World of Warcrafters?

[Trynant]

I just had one of these made for my DK:
http://thottbot.com/wotlk/i41257

I still have problems in raid groups, probably because I soloed to 80. I'm really trying hard to find this game fun. Battlegrounds are a hoot, thought.

That's a shame, I found raiding/dungeoneering to be the more fun parts of the game. At least with a guild so that you're doing the content with a bunch of people you can somewhat rely on.

Battlegrounds are a hoot, although it makes me angry sometimes when I get thrashed in three seconds without knowing what the hell just happened. lol,,

 

[The Dopefish]

I still have problems in raid groups, probably because I soloed to 80.

If by that you mean you didn't do any group questing or instances on the way, then yeah. You're probably not geared like most guys, and your raid experience is a little lacking.

For me, instances are the best part of the game. Not because it gets me l33t g34r, but because it serves to help me in my goals after hitting the cap. Namely, achievement whoring. The social interaction is fun too, though PUGs are sadly still hit or miss. Like when a group wipes after a newly respecced Holy Paladin doesn't bother healing the main tank, which was a hunter's pet. He insisted that the hunter's heal their own pets.

 

[Trynant]

If by that you mean you didn't do any group questing or instances on the way, then yeah. You're probably not geared like most guys, and your raid experience is a little lacking.

For me, instances are the best part of the game. Not because it gets me l33t g34r, but because it serves to help me in my goals after hitting the cap. Namely, achievement whoring. The social interaction is fun too, though PUGs are sadly still hit or miss. Like when a group wipes after a newly respecced Holy Paladin doesn't bother healing the main tank, which was a hunter's pet. He insisted that the hunter's heal their own pets.

The main tank being a hunter's pet scares me

 

[The Dopefish]

Well I ran ST with a gorilla as a tank and a druid healing and that was probably the easiest run I've done so far on my mage. I think it was me (45 mage), 2 hunters in the high 40s, a 50 druid and a low 40s warlock. No one died.

 

[tool]

I think the best way to go about instances is to wait until you hit northrend. By then you have most of your talent points and skills/spells so you can really start to learn how to play your class in a group.

You want to do all of the instances you can with quests in them. Its very important that you be properly geared by the time you hit 80 so you can start on heroics right away.

If you don't start on heroics quickly you'll be left behind because players wont be running heroics forever. Blizzard has no plans to add more gear for heroism badges. As more raid content is released, players are going to get further away from needing to run heroics and will be running tier 7 instead. If you arent geared out in heroic gear then you won't get invited to raids.

I just found out this week too that my old raiding guild has everything on farm status and most of the raid achievements completed. They are doing Sarth plus 3 drakes without any wipes, every week and have been doing it for the last two months and can get through malygos without any wipes.

Yeah i'm trying not to have regrets here... but i'm in a pretty cool guild of real life friends and we are going to do our first guild naxx 10 man run next weekend. Its a big change of pace from my 4 years of doing hardcore raiding in classic wow and burning crusade.

 

[The Dopefish]

I think the best way to go about instances is to wait until you hit northrend. By then you have most of your talent points and skills/spells so you can really start to learn how to play your class in a group.

See, I think this is awful advice.

If you haven't done ANY instances by the time you're in the mid-to-high-70s, and it's your first time playing (or if you haven't played in months), you're not going to have a bloody clue what exactly your role is in a group. I mean, you may have some vague concept of it, but no one's going to want to play again with a tank who has no concept of threat and aggro (which I've seen lately), or a paladin who doesn't understand why they should heal ANYTHING that's tanking (which I've seen lately), or hunters who don't let their pet go FIRST for a couple of attacks (which I see all the f*cking time and pisses me off). Those are just three of a bevy of "little things" that some people don't do that's going to bite them in the ass if they don't figure it out before the high-end instances.

 

[213]

My server only has one guild that can do Sarth and 3 drakes. I wish they weren't such elitist pricks though. They held a pug raid recently and kicked everyone out of the raid that wasnt in the guild, before the boss died. Thankfully the raid leader got hit with a 24 hour account suspension for that one.

I NEVER, ever pug, anything, ever.

I just lol at ppl begging me to tank stuff 'cause Tanaris is a pretty scrubtastic server.

My Paly hit 61 last night, and already I really wish the /dnd (do not disturb) command actually made it so I don't even have to read people's whisper to me.

I'm purposely power grinding a Paly to 80, then instancing my brains out with guildies just so I can /spit on all the guild poachers and begging invites to tank/heal everything from BT to the Lich King's face.

/Piss on randoms and pugs, and elitist math crunching Guilds.

 

[SlayerDragon]

Lucky for me, I play in Goon Squad. A guild with a retarded number of players, and a number of retarded players. There are always a crapload of raids being scheduled at different times of day and different days, and there's always the random "Hey goons let's do a 10 man Sarth!" like what happened yesterday afternoon. I got some crappy trinket, but I finally got my War Mace of Unrequited Love. I need to gear up better, I guess.

My discipline priest, Saintalvis.
EDIT:

Armory looks broken or something. It says my character doesn't exist.

 

[tool]

See, I think this is awful advice.

If you haven't done ANY instances by the time you're in the mid-to-high-70s, and it's your first time playing (or if you haven't played in months), you're not going to have a bloody clue what exactly your role is in a group. I mean, you may have some vague concept of it, but no one's going to want to play again with a tank who has no concept of threat and aggro (which I've seen lately), or a paladin who doesn't understand why they should heal ANYTHING that's tanking (which I've seen lately), or hunters who don't let their pet go FIRST for a couple of attacks (which I see all the f*cking time and pisses me off). Those are just three of a bevy of "little things" that some people don't do that's going to bite them in the ass if they don't figure it out before the high-end instances.

Bleh, I don't agree because all it takes is simply doing some searching on the WoW forums and you can easily find a nice guide on how to play your class. I guarantee I can jump onto someones character, that is a class i've never played before, and play it equally or better then them within 30 minutes.

All you need to know is a good rotation and a spec for dps and for a tank and healer you just need to be aware of your surroundings and adjust accordingly. This stuff is not hard, even in practice.

 

[tool]

Lucky for me, I play in Goon Squad. A guild with a retarded number of players, and a number of retarded players. There are always a crapload of raids being scheduled at different times of day and different days, and there's always the random "Hey goons let's do a 10 man Sarth!" like what happened yesterday afternoon. I got some crappy trinket, but I finally got my War Mace of Unrequited Love. I need to gear up better, I guess.

My discipline priest, Saintalvis.
EDIT:

Armory looks broken or something. It says my character doesn't exist.

SUP GOON

Heres my priest too http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Anub'arak&n=Isorfidia

I'm in a goon guild too but of course we are pretty small.

I'm gearing for both disc and shadow.

Have you seen the disc buffs in 3.1? We are getting some real nice buffs.

 

[SlayerDragon]

Yes, someone told me we were getting nerfed and when I looked at the patch notes I was very confused by that. I'm looking forward to it, not too concerned about dual spec but I have started to grab up some hit gear just in case. Priest is still one of my favorite classes, though I am really loving my elemental shaman I started leveling.

 

[tool]

Disc was getting nerfed pretty hardcore in the PvE raiding department at first. But Blizzard heard the outcry and quickly made some compromises and changes. Our most important spells, Flash heal, and power word shield are getting buffed. Most notably, we are getting a talent called Improved Flash Heal, that will heal for more, and give a huge crit % increase if we heal someone under 50% health.

Power word: Shield now no longer has a cooldown and I believe we are getting a second shield spell that is either a talent or can be gained from talking to the priest trainer so all specs get it. I'm not sure yet on that one.

PvP viability as a shadow priest is going out the window though. Blackout is being removed. This was also very useful with farming and doing quests. I like shadow for that stuff, but it looks Blizzard really wants to make it more useful for raiding. Which in that case Blackout is pointless. They have already made Shadow priest really needed for Naxx 25 and up until now shadow priests havent been all that useful except for leveling up. The only problem is Blizzard forgot to realize that spriest damage is horribly slow until they get decked out in all epics. So they need more dots and instant cast damage spells which they are not getting. I guess roll a warlock if you want to raid with shadow damage.

 

[The Dopefish]

I guarantee I can jump onto someones character, that is a class i've never played before, and play it equally or better then them within 30 minutes.

Right 'cause you've played the game.

My point was that total newbies -- and I'm assuming they don't think to look into how their character should be played if they're only soloing and they're doing fine -- will not have a clue if they soloed through 80 and then said "LFG 10 man Naxx plzkthx".

 

[tool]

All it really takes is for someone to notice they suck and to point them in the right direction. I didnt become good on my rogue until TBC hit and I got to level 70 and started raiding right away. Another rogue called me out on being horrible and then showed me what to do. But it was more about me saying "okay I want to learn my class."

I agree with you that you should do it early. But when you do it in the end, doesn't matter. Its about simply wanting to learn how to get the most out of your class. And you can't do that until you play with others (which is what you said, and are right) and after you do some research and read up on what the good players are doing. Reading and watching them play are the best ways for a newbie to learn. Atleast thats how it worked for me.

We were all clueless at one point.

 

[The Dopefish]

All it really takes is for someone to notice they suck and to point them in the right direction. I didnt become good on my rogue until TBC hit and I got to level 70 and started raiding right away. Another rogue called me out on being horrible and then showed me what to do. But it was more about me saying "okay I want to learn my class."

Wouldn't it be more time efficient to become good at instances along the way to the cap? I just think it's a waste of time to do something one way that's against the grain when you know that, ultimately, you're gonna end up going with the grain.

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

WoW is so much more mainstream than any other MMO, a lot of first-timers are in WoW, I was one of them, Warcraft being my first and last MMO experience.

Because of this there were a lot players that, when it was their first time playing, didn't go and look up all the guides and details to expertise at their class and leveled solo. When you have to group while leveling you still don't really have to know jack sh*t aside from basic boss strategies and "someone heal, someone tank, leftovers kill."

I know I didn't really learn how to play this game until a couple months after I was 60. My spec was all over the place, my items were also a f*cked up array of dps and defense gear. I had just PVP'd since I hit the cap and was having fun.

When I made the choice to join a serious guild I learned how to do everything from the ground up.

 

[Shadow]

Some of the funnest times in WoW was running Pre BC instances with frineds. Scarlet Monastery anyone? Yah you remember those awsome days of long SM farming for that last piece Herod drops?

Seriously you miss out on a lot of the best content when just solo level, and its true that you learn a lot about your class role while doing these Low level instances.

The funnest part of WoW is when your leveling up. Especially with people you know. Not to mention by running places like ShadowFang Keep, Razorfen Krawl, Scarlet Monestary, Sunken Temple etc... The list goes on. You'll find a lot of great gear you can use to make those quests a little easier.

Also it's a plus in World PVP and Battle Grounds. Man if I had a dollar for every noob I saw in STV and Tanaris that were just wearing ****ty greens from the AH... These people werent even a challenge if you had the sexy blues from SM and other instances.

The point is your missing out on a lot of fun and learning when you rush past these places.

I dont know how it is now though, because I havent played Retail WoW for about 2 years. So maybe finding groups for these Instances is hard to come by. If thats the case then thats sad to hear.

 

[TossMonkey]

With each expansion pack released they are ruining the work they did for the original game. Everyone zooms past the old instances... no more SM runs.

Hell, most of the time spent from 30-40 is spent in that one instance alone in the old game. Last time I played WoW I leveled a BE and I did 2 runs there.

And I reckon I could come into the game now and probably obliterate most of the classes that have no real raiding experience. Another thing I noticed when I left is that nobody really had to duel anymore, queues for battlegrounds and forming pug groups used to take 1-2 hours. It got to a point where I could defeat most classes in a duel (bar a couple of really high geared people).

 

[tool]

Yeah but most of the old content really sucks. Blizzard aimed pretty low with WoW at first and just worked their way up to the top. Thats how most MMORPGs do it. All of the real old ones, have content that is just completely useless now. There is really no way around this issue. Its getting to the point where Blizzard just needs to release WoW 2.

 

[shadow_dragon]

The game is a different beast now but all in all it's a far finer thing.

It is a shame that old instances get set by the wayside... but they are still there and there's nothing stopping you from dropping by. As it is though the game couldn't have continued in any other way than it did, you can only run the same old isntances so many times before they become a chore and they did become a chore. it's easy to get nostalgic now but if they hadn't expanded the two times they have so far most people who get upset about the old instances probably would've stopped playing long ago. I kinda find all the newer instances to be getting more and more interesting as they get added. So few are simply tank and spank.

Organsiing a bunch of like minded friends/guildees to reroll with you to do a world tour of old instances is not out of the question.

Duels still go on i find, the people who do so are pretty elitist though and i personally tend to avoid them. Nothing quite as irritating as being stalked by a PvP spec'd warrior calling me lame when i'm an Affliction spec'd Warlock, the most complex PVE dps spec in the game, without an ounce of resilience. My place is very firmly in alrge battlegrounds launching Seed of Corruption into concentrations of the enemy.