1.9 biggest Blizzard fuck-up so far

[Threash]

What the hell am I doing wrong?

I don't have anything enchanted right now since I don't know what I'll end up keeping and what I won't by the time I feel I'm at least passably geared, but with just two greens remaining (my Imperial PLate Chestpiece and Shoulders, eh, I'm waiting to get the ones from DM or Valor), I have around 4380-ish or so HP unbuffed if I recall. This is with the the Valor bracers/leggings/gauntlets, the Golem Skull Helm, the Grand Marshal Morris Medallion (+7 Stamina), the hammer of the vesper (+stamina), the Aegis of Stormwind (yeah, gimp compared to the like 3 nice quest shields you can get from Scholo/plaguelands/whatever, but it's +stamina), Belt of the Dawn, the Ribsteel Footguards, the Blackstone ring, and the Mason's Frat Ring.

I mean, that's definitely not uber gear by any means, but even Kromcrush's Breastplate and the shoulders from DM, I wouldn't have 5k HP unbuffed. WTF?

Uhh its the enchants and librams :P  you are missing 100hps from chest head and legs, 70 from boots and 90 from bracers.

[Soln]

But do they say such gems as "Being a victim is fun" or "Alchemy is working as intended" or "My Porchse needs new tires?"

"Jedi is in the game"?

[Paelos]

What the hell am I doing wrong?

I don't have anything enchanted right now since I don't know what I'll end up keeping and what I won't by the time I feel I'm at least passably geared, but with just two greens remaining (my Imperial PLate Chestpiece and Shoulders, eh, I'm waiting to get the ones from DM or Valor), I have around 4380-ish or so HP unbuffed if I recall. This is with the the Valor bracers/leggings/gauntlets, the Golem Skull Helm, the Grand Marshal Morris Medallion (+7 Stamina), the hammer of the vesper (+stamina), the Aegis of Stormwind (yeah, gimp compared to the like 3 nice quest shields you can get from Scholo/plaguelands/whatever, but it's +stamina), Belt of the Dawn, the Ribsteel Footguards, the Blackstone ring, and the Mason's Frat Ring.

I mean, that's definitely not uber gear by any means, but even Kromcrush's Breastplate and the shoulders from DM, I wouldn't have 5k HP unbuffed. WTF?

Enchanted Thorium Gear is your friend as a warrior. They have the best stam-def combos of any blue item, especially on the head. An enchanted thorium helmet runs 320g on my server, and you will use it forever. The Chest is also good with 26 stam on it. The Legs are nice, but Valor is ok there. The Mason's Ring is crap. Run Strat Dead a few times and get a Band of Flesh off Ramstein the Gorger. That has 16 stam on it. For Hands, Stonegrip Gauntlets are a world drop costing 80g, and they have 14 stam, 10 def.

Basically the idea is to amass tanking gear first, then work in really nice pvp gear into that setup. Things that can be bought like the Lionheart Helm and Stronghold gauntlets are great epic adds, but they are really expensive. That's one option though if you can make money better than you can find time to raid. Getting blue drops from DM are also key, especially from tribute runs.

[Fabricated]

I've ran Strat dead about 5-6 times so far and haven't seen the band drop. I'm figuring I'll try for the Ogre King's Ring to replace the Mason's ring since my guild is getting bored with Strat/Scholo/*BRS runs and DM is more fun and provides better stuff overall.

Heh, I had the Legplates of the Eternal Guardian but I ditched them for Valor since I couldn't stand the HP and Strength I lost by equipping them (That, and I was ecstatic from winning both the Valor leggings and gauntlets in a single run since I was the only warrior). Enchanted Thorium is way out of my league in terms of cash, since I'm not a farmer extraordinare and don't really feel like busting my ass earning that much cash.

Smithing is kinda out as well since I'm a weaponsmith soon-going hammersmith purely to spite the army of retard axesmiths grinding out the Reaper, which I can't hardly stand to look at anymore.

I dunno if my guild will be doing anymore than dabbling with MC or the other 40-man raids since we're a small casual guild. I watched a friend and guildmate of mine get in on an MC run and it looked like a total borefest for the most part. My friend agreed despite the fact he won the Lawbringer Bracers about 5 minutes into the instance. Unless 20-man AQ is cool or ZG gets re-readjusted I'm looking a contentless future for my main.

[Paelos]

I'll admit, I hate MC. I have to tank it though, so that may be my issue with it. I do like ZG, Onyxia, and I'm sure I'll enjoy the AQ 20 man. Basically, I think Onyxia is the best run in the game for the challenge, loot, and time involved.

[Hoax]

@Fabricated:

I have 4700 hp (or just shy) with my warrior unbuffed.

Currently he has shitty:
-boots (+2dodge or something, gah I hate them)
-chest (valor)
-head (epic Lion helm thingy but I trade 40sta for +2crit any day of the week)
-shoulders (valor)

Once I finish my AV grind, I can start on AB and getting some real honor then its quick (3 months absolute max, hopefully more like 1-1.5) grind to rank10 so I have all the superior pvp plate at my disposal.  Fucking Myrmidon rings are up to almost 1k gold on my server so I'm going to need to go with a cheaper option there.

Once the darkmoon faire shows up I can upgrade my neck item.  I should be able to get the Wrath Helm from Onyxia relatively easily once I finish my AV grinding and have time for doing key'ing this char.  Along with the previously mentioned +sta/hp enchants I should break 5.5k hp with my planned setup.  On my server, where every mage worth a damn is going to have the Charm and many have Toep.  If you dont have that kind of hp your asking to die before you even know who is targeting you.

[XMackenzie]

Gearing up through the lower ranks in the honor system / PvP Faction stuff is good for a warrior as they tend to have a heavy stamina focus:

Master Sergeant/Senior Sergeant Insigna (Neck, Master/Senior Sgt Rank)or
Stormpike Soldier's Pendant (Neck, Honored AV Rep)
Sergeant's Cape (Back, Sgt Rank)
Sergeant Major's Plate Wristguards (Wrist, Sgt Major / 1st Sgt)
Stormpike/Frostwolf Plate Girdle (Waist, Honored AV Rep)

A lot of it depends on your server's PvP activity, etc - a push to Sgt. Major shouldn't take more than a few "heavy play" weeks.  Ideally you could combine the AV rep grinding with your honor system ranking up as well.


There's also some good quested stuff to round out your gear as well:

Ornate Adamantium Breastplate (Chest, Eastern Plaguelands - Mostly soloable except one partial 5-man of Scarlet Stratholme)
Gorewood Bow(Ranged Slot, EPL - Alliance version is all solable except final step which seems to be easy enough to jump in a raid - not sure on horde version)
Blood of the Martyr (Stratholme - requires grabbing the medallion of faith and then turning it in to guy in chuch then killing Baron in Stratholme - all raid doable - sure it's got some useless intellect, but a nice stamina heavy ring)
Avenguard Helm Zul'Farrak -> Hinterlands Crap -> Sunken Temple quest line.  Nice chunk of stamina.  Really recommend an enchanted Thorium helm for head slot though - only takes 6 arcanite bars, rest of materials easily Farmable/Buyable.

The other thing is that the lower level Bracer, Boot & Chest stamina enchants (+7, +5, 50HP) can be very easy to come by as they are light on materials and are good skill ups for lower enchanters.  An Extra 170 HP could be had for probaly about 5g max.  Again depends on your server's AH pricing.

Then, there's the host of drops out there - I've tended to shy away from those in my gearing up because nothing is more irritating to me then grinding out some godforsaken instance (Scholomance I'm looking at you) on the off chance the one item you want will drop.

[Fabricated]

Oh yeah, I got the Sergeant's Cape. I stopped PvPing after that since playing AB on my server can make you bust a blood vessel in your eye out of rage.

I'm interesting in getting the nice tanking leggings and boots from "The Calling", a raid quest in Silithus where you summon what I hear is a pretty damn tough boss, but I simply cannot find any takers to do the damn thing.

[Azazel]

"We'll announce it when we're ready." I like that a lot more than "It'll ship when it's ready" being said years before hand.

I do too, but I think in the case of WoW it also has something to do with the fact that players have been conditioned by EQ of late to expect an expansion pack roughly every three-to-five minutes, combined with the fast rate of advancement in WoW for regular folk, let alone the catasses. Not having anything on the horizon a year after release would probably only hurt retention from people who are willing to stay for a few more months if there's an expansion coming soon, and so as to not "fall behind" they'll stay subscribed and raid nightly to make sure they're at the pointy end of the power curve when the expansion does come out. Because, you know, you win at life if you're in the first guild to the new shiny.

But it's not just them, I know a few casuals who are still playing more for "something to do" but yet are more interested in seeing new stuff that's accessable to them (because MC, etc isn't in their realistic future).

The power creep has gotten bad, Blizzard needs to realize this and make the next generation or two of gear have much higher armor/stamina levels to counter the insane dps they are putting on things not to mention things like Toep, negative resists and +spell damage.

eek! welcome to EverQuest's brand of Mudflation!

..and you want more? Seriously, while I hope the eventual expansion has some nice stuff, I hope it doesn't do a Kunark to WoW and start the upward (downward) spiral of gear that will eventually fuck the game over for everyone. I'd rather see more interesting items come out of it then simply "XXX of the BIG Bear".

[SurfD]

Honestly, i think they should cap the advancement of new sets at being Marginally, or even insignifigantly better then current stuff (ie full set gets you a whopping 5 or 10 more stam or something) and focus on giving them interesting and unique bonuses for collecting full sets.

Then again, its all rather moot anyhow.  The wall at the moment is 60. 

When the Burning Crusade expantion does officially release, that wall will be 70, and level 65 blues and greens will be superior to current endgame catass epic raid gear.   

People will look at 8 Piece tier 2 sets much the same way as people currently look at Magisters/Valor/Shadowcraft etc, 10 or 15 man Ony kills will become a common way to get nexus shards and 18 slot bags, and MC / BWL / AQ / ZG will become the new Strath / Scholo / UBRS.

[Zetor]

O RLY? (sorry :P)

I dunno, I just don't see high levels helping THAT much. Onyxia and co are level 63-64, so resists will help... but otherwise, you won't have that much more hit points, and a deep breath can still wtfpwn you. PuGs are gonna need a lot of discipline to be able to down her... and I don't think pugs without voice comms will be able to down BWL bosses easily, if at all. Oh, and then you have the raid lockout timers.

Now, ZG and AQ20 as ubrs++, that I can buy. Sorta.


-- Z.

[Paelos]

The real question is, in the new cap, what becomes the solo money grinding instance to replace SM? My guess is BRD, for all the runecloth and greens.

[Azazel]

Which part of SM?

I've only recently resubbed and gotten my Pally to 60 (I originally thought a Paladin was a tank class, as in EQ, but apparently not) but now I have my GF and my gnome mages' Emus to pay for shortly, so a good reliable cash grind source would be a wonderful thing...

[Merusk]

Which part of SM?

I've only recently resubbed and gotten my Pally to 60 (I originally thought a Paladin was a tank class, as in EQ, but apparently not) but now I have my GF and my gnome mages' Emus to pay for shortly, so a good reliable cash grind source would be a wonderful thing...

Depends on what you're after.  I just go for gold and greens so it's cemetary all the way.  The ghosts are fairly quick to die and respawn nicely.  I'm not a dedicated, farm-at-the-fastest-pace type but I've heard if you do it you can get 10g an hour just in coin and cloth.   Some folks (usually rogues) farm bosses for blues to DE and the occasional BOE.

It'll definatly be BRD, though.  Not only do you get all the greens and cloth but the essence of fires off of the eles there.

[Threash]

O RLY? (sorry :P)

I dunno, I just don't see high levels helping THAT much. Onyxia and co are level 63-64, so resists will help... but otherwise, you won't have that much more hit points, and a deep breath can still wtfpwn you. PuGs are gonna need a lot of discipline to be able to down her... and I don't think pugs without voice comms will be able to down BWL bosses easily, if at all. Oh, and then you have the raid lockout timers.

Now, ZG and AQ20 as ubrs++, that I can buy. Sorta.


-- Z.

Seeing how ony has already been 10 maned by guilds with bwl on farm status i can easily see her getting 10 maned regularly by level 70s in level 70 blues.

[Merusk]

Seeing how ony has already been 10 maned by guilds with bwl on farm status i can easily see her getting 10 maned regularly by level 70s in level 70 blues.

Not sure if this is true or not, BUT, I heard the Uber Guild leader on my server (A Holy Disc Priest) who is tricked out in full BWL gear was able to solo the entirety of Gen. Drak's  room in UBRS.  Not Drak himself, but that's still fucking ridiculous.

[Hoax]

On my server somebody 28 man pug'd onyxia using just totems for damage, or something I dunno I didn't read the thread.

[schild]

On my server somebody 28 man pug'd onyxia using just totems for damage, or something I dunno I didn't read the thread.

Post of the year.

[Dren]

Seeing how ony has already been 10 maned by guilds with bwl on farm status i can easily see her getting 10 maned regularly by level 70s in level 70 blues.

Not sure if this is true or not, BUT, I heard the Uber Guild leader on my server (A Holy Disc Priest) who is tricked out in full BWL gear was able to solo the entirety of Gen. Drak's  room in UBRS.  Not Drak himself, but that's still fucking ridiculous.

Chuck Norris?

Sorry, I didn't read the thread.

[Azazel]

He was grouped with Vin Diesel, apparently.

[Jayce]

It would be smart to put a level 60 cap on all existing raid instances so that they are not trivial.  Maybe 65, and add some intermediate raids for those who haven't hit 70.

But I doubt that ends up happening.

[Azazel]

That would actually be a pretty stupid move, IMO. I was thinking about this earlier, and while it'll allow smaller guilds and less-well-geared players to take down the current big baddies, and uberguilds to 5-man farm them, the effects will simply be allowing the above players to "properly gear up" to face the newer content.

With the number of current 60's, and the fact that these are pretty much level-60-only instances atm, and the fact that even if WoW applies "Hell levels" to 60+, people will still hit 61 pretty quickly, and then truckloads of content will be wasted. This isn't Vox and Naggy where the ubers could walk in and deprice others of the encounter, since everything is instanced.

In other news, I've been sitting at the retrieving character list screen for the last 5 minutes, waiting for my toons to show up. This patch is awesomeness.

[Ironwood]

Um, I'm still reeling from the 'It's gonna be PVP' news.

I really don't need to compete with alliance raid groups decked out in purples to complete all my new 60-70 questing.  I swear to god, that will KILL my game stone dead if they go through with that.

[Azazel]

I'm not overly concerned, based on a couple of reasons:

1) because I'm pretty sure I'll have stopped playing by the time Blizz get around to releasing an expansion. I'd see it as a Christmas '06 release at the absolute earlierst.
2) because it's such a blatantly retarded move that I can't see them going through with it.

Is there a shitstorm on their boards about this yet?

[Ironwood]

No, merely polite murmerings like mine.  Bear in mind, from what I've seen, the European boards are pretty tame in comparison to the American jackals.  For all I know there's looting and pillaging on the American boards.

I don't think it'll happen either.  But the mere suggestion is killing me.