enemies as you pass them in case you can kill them for a quest but didn't know it. That way, you can kill them on the way to wherever you were going and be a more efficient quester.
8. A macro for selling all of your gray-quality items
/script for bag = 0, 4 do for slot = 1, GetContainerNumSlots(bag) do local name = GetContainerItemLink(bag,slot) if name and string.find(name,"ff9d9d9d") then DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Selling "..name) UseContainerItem(bag,slot) end end end
If you use this macro while talking to a vendor, you'll automatically sell all gray-quality items in your bags. This is very useful when you are out questing since you probably won't want to keep any gray items for any reason; they're called "vendor trash" for a reason. I also take advantage of this macro by putting my vendor trash in my extra bags and keeping white-quality or better things that I plan to sell in my main bag. That way, I don't have to go searching through my bags for the things I plan to sell, since I can use the macro to sell all of the vendor trash strewn throughout my different bags, and all of the other things I plan on selling will be right in my main bag.
Showing posts with label wowhead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wowhead. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
How to gear up for two roles at once
As a druid who is both a tank and a healer (I gave up on being competitive at DPS a long time ago), I know how difficult it is to keep an adequate set of gear for two roles. By trying to stay competitive at two roles at once, you need to dedicate more time to gearing up just because you are keeping two sets of gear updated at once, whereas people who focus on one role don't need to do that. When your resources are spread that thin, you need to make ends meet however you can. That is what this post is about: tips to help you keep two sets of gear updated at once.
1. Take advantage of unneeded epics
This piece of advice applies more to people who are trying to start a second set of gear, but rolling on gear that drops in raids that other people don't need is a great way to keep two sets of gear up-to-date. This may be difficult if you guild uses a loot system that doesn't allow for people to role on gear for offsets without serious detriments to themselves, but if you take advantage of both sets of gear in raids, they'll probably understand and make some sort of accommodation.
2. Use your emblems intelligently
The various emblems that drop from instances are a great way to upgrade your gear when you may not be able to otherwise, but don't spend you emblems on something you may be able to get an upgrade for in an instance. If you are running 10-man Trial of the Crusader and you need a healing offhand item, you should spend your emblems on that since none drop in there, but if you need a DPS offhand, you may want to wait for the one that drops in there. Likewise, if you are a Death Knight, Druid, Shaman, or Paladin, you should focus on upgrading the item in your relic slot first, since no relics drop from TotC. More generally, you should look on wowhead to see what gear the raid your are running drops so that you know which items you won't be able to get. Those are the slots you should get gear for first using emblems. Aside from that, if you are interested in keeping both sets up-to-date, just update whichever item is in most dire need of an update, no matter which set it is from.
3. BoE/crafted items are your friend
No one said keeping two sets updated was easy, or cheap. Because you will need to split your drops/emblems between your two sets, anything you can do outside of an instance to make gearing up easier is a good thing. If you are starting a new set from scratch, use a combination of reputation rewards, BoE drops, items from the Argent Tournament, and crafted items to get yourself started. That should get you geared enough to do the daily heroic quests, which will be a good source of emblems.
4. Consider taking up enchanting
As an enchanter, I can't lie to you; if you aren't leveling it up as you yourself level up, enchanting is a pain and a half to level, and incredibly expensive too. It's not as lucrative as it used to be ever since rare enchants like crusader went the way of the shaman tank, so what's the main draw of it? Mainly, you can enchant your own gear the minute you get it. If you win an item in an instance, just put an enchant on it right there. It takes the hassle out of getting new gear enchanted (which you will need to do a lot if you don't have it, considering you will be going after twice as much gear) and gives you that much of an edge if you have difficulty staying ahead when it comes to gear.
Keeping two sets of gear is difficult, but the reward is that you will be able to fill two roles in any groups you join and any raids you do with your guild, making you a more flexible player and increasing the chance that you will get an instance group. I can tell you from personal experience that it is incredibly rewarding, so go to it!
1. Take advantage of unneeded epics
This piece of advice applies more to people who are trying to start a second set of gear, but rolling on gear that drops in raids that other people don't need is a great way to keep two sets of gear up-to-date. This may be difficult if you guild uses a loot system that doesn't allow for people to role on gear for offsets without serious detriments to themselves, but if you take advantage of both sets of gear in raids, they'll probably understand and make some sort of accommodation.
2. Use your emblems intelligently
The various emblems that drop from instances are a great way to upgrade your gear when you may not be able to otherwise, but don't spend you emblems on something you may be able to get an upgrade for in an instance. If you are running 10-man Trial of the Crusader and you need a healing offhand item, you should spend your emblems on that since none drop in there, but if you need a DPS offhand, you may want to wait for the one that drops in there. Likewise, if you are a Death Knight, Druid, Shaman, or Paladin, you should focus on upgrading the item in your relic slot first, since no relics drop from TotC. More generally, you should look on wowhead to see what gear the raid your are running drops so that you know which items you won't be able to get. Those are the slots you should get gear for first using emblems. Aside from that, if you are interested in keeping both sets up-to-date, just update whichever item is in most dire need of an update, no matter which set it is from.
3. BoE/crafted items are your friend
No one said keeping two sets updated was easy, or cheap. Because you will need to split your drops/emblems between your two sets, anything you can do outside of an instance to make gearing up easier is a good thing. If you are starting a new set from scratch, use a combination of reputation rewards, BoE drops, items from the Argent Tournament, and crafted items to get yourself started. That should get you geared enough to do the daily heroic quests, which will be a good source of emblems.
4. Consider taking up enchanting
As an enchanter, I can't lie to you; if you aren't leveling it up as you yourself level up, enchanting is a pain and a half to level, and incredibly expensive too. It's not as lucrative as it used to be ever since rare enchants like crusader went the way of the shaman tank, so what's the main draw of it? Mainly, you can enchant your own gear the minute you get it. If you win an item in an instance, just put an enchant on it right there. It takes the hassle out of getting new gear enchanted (which you will need to do a lot if you don't have it, considering you will be going after twice as much gear) and gives you that much of an edge if you have difficulty staying ahead when it comes to gear.
Keeping two sets of gear is difficult, but the reward is that you will be able to fill two roles in any groups you join and any raids you do with your guild, making you a more flexible player and increasing the chance that you will get an instance group. I can tell you from personal experience that it is incredibly rewarding, so go to it!
Monday, October 26, 2009
What I would like to see in Cataclysm. Part 1: Professions
We have all had some time to think about what we would like to see in the new expansion, and I especially have high hopes for this one. Because Cataclysm will remake Azeroth completely, it will basically be WoW 2. This means that Blizzard has many opportunities to do things over and improve the game in a vast number of ways, and I hope they take advantage of those opportunities. I'd like to discuss some specific ways I hope the game is improved, starting with an aspect of the game that I think has become particularly bland since the release of the last expansion: professions.
As I went over in my post on the homogonization of Wrath of the Lich King solo content, professions have become simplified, streamlined, and boring. Perhaps I feel this the most because I am an enchanter, and we get all of our recipes (excluding the odd raid drop) from trainers and the shard vender. That is an incredibly boring way to get recipes, and it quickly grows grindy. As it stands now, almost all professions get the majority of their recipes from some kind of currency vendor or from reputations. Alchemy and Inscription add some variety with their research mechanics, but I want more.
Now granted, I'm not going to attempt to glorify the days of limited quantity recipes in Burning Crusade, where you needed to visit Wowhead, look for all recipes sold by vendors, and fly around to visit all of them, and ditto for recipes that dropped from mobs. I would like a little more transparency in my recipe acquirement, but the current system takes it too far. What I would like is some sort of happy medium. Profession-specific quests are out of the question, for Blizzard has expressed a big aversion to quests that a limited part of the player population can see. But what if we had quests for professions that offered a recipe for whatever crafting profession(s) you have? After your trainer has taught you all they can, they can send you off to some artisan who you help in a way that would vary based on your profession (the only thing that would vary between the quests would be the specific items that would be the goals of the quest, such as a specific potion or enchanting a piece of the artisan's armor, so it wouldn't be that difficult to make different versions of the quests for each profession). The quest text could be very vague to allow for this kind of variation. For example, the artisan could say, "I seek to understand the more benevolent forces of this world. Can you help me with that?" An alchemist could make a spirit potion, a blacksmith could make a blue healadin armor piece, an enchanter could enchant one of the artisan's pieces for spirit, a scribe could make a few glyphs for healing spells, etc. He could also send you out to collect quest items to help him in his research. You would then turn in the quest and get a recipe as a reward. Perhaps an MP5 flask for alchemy, an epic healadin set for blacksmiths, an upgraded mooncloth set for tailors, jumper cables for engineers, etc. This could make acquiring recipes more of a challenge without making it difficult, and it would certainly make being able to craft said item more satisfying.
Another issue I have with professions as they are now is the lack of exclusive benefits for the crafter. I know that balancing these benefits was an issue in Burning Crusade, but as it stands now, every profession with the exception of Engineering and Tailoring gives the exact same stat benefits to the crafter, but it just gives them in different ways. Scroll down to the seventh paragraph in my homogenization post to see an example. While this makes balancing easier, the fact is that it's not enough. Crafter-specific benefits have been simplified to the point of irrelevance, and that makes professions suffer.
But what can be done without throwing the crafting system into imbalance? Many of the simplifications resulted from failed crafter-only benefits, such as potion chugging when combined with an alchemist's stone and BoP crafter armor. While we need simple benefits like the ones in the game right now, we also need benefits that will make the professions more interesting and make choosing a profession a more consequential choice. I'm talking about bringing back that fourth glyph slot for scribes. I'm talking about make the alchemist's stone a worthwhile trinket worth wearing into raids. I'm talking about bringing profession-dependent set bonuses back to crafted BoE starter gear (such as that on the heavy clefthoof set from BC). Yes, these kinds of things are difficult to balance, but when the alternative is homogenization on such a level that it makes professions almost irrelevant to the game, I think it's worth it.
So those are my thoughts on professions. I hope to go over some other aspects of the game I hope to see improved, such as solo-content. Until then, what changes would you like to see to professions in Cataclysm?
As I went over in my post on the homogonization of Wrath of the Lich King solo content, professions have become simplified, streamlined, and boring. Perhaps I feel this the most because I am an enchanter, and we get all of our recipes (excluding the odd raid drop) from trainers and the shard vender. That is an incredibly boring way to get recipes, and it quickly grows grindy. As it stands now, almost all professions get the majority of their recipes from some kind of currency vendor or from reputations. Alchemy and Inscription add some variety with their research mechanics, but I want more.
Now granted, I'm not going to attempt to glorify the days of limited quantity recipes in Burning Crusade, where you needed to visit Wowhead, look for all recipes sold by vendors, and fly around to visit all of them, and ditto for recipes that dropped from mobs. I would like a little more transparency in my recipe acquirement, but the current system takes it too far. What I would like is some sort of happy medium. Profession-specific quests are out of the question, for Blizzard has expressed a big aversion to quests that a limited part of the player population can see. But what if we had quests for professions that offered a recipe for whatever crafting profession(s) you have? After your trainer has taught you all they can, they can send you off to some artisan who you help in a way that would vary based on your profession (the only thing that would vary between the quests would be the specific items that would be the goals of the quest, such as a specific potion or enchanting a piece of the artisan's armor, so it wouldn't be that difficult to make different versions of the quests for each profession). The quest text could be very vague to allow for this kind of variation. For example, the artisan could say, "I seek to understand the more benevolent forces of this world. Can you help me with that?" An alchemist could make a spirit potion, a blacksmith could make a blue healadin armor piece, an enchanter could enchant one of the artisan's pieces for spirit, a scribe could make a few glyphs for healing spells, etc. He could also send you out to collect quest items to help him in his research. You would then turn in the quest and get a recipe as a reward. Perhaps an MP5 flask for alchemy, an epic healadin set for blacksmiths, an upgraded mooncloth set for tailors, jumper cables for engineers, etc. This could make acquiring recipes more of a challenge without making it difficult, and it would certainly make being able to craft said item more satisfying.
Another issue I have with professions as they are now is the lack of exclusive benefits for the crafter. I know that balancing these benefits was an issue in Burning Crusade, but as it stands now, every profession with the exception of Engineering and Tailoring gives the exact same stat benefits to the crafter, but it just gives them in different ways. Scroll down to the seventh paragraph in my homogenization post to see an example. While this makes balancing easier, the fact is that it's not enough. Crafter-specific benefits have been simplified to the point of irrelevance, and that makes professions suffer.
But what can be done without throwing the crafting system into imbalance? Many of the simplifications resulted from failed crafter-only benefits, such as potion chugging when combined with an alchemist's stone and BoP crafter armor. While we need simple benefits like the ones in the game right now, we also need benefits that will make the professions more interesting and make choosing a profession a more consequential choice. I'm talking about bringing back that fourth glyph slot for scribes. I'm talking about make the alchemist's stone a worthwhile trinket worth wearing into raids. I'm talking about bringing profession-dependent set bonuses back to crafted BoE starter gear (such as that on the heavy clefthoof set from BC). Yes, these kinds of things are difficult to balance, but when the alternative is homogenization on such a level that it makes professions almost irrelevant to the game, I think it's worth it.
So those are my thoughts on professions. I hope to go over some other aspects of the game I hope to see improved, such as solo-content. Until then, what changes would you like to see to professions in Cataclysm?
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Good World of Warcraft websites
Due to this week being midterms week, I can't write a very substantial advice post, so I'll simple do a write up of good online resources for WoW. Why am I putting this under advice rather than miscellany? One of my pet peeves is websites that list links without any supplementary information, and I intend to avoid doing that. Not only will I link some good WoW websites, but I will also advise you on what each one is good for.
World of Warcraft Official Site
This is mostly a generally useful site. Though the information on it is simple and occasionally outdated, if you need an answer to your simple WoW questions, the official site can probably answer it. It also has the official WoW forums, but most people tend to avoid them because of the maturity of its posters, or lack thereof. Still, the realm forums are good if you are looking for a guild or want to report a ninja.
Wowhead
The main draw of this site is its database, which basically contains every piece of objective information to be found about WoW. It contains every item, spell, quest, etc. in the game and allows you to browse them. Its uses are endless; just trust me on that. It also has a good talent calculator that allows you to plan your character's talent build in advance, as well as an item comparison tool and forums whose quality tend to be better than that of the official forums.
WoWWiki
This is exactly what it sounds like: a Wikipedia dedicated to WoW. If wowhead is your go-to place for objective information, WoWWiki is your go-to place for subjective information, including boss strategies, background story, lore, and general class strategies. Some of its content is outdated, but with a keen eye, you can easily spot said content.
WoW.com
This is a great site. Formerly known a Wowinsider, WoW.com a huge blog dedicated to WoW. It's best purpose is for finding WoW news, but it also contains many weekly columns about every WoW-related subject imaginable (including professions, each class in the game, roleplaying, leading a guild, one for new players, etc.). I check it every day because it is just awesome like that. Due to the fact that it is in fact a blog, it is also a good source for up-to-date information on many aspects of the game, including guides to the holidays and the wealth of great advice in the class columns. Just read it for a few days and you'll find something to like about it.
World of Warcraft Official Site
This is mostly a generally useful site. Though the information on it is simple and occasionally outdated, if you need an answer to your simple WoW questions, the official site can probably answer it. It also has the official WoW forums, but most people tend to avoid them because of the maturity of its posters, or lack thereof. Still, the realm forums are good if you are looking for a guild or want to report a ninja.
Wowhead
The main draw of this site is its database, which basically contains every piece of objective information to be found about WoW. It contains every item, spell, quest, etc. in the game and allows you to browse them. Its uses are endless; just trust me on that. It also has a good talent calculator that allows you to plan your character's talent build in advance, as well as an item comparison tool and forums whose quality tend to be better than that of the official forums.
WoWWiki
This is exactly what it sounds like: a Wikipedia dedicated to WoW. If wowhead is your go-to place for objective information, WoWWiki is your go-to place for subjective information, including boss strategies, background story, lore, and general class strategies. Some of its content is outdated, but with a keen eye, you can easily spot said content.
WoW.com
This is a great site. Formerly known a Wowinsider, WoW.com a huge blog dedicated to WoW. It's best purpose is for finding WoW news, but it also contains many weekly columns about every WoW-related subject imaginable (including professions, each class in the game, roleplaying, leading a guild, one for new players, etc.). I check it every day because it is just awesome like that. Due to the fact that it is in fact a blog, it is also a good source for up-to-date information on many aspects of the game, including guides to the holidays and the wealth of great advice in the class columns. Just read it for a few days and you'll find something to like about it.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
How to level Northrend reputations without championing
As I mentioned in my last advice post, it is possible to get exalted with all of the Northrend factions without entering an instance. The easiest way to gain reputation with many of these factions is championing, wherein you where the tabard of the faction you are championing in a level-80 5-man instance and gain reputation with them as a result. However, this approach requires to you have good gear (the main purpose of raising your reputations) and be subjected to PUGs, which are really hit and miss. This guide is concerned with getting exalted with each of the Northrend reputations, including the ones that can be championed, without resorting to championing. Some are harder than others, but it is possible to get exalted with all of these factions without entering an instance, and that's what this post concerns.
Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition
These two are pretty easy. The Silver Covenant/Sunreavers dailies that you get from the Argent Tournament are one way to raise your rep. You can also do the dailies on your faction's floating ship in Icecrown, The Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer, respectively. That should be enough for you to get exalted in a timely manor.
Argent Crusade
This faction used to be much harder to reach exalted with without championing, but it's easier now. Before, the only repeatable way to get Argent Crusade rep was the daily Troll Patrol, but now the Argent Tournament quests also give Argent Crusade rep, making this grind much easier. If you are a Death Knight, however, then the Argent Tournament quests with give you rep with the Knights of the Ebon Blade, leaving Troll Patrol as your only option.
Frenzyheart Tribe/The Oracles
Nothing special here; just do the dailies.
Kirin Tor
Whoo-boy! This is not an easy faction to get exalted with without championing. Make sure you use wowhead to find all of their one-time quests so you can make this grind as short as possible. Once you have exhausted that option, you have only three left to you:
1. Fishing dailies (given by the Dalaran fishing trainer)
2. Cooking dailies (given by the Dalaran cooking trainers)
3. Jewelcrafting dailies (given by the Dalaran jewelcrafting trainer)
If you ever needed an excuse to level your cooking and fishing, here it is. You can also watch the auction house for a Sealed Vial of Poison, which can be turned in for 250 rep, but it is really expensive (at least on my server) and uncommon, so don't count on buying a lot of these for easy rep.
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Once you complete their Icecrown questlines, the Knights of the Ebon Blade will have two areas with dailies for them. Three dailies can be found in the Shadow Vault in northern Icecrown. Three more can be found on Death's Rise, a little ledge part-way down the cliff southwest of Jotunheim. Doing all of them will net you 1500 rep a day. If you are a Death Knight, then the Argent Tournament quests will also net you Ebon Blade rep, making this grind much faster.
The Kalu'ak
This little faction does have some nice goodies to reward those who get exalted with it. They have quests in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and Dragonblight, and each area has a Kalu'ak daily quest, each of which gives you 500 rep. The daily quests are unlocked as you complete the questline in each area. You can use the turtle boats to shuttle between the three areas if you don't want to spend the money to fly there.
The Sons of Hodir
In order to even start gaining rep with these guys, you need to do a long quest chain starting with They Took Our Men! Once you finish the quest chain, you can do dailies to get rep with the Sons of Hodir, and you unlock more as your rep gets higher. Individual quests will unlock similar dailies, so make sure you do all of the one-time quests they offer. You can also look for Everfrost Chips in The Storm Peaks, which can be turned in for Sons of Hodir rep, as can Relics of Ulduar, which can be bought on the Auction House.
The Wyrmrest Accord
Aside from their one-time quests, these guys have three dailies you can do. Two are in Coldarra in Borean Tundra, and one is in Dragonblight. The two low-level ones are unlocked after quests, but the level-80 one can be started almost immediately. They are Drake Hunt, Defending Wyrmrest Temple, and Aces High!
Note: Aces High! starts with the quest Corastrasza, which is started in the Transitus Shield, the same area where you start Drake Hunt.
There you have it! Some factions are easier than others to gain rep with without championing, but only the Kirin Tor is really difficult. Good luck!
Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition
These two are pretty easy. The Silver Covenant/Sunreavers dailies that you get from the Argent Tournament are one way to raise your rep. You can also do the dailies on your faction's floating ship in Icecrown, The Skybreaker and Orgrim's Hammer, respectively. That should be enough for you to get exalted in a timely manor.
Argent Crusade
This faction used to be much harder to reach exalted with without championing, but it's easier now. Before, the only repeatable way to get Argent Crusade rep was the daily Troll Patrol, but now the Argent Tournament quests also give Argent Crusade rep, making this grind much easier. If you are a Death Knight, however, then the Argent Tournament quests with give you rep with the Knights of the Ebon Blade, leaving Troll Patrol as your only option.
Frenzyheart Tribe/The Oracles
Nothing special here; just do the dailies.
Kirin Tor
Whoo-boy! This is not an easy faction to get exalted with without championing. Make sure you use wowhead to find all of their one-time quests so you can make this grind as short as possible. Once you have exhausted that option, you have only three left to you:
1. Fishing dailies (given by the Dalaran fishing trainer)
2. Cooking dailies (given by the Dalaran cooking trainers)
3. Jewelcrafting dailies (given by the Dalaran jewelcrafting trainer)
If you ever needed an excuse to level your cooking and fishing, here it is. You can also watch the auction house for a Sealed Vial of Poison, which can be turned in for 250 rep, but it is really expensive (at least on my server) and uncommon, so don't count on buying a lot of these for easy rep.
Knights of the Ebon Blade
Once you complete their Icecrown questlines, the Knights of the Ebon Blade will have two areas with dailies for them. Three dailies can be found in the Shadow Vault in northern Icecrown. Three more can be found on Death's Rise, a little ledge part-way down the cliff southwest of Jotunheim. Doing all of them will net you 1500 rep a day. If you are a Death Knight, then the Argent Tournament quests will also net you Ebon Blade rep, making this grind much faster.
The Kalu'ak
This little faction does have some nice goodies to reward those who get exalted with it. They have quests in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, and Dragonblight, and each area has a Kalu'ak daily quest, each of which gives you 500 rep. The daily quests are unlocked as you complete the questline in each area. You can use the turtle boats to shuttle between the three areas if you don't want to spend the money to fly there.
The Sons of Hodir
In order to even start gaining rep with these guys, you need to do a long quest chain starting with They Took Our Men! Once you finish the quest chain, you can do dailies to get rep with the Sons of Hodir, and you unlock more as your rep gets higher. Individual quests will unlock similar dailies, so make sure you do all of the one-time quests they offer. You can also look for Everfrost Chips in The Storm Peaks, which can be turned in for Sons of Hodir rep, as can Relics of Ulduar, which can be bought on the Auction House.
The Wyrmrest Accord
Aside from their one-time quests, these guys have three dailies you can do. Two are in Coldarra in Borean Tundra, and one is in Dragonblight. The two low-level ones are unlocked after quests, but the level-80 one can be started almost immediately. They are Drake Hunt, Defending Wyrmrest Temple, and Aces High!
Note: Aces High! starts with the quest Corastrasza, which is started in the Transitus Shield, the same area where you start Drake Hunt.
There you have it! Some factions are easier than others to gain rep with without championing, but only the Kirin Tor is really difficult. Good luck!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
How to assume a raid mentality
As I said in my last philosophy post, it is my opinion that the leveling process does not sufficiently help a player develop the mentality they will need to have when they start doing dungeons and raids. For those who wish to raid, 5-mans are usually the way to learn said mentality, and that's where players can practice their roles. Because players may not know how to approach their first 5-man run, I have decided to give a basic rundown of how a player should think about their roll in a run. Think of this as a teaching you the mentality you will need when you are in a group.
First of all, what are the roles that a player can fulfill in a raid or 5-man? A 5-man run is usually made up of a tank, 3 DPS (it stands for damage per second, but it means damager), and a healer. Here are the various classes and specs that can fulfill the three roles.
Tank: Any Death Knights (Frost is preferred, but as long as you are in frost presence and go for defensive talents, you should be all set) Feral Druids (spec'ed to improve bear form), Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors.
DPS: Any Death Knights (Blood and Unholy are prefered, but as long as you take offensive talents and are in Blood or Unholy Presence, you will be ok), Balance or Feral Druids (Feral Druids will need to spec to improve cat form), any Hunters, any Mages, Retribution Paladins, Shadow Priests, any Rogues, Elemental or Enhancement Shamans, any Warlocks, and Arms of Fury Warriors.
Healer: Restoration Druids, Holy Paladins, Discipline or Holy Priests, and Restoration Shamans.
To describe the roles most simply, tanks take damage, DPS do damage, and healers heal damage. Tanking and healing are generally agreed to be more difficult roles than DPS'ing, as well as more consequential. I would say that tanking is most difficult, while healing is more consequential, but it's really a subjective thing. Considering that all classes can DPS, and that the armor you acquire while leveling can probably serve you as DPS armor, if you are completely new to grouping, it may be a good idea to start as a DPS before moving on to tanking or healing. That said, having some experience tanking and healing will definitely give you a better perspective on what your group-mates go through, so even if you don't think you can handle the roles, don't immediately think that they are beyond your reach. Many of the best DPS'ers I have played with have experience with tanking, as have some of the best healers.
Regardless of what role you take, there are certain ideas you should include in the mentality with which you approach raiding or 5-mans. These may seem like common-sense things to veteran players, but then again, so will most of the things in this post. If you haven't grouped with other people in WoW before for longer than it takes to complete a group quest, think of these rules as ways of thinking about grouping with other people.
-I will recognize that there are other people behind that characters I play with, and I will recognize that they also have goals and things they wish to accomplish with this run.
-I will use abilities I may not frequently use while solo-ing if they benefit the group.
-I will not use my solo-ing/PvP spec while in an instance, unless my spec contains all necessary talents for both grouping and solo-ing or PvP.
-I will not stand in any fire/black zones/"bad stuff" unless that is part of the boss strategy.
-If I have not run the instance before, I will say so and listen carefully to and follow all boss directions given to me.
-Better yet, I will read the boss strategies on wowhead or wowwiki beforehand so I only need a reminder when I go into the instance.
-I will not run an instance I am not prepared for, gear-wise or skill-wise.
-I will bring the reagents I need for my spells as well as any buff food if I need it.
-I will not distract myself by talking on the phone or browsing the web, unless we are waiting for someone to come back from being AFK.
-I will not go AFK unexpectedly, for longer than is reasonable (5 minutes, usually), too frequently, or in the middle of a fight. I will use the bathroom before the run and will limit myself to one bathroom break during the run.
Now that we've gotten those out of the way, let's look at the mentality you need for each role.
Tanks:
-I will be willing to lead the run, unless I have very little experience with instances.
-I will make sure that all of the mobs we are fighting are fighting me, not any of my group-mates, unless letting them attack someone else is part of a boss's strategy.
-I will focus on causing maximum threat per second, not damage per second. (This is not as much of an issue as it used to be, since damage is now more tied into threat than it used to be, but it's still important to keep in mind.)
-I will face enemies away from my group in case they have a frontal area-of-effect attack, like breathing fire.
-I will only use taunt when an enemy is not attacking me.
-I will always protect the healer.
-I will set the pace of the run to be fast enough that the group doesn't loose steam but slow enough to let the casters regenerate their mana.
-I will use a healing potion when I need to.
-I will move the enemy if he needs to be moved.
DPS:
-I will not cause more threat than the tank.
-I will cause maximum damage per second using the right talents, spell/ability rotation, etc.
-If the enemy attacks me, I will not interpret it as a sign that I am doing enough damage.
-If I can heal myself (through spells or bandages) I will do so if the healer needs to focus on healing the tank.
-I will recognize that I am the most replaceable member of the group and will thus do as much as possible to be a keeper, i.e. to motivate the group leader to not drop me.
Healer:
-I will not spend my precious time or mana casting offensive spells unless I and my group-mates far out-gear the instance.
-I will do everything in my power to not run out of mana.
-I will heal the tank and myself first, then the DPS, then any pets if I have extra mana.
-I will keep a watch on myself to make sure I don't take too much damage or stand in a compromising position (in some "bad stuff", in front of the tank, etc.)
-I will focus on endurance healing when healing during a boss battle.
-I will use my most mana-efficient heals and will avoid overhealing unless the tank is taking a lot of damage and could die if I don't pump out the maximum healing possible.
-I will bring water to each run to regenerate my mana, in case there is not a mage to conjure food.
That about does it. As I said, if you have experience grouping with other players, then there will probably be nothing new in this post for you. This is simply a guide to how you should approach the prospect of grouping with other people and fulfilling your role well. If there are any important things that I missed, let me know so that I may make a more complete list.
First of all, what are the roles that a player can fulfill in a raid or 5-man? A 5-man run is usually made up of a tank, 3 DPS (it stands for damage per second, but it means damager), and a healer. Here are the various classes and specs that can fulfill the three roles.
Tank: Any Death Knights (Frost is preferred, but as long as you are in frost presence and go for defensive talents, you should be all set) Feral Druids (spec'ed to improve bear form), Protection Paladins, and Protection Warriors.
DPS: Any Death Knights (Blood and Unholy are prefered, but as long as you take offensive talents and are in Blood or Unholy Presence, you will be ok), Balance or Feral Druids (Feral Druids will need to spec to improve cat form), any Hunters, any Mages, Retribution Paladins, Shadow Priests, any Rogues, Elemental or Enhancement Shamans, any Warlocks, and Arms of Fury Warriors.
Healer: Restoration Druids, Holy Paladins, Discipline or Holy Priests, and Restoration Shamans.
To describe the roles most simply, tanks take damage, DPS do damage, and healers heal damage. Tanking and healing are generally agreed to be more difficult roles than DPS'ing, as well as more consequential. I would say that tanking is most difficult, while healing is more consequential, but it's really a subjective thing. Considering that all classes can DPS, and that the armor you acquire while leveling can probably serve you as DPS armor, if you are completely new to grouping, it may be a good idea to start as a DPS before moving on to tanking or healing. That said, having some experience tanking and healing will definitely give you a better perspective on what your group-mates go through, so even if you don't think you can handle the roles, don't immediately think that they are beyond your reach. Many of the best DPS'ers I have played with have experience with tanking, as have some of the best healers.
Regardless of what role you take, there are certain ideas you should include in the mentality with which you approach raiding or 5-mans. These may seem like common-sense things to veteran players, but then again, so will most of the things in this post. If you haven't grouped with other people in WoW before for longer than it takes to complete a group quest, think of these rules as ways of thinking about grouping with other people.
-I will recognize that there are other people behind that characters I play with, and I will recognize that they also have goals and things they wish to accomplish with this run.
-I will use abilities I may not frequently use while solo-ing if they benefit the group.
-I will not use my solo-ing/PvP spec while in an instance, unless my spec contains all necessary talents for both grouping and solo-ing or PvP.
-I will not stand in any fire/black zones/"bad stuff" unless that is part of the boss strategy.
-If I have not run the instance before, I will say so and listen carefully to and follow all boss directions given to me.
-Better yet, I will read the boss strategies on wowhead or wowwiki beforehand so I only need a reminder when I go into the instance.
-I will not run an instance I am not prepared for, gear-wise or skill-wise.
-I will bring the reagents I need for my spells as well as any buff food if I need it.
-I will not distract myself by talking on the phone or browsing the web, unless we are waiting for someone to come back from being AFK.
-I will not go AFK unexpectedly, for longer than is reasonable (5 minutes, usually), too frequently, or in the middle of a fight. I will use the bathroom before the run and will limit myself to one bathroom break during the run.
Now that we've gotten those out of the way, let's look at the mentality you need for each role.
Tanks:
-I will be willing to lead the run, unless I have very little experience with instances.
-I will make sure that all of the mobs we are fighting are fighting me, not any of my group-mates, unless letting them attack someone else is part of a boss's strategy.
-I will focus on causing maximum threat per second, not damage per second. (This is not as much of an issue as it used to be, since damage is now more tied into threat than it used to be, but it's still important to keep in mind.)
-I will face enemies away from my group in case they have a frontal area-of-effect attack, like breathing fire.
-I will only use taunt when an enemy is not attacking me.
-I will always protect the healer.
-I will set the pace of the run to be fast enough that the group doesn't loose steam but slow enough to let the casters regenerate their mana.
-I will use a healing potion when I need to.
-I will move the enemy if he needs to be moved.
DPS:
-I will not cause more threat than the tank.
-I will cause maximum damage per second using the right talents, spell/ability rotation, etc.
-If the enemy attacks me, I will not interpret it as a sign that I am doing enough damage.
-If I can heal myself (through spells or bandages) I will do so if the healer needs to focus on healing the tank.
-I will recognize that I am the most replaceable member of the group and will thus do as much as possible to be a keeper, i.e. to motivate the group leader to not drop me.
Healer:
-I will not spend my precious time or mana casting offensive spells unless I and my group-mates far out-gear the instance.
-I will do everything in my power to not run out of mana.
-I will heal the tank and myself first, then the DPS, then any pets if I have extra mana.
-I will keep a watch on myself to make sure I don't take too much damage or stand in a compromising position (in some "bad stuff", in front of the tank, etc.)
-I will focus on endurance healing when healing during a boss battle.
-I will use my most mana-efficient heals and will avoid overhealing unless the tank is taking a lot of damage and could die if I don't pump out the maximum healing possible.
-I will bring water to each run to regenerate my mana, in case there is not a mage to conjure food.
That about does it. As I said, if you have experience grouping with other players, then there will probably be nothing new in this post for you. This is simply a guide to how you should approach the prospect of grouping with other people and fulfilling your role well. If there are any important things that I missed, let me know so that I may make a more complete list.
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