Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

I won't be around much for the next day or so but that's okay. I got Fury of the Raging Dragon the other morning. I haven't tried it out, but this gun look sooo cool!!! :D

See everyone soon!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Level 70 And Beyond

Finally, I dinged 70 this morning with little granduer. I am so happy I finally arrived at this level and can now begin the slow drive to 80 (I know, I'm already doing that). I also recently raised my leatherworking above 375 and I have almost crafted all of my Frostscale armor set. I have to say, this armor set is really nice as an introduction to what can be made at these levels. I'm actually kinda giddy to see how the whole set measures out when I reach a high enough level to wear the full set. Surprisingly leveling LW looks to be fairly easy so far and I am looking forward to what else I will be able to craft.

I am at a point now that I think I will have to put my cat away. My gorilla needs some serious leveling attention and the more that I run around leveling, the more I realize that a tanking pet is going to be better overall for the purposes of getting my quests done. I am finding that my cat is losing aggro too often and that I am having to spend a lot of time kiting and traping when I shouldn't be. This is doubly important in that I and a terrible kiter. I am getting the hang of chain trapping and understand what goes behind it to make it successful. Kiting on the other hand seems to elude me. In time I'll master this I'm sure, it just makes things difficult right now as I could really use that skill at times when my kitty doesn't hold onto the mobs.

Now that I am in full Northrend mode one thing that I have been starting to consider are the target numbers in AGI, AP and Crit that I will want to acheive when I hit level 80. From glancing at the gear available at that level acheiving high levels of AP should be relatively easy, as should hitting my hit rating cap. I would still like to know what would be considered low for AP and what the medium range would need to be for Crit. I know that having a decent mana pool is also going to be of benefit as that will mean less time under Aspect of the Viper. I know that like in BC having a Crit percentage near or better than 30% will be ideal. I just haven't figured out where the AGI and AP should be yet. If anyone has some numbers they would like to throw around I'd love to hear it.

Till Next Time,
Zulu

Friday, November 21, 2008

Tanks, Flying Carpets, And Whatelse?

Okay, so I am playing both sides right now in LK. Ally side with a Shammy and Horde with yours truly. The Alliance are missing it all! I haven't even dinged a level and I've destroyed 100+ lvl 72 elites with a tank, flown the wonderful flying carpet you see above several times now and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of play. The closest anything has come to this with LK is the Death Knight starting area.

I've decided that instead of racing to 80 like most people, I am going to find a comfortable rhythm and enjoy the content of Northrend and the story of the Horde there. Other blogs like 'For the Horde' are already talking about the interesting stories and such. WoWInsider had a good article a day or two ago about the stories in the quest chains there. In the coming months I will relate my adventures as I begin to seriously look at the new theorycraft for BM hunters to see where I want to go with Zulu at 80.

I'm sooo having fun!!!!
Zulu

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Northrend & Warsong Hold

A couple of weeks ago I was determined to quest and grind for rep in Nagrand so that I could hopefully get one of the new mounts there. If life had been kind, this would have happened and I would have reached level 69 and possibly 70 and finished my grind to exatled for the mount. Murphy had his way again though and I found myself barely playing during the weeks leading up to and through the release of the new expansion. In fact, I wasn't able to get my copy of the expansion until the Friday following the expansion. My first time to log on and to see the full granduer of LK was Saturday morning and that meant Zulu had to wait. I first logged into my Ally main, a level 70 Shammy, to take him to Northrend first and explore around, snatch up my next mastery levels for my professions and orient myself with things there. It was a lot of fun and the Alliance village on the coast is really set up nicely and in an interesting manner.

Following this I rolled my Death Knight. Don't berate me too much, but I rolled Alliance (as this is where my primary guild and friends are) with a Dwarf. Kragnar by name and I have to say, I love this little fella. Don't be surprised to see me begin a blog just for him. Then I logged onto Zulu...

She dinged 68 super fast (I was only 3 bubbles away since the last time I played her) regeared with some stuff I had waiting in my bank and then took off for Orgrimmar and the Zepplin to Northrend. My arrive at Warsong Hold has been one of the most awe inspiring moments since I've started playing this game. Warsong Hold is massive, gothic, and completely awe inspiring. So far it the best city I've seen in the game. I literally spent almost an hour there just taking the place in. Then it began, I was off to the races and I have started to level. I haven't dinged just yet but I am already replacing gear at a rapid rate and my stats have literally jumped by a hundred or so points. And I have taken my first magic carpet ride and I have decided that if possible, my flying mount will be one of these awesome things. See above for what I mean by that.

I will defiintely have more to come, so stay tuned!

Zuluki

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Oh So Close!

So I hit 66 and I am now faced with a small dilemma. I have a quest log full of quests that require help from other people or the quests are multifaceted in that they require either a lot of travel or steps to complete. Generally speaking these kinds of quests slow me down tremendously. So, here are my options. Spend an evening or two cleaning up on these quests, which may or may not advance a lot of XP, or head off to Nagrand where I know I can clear another level just on Nesingwary and another level of the rest of the quests. Also there is the rep grind that can be done pretty quickly should I so chose to do that for the Mag'har rep. There are two ogre camps that can be ground for hours that will land me at exalted pretty fast. Doing this should also pretty much gaurantee that I will be 68 or 69, if not 70 when Lich King releases. I also can run into Blades Edge and Netherstorm if needed as well, not to mention Shadowmoon Valley. The point being made here, is that I am at the point where finishing the run to 70 will be relatively easy.

Another interesting sideline, I had almost forgotten about Jumanji, my gorilla. I checked on him in the stables yesterday and nearly fell over. He's still level 60! Well, my kitty is 65, so I put my cat into the stables and pulled out the Gorilla. He's now up to 63, but I am definitely going to have to remember to keep him leveled up since he is my main and only Tank pet right now. I had really thought about taming a wasp, but after observing them in Zanger I decided against it. I really want something interesting for my 3rd pet so I will go off in search of other possibilities here. I guess I'm off to go and do more research at petopia to see if I can find something more fitting for me.

Zuluki

Monday, November 3, 2008

Hellfire, Zangermarsh, Terrorkar....

I cannot believe that I have raced through these areas so quickly. I think I am at least 1/3 of the way through Terrorkar right now and except for all the group quests in Zanger, I've completed everything there. I cleared 2 levels over the weekend making me a lot more confident about hitting at least 68 by the middle of next week. In my favor though is another weekend and a day next week where I can play all day long. If this doesn't get me as ready as possible for Lich King, then nothing will.

Some interesting things I've observed. One is that my stats are a lot higher than I would have anticipated at this level of the game. I've very close to havnig 1000 AP, and my crit chance is over 16%. While I try to keep fairly itemized gear wise, I am no where near what would be optimal. Since the changes in 3.0.2, learning to add in INT to my gear mix up has been interesting. While I tend to collect gear with 'of the Bandit' from the AH, I am finding that the quest rewards and such are actually a lot better as far as itemization goes. I see more gear from quest rewards that cover AGI, INT, AP and Hit than I do anywhere else, and there is apart of me that wishes I could do instances to gather the blue gear from there. Either way, I get the best gear I can before running off to Northrend.

I have decided that maxing my LW is in my best interest at this point as well. I am only 35 points away from 375 and if I can get this maxed before I go to Northrend I feel I will be in really good shape there. That way I can gear up on crafted gear and put myself in position to level LW as quickly as possible. I think that once I reach level 80 and max my Leatherworking at 450 I am going gear up as much as possible and then drop LW and level another crafting profession. I'm leaning towards either Engineering or Enchanting. Not sure on which but one of these will come next.

I feel comfortable that I will reach level 66 before Friday, then I'll make one or two more levels over the weekend and I am hoping that I can reach level 69 or 70 before the release and craft my epic crafted gear by then. Here's to hoping and I've got my fingers crossed.

Happy Hunting all...
Zuluki