Catriona R
6/23/2011 10:20:00 AM
I started yet another alt the other day - been meaning to make a auren
paladin for a while, and also recently came to the conclusion that
levelling my blood elf one to 85 will be likely rather easier as retri
than prot (I've always been prot, ever since being retri on a dwarf
back in vanilla was the most painful levelling experience I've ever
had lol; prot was so much better for questing back then that I never
went back!), but I really hate trying to learn a new spec at high
level with tons of skills, so hey, time to make a young Sunwalker :-)
Several random thoughts on the experience so far:
- Retri is infinitely better than I remembered it ;-) Kinda fun having
mobs die in 2 hits if I get some crits! Also has a nice *small* number
of spells that I use much (at least so far, and I don't see a huge
number upcoming) - my prot pally has far too many to manage
comfortably, which is a problem when I'm really no good at learning
keybindings, so try to put the most important 6-7 on binds and click
the rest... with a tankadin it's a most important 10-12 spells :-/
- Holy Power generates too slowly (or decays too fast) right now, I'm
hoping it gets better but I hardly ever use Templars Verdict
currently, since I get one HP per mob killed usually (mob dies before
Crusader Strike is off cd), and then half the time I lose one before I
reach the next mob. Hopefully longer living mobs will help there...
- Sunwalker kodos look great, much more interesting than regular ones!
:-)
- Northern Barrens levels a bit too fast. I was baffled when I read
they'd added more quests to it, since I was only 3-4 bars off 22 when
I finished it on the beta realm (having missed a small quest hub that
was off the beaten track), so adding even more quests seemed
unnecessary. Well, having just finished the zone, with no heirlooms,
no guild perks, making a point of not ever logging out in an inn (so
no rested), not getting the fire festival exp buff... I'm lvl 22. Hmm.
Ok, so I'm a miner and I got a little exp that way but still, anyone
with even the smallest exp buff will end up skipping Ashenvale since
they may as well go straight to Stonetalon if they get much more exp
than I did.
- The added quests did much improve the place though! Made the north
end more interesting, improved the getting around side of things, gave
the Burning Blade some purpose, and actually took me directly to that
small questhub I missed on the beta (only knew it was there when my
2nd character in the zone fell over it by accident lol, it was well
hidden!). And I loved the caravan ride up to Ashenvale, nice reward as
well :-)
- For the first time ever, I soloed Counterttack on a character of
appropriate level! Granted it was by accident, in that I accidentally
aggroed the elite+5 friends, ran away with Hand of Protection up,
killed the last mob when I thought the rest had leashed and the elite
came back! Was a very close fight but Word of Glory was enough to
(just) keep me alive!
- Blacksmithing is actually less painful to level than it used to be
:-O I'm shocked, since my experiences of leatherworking and tailoring
this expansion have been so bad that I abandoned both and went dual
gathering on all alts so far, you just don't kill enough mobs with the
faster levelling to get enough cloth or skin enough leather (heck, you
barely get enough cloth to level first aid at some level ranges). But
the increased vein spawns make blacksmithing far less painful.
Although Northern Barrens needs more tin than just 3 veins in the
harpies area, guess I'll catch up on bronze in Ashenvale though.
- The server I rolled on has a dreadful AH on horde side. I've got
Alliance characters on this server but this is my first horde one and
it reminds me of how Draenor Horde AH was before the influx of
migrants (for some reason Draenor was *the* server to move to at the
end of TBC, and then the high pop relative to other PVE servers
brought more and more in since then, think it's now one of the highest
pop Horde servers in Europe). I'd forgotten how bad that was lol... as
a lowbie with no main, trying to get bags is horrendous! Got 6-slots
no problem, bought a few 8-slots from vendors and then, well. AH has
6-slots for 25s+ (hello? They're 5s on the vendor), or 16-slots for
20g. Nothing in between. Unfortunately, being tauren, and having found
their quests dried up after I left Mulgore, I'm not revered with
anybody for a rep bag yet, so I'm down to the 14-slots I found on a
vendor for 10g80s. Well I've managed to afford *one* of those, which
blew all my gold. Argh. Ok, so every server is stupid prices on the
16-slots, but I'm used to being able to get maybe 10-slots or
12-slots? :-P
Having fun overall though :-) Not sure how far this character will get
but it's fun having a different playstyle to learn, enjoying it so
far.
--
EU-Draenor:
Sagart (85 Undead Priest)
Tairbh (85 Tauren Druid)
Buinne (85 Troll Shaman)
Balgair (80 Human Rogue)
Ruire (80 Blood Elf Paladin)