Peter's Blog

Maexyn

Got Maexyn to level 50 by dint of Tanaris Pirates and a spot of Felwood. The Pirates went ok but not as fun as with a hunter. Afflication Warlock fighting is a lot of waiting for things to die. The curse of recklessness is indeed very good for stopping runners, I used it just before Drain Soul.

She got the level 50/41 point talent 'Unstable Affliction' and it seems like a reasonably ok DoT, even if I ignore the PvP dispell boobytrap element. Things died quicker when using it. It's probably a matter of time before I succomb to temptation and respec her for the Fel Guard but as I read that the Fel Guard needs to learn a few talents before it is vastly better than a voidwalker I will bide my time.

At level 50 I decided to try the king-kong island to the south east of STV, only to find that the big ape was only level 43, I had read it was level 50 but that was a couple of patches ago. The ape was big though.

Maesyn

Ran Maesyn two levels to 42 (eighties group blah blah: is it really the fifth time I've made that reference?). She did lots of killing in mid-stranglethron, found a big temple full of trolls with fetishes (not that kind of fetish) that I hadn't come across before. Many trolls around but prowl is very useful when deep in enemy territory. While roaming around the countryside I also found a troll in a cave who wanted a gorilla tooth which explained why I was purpetually having to destroy quest related gorilla teeth that I had autolooted. And he only wanted one tooth. The quest involved killing three gorillas that attacked, a level 42, 43 and 44, one after the other. Killed them ok with the trolls help, finished the quest, then as I walked off the three baddie gorillas respawned. Killed them again (druid cat form cat handle a three-level higher mob easily) and got some extra leather.

Picked up the green bottle for the king-kong quest, only to find it's minimum level requirement is 42 and she was still 41.

Ran through some alterac quests but they were against level 35 mobs so a bit of a walkover. Killing a few trolls in the Hinterlands made the level 42 ding.

I gave her another respec, dropped Furor and picked up the level 40 talent, Leader of the Pack for and extra 5% crit. Her crit is now 19% so that should average comfortably at a crit per fight. She crits for better than 600 damage and I'm liking the big numbers.

Maesyn rarely has any downtime, when mana is very low I just wait for enough to shift to cat form, then continue and after a few mobs there is enough for continued healing. She has picked up a skill called 'Innervate' which improves her mana regeneration by 400% for a few seconds which means even less downtime.

Maecyn

By this time I was low on rest bonus and a bit bored so I succombed to a temptation to roll another alt. Back in Searing Gorge Maexyn had run into an equal level mage who was dealing with trio's of dwarves with such ease that I just had to try a frost mage. Ok it's lots of mana breaks but the killing looks like fun.

I tried a human male mage ages ago and it was ok but he got stuck at level 8. Maecyn is a female gnome, not sure why I chose gnome but the Escape Artist could help her (Maexyn never needs it) and she has Expansive Mind for extra intellect.

(If it helps, you should be able to mouse over the mae?yn names and a tool tip will remind you which one I am writing about.)

The first eleven levels flashed past. Ok I know the gnome/dwarf starting area backwards but Maecyn was killing equal level mobs in four seconds. Eventually I worked out that it is the 'Bonfire's Blessing' from the wotsit festival that is on, it gives her a 30% chance to deal 80 damage and 80 damage is quite a bit against a level 7 Ice Claw Bear. My advice: if you have alt-itis, get out there now.

Frost Mage Fun:

• Standard Attack
  • Frost Bolt (damages and slows down attacking enemy)
  • Arcane Missiles (a bit of damage while it runs up)
  • Fire Blast (instant cast damage) if mob has > 20% health left
  • Wand to death
• If the frost bolt doesn't work or if she gets attacked close up then the frost armour has a chance to slow down the attacker so she can run to distance and either try to frost bolt again or kite and Fire Blast whenever the 6 second cooldown is up (although the latter takes a while and she has to run in circles to avoid running into adds).
• Frost Nova! Level 10 goodie, slows down all attackers in an area ready for kiting/legging it. Also good for attacking when can't get good line of sight for a frostbolt.

She is another Herbalist/Skinner and her skinning is already level 75.

Since she will be taking mana breaks every four seconds I will also make an effort to level her cookery so she can get some food buffs while she is drinking.

Pookypoo

I logged into pook and found him in the middle of Winterspring ready for some thorium farming. He had to kill a few big cats and the Bonfire's Blessing for him gave 600 damage, as much as one of Maesyn's crits.