WoW Journal - 17-May-2005

I might have exaggerated a bit with WoW this weekend. I came home a bit earlier on Friday, and then Monday was a public holiday here, so I had three-and-a-half days of long weekend. In that period I played 40 hours, and leveled my new warlock from zero to just an inch away from level 20. Plus got her tailoring skill up to 150. The idea is to level her a bit further, to 22, and then stop until everybody from my D&D group is at that level. Then we can go adventuring together, doing elite quests and dungeons.

I am normally not a big fan of pet classes, but that is an old prejudice from Everquest, where bad pet pathing often caused more trouble than good. The WoW warlock is great fun to play. And part of that fun is that he plays so much differently from my warrior. Monsters that my warrior used to hate, because of them being runners, don't cause the warlock any problem. While the mindless harvester golems in Westfall, which wouldn't pose any challenge to a warrior, are extremely difficult to kill with a warlock, being immune to the voidwalkers taunt, and to my fear spell. The warrior doesn't have any problems if he is ambushed by several lower level monsters, but sometimes has troubles killing single mobs 3 levels above him. The warlock can barely handle 2 lower level mobs at the same time (by perma-fearing one and hoping he doesn't bring more friends), but defeats a single mob 3 levels above him with relative ease.

The skinning / tailoring profession combination is working out well. Business in light leather picked up, I sold lots of stacks at 14 silver each. That money helped me level my tailoring to 150, so now I'm able to make 10-slot silk bags. With silk donated by my guild, plus heavy leather from the auction house, I was able to kit myself out completely with 10-slot bags. That is highly useful for a warlock, as I'm "losing" one bag, because I have to keep a reserve of soul shards.

And I'm not missing alchemy much with this character. Health stones replace healing potions, the underwater breathing spell replaces the water breathing potions, the armor buff spell replaces the defense potions, and so on. If you have lots of utility spells, you don't need as many utility potions. And the warlock has lots of useful utility spells, he can even resurrect himself or others, he just has to decide on who to put the soulstone before that character dies. Soulstone on the group paladin is great, because he resurrects instantly with some hitpoints, a good amount of mana, and his hate cleared, so he can basically continue fighting as if nothing happened. And if he dies last, he can rez when the mobs are gone and then rez the others.

The warlock is my first character using a macro. Simple affair of turning on attack mode, sending the pet to attack, and casting the first dot spell, all with one button press. Either I start the attack with that macro, or I first use another spell or my wand to pull, and then use the macro. Afterwards I cast the remaining dots, and then either add some shadow bolts, or for easier mobs to preserve mana just use my weapons. Finish off with drain soul if I need more soul shards. And I usually end up with full health, nearly full mana, and the voidwalker is fit for the next fight quickly with his self-healing spell. Only if the mob is 3 levels higher than me, or I get an add, I need to use fear. Fear is always risky, because the fleeing mob might well run into a group of other mobs and come back with more friends than I bargained for.

Honey, the gnome warlock, didn't stay much in her native lands. After hitting level 6 in the gnome/dwarf newbie zone, she moved over to the human lands, as I had played there less than in the dwarven area. I only returned to Loch Modan when I was short of level 15ish quests. But mostly I did all the quests in Elwynn Forest, and all the quests in Westfall, and now started with Redridge Mountains. In Westfall I still need to do the Deadmines, but that will be with the my D&D friends, when everybody is at least level 20.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:15 AM Permanent Link