Grind Session 6

So I finally got a chance to try out the latest class in the World of Warcraft lineup, the Death Knight. I had a level 70 warlock on another server that a friend of mine used when I wasn’t using the account, so I signed up for the 10-day trial of Wrath of the Lich King. Up to this point, I’ve heard mixed reviews about the death knight class. Some people don’t like how it plays, others love how powerful it can be. Personally, I thought it was great. Not just the class, but the beginning quest line that sets up your character with all of the talent points. You see, you start off as any other character, base equipment, base moves, no talent points, but you are level 55, which is a big upside on the other guys. As you play through the starting quest line in the Eastern Plaugelands, you gain the 46 talent points that you rightfully should have. I have to say, the starting quests for the death knight class, are the best quests I have played yet. I actually read the quest text while being completely engaged in the gameplay. You start off as a fresh death knight under control of the Lich King. From there you destroy a village that is occupied by the scarlet crusade. I finally got to see the changing environment that I’ve heard so much about, and it is amazing. It eventually builds up to a huge battle between the Lich King’s armies and the Light Hope armies, which ends in you switching sides and the Lich King retreating to Northrend. I had so much fun with these quests, and I imagine that they are like the end game quests that I haven’t been able to play yet.

I like the power that the death knight has. Their power comes from using six runes separated into three classes: blood, frost, and unholy. I have Denand (my night elf DK), set up so that when he uses his Raise Dead spell, a spell that usually raises a corpse zombie to help you for two minutes, to stay around as a permanent pet. I’m doing this following a tree that I picked after researching what tree would be the best, it’s called the Ghoul Knight. http://tinyurl.com/6ryylr I’ve heard through the grapevine that in the next patch, someone can create a death knight on any server, as long as they have a level 55 character on their account. If that’s true, I’ll be starting a death knight on a server I like… once I get the expansion that is.

In other WoW related news, I’ve been slowly grinding my other characters. My hunter has now reached level 40, and has received the ability to use mail armor. I didn’t know about this enhancement, so it came as bit nice surprise to me since now my hunter is nice and tank like. My mage is 16, and I’m having a better go at it than before. I’ve realized that I need to spam my frostbolt spell in order to keep enemies away from me while I kill them. I still don’t work well in groups though. I’ll keep you updated on these two in future sessions.

Look for my review on Shin Megami Tensei Online: Imagine, and keep an eye out for it as an addition into Grind Session.

Grind Session 5

This is a big grind session today, plenty of things have happened in the World of Warcraft universe, as well as in other areas as well. First things first, I finally reached level 30 and was able to get a mount, so now my movement speed is increased by 60%, awesome. Right now I am at level 36 and bouncing between Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands, and Dustwollow Marsh. I’m beginning to use some of the abilities that my hunter has available as well. Feign Death came in handy when I was stuck in a pack of cats. I just activated that and faked my own demise. The mob started to attack my pet, and I was able to get up and run away. My poor pet had to take the fall, but at least I didn’t die. I’ve started to use traps when I was in the battlegrounds. The frost trap comes in handy to slow a flagholder in Warsong Gultch, and the explosion trap comes in handy at Arathi Basin by placing it by a flag for some extra damage. Other than that it seems that I have gone into a routine with my attacks: Hunter’s Mark, Concussion Shot, Serpent Sting, and Arcane Shot, a good combination that works well for me.

I have been having problems with my pet lately, and I don’t know why. When I hit 30 I noticed that whenever my pet was summoned, my cat always has it’s prowl ability activated for auto-cast. I have always had it deactivated since I don’t have a need for it yet. I submitted an issue report to blizzard, we will see if they do anything about it. I suppose it doesn’t matter that much, since I want to get a core hound as a pet when I hit 51.

In kinda lighter news, I have been experimenting with other characters in different realms. I have started a human mage in Gurubashi, a PvP server. I haven’t played it that much, he’s only level 7, since he is just a alternate character for when I get bored. I like the ranged attacks, and the ability to create food and drink means that I am always ready to go, really cool. Since Gurubashi is a PvP server it will probably offer a different perspective on leveling a character. I will probably be writing about his upbringing as well as my hunter, so keep watching for that.

Grind Session 4

This weeks grind session is very uneventful. Although to be honest, none of the grind sessions so far have been very captivating pieces yet. I always hear that the game doesn’t start until you get to 60, then to 70, and now the game doesn’t really start until you reach 80. It makes sense on some weird kind of level, although really you are doing what most do on a non-online RPG, conquering it. Getting that awesome gear, killing everything in sight, and completing the end-game content over and over again, and getting those last achievements. Though there is the PVP content that can keep people coming back. 

PVP is one of the things I have been toying with lately. And I found out that I’m not that good at it. I think that it has to deal with the fact that I can’t set up and attack quickly enough. Granted I was on my own, and if someone was distracted I probably could unleash fury unnoticed. But maybe the hunter just isn’t a good PVP’er. I think that PVP is great aspect to this game, but at the same time I really like the hunter and how it plays in other parts of the game. Maybe I can roll some alt that would be good at PVP, like a rouge or something. I’ve also heard that the death knight is very good at PVP, but I would have to get to 55 before attempting the new hero class.

Other than getting bored and wanting to start a new character. I’ve just been grinding along. So far I’ve reached 28 and since I’ve been doing quests the grind seems less strenuous on my attention span. I feel confident that I will get to 80 eventually, and eventually seems to be closer and closer the more I think about it.

Hopefully the next time I report in, I will have reached 30 and can rant about my new mount. 

A quick side note: I hear that the new patch (3.08) is going to rid the restrictions on racial mounts. I could be cruisin’ through Azeroth on a big cat, or a mechanostrider.

Anyways, ‘til next time. Grind on!

Peace.

Grind Session 3

This was a great weekend for the Grind Session Team (and by that I mean myself). I was able to get in a great deal of time in the world of Azeroth this weekend, and because of that I feel that a new Grind Session is in order.

The last time we met I was a feeble level 15 hunter, barely even able to comprehend the power I held in my hand. Now I stand before you a level 25 hunter, ready to take on the world! That’s right I was able to climb 10 levels in a whole weekend. A rather easy feat thanks to the changes made by Blizzard. As I mentioned before leveling from 20-60 is easier than before thanks to a change in XP awarded for quests. I spent most of the weekend trying to clear my quest log, and in doing so only found myself gathering more. One of the problems I found the last time I played WoW, was that I ran out of quests I could accomplish and was stuck grinding until I could gather more. Now I find myself maxed out with the amount of quests I can hold at once, and am steadily chiseling away at this massive stone.

More interestingly, I happened to join a guild this weekend. “The Final Stand” offered me an invitation and I happily agreed. Although the way it happened seemed to peeve me at first, I am happy with the decision I made and hope that it works out in the long run. As I was wondering through Stormwind on my way back to Auberdine to finish yet another quest; I recieved a prompt asking me to join “The Final Stand.” This is what I don’t like, blind invites aggrevate me to no end. I know that it is not exactly straining to click decline, but there were times when I would recieve numerous invites to parties, and guilds; many of them multiple times after I declined. I prefer to be asked about invitation to anything, it’s just respectful to the player. However, I had not recieved a blind invite since starting my new journey in Azeroth, and seeing as no one else was around me, I accepted. This guild has a very stable population, with many helpful, cheerful, and most importantly active members. Not only are they active but they are also learned in the ways of WoW. This weekend I learned that I shouldn’t keep my pet forever, as it will slowly begin to decrease in power. Now I begin to doubt my cat, Kamina, in battle. He seems to never stay happy anymore, perhaps it is time for an upgrade.

In other intersting activities, I ran my first instance this weekend as well. While attempting to rid some quests from my log, I saw that I had some quests for the Deepmines, located in Westfall. Knowing that I would never be able to solo and instance myself I asked my guildmates for help. They were more than willing to help, as some others had quests to complete as well. It took some time to organize, since there were so many that needed to run through Deadmines. Still it was a succesful run, it took about 20 minutes and both of my quests were fulfilled. 

All in all, it was a good weekend in the WoW universe. I’m glad to see that there is all of this friendship and helpfulness in this war ridden world, and I hope to write next time when I recieve my mount at level 30. Until then, grind on!

Grind Session 2

Level 15 has been accomplished. The game finally got better for me once I obtained the ability to get a pet. Hunters seem to suck without them. Leveling seems to be going very quick, and can only get quicker with the faster leveling patch from Blizzard in the 2.3 patch. More xp is rewarded for quests and less xp is required to level up between 20-60. I haven’t had much social contact, in game, other than a friend of mine that is already a high level and we send tell’s back and forth. The biggest adventure that happened was when I needed to travel from Ironforge to Darnassus, which I did with the help of my friend by port-ing to Shattrath, and then Darnassus and back to Ironforge, not necesarilly an epic adventure by any means of the imagination, but now I can use bows, which is awesome. I think that bows look for my character than guns. Hopefully next time I will at least reach 20, or maybe 30 since I hear that’s when you get a mount now. Maybe I can even run an instance or two. Till then, happy questing.

Peace.

Grind Session

Ok, so I wanted to start a new feature here on my blog. It is a little cliche but I don’t really care. I have never leveled a character up in World of Warcraft to the max level, so I have decided to do so and chronical my trials and tribulations as I do so. I will be doing this casually, so don’t think that I will be attempting to break any records, but I will be leveling from 1 to 80 as quickly as I can.

So to start out I have rolled a Dwarf Hunter on Kael’thas named Tetros. So far I’m off to a great start as I am level 5 and steadily increasing. I know that the first 10 levels are a breeze so I’m not to worried about that. The difficult times will be coming ahead, but I am going to be relying on my friends and the wonderful community of WoW players to help me grind and not get bored. If you want to join me, please go right ahead and do so. I will attempt to keep this updated at least once a week, so please check back again for my next entry in this Grind Session.

Peace.