WOW Notes

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft almost exclusively, every day.  It’s easier to write about games I’m not so familiar with for some reason than ones I know really well.

My current main character is a Paladin who has swept through the world up to Draenor without trying to complete any areas or quest lines, I’ve just kept her moving.  It is an appealing playstyle, but not one I could do with all of my characters.  Just getting to maximum level might be a little empty if you don’t have any tradeskills (which she doesn’t), and you are not up to the proper level for the area with mining and herbalism, her two professions.

It was always my plan to slow down once I got to Draenor, and do everything that can be done in Draenor (which is a lot).  I made it through each area, with every quest and Objective completed, through Spires of Arak.

You get the offer to go to the Broken Isles at level 98, and my character’s gear level certainly wasn’t up to going there.  Still, by the end of Arak I was level 100(?), and my habit of using this character to make money fast wasn’t being satisfied by Draenor’s quests, not quite.

At a still terrible item level of (eek, I know) approximately 524, I tried out the beginning scenario for Legion.  With only my character and one other person, it went pretty slow, but it was doable, no death.

I decided to get crushed by the Class Quest, but no, I steamrolled it. It was easier for her than for my main Paladin who had an easy enough time, with better gear, but not quite that easy.

Legion continues to be a struggle for me to play through, so I’ve been sending the secondary Paladin to Tanaan, working on Garrison Follower Missions, Naval Missions and the Fishing Dailies.  Then I send her to Dalaran to work the Class Hall missions, and out into Azsuna for quests.

As I’ve played through Tanaan and done quests in the Broken Isles she’s now at 701 item level and is having an easier time.

It occurred to me this week she is catching up with my Blackwater Raiders characters, and could surpass them.  That doesn’t seem right, does it? So I’ve picked my Paladin and Druid to go neck and neck on BWR towards 110, finally.

The Druid just finished Val’sharah.  Stormheim, coming up.  I have my main Paladin working in Highmountain, and I can barely stand it.  The Taurens all sound like the adults in the old Charlie Brown specials.  Wah, wah ,wah…  It’s a little better as you get away from Thunder Totem, the quests less…whiney…

Sliding in for some quality crafting time is my Gnome Engineer on BWR.  My son was looking for Heirlooms you could get with certain guild achievements, so I ground her up in crafting from where she was, in the mid 500s to over 600.  I moved her through Pandaria and into Draenor to get the craft skill up.  Engineering has the BEST STUFF.   I’m not pushing her through Draenor, but am working on her Engineer Dailies there.  I really want to be able to make some of the Pandaria recipes, including a big flying balloon thing that takes a billion Trillium, which I’ve found none of so far in Pandaria, but I know it’s in Darkmoon Crates often enough, so I’ll continue her through Pandaria rather than Draenor till she gets that thing.

Blingtrons!  I love seeing them, but who knew they fight each other when placed near each other and gain some sort of points for being the tough Blingtron on the block.   I always thought people were being nice when they say a Blingtron is outside the bank, blah blah, but maybe they’re fingering the little guys for some bully Blingtron to come and take them out.

Might I say I’m proud of this little gnome.  She’s the first Gnome, the first Warrior, the first Engineer among all my characters to make it to Draenor and have her own cozy spot in the world.

The game has a lot of layers…

Everquest 2: Adventures of a Tiny Paladin

I thought I might go five levels a week with this character and write up her adventures. She is in the Greater Faydark area, Kelethin, which is a nice change from the Frostfang Sea (New Halas) beginner area my Froglok is eternally (it seems) trapped in. Although there are fairies and a sort of sickly sweet nature vibe to the area, it is a nice change. There is also a bank and a mender and a merchant in a sweet little hut right there, very convenient.

Paladin

I tried to do my homework on this class a bit ahead of time so I could make choices wisely. As with other game guides, all of the advice seems aimed at how you can be da bomb at max level. Also, most of the “beginner’s guides” were very old. 2008 old. I’m sure there have been changes since then.

I’m looking carefully at the tooltips for each skill to see how operate.

They go from simple…

Judgement Target: Enemy Inflicts 5-8 Divine Damage Interrupts target

…to mind bogglingly fullsome…

Knight’s Stance

Target: Self
Duration: Until cancelled
Reduces physical damage done to caster by 5%
Adds 2.8% to base avoidance
Decreases Crushing, Piercing, and Slashing of caster by 1.4%
Increases Aggression and Defense of caster by 1.6%
Increases mitigation of caster vs arcane damage by 138
Increases the casters effectiveness of worn armor vs physical damage by 15%

TMI?

From what I’ve read, it appears paladins in EQ2 are tanks or healers, and perhaps “squishy” ones, and they are not DPS. Could be wrong. Where’s my WOW retribution paladin type option? I already have my Cat Defiler healer so wouldn’t want to do that really. Maybe. I am comfortable enough off spec tanking in WOW because I’ve done the dungeons so many times with so many characters that I know them well and can step in when the tank leaves (as they so often do). I don’t know… Well, I’ll decide when I need to. I’m not killing off my little girl.

Quests

There are the usual types of quests, but the starter ones included how to harvest and at one point the very handy in game Tutorial page popped up. Maybe many of my questions will be answered here.

As you can see, there is this nice explanation of Heroic Opportunities, that odd combat mechanism that had me boggled. I shall now fight much more heroically.

Climbing Things

I’ve seen it before in other parts of the world, but there is this ability to climb ropes and trees and cliff faces that I really like. It makes things a bit more dimensional.

You get better at…

I like the ongoing feedback that you get while advancing in various skills that you see in the chat line. It makes you feel like you’re making progress.

You get better at…. Aggression 7/20 Ranged 13/20 (!! so odd to see a ranged skill with this class) Defense 20/20
It seems to me that Aggression is supposed to be key to this class so I need to work on that.

“Have Sword Will Travel” Reads The Card of a (Wo)Man…

 

As you may guess, once I started leveling my Paladin in Dungeons so I can level inscription and get to Northrend for herbs, I was a busted doggie.   I even set up my toolbar for protection just in case and had a bummy old sword and shield in my inventory.

Sethekk Halls was the first.  The tank just poofed without a word.  Say, Paladin, can you tank?    Ah, not very well.

Two more tanks in and out of that single dungeon and swapping from retribution to protection…bah.

The dread Escape from Durnhold Keep (man I hate that place).  Down to me, a healer and a dps at midpoint.  Luckily another tank poofs in.

I guess I’ll learn how to tank a Paladin after all.