With Illidan dead on Sunday and no recruits to attune, that gave us a free evening off from raiding. I was pretty excited and looking for some quality hunter time. Instead, I ended up spending the entire evening doing voice-overs and character acting for the ret pally. This was especially difficult with Fozec 4ft away trying to do a timed ZA run (still no success). He was wearing both headphones to block my "Wait! Wait up!" whining, which just made him yell even louder. This meant I spent a good chunk of time waiting to record between his boss fight comments. hehe
Overall I think the voice stuff went ok. I felt fairly stupid initially but it was only me and the ret in the Vent channel. The in-game character acting was pretty hilarious, though. There were a lot of confused lowbies running in and out of the belf starting city while we (6 of us by now) did some emoting on the bridge. The local cats also got into the action, attacking actors that stepped too close.
Back when BC first came out, Foz and I did every single quest in Hellfire Penninsula, save maybe two. Being back out there again as a hunter, and knowing how great other areas are, part of me wants to get out of that zone asap. Looking on WoW Head, Zangermarsh is the next step but I won't really be able to get the bulk of the quests until I'm level 62. Likewise, all of easily accessible next ranks of bite, claw, etc. seem to be parked on level 62 animals in Hellfire. So no matter how you look at it, I have some leveling to do in my current zone before I can do much of anything else.
A week or so ago I was talking with a guildmate who also has an alt hunter about my level. He was telling me all of this stuff about shot rotations and equipment. We started talking about trinkets. Waaay back in my early level 50's I completed the hunter quest chain out in Azshara. At the end, you get to choose between a [Hunting Spear] (not an upgrade, even then), [Devilsaur Eye], and [Devilsaur Tooth]. My friend has chosen the eye, which increases both your attack power and hit rating. I took the tooth, which makes my pet's next attack crit. There are arguments on either side as to which is better. The eye is good for leveling but will eventually be replaced in Outlands. There is no better forced crit trinket, but how useful it is compared to other trinkets you'd want to wear at 70 is questionable.
So I felt kind of bad, like I've screwed up yet again on something I should have read up on ahead of time. But then I got my new lion. Furball didn't have much trouble at all keeping ahead of me on aggro, but Frodie is still learning the ropes. The trinket (2 min CD) is an awesome way to get some mana free aggro. I don't need more RAP atm, because I have to hold back as it is, but the tooth lets me do more actual damage. And while a lot of people have talked about how you should use the tooth with other abilities (all on a 2 min CD), I find it's better used as a filler option for when Intimidation (giant aggro generator) and Bestial Wrath (major damage) are on cooldown. It lets me keep rolling with my cat and is great for my mana efficiency.
2 weeks ago
2 comments:
Hellfire Peninsula was one of my favorite zones for leveling. I know it's a barren, rocky desert, but I really like the music and the way the sky looks. Part of it too may be that as the first Outlands zone, it imbodies the wonder of stepping into Outlands and exploring all that uncharted territory. I also enjoyed the Fel Orc quests, and first contact with the Mag'har as a Horde character.
As to that timed ZA run, we didn't have the right group for it last night. For one thing both of our tanks were prot warriors. You need at least one tank to be a feral druid, or some other type of tank who can dps well for the single-tank fights. In fact, a prot paladin and a feral druid is probably the ideal combo for that particular zone, and we don't have any prot paladins.
If we were serious about doing a timed run, we'd need to make a set group of 10 players including our highest dps, and run it with those same people every week. That would allow those same people to practice a timed run each week until they nailed it. Personally I'm not that interested in it, and I'd rather be inclusive with who gets to go and not worry about the timer. I know there are people in the guild that are really Gung-Ho about the timed run though.
I must agree with Jim: Hellfire Peninsula struck me as all kinds of awesome. To me, much of the joy of playing WoW is the discovery aspect. I remember, vividly, each time I brought Kerryk to a new zone. From the lowest of his lowbie days to the far reaches of Outland, every new zone instilled in me a feeling appropriate with the atmosphere. Venturing outside the safe confines of Elwynn Forest, Kerryk discovered the decaying wastes of Westfall and the besieged township of Lakeshire (how long does it really take to rebuild a bridge). Duskwood was spooky, and then I met Stitches. The gorillas of Stranglethorn, with their 4.6 kilometer aggro radius, initially limited my exploration of the troll ruins, but Kerryk persevered nonetheless. And that's before even leaving the continent! Kalimdor was ripe with its own discoveries to be had!
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. With each zone, the sense of newness was both tangible and memorable. Carrying that mentality to Outlands, Syleste and I walked through the Dark Portal on our first journey, in almost ceremonial fashion. We're immediately greeted by a world on the brink of utter destruction, while intense war wages on within mere meters of the Dark Portal. Exploring deeper we find remnants of incredible beauty amidst incredible chaos. On one side of things, we see Netherstorm held together by failing nether energies. On the other, we have Nagrand, largely intact and retaining its breathtaking natural beauty. Is there anything more captivating in the varied environments of the game than Nagrand at night? I challenge anyone to find a contender.
That's all a possibility in no small part in thanks to Hellfire Peninsula. It plants the seeds in your mind that define your perception from level 60 to level 70: this world is not well, but look deeper and you'll find incredible beauties here.
I'm looking forward to the new movie. I expect it will find its way to the Ascent Theatre? Bryson does some great work, on par with some of the better machinima I've seen online.
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