Tales From Ashenvale

THIS JUST IN:

 Low-level Druid DPS sucks either way if you don't have heirlooms.

YAY.

Level 20 - To Kitty Or Not to Kitty?

Darkshore

Darkshore stays as awesome as it started.

Errol with her new hair outside of Lor'danel.

After helping out the survivors on the beach you're sent to deal with a troll problem in Northern Auberdine. Yes, the dancing troll village from vanilla is an actual place now and they've allied with the Horde. Most of your efforts in this part of the zone involve stopping the Horde from progressing any further and rescuing any prisoners. It was a very interesting micro-dungeon for me because I tend to level more on the Horde side and I'm not used to seeing the war crimes they commit.

I was a bit lost after completing this part of the zone. You take out the troll leader, but don't get any breadcrumbs to continue. I wandered around the zone until I found a quest hub I had missed. This hub is made up entirely of Auberdine refugees and they send you to the ruins to finish what you started when you arrived. You destroy some of the elementals that have been wreaking havoc, you out a few souls to rest and you rescue and loud-mouthed and fiesty Dwarf. Like the opening quests, these quests triggered a very strong emotional response in me. I wanted to put these people's souls to rest, I wanted to save the Dwarf and I wanted to absolutely DESTROY the elementals.

Waterfalls in Darkshore.

The leader of the camp of refugees isn't really a refugee at all. He's a Night Elf druid that was sent to help Malfurion Stormrage save Darkshore. He's got his hands full, so he sends you instead. As a young Night Elf druid (and fan of Malfurion/Tyranda/Illidan) I was absolutely ecstatic. Shan'do's quests send you to ally with the moonkin, furbolg and ancients population in Darkshore. After you do that you break into the Emerald Nightmare and rescue a green dragon that the Twilight's Hammer had captured. You shoot some stuff out of the sky and then you're sent back to Malfurion.

That's as far as I got in the zone and I don't that I'll be able to finish it before the quests go grey. I'll do as much as I can, but I might have to move to Ashenvale prematurely.

"Yeah, mon, I jus' gotta sit down a sec."

Northern Barrens


The Northern Barrens began in a lackluster way and it keeps it's mediocrity for awhile.

The turning point for me is when you're turning in a quest (the name of the quest escapes me, otherwise I'd link it). The quest involves Undead apothecaries and you turn it into an Forsaken woman in Ratchet. I didn't expect anything interesting to come of it, so when I turned it in and a Orc soldier confiscated the research, yelled at the woman and reminded me of the Wrathgate, I was surprised and very happy. It's the little things like this that make the the New Old-World all that much better.

I do love it when this happens.

While in Ratchet you get a fuckton of quests that send you to a pirate/Alliance themed micro-dungeon called the Merchant Coast. These quests are fun in a muted way - they aren't "epic" on par with Darkshore, but they definitely offer adventure: you help lead a mutiny, let a pirate free and give the Alliance some hell. Also, you get a really good chunk of XP.

Wailing Caverns

It's beauty masks the frustration.

Wailing Caverns used to be the bane of my existence, but it's much better now. In 4.1 "the maze section of the Wailing Caverns" was removed and I was one of the players that said "Isn't that the whole thing?". The Wailing Caverns is still a maze, but it's much shorter and easier to navigate now. If only we could get people to stop leaving before the dungeon's over.



Druidism


There weren't a lot of new spells, but a lot of other things happened.

While in a dungeon on Errol I noticed that my DPS was very low (discussed here). I was perplexed - I was doing everything right, what gives? I ran a dungeon on Hypo and compared numbers. Hypo DPS, with heirlooms, was MUCH higher than Errol's. I know that low-level DPS doesn't matter, but it made me feel like a shit druid who was under performing.

Everything's blue in Moonglade.

I had a fair amount of cat leather in my bags, so I respecced on Errol and now she's a kitty. Even though my "leveling two balance druids" deal is kind of off now, I can always switch back and it'll be cool to compare the leveling difference between to members of the same class with different specs.

MOUNTS!

No more running around on foot (well, in travel form, but still!).

Errol now has a Striped Dawnsaber, one of the least used Night Elf mounts. I've only seen it once or twice and the others are so overused. I'm quite fond of the saber mounts, but they absolutely need a graphics upradge. I feel the same way about wolves.

Everything's orange in Durotar.

Hypocritic has a Turquoise Raptor. I couldn't decide which raptor to buy, but the turquoise color is so vibrant I couldn't resist!


Looking Ahead

I'd like to get to level 25, or maybe even 30 next week!

Thoughts On Speccing And Goals

I'm contemplating respeccing Errol over to feral, so she can level as a kitty.

I attempted a Deadmines run earlier this morning and it didn't go so well, me being the last on the dps charts. I am unsure about what happened. I was kicking ass on Hypo in Ragefire Chasm and I know my rotation was fine. I was in the group with a rogue, a frost mage, a paladin tank and a ret pally who had entered the queue as a healer. Maybe it was the group make up?

Hmm...

I know low-level dps does not matter, but it always makes me uneasy when I'm low on the charts and I've never been last before. Luckily, the new talent trees allow you level with whatever you want and a Druid has a lot of choices.

Tanking is out of the question. I've never tanked before and I wouldn't know the first thing about it. Although I've never looking into bear thanking, I'm under the impression that it's less than stellar at the moment as well.

Healing is a possibility. I already have the gear for it (although at such a low level, gear would be easy to replace) and I've healed before. As a priest. Up until level 30. I'd be willing to try it, but I'm also unsure.

Feral combat, or kitty form is another interesting bet. My first toon was a rogue, and although I'm not comfortable with melee, I'd be willing to learn. I'm unsure if cats are in a good position at the moment, though.

I could, as always, stick with Balance. I know I'd like to level Balance on at least one of the toons and I have the heirlooms. Maybe such a dark place will be gone as time moves on?

Also, I have some goals for the end of June.

On my main, Haunts, I'd like to acquire a netherdrake, get the explorer title and finish the Midsummer Fire Festival meta. I'd like to get my hunter to Outland, and maybe even Northrend. I'd like to get Errol and Hypocritic to level 45.

Level 16 - Secondary Zones, Travel Forms and Dungeons

 I apologise for the late updates. It's been a busy week. Things will be back off the ground by next week, when updates will become more regular.

First Impressions: Darkshore

The ruins of Auberdine.

Ah, Darkshore. I've already spoken about my love for Night Elf zones in the past, but nothing beats Darkshore. I was a HUGE fan of the old Darkshore. I loved the atmosphere and the quests, I was familiar with most of the NPCs in Auberdine, as well as the general layout of the land. Whenever I tried to level an Alliance toon I would avoid Westfall and Bloodmyst and head straight to Darkshore.

In Cataclysm it becomes very apparent right away that shit hit Darkshore and shit hit Darkshore good. The quests I've done so far involve helping and saving survivors. These quests are very well designed and play upon equal parts emotion and nostalgia, as most of the survivors and victims are NPCs that used to hands out quests, sell goods or repair items, pre-Cata.

The tornado that rips it's way through Darkshore.

I've not progressed very far into this massive zone (90 quests to get loremaster, and if you've done any loremaster achievements you know that there are ALWAYS more than required), but so far I love what I see. As fond as I was of the old Darkshore, it did need a revamp - it was a big zone and running only gets you places so fast. Now you've got access to a sentinel's kitty mount and each quests is new and exciting.

First Impressions: Northern Barrens

I hated the Barrens. Now my hate is more of a lukewarm dislike.

It's rather pretty, though.

Darkshore throws you into the action right away. The Northern Barrens puts around, sending you out of your way to kill quillboar. Don't get me wrong - the zone has changed, A LOT. The quests have a better flow and once you get to the Crossroads you aren't being sent too far away without an escort, but many of the quests are still "kill x, collect y".

I'm hoping that the zone improves as I make my way through it, because what I've seen so far isn't very spectacular.

Ragefire Chasm -

Fucking troggs, man.

At level 15, Errol and Hypo got access to the dungeon finder. I was unable to run a dungeon with Errol, but I got into Ragefire Chasm with Hypo.

Ragefire Chasm got a bit of a revamp with Cataclysm. There are now more bosses, and the quests at the beginning lead you to kill the bosses that are a little out of the way. My only problem with this "follow-the-quest" system is that the quests are Horde-specific, and I'm not sure how this will be handled when I run through it on Errol.

RFC remains a good starter-dungeon. The atmosphere is good, the bosses are a bit of challenge if you're group isn't in all heirloom gear and there's a decent amount of trash.


Druidism - 

Playing Balance solo is a bit of challenge, but nothing I can't handle. At this point I'm having next to no downtime, and if things get sticky I cat form and melee my way out. I just got bear form at level 15, so I didn't have a lot of time to mess around with it. At level 16 you also receive the rest of your non-talent tree specific forms (besides flight form, of course), which really is a godsend while leveling.

Although I've only had the chance to play Balance in one dungeon, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cast times are sort of slow at this level, but I still managed to perform alright. I can see this posing a problem at higher levels (when things die REALLY REALLY FAST. I'm talking Dire Maul/Stratholme), but I understand that by then I will have some AoEs and more DoTs.

Future -

It's summer now, and I have more time to play WoW. I'm thinking about designating days of the week to play these toons. I'm thinking Monday for Errol and Tuesday for Hypo.