WoW Journal - Day 16

Day 16 starts with a plan: I finally want to do the warrior-specific Brutal Armor quest. For some strange reason this is a long level 30 quest which you get at level 20. I'm not really happy with that design. Because if you do it at level 30, the armor isn't better than the green iron armor you can smith (or get from a smith) at that point. If you do the quest at level 20, you practically need one or several high-level guildies run you through the quest, with you not contributing much.

I already did the third and the fourth part of that quest in that expedition to Razorfen Kraul, iron bars and a drop from a boss mob. The first part is very easy, killing level 21 kobolds in Stonetalon Mountains. Remains just the second part, killing miners in Hillsbrad. I start doing that, and soon ding 30. How appropriate on the level 30 warrior quest.

But then I meet a level 26 shaman who needs help killing two boss mobs in the same mines. No problem, I think. Thought wrong. This is the first time I experience a strange effect, that grouping with somebody ends me up worse off than solo. And it's not the poor guys fault, but due to a quirk in the design of the mine. In World of Warcraft the aggro range depends on the level difference between you and the mob, but can also be variable with the kind of mob. And it increases if you fight, or do other activities like opening a chest. The level 27 mobs in this mine have a huge aggro range, even on me at level 30. But on the level 26 shaman that range in a fight becomes ridiculous. He basically pulls half the mine every time we fight. We die three times from attacks by six or more level 27, until we give up. Sorry, man.

I hand in the stuff for the Brutal Armor quest, and get four more quests, three for different armor pieces, and one for a weapon. Weapon sounds interesting, but it leads to a level 40 quest, which obviously has the same problem as stated above. Besides, my guild doesn't even have level 40 players that could get me through this yet, the highest online is 35, and the highest I've seen yet in the guild is 39. I look up the quest on Thottbot, and it turns out that while you get the choice between three weapons at the end, all three of these are two-handed weapons. Damn, I'm only using one-handed weapons and shield, as every tank should. I'll do that quest at my ease at level 40 or so.

In the evening I do a census on the Alliance and Horde side. Alliance has 968 players online, highest level 50. Horde has 482 players online, highest level 60. I'm really sceptical how this will work out in the battlegrounds. Either you allow each side to bring as many people as they want, in which case the Alliance will simply outnumber the Horde 2:1. Or you limit the fight to equal numbers, in which case the Alliance players will have to wait in a queue to do the battlegrounds. Both aren't really satisfying.

I train up my level 30 warrior skills. I get a new talent, which is great: By having put all my talent points into the "Arms" branch, I now get Sweeping Strikes, an ability that makes my next five attacks hit two opponents instead of just one. Very useful when fighting against several enemies. My warrior trainer also sends me on another warrior specific quest, to visit Klannoc Macleod , pun intended. My guild mates tell me horror stories about the pit fight I have to do there to get the Berzerker Stance. But while the fight is hard, I get through this all alone and on the first try, with the help of bandages and potions.

Now having a third stance, my button bars are becoming a mess. I'm using Cosmos' "second bar" feature. But now I also turn on the "pop bar" from Cosmos for a third button bar, and start sorting my buttons out. Ouch, I notice that I was stupid. I had the Battle Shout on my Battle Stance hotbar, so whenever I was in Defensive Stance and wanted to use Battle Shout, I had to switch stances, often losing a lot of rage in the process. But Battle Shout *can* be used in Defensive Stance as well, I just had to move the button to another bar.

Meanwhile on the World of Warcraft Under Development page, Blizzard announces that the number of hotkey buttons on the standard interface will be improved from 12 to 48. And a quest tracker added. Clever bastards: They let other people offer lots of different UI mods, find out which are used most often, and then implement them themselves. Well, they also promise some improvements that aren't UI related, like Warrior generating rage when the enemy blocks, dodges, or parries. Good news for me.

I continue playing at an easier pace. I mass slaughter crabs at the Zoram strand, because they drop both clams and crab meat. With all that meat I increase my cooking skill to 150. Then I do an expedition into Desolace, where the book to train cooking beyond 150 can be found for the Horde. I also do a big tour once around Desolace to mine iron, and increase my smithing to 180. Guildmates who had smiths on the US servers tell me how great the Green Iron Hauberk is. True, but to smith it I would need a Green Leather Armor from an expert leatherworker, and nobody in the guild is that far, or has the recipe.

I continue with the other brutal armor parts, and finish two more. Both are worse than what I'm already wearing in self-made armor, but at least I get the xp for it and ding 31. I end the day doing some old quests in Stonetalon Mountains.
- posted by Tobold @ 11:59 AM Permanent Link