I haven’t been this hooked on an MMO since Guild Wars (in the 2005-20007 time frame) or LoTRO (in the 2007-2009 time frame). I can’t play as much now as I could back then, but I’m fairly consistent in getting an hour or two every day on average.
My main char is Suhl, a discipline priest, currently level 38. I keep an eye on LFG for groups that need healing in appropriate dungeons, and it’s been a lot of fun so far. Deadmines, Stockades, Gnomeregan, Scarlet Monestary… next up is Uldaman after I gain a few more levels.
Most of my leveling from 31 has been in Scarlet Monastery’s various wings, and it’s been good to me as far as loot and gear upgrades, but at the same time I’m looking forward to something else.
I will run Scarlet Monastery a few more times, because I finally got the quest In the Name of the Light, which is to kill 4 bosses that I’ve already killed many times (well, healed for groups that successfully killed the various bosses). The prerequisite involved killing 30 undead ravagers in Desolace (level ~38 mobs) so I went off and did that – which took a while as a discipline priest, lots of bubbles (Power Word: Shield) and wanding. That’s fine because I don’t have much downtime otherwise (positive spin on “it takes so long to finish off a mob most my mana regenerates”) and was never really at much risk.
I don’t mind a few more trips into Scarlet Monastery. After all, I still need Whitemane’s Chapeau to complete my Scarlet Monastery collection of gear. 🙂
My alt is Eresat a holy paladin. This class grew on me, I was bored of it in the mid teens and nearly ready to give up. But I pushed a few more levels and things got better. I can’t remember anything specific, but it was probably a combination of gaining a few more skills so there was something to do besides mostly auto-attacking and refreshing buffs.
Eresat started as a protection paladin, but after my disastrous warrior tanking attempt I decided to switch to the healing spec instead. I figured, if I can’t tank as a warrior when that class actually has threats and taunts, I’m screwed on a paladin where there aren’t any.
The general plan was to follow in my priest’s footsteps and jump in to heal various dungeons and otherwise landscape quest along. So far I’ve also healed Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep… but I’ve also successfully tanked Deadmines and Stockades!! Both of those tanking efforts were at the urging/plea of my friend who wanted to run those dungeons and had trouble finding a tank. Thus, a literal in-game knight to the rescue.
I figured, what the heck, let’s give it a try. At the time Eresat was level 27 or so, out-leveling Deadmines and at the upper end of the range of Stockades.
And, to my pleasant surprise, it went well! Obviously, out-leveling the dungeon really helped, but I found tanking on the paladin was doable, even in the healing spec, and it was even less stressful than tanking on the warrior. That’s because the paladin can run two skills to passively generate threat or do damage (Retribution Aura and Righteous Fury), so I just had to pop Consecration and a Seal (of Righteousness or Crusader) on cooldown, which was a light enough mental load (for lack of a better term) I could swap targets and pay attention to the overall fight better. When something peeled off, I could swap targets and/or chase it down.
So I’m willing to tank on my paladin, but only when I’m at the upper level range of the content. Otherwise I can heal, also when I’m at the upper end of the level range, and this flexibility is fantastic. Eresat is currently level 30 and I’ll consider SM: Graveyard in a few more levels, for example.
My 3rd character is a druid that gets scraps of playtime since I can’t really play three characters. I started as a feral druid, decided I wanted to try balance instead, so I payed the respec fee. Unfortunately, I find balance to not be much fun, it feels low damage and my downtime recovering mana is long. I did heal my friend’s instance group, but feel weaker since the druid doesn’t have utility/emergency skills (like my priest’s Fade, to help drop threat; or Power Word: Shield to buy a few crucial seconds in a heavy damage situtation), and itemization is tougher. That is, there isn’t as much leather armor with caster stats.
My druid is currently level 23 and since I already respec’ed, doing another one costs 5 gold. UGH!! 5 gold is painful but I suppose it is better than effectively abandoning the character. If I were lower level, say mid teens, I seriously would just start a replacement druid to avoid this ridiculous respec fee.
I’m trying to save up for a mount for my priest and it’s tough to part with that much gold. On the other hand, a mount apparently costs 100 gold (OUCH!! 20 for the skill, 80 for the mount; minus 10% for reputation… so “only” 90 gold) 5 gold is just a fraction of what I need. But I don’t have much gold in general, heck just buying skills as I level doesn’t leave much left over. I guess I need to get serious about farming.
MMO Juggler 