Archive for the 'Saruya’s WoW Life' category

Tankading!

Aug 25 2010 Published by Saruya under Gaming, General World of Warcraft, Saruya's WoW Life

The Paladin is now 80 finally which means the process of gearing up has begun in earnest.

I had a few pieces crafted, including some top level boots, and 3 days after hitting 80 I now am ready to tank Naxx and Ulduar 25 man! Skill notwithstanding of course!

So I have run through a few heroic 5 man dungeons, and begun gathering my Emblems of Frost. I’ve also purchased a couple of pieces of level 245 gear via Triumph emblems.

Far faster than the mage, because everyone wants and needs a tank, DPS is dime a dozen and readily available.

So I have a few pieces of level 200 gear left to upgrade, and I’m picking up 1 piece of gear per day on average, with 232 gloves being the most recent gear I picked up last night.

So next week should see me ready to start taking in ICC. Tanking against higher geared players is hard, but it’s fun. Trying to keep aggro on bosses whilst DPS are putting out between 7k and 10k (seriously, in a heroic 5 man?) is quite the challenge, but an enjoyable one at that.

So far I can hold aggro against DPS pulling 6k or so. Just about. So in about a week I should be good to go for ICC10 tanking at the least.

I’ve also started soloing 5 man dungeons. Last night kicked off with Burning Crusade’s Hellfire Ramparts on normal. Piece of piss, and didn’t even break a sweat.

Might go for the classic raids solo as well :p

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When is Final not so Final after all?

Jun 06 2010 Published by Saruya under Gaming, General, Saruya's WoW Life, Xbox 360 Games

I recently picked up a couple of new 360 games, to play during those times when WoW gets a bit dullish. Wet by AM2 and Final Fantasy 13 by SquEnix.

Wet’s a good giggle, bit frustrating at times mind, but really fluid to play and any game that gives me a fit woman wielding a big fuck off katana is alright by me

FF13 is not bad. Bit slow to start off with, and I’m about 5 hours in, and it’s still only really getting through the introductory phase. In comparison I think Wet’s intro phase lasted about 3 minutes

It is, however, undeniably the most gorgeous looking 360 game I’ve played yet. The CG cut scenes at times are jaw droppingly sexy looking, and the ingame graphics are beautiful too. Long gone are the days when you’d get a lovely CG intro scene then get stuck with 75 pixels to represent your character ingame

The story as well is a bit weird for the first hour or so, until I actually read the manual and found out wtf Fal’cie and l’Cie were

But it’s a nice change of pace, both from WoW and from previous FF games. The last FF I played was FFX (I have had FFXI (the mmo) sitting in a box for about 3 years and never once installed it), and as usual the whole storyline and cast are pretty much the same, but this is by far the most Sci-Fi FF game yet. It’s also very much stripped back to basics which is refreshing, because FF had been getting to the point where it was stupidly and unnecessarily complex. There is no levelling up involved at all (!), but you do advance your characters’ growth through a system called the Crystarium. This is a nod back to the stupid design of previous FF games (It’s a 3d branching environment where you have to reach various nodes to access new powers and abilities), whereas a simple 2d text menu would have sufficed tbh.

And unlike previous FF titles, you only control 1 character in fights. The other 2 (sticking to the classic FF combat trio setup) provide support according to what way you have your team set up via templates called Paradigms. Paradigms allow you to set yourself up as a DPS, one as a tank and the other as a healer. Or all three as DPS etc. You can switch between the various templates available on the fly during combat, so if you’re taking a bit of a pummelling while DPSing, you can switch out to a more defensive & healing Paradigm until you’re back up to strength.

It’s a great system, and ensures most fights are winnable, even if they do turn into battles of attrition at the end of the day and all you’re waiting on is the enemy’s health bar slowly ticking down to 0.

But overall so far a good game, with strong characters and some typically Japanese (read: really cheesy) dialogue. Well worth a punt for the £25 I got it for (Wet was £10!), and with what appears to be the winding down of raiding with Thunder for the summer as the World Cup approaches, something to fill the long hours of summer with, levelling alts aside!

Speaking of alts, I’ve begun a Draenei Huntard by the name of Tótty. Pretty fun so far, but even easier than the druid or Pally. It really is beginning to look like I unknowingly picked the hardest class to solo level to 80 (maybe bar a non-shadow priest) with my Mage, because with the Hunter you set your pet to attack your target(s) and stand a good bit away and attack yourself (by which I mean attack the enemy yourself, not stand there and self harm like some mentally ill Emo-space goat), while trying to not pull aggro. Reminds me of levelling a Vanilla WoW Warlock back in the day, but good fun, and comes with an awesome looking heirloom Bow

As for Arthasshole (Lich King), he’s not dead yet. But we are making progress, slowly but surely. Not helped atm because we’re only really getting 1 night a week on him (oo-er), but we’re getting him into phase 2 regularly now, and starting to deal with Defile & Valkyr’s. We’ll get there though, and hopefully before 3.3.5 hits with Ruby Sanctum…

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More Progression. More Responsibility

May 22 2010 Published by Saruya under Gaming, Saruya's WoW Life

Shortly after making the last post I was appointed as the 4th member of the Thunder guild Council.

That now means I’m one of the people responsible for the day to day running of the entire guild!

Eep!

In other news, I re-started the progression team in 10 man ICC raiding, and having plugged away at Sindragosa for 2/3 nights we finally managed to get her down!

That now means we only have the Lich King left, and once he’s down we can open up the heroic versions of the bosses in 10 man.

\o/

It’ll be good for guild morale if we can do this and re-invigorate our members, as a lot of guilds on Kilrogg have now done it, and it would give some of us a reason to do 10 man raiding, as a lot of us gain nothing from raiding in normal difficulty – no challenge and no upgrades for gear.

Heroic mode would up the level of gear available in drops but most importantly increase the challenge provided by the first half of the raid content, as everything up to and including the fights immediately prior to Sindragosa are face-roll easy these days, especially because of the Hellscream’s Warsong buff, which currently at 15% will rise to 20% in just under a week.

And finally, I was out at an awards ceremony in work last night where I was nominated for an award due to the amount of work I did in getting our new Waste Collection routes implemented and planned out. And I won! It was a surprise tbh, as there were 15 other people and teams in line for the award. It’s just really nice and touching to know that the work you do day in day out is appreciated by the people you work with and for.

But getting up on stage in front of over 300 people, including Councillors and going up to meet the soon to be ex-Lord Mayor to collect the award was frigging nerve wrecking. The whole thing is a blur atm, but it was a good night overall, and the department I work in managed to collect most of the awards up for grabs!

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Progression and Responsibility

May 02 2010 Published by Saruya under Saruya's WoW Life

Things have moved on in Thunder over the past couple of weeks.

First off, we’ve begun recruitment to fill the gaps left by the people who left. It’s gone well so far, and we’ve got 5/6 new people in.

Unfortunately Shill has left Thunder, in order to server-transfer to play with some real life friends from the Isle of Man, so best of luck to you mate, hope it all pans out

And it’s Childrens’ Week in WoW this week, and I’ve already managed to polish off the achievements I hadn’t picked up last year. The most frustrating one being to Capture the Flag in Eye of the Storm. A hard achievement at the best of times for a cloth wearer, but I managed to get in on a decent group and managed to pick it up! So only a handful more achievements between now and Halloween will see me get my Violet Proto Drake

Other than that there has been a promotion for me in guild, and potentially one in real life!

I’ve been appointed Mage CM for Thunder, which means looking after and advising the rest of the mages in the guild is now my responsibility

And IRL there’s a possibility that my job may be re-graded, but which will also mean I have to re-apply for it, with the possibility that I may not get it and be out of a job!

It’s a calculated risk, but one I’m willing to take, especially if it means a pay-rise of about £7,000 p/a!

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Frustration and Retribution

Apr 11 2010 Published by Saruya under Gaming, Personal, Saruya's WoW Life

Sigh.

Life’s a pain in the arse sometimes. You toddle along, thinking everything’s going grand, then all of a sudden the rug gets pulled from under your feet and you have to pick yourself back up again and get on with it.

A week ago Thunder were fine. We were making progress in 10 man on Lich King and 25 man was very slowly, but steadily progressing.

Then 2 players left, which was a huge blow. Then another one. And another 2. Then another one, and another one after that, followed by another one.

In the last 24 hours another 3 players have left, including our Mage class master, Rosey.

At this point in time, the prospects for Thunder progression in 10 man is looking dim. 25 man progression is a complete no no. And even getting a 25 man together is looking dicey. If we do it’ll be a farm of the first 4 bosses every week followed by wipes and more wipes on night 2. It’s very frustrating, especially as all bar 1 person left Thunder for another guild, Haribo.

In hindsight I don’t blame any of them. They wanted to progress in 10 and 25 man, and that, for them, just wasn’t happening with any great speed in Thunder. I can understand their situation, because I was hoping we were going to be killing the Lich King in 10 man very very soon, which would open Heroic mode up for a play about with.

More frustrating because Wednesday night’s 10 man run saw me spend the last frost emblems I’ll need to for major upgrades. My average item level is now well above the item level of gear in 10 man normal (average of 256 vs 251 gear in 10 man ICC). My Gearscore (bleh, I know ppl hate it, but I find it useful) is about 16 short of 5,800, which is pretty damn high. And I’ve started regularly hitting 8,500 DPS against the likes of Festergut, who is used these days as a DPS check.

As for the Retribution in the title?

The druid was boring in the end. Too slow in the DPS department at low levels, and shifting form constantly was a drag.

So I’ve rolled up a Retribution Paladin!

I’ve logged, so far, 33 hours on her in just under 3 weeks, and she’s already sitting at level 37!

There are several things about the Paladin class that make this such an enjoyable experience so far:

Survivability: LOL! How about taking on +5/+6 mobs and not even breaking a sweat? Groups of 5/6 mobs simultaneously, and all above your level? Easy!

Downtime: Eh? What’s that? Paladins have spells and abilities that not only cause damage, but replenish health and mana. Coming out of a fight, if I have less than 95% health then it’s a bad thing. Very frequently I’m back at 100% health & mana before I finish looting the body.

Travel: You also get the journeyman riding skill for free as part of your training, with a free mount, plus talents that increase your on foot and mounted speed by up to 15%. Again, less downtime and more time crushing skulls!

So I’m having an obscenely fun time with her. I’ll get her to 80, as the intention was always, and will be to have her as raid backup should I need to play a tank or melée DPS. We’ve been in need of both recently, and with the recent departures from the guild we have a spot (or two) for one. Hopefully I’ll be able to get her to 80 within the next 6 weeks or so, and it won’t take me long to get her ICC ready after that.

The reason for the quick levelling has everything to do as well with the Heirloom gear I’ve decked her out in:

Polished Spaulders of Valour

Polished Breastplate of Valour

Bloodied Arcanite Reaper

Altogether that gets me a bonus 20% experience, which soon stacks up and the levels fly by!

So having a ton of fun on the Pally, and a return to melée after playing a Regen Scrapper in City of Heroes. \o/

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Bearback Mountain

Mar 16 2010 Published by Saruya under Saruya's WoW Life

Mama Bear

And now I’m a bear! \o/

So yeah, I’ve started a Druid alt, to level in the times in between raids when there’s naff all to do on my mage.

To be honest, it’s pretty much EZMODE. You have your tauren caster form, then at level 10 you have to do this pain in the ass quest chain to get your Bear (tank) form, as you can see above. Other shapeshifting forms include Aquatic (for speedy travel in water), travel (cheetah), cat (dps) Moonkin (laser chicken DPS. Bwark!) Healing Tree (caster heals) and finally flight form, which saves on buying a flying mount tbh.

The good thing is you can collect herbs while still shapeshifted, so nipping about in flight form collecting herbs in Northrend will be a damn sight quicker than on my mage. So I’m dumping Herbalism on the mage, and switching to engineering on her, purely for the haste buffs engineering can give you. And I need more haste. If they sold it on street corners, I’d be there, gaunt faced, with a well used fiver in hand, looking for a hit.

As for the EZMODE comment – Fire off a couple of DPS casts in tauren form, and when the mob approaches instantly hit bear form and tank the mob the rest of the way to 0hp. Piece of piss. And you can self heal. Easier than a mage tbh, who can’t tank whatsoever, and has to be constantly on the move kiting mobs. Which is a contradictory play style to the mechanics of playing a mage, who, for the most part, needs to be stationary to cast.

As for the guild, we’ve finally managed to get to the Lich King in 10 man.

Note I say get to, not kill. That’s still a bit off as yet, but we’re getting there!

So 25 man tonight, and we’re off to Valithria Dreamwalker. Another boss I’ve never downed in 10 or 25. But most of my time raiding seems to be spent in progression fights – last 10 man was Putricide progression for a lot of people who’d never been to him before. I think I’ve maybe had 3 nights farming since I began raiding last month. I don’t mind, but I am still trying to get a lot of my level 232 gear shot of, and replaced with more level 264 gear via Frost Emblems. Better gear = easier & faster progression.

Either way it’s still fun!

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Level 80 – To Icecrown!

Jan 25 2010 Published by Saruya under Gaming, General World of Warcraft, Personal, Saruya's WoW Life

The Lich King awaits…

This has been a while in coming this post.

I hit 80.

About 3 weeks ago infact

After months of playing, about 530 hours of lazily levelling and farting about, I finally saw the final yellow ding glow in Utgarde Pinnacle with my guildies running in a 5 man dungeon.

Since that I have managed to massively upgrade my gear, so much so that I think I’m about ready for the hardest and highest level raids in the entire game: Icecrown 10 and 25 man raids.

I also spunked 4,000 gold on epic flying, which really hurt my wallet, as all I had was 4,181 gold :p

But I made up 1,000 gold in a couple of days through selling my alchemy produce and grinding out quests, so back up to respectable levels, although each new piece of gear needs re-gemmed and re-enchanted, which runs into hundreds of gold per item.

So thought is being given to dumping Herbalism, especially as the ability to find Frost Lotus for Flask of the Frost Wyrm is extremely low and taking up mining again or maybe jewelcrafting, as alchemy will allow me to produce the raw gem through transmutation, which I can then cut and socket myself. Saving me thousands of gold potentially, especially if I’m going to level another character to 80 (which should be a lot faster this time round!).

So I’m finally at the level cap, at least until Cataclysm hits, which looks to be in November of this year.

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A bad ass Pilgrim at 70

Nov 27 2009 Published by Saruya under Gaming, General World of Warcraft, PC Games, Saruya's WoW Life

I ain’t been drinkin, honest officer…

I hit level 70 earlier this week, which leaves 10 left until I hit 80 and can begin gearing up for raids!

And I bought some new gear giving me an extra 2100 mana, which means I can chuck damage out permanently without running out of mana, as it takes 3 minutes to burn through the 12.2k mana I have, and with a 2 min cooldown on Evocation (a spell which refills 60% of my mana and health) that means I can sit firing out damage all day long

I’ve also been made an Officer in Thunder, one of 3 newly promoted Officers in charge of dealing with the Guild Bank, which was done shortly before completing all the Thanksgiving event achievements to earn the Pilgrim title. I also got a pet turkey along with the title

And as you can see in the screenshot above, my character is finally looking like a high level character, rather than looking like a pauper wearing a mish mash of different gear. Finally!

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