12 Memories

The World of Warcraft is the game that just will not stop. Launched on 23rd November 2004 in the US and some time later for the Europeans, it means that some people out there are still playing the same game after 8 and a half years.

I have personally played a long time, around 7-8 years without ever taking a break and spent many hours levelling multiple characters through the Old World (pre Cataclysm). If you showed me a screenshot of a zone (except for the Horde starter zones) I would be able to tell you exactly where it was, due to the total immersion in the game. I have done thousands of quests and remember a very large chunk of them. I have been in every instance and every raid the game has produced and remember them in vivid detail.

What is less clear is the materials and the uses of them once they are no longer valid or current. I have no idea what Essence of the Dung Beetle is used for, or Ichor of Bad Breath, but I can guarantee that at some point I was out farming for them, to create some gear, or more likely a shiny enchant for my weapon.

There are many things in the current game that I have already forgotten. If there is no immediate use for something then it will be pushed to the back of my mind and eventually forgotten for ever. One of the reasons I read a lot of blogs is to remind me of some of the forgotten content, and yesterday I was rewarded by reading The Song Remains the Same by The Godmother.

Weapons in this expansion have largely past me by, because I am so far behind the curve and the only thing I did know was that they are relatively scarce. There is reward of a Blue 450 weapon from one of the Scenarios and then it is wait 100 days and hopefully you might get lucky. Many bloggers have been having personal battles with the RNG gods and for the most part been one-shotted every week.

The Godmother reminded me that there are some crafted Epic weapons in this expansion, unless of course you are a Hunter (no longer the proud holders of all loot is Hunter loot title). I decided to investigate the Inscription Staves, and was very impressed by the shiny purple colour and the fact that I did not have to sell my Grandmother to make one.

The principle is simple, make a levelling Blue version for the trip from 85 to 90 and then convert into it's epic form at max level. The best thing about it is that it is Bind on Account.

 

 

When the expansion was released most Scribes would not have the reagents available to make these. Starlight Ink, Scroll of Wisdom and Spirit of Harmony were not things that I could spare to make a staff. At this stage of the expansion, I no longer make Glyphs, Darkmoon Cards are something I dabble with and I have the ability to grow a shed load of Spirit of Harmony.

 

In one simple upgrade my Mage is now doing twice the DPS and I am thinking that Frost Mages may be very over powered if they scale this well. I can't wait till I can a complete epic set. I think my Hunter might be sitting out the rest of the expansion.

 

It's A Kind Of Magic

Recently I have been talking about the Valor cap, and that since the MoP expansion began I have only managed this once, and that by getting all my Valor early on in the week I free up time to do what I want. The Godmother who also plays the Alt version of WoW, has managed this feat twice, so I am in good company.

I knew in advance that the Easter weekend would be a bad time for me to play, with my wife off work and my kids going to bed much later than normal. I attempted to race through on Wednesday and Thursday, but LFR was long waiting times, and I was forced to abandon this plan.

With no pressure, and being time restricted I decided to try something else, like levelling one of my languishing characters. My choices boiled down to my second Hunter, a Mage, or my Monk. I already have a max level Hunter, but they are so damn easy to level and it would be a stress free exercise. My Monk I have been playing in 60 minute intervals to make full use of the Enlightenment buff. I eventually settled on some quality time with my Gnomey Frost Mage who was stuck at level 87.

Frost mages have never been the goto spec for PvE, but I always loved the versatility, a complete toolbox of tricks which makes them so formidable in PvP.

The major nuke of the Frost mage was historically the Frostbolt, but the current incarnation of the spell seems very lacklustre. I can only liken it to the Elemental Shaman spell Lightning Bolt. It is the filler spell, which leaves the spec with the main task of engineering Fingers of Frost, and the supercharged Ice Lance. This seems a bit too stage managed with 3 controllable Freeze spells and a random proc. The Freeze element and the Ice Barrier was the element that gave Frost more survivability. Fire Mages want mobs to go up in flames before they get into your face, Frost is about stopping them getting from getting toe-to-toe.

Mages are the first class that I levelled in Pandaria that regularly misses with the spells. There is a 3-4% chance of missing when fighting mobs of the same level, and I am seriously considering Re-forging to achieve this. Hunters, Death Knights and Warriors are able to power through this difficult levelling period, when they constantly need improvements in gear to stop becoming less powerful on the way up to level 90.

My little Glass Cannon seems less Cannon and more like a pea shooter in this expansion. To be honest I am enjoying the challenge.

With the current trend towards homogenisation of the classes, I still like the quirky spells that some classes have that are unique to them. With the mage class there are plenty of tricks that you can do with the Blink spell. One recent experiment went very badly whilst helping the Shado Pan in Kun-Lai Summit. There are 2 quests that you can do on the wall, which involve booting archers off the wall and stealing explosive/tar/alcohol in barrels. Having killed many archers, there was distinct shortage of barrels. This required that I should venture further along the wall, but would no doubt require me to fight my way back. I collected the last barrel and I ran back attracting a lot of attention. My intention was to go invisible and than reappear next to the quest givers.

This of course did not go as intended and my Clingon Cloaking Device lasted less than a second and reappeared in front of a large and very angry mob. Rather than tough it out and Frost Nova them all, I turned and Blink in the hope of handing the quests in and flying out of the area.

The biggest problem with Blink is the random distance travelled, this time I achieved maximum range and promptly fell into the abyss, missing the quest givers by some distance. My usual method for unexpected encounters with gravity is to blink near the ground, and so I have long stopped using Slow Fall. Of course Blink was still on cooldown so I was left in a very Wile E Coyotesque situation. I could swear that Gnomey's legs were still running long before gravity won the day.

Perhaps now is a good time to reinstate Slow Fall on my spell bar.

 



 

 

Keep On Running

I have always enjoyed playing a Mage, the power and the fragility, the archetypal glass cannon. I have managed to master the fragility but never the power. Frost Mage was always going to be my chosen spec, the need to keep you at arms reach whilst blasting you to smithereens.

Last night I took my Mage to Theramore's Fall to see if Frost was any better in the MoP era. During the last 2 expansions Frost Mages have been shunned in PvE and feared and hated in PvP, was it now my time to shine or shiver. I was grouped with a Cat Druid and Rogue, lots of sneeky stabby, swipe, swipe. It worked well, with me freezing the masses while the AoE went off, Fan of Knives, Blizzard and whatever it is that Druids do with their claws out.

The run was smooth and easy as the content should be until The Last Stand - Protecting Jaina while she attunes to the Focusing Iris. The Horde charged, the Druid disconnected, the rogue became a greasy smear, and I ran around like a headless chicken.

Actually for once I kept my head and took the stance that this was actually possible to solo. I froze the Horde and cast Evocation to make sure I had some health and full mana. I managed to top up my health to about 50% before setting up a rotation of Freeze, Ice Lance and Blink. I took out the adds without too much hassle, but I was keeping my eye on Warlord Rok'Nah. I was stupid enough to catch a couple of reflected spell, but learned from the experience.

I managed to keep this going for what seemed like ages but eventually my health was heading South and I knew 5% did not give me any room for chance. At this point the cavalry arrived, we had a Rogue and Druid to finish off the job.

I may not be the best mage in the world but I do know how to stay alive. I know there are DK's and Pallies that would solo the whole scenario, but I am pleased with myself, for completing the scenario, without it bugging out. It is easy content for 3 but it is less pleasant for a solitary injured Mage.