Peter's Blog

Maexyn

Took Maexyn to Searing Gorge and did about eight quests in two hours to get her from level 47 through half way to level 49. Interestingly the Golems there were immune to Drain Life and Siphon Life so replaced these with Shadow Bolts and Immolation respectively.

I did have to do a Howl of Terror in the Cauldron when under attack from three mobs with the voidy netted. The results were not good. Best warlock skill: soulstone.

Maesyn

At 38 Maesyn took on the higher level parts of Desolace, particularly the Undead Ravagers (lvl 37-40) and the Demon camp (lvl 37-39?). She dealt with everything quite comfortably. She can handle casters now: at 38 vs a level 40 centaur caster thing she just stealthed up, Pounce, Shred, a couple of claws and it is dead in 12 seconds. lvl 38 Warlock + minion? Stealth up, take out the minion in two hits in as many seconds, take out the warlock in 12 seconds. Not a problem.

Fighting in cat and get an add? Again, not a problem, press R to cast Regenerate, press F to go back to cat and continue. Regenerate (Heal over Time) is quite ok if you have a reasonable anount of health to begin with, it tends to stop your health falling further, makes up for the beating you are taking. And it's instant cast so you can do it whenever there is mana.

Fighting in cat and get two adds? Not a problem, press = for dash and run away.

I had an enlightened moment about my stealth attacks and started doing this:

• approach mob from any directing in stealth
• press 7 to Pounce
• while mob is stunned go behind it for a Shred. Here I realised that I just have to go through the mob, I don't have to worry about going around it to avoid breaking stealth any more. This makes it much easier. 'Behind' is very loose, somewhere in 180 degrees in front of you has to coincide with the 180 degrees behind the mob, that's all.

She went back to STV to do the troll temples to get the last two tablets. The trolls were level 34-37 or so but dense and tricky. I love stealth, she just walked through the main gates past the guards, no having to kill everything on the way in (she had no rest bonus left so pure killing is not an efficient use of time compared to rapid quest turnins). She had to clear about six trolls from an area in front of a tablet but again stealth is great for scouting and choosing targets: pull melee guys with Feral Faerie Fire, stealth/pounce stray castors etc. She had to do the last three trolls in bear but again the instant cast Regenerate spell is my friend. The trolls had a nasty trick of netting and running to distance to throw spears but shape shift breaks the net. That was a good fight.

At level 40 Maesyn picked up some new goodies:

• Nice pussy mount:

Maes at 40

• Dire bear form. Tried this out on a level 43 Basilisk and lived with about 40% health left and no healing. Not bad but kitty, with an initial regenerate could end the fight much faster and with more health left.
• Found a druid hat on the AH that gives energy or rage after a shape shift, similar to the Furor talent AND it stacks with the Furor talent. This means that after pressing R for a regenerate, when she goes back to cat she gets 60 energy which is enough for a free Claw with a bit of change.
• In prowl mode she creeps a bit faster. Prowling was ok before, what with the swiftness talents, now it is better.
• A skill that reduces damage from falling. Can she survive the Aldor lift?

Summary

I'm enjoying the druid more than ever. Her survivability is improving as I learn the tactics and I enjoy the play style, especially the back stabbing and 12 second kills. The warlock is powerful but a bit mechanical, casting DoTs is a slow way of killing things.

I'm thinking of leaving Maezyn on hold for a bit, along with Pook. Maezyn is on the edge of what to me is the biggest grind in the game, the part between western helfire, through Zangarmarsh and Terokkah (sp?) up until Nagrand. I cannot think of a single quest in that long stretch that I enjoy doing, it is weeks of grind. Also as a hunter she has now got all the useful hunter talents and I'm not sure I will learn a lot from levelling her. Her leatherworking will be useful to Maesyn.

I'm having more fun running Maexyn and Maesyn and learning about Warlocks and Druids so I'm going to focus on them for a bit.

Next goal: Maexyn to 50.