The Adventures of Mokrana - Chapter 3

Mokrana levels yet again! This time, I used the first chapter of Jame's Leveling Guide (level 21-31). It took me from the Barrens, to the mountains of Stonetalon, the forests of Ashenvale, to Thousand Needles, and even across the sea to Hillsbrad.

Jame's Leveling Guide 21-31: 14h 49min
= 1.48 hr/level

Previous Chapters:

• Zerinj's Durotar Guide 1-12: 4h 14min - 21 min/level
• Hosho's Barrens Guide 12-20: 9h 43min - 69 min/level
  

Total /played at level 30.5: 1d 4h 45min

Again, this is pretty significantly behind Jame's rate, who at this same point is at 19 hours /played and averaged 1 hr/level during this section. Again, he is playing a paladin, who level a lot faster.

On that same note, I want to let you all know that I went ahead and bought Mokrana some gear. It was all purchased with her own money (though she's been making serious buck with her herbing skills). She now has several blues, including a [Cobalt Crusher] that I found for relatively cheap. I've definitely noticed a serious improvement of both her speed and survivability, and am enjoying playing her about a million times more. My advice for anyone leveling a shaman - find a way to get some decent gear, it really matters for these melee classes.

Mokrana and her new mount and new gear, ready to take on the world!

Now, on to the analysis!

My only complaint is that I got a bit behind the guide in several places and was forced to grind. This was especially bad for the first half of the guide when I have bad gear and wasn't too fast at killing things. In particular, I was behind during the Hillsbrad Foothills section, and had to grind on humanoids there for a long time to catch up. I also ended the guide half a level behind, but chose to move on rather than trying to grind my way to catch up.

I have heard several complaints about folks getting behind specifically in this section of Jame's guide. I think this may be due to changes in quest drop rate causing less built-in grinding. I know Jame plans to add new quest circuits as he goes through the addon, so I hope this is one section that gets some new runs added to it.

Towards the end of the guide, my inner engineer started showing through, and I made a little spreedsheet to track each quest circuit and it's average hr/level time. I think this will be really useful info for Jame if he decides to tweak or optimize these guides. Here's the results:

• Stonetalon Mountains (27-28) - Harpies Threaten circuit - 1.41 hr/lvl
• Stonetalon Mountains (27-28) - Bloodfury Ripper optional circuit - 1.26 hr/lvl
• Hillsbrad (28) - 1.88 hr/lvl
• 1K Needles (28-30) - Pacify Centaur circuit - 1.55 hr/lvl
• 1K Needles (28-30) - Highperch/Grimtotem circuit - 1.35 hr/lvl
• Ashenvale (30-31) - Felfire Hill circuit - 1.93 hr/lvl
  
• Ashenvale (30-31) - Never Again circuit - 1.97 hr/lvl

Next up, I'll be revamping and revising the 31-41 section on my warlock Tirrigeth, in preparation for Mokrana's next journey!

Upcoming Projects

Hey all!

So, I'm *sort of* back. I still have finals and moving, but I've worked through a lot of my pile of homework so I may be more active again. Expect me back to full steam around June 15th.

I thought I'd start off with yet another list of what I'm working on, in roughly the order of importance/urgency. This includes both my WoW-Pro goals and my in-game personal goals, which are sometimes intertwined.

1. Tree guide update - this is actually almost done, and is definitely my highest priority.
2. GIMP guide release - I know, I know, take forever. It will be a wiki page editable by all.
3. Retro Raids - In roughly this order: Kalimdor Instances, Eastern Kindoms Instances, Old World Raids, Outland Instances, and Outland Raids. This will probably be a long-term, ongoing project released in parts while I work on other things simultaneously. Currently the first section is in progress.
4. Revamp of WoW-Pro's "FAQ" Page - Currently it's more of an "about this site" page. I want to make it a real FAQ, for all of the "Jame when u coming out wif new guidezz lol hurry up!" (and the like) posts. We won't have to dignify those with a response anymore, just a link to the FAQ. Yay!
5. Get Deedlet to level 80 - This is a big one for me. I've just had such a blast with this paladin, and I really want to start doing end-game content with her.
6. Achievements with Honani - As you can probably guess, this is ongoing. Honani is officially an achievement whore. She's currently focusing on fishing achievements, but is also working towards rep, pet, and mount achievements, with questing achievements also in the works.
7. Addon Work - I have lots going on in the addon testing project on WoW-Pro. Here are some of the things I'm working on, or plan to work on if no one else gets to it first:

   • Horde Dragonblight Revamp
   • Horde Grizzly Hills Revamp
   • Horde 21-31 Speed Testing
   • Horde 31-41 Revamp and Speed Testing
   • Horde 41-51 Revamp and Speed Testing
   • Speed Testing 51-80 (should be pretty high quality already)
   • Blade's Edge Mountains Coding
   • Netherstorm Coding
   • Shadowmoon Valley Coding
   • Daily Quest Guide Coding

8. Future Guides - I have lots of ideas for future guides, once I finish what I'm currently working on. These all depend on whether someone else has already made a quality guide, of course:

   • Fishing and cooking leveling guide
   • Fishing achievement guide
   • Cooking achievement guide
   • What a Long Strange Trip It's Been guide
   • Instance guides
   • Continue work on Loot System guide

Borean Tundra plus Pictures

Hey folks, I'm still going to be pretty inactive for a few more weeks, but I have an update for you!

Deedlet has finished her tour of Borean Tundra and there is an updated leveling addon file. It's not perfect because I got lazy with coords towards the end, but it's definitely usable. Download it here.

I also have been taking a fair amount of screenshots lately, and I wanted to share them with you. Enjoy!

Deedlet surveys the land after completing her questing in Borean Tundra
Honani and her new pet, a Sprite Darter.

A victorious "retro raid" poses for a shot with Kael'thas' remains

Honani the Critter Gitter!

Fishing in Howling Fjord. I'm seldom online around sunset, and I thought this was especially pretty.

AFK!

Hey folks, expect a bit of inactivity from me for the next couple weeks. I've been a bad student this term and I need to catch up, and I have a girl's weekend planned for this coming weekend, so my WoW/writing time is going to be pretty much zero.

Sorry, I'll be back in a few weeks!

Mr. Pinchy!

I just needed to stop and brag about this.


I was leveling my fishing and also going for the [Outland Gourmet] achievement, fishing in Highland Mix schools in Terokkar forest. What I was actually trying to catch was a [Huge Spotted Feltail] (incidentally this took 2 freaking hours). Imagine my surprise (and delight!) when 30 minutes in I fish up: [Mr. Pinchy]

Now, I have been wanting the crawdad pet ever since I heard about it during BC. But I never really went for it. Getting Mr. Pinchy by accident was just awesome. On the first "wish", all I got was a buff, so I was a little worried that I wouldn't get the pet out of it. The 2 day cooldown really sucks by the way.

But I logged in yesterday and what does Mr. Pinchy award me with? A [Magical Crawdad Box]! Turns out there is also an achievement associated with Mr. Pinchy, [Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box], and it's part of the criteria for [Accompliched Angler] and the title "Salty".

Needless to say, my guildies are very jealous of my good fortune!

...Next up, the turtle mount! ;)

Small Guilds and Raiding

Hey folks!

Today I want to share some thoughts I've had recently regarding small guilds and raiding. As you probably know if you follow this blog, I'm a member of a very small family-style guild. I'm talking less than 10 active level 80s, and only a few others who are still leveling. That said, the 80s in the guild absolutely love raiding. But the whole reason we left our last big raiding guild was to get away from all the drama and stupidness that comes with big guilds.

How do we reconcile these two issues? Here are some ideas that Fianna uses to remain a successful raiding guild despite our small size:

• Organize 10 mans. Even though we can't field a full 10 man group, we can field most of it. We organize 10 man raid runs every week and simply PuG the missing people, hopefully from friends lists but sometimes from Trade or LFG. We don't try to organize our own 25-mans, since this would be more like putting together a general PuG than a guild "guest" run.
• Recruit selectively. We're small because we only want people we really like in our guild, not just because we want to be small. The 10-man raids described above are an excellent way to scope out potential members. If a group member does really well, after the raid we let them know that they have an invitation to the guild.
• Maintain extensive friends lists. This is easier than ever with Blizzard's note feature. If someone was a great PuG, add them to your friends and note their specialty so you can invite them again. Also note any particularly bad players so you can avoid them in the future.
• PuG into 25 mans. With big friends lists and by getting to know people when they are guests at your raids, you can also often find out when other guilds need guests in their 25 man raids. This is a great time to get some upgraded gear that you don't normally have access to in a small guild environment.
• Form guild alliances. Get to know other guilds who might be too small to field full raid teams and ally with them. Fianna currently has two alliances, and are now officially teaming up with another guild for 25 mans.
• Host other events. Our guild has started doing weekly "retro raids" (yes I've talked about this before on here). We advertise in Trade and get as many people as we can for these old school raids. This kind of fun event lets people know who you are as a guild and is just one more way to meet people.

That's all I've got, hope these ideas are helpful to any of you out there who are part of small guilds!

Ulduar - Thoughts from a Tree

Fianna had it's first real success in Ulduar this week. The previous weeks since the new raid has been out, we were only able to down Flame Leviathan. This week we brought down XT-002, Razorscale, and Ignis. We probably would have gotten Kologarn had we a little more time, but as always our guild has a strict end time and we called it before we beat him.

My overall impression of Ulduar is somewhat mixed. At first I felt like the place was just too hard, but I'm actually leaning toward the oposite now. This content is supposed to keep us occupied until the next major content patch, but our guild burned through three new bosses this week, and actually one shot or two shot all three. Kologarn was the only one that really gave us trouble, and mostly that was because we were just doing it wrong to start out. I hope the rest of the content is interesting enough to last. Then again, there are lots of hard modes to try if we get bored with the normal content.

Flame LeviathanFor this fight, I usually pair with our elemental shaman, Mirna, and drive a demolisher. This is pretty fun, though I would like to try each of the other vehicles eventually. Overall the Flame Leviathan encounter is pretty fun - but I have a feeling the trash clear is going to get really old really fast. Because of the trash, this first encounter takes quite a lot longer than the next few we tried. Still, I think it is an interesting break from typical boss fights and I applaud Blizard for trying something new.

Needless to say, I have no healer-specific thoughts for this fight.

Drops:

• [Ironsoul] - Congrats to our main tank Nodonn!
• [Lifespark Visage] - Congrats to our boomkin, Shapa!
• [Energy Siphon] - So, this really dropped last week, but I wanted to say how excited I am that I got it, because mana is a bitch in Ulduar!

XT-002 Deconstructor

XT is the next one we went after, and I'm sorry to say I spent almost the entire fight with my face in the dirt. I got myself killed by a light bomb pretty much right off the bat. However, we were running with three healers. We learned due to this mishap that we indeed can (and therefor should) run that fight with only two healers. With the wonderful new convenience of duel spec, it's easy to do this. Not only will that make the fight shorter, it will actually make healing easier anyway because more DPS means more chances to skip "Tantrums" - because it's possible to DPS XT fast enough that he goes back into his open heart phase before doing a tantrum.

Note: We forgot to take a picture of XT :(

Drops:

• [Gloves of Taut Grip] - Congrats to our honorary member, Kanomira!
• [Conductive Cord] - Congrats to Violetress, who was a great first time pug!

Razorscale
This boss was a lot of fun, and went really smoothly. In fact, I think we one-shot her tonight, though we did wipe on her about 15 times last night. Tonight it just clicked with the group make-up we had, and everything went right. I think three healers and 5 DPS works on this one, but if you can manage it you should probably go with 6 DPS since she does have an enrage timer that can be a problem if your DPS is not good enough. But if you can down XT, you can probably down her without too much trouble.

Tree healing for Razorscale was great. This fight, like many others in Ulduar, requires a lot of mobility, which made my healing buddy Celyanna, a holy paladin, very unhappy. There really isn't anything too challenging in this encounter as far as healing goes, as long as people follow one of the basic rules of raiding: Stay out of the fire!

Drops:

• [Breastplate of the Afterlife] - Congrats to Celynna on this excellent holy paladin piece!
• I don't recall what the second piece of gear was, but I think it went to our rogue PuG. His name was also really crazy and I'd have to check my friends list to find it, but he put out good DPS and was overall a valuable edition to the team, especially due to his previous experience in the dungeon.

Ignis the Furnace Master

I had so freaking much fun on this fight. Usually our guild runs with two boomkins in addition to me, and I think normally I won't have quite as much fun as I did tonight because of that. Tonight I was the only druid, and as such it was up to me to root the adds as our (awesome) pally tank kited them around. I stayed out of tree form and healed the pally tank and also spot healed the raid while the other two healers concentrated on the main tank. We didnt have a mage to break the adds, but our two elemental shamans did a great job with it. Really, I can't say enough how flawlessly this went. We one-shot this boss with most of us never having done the encounter before. And I got to feel really important :)

Drops:

• [Gloves of the Smoldering Touch] - These went to our rogue PuG again, whose name is hard to type.
• [Drape of Fuming Anger] - This actually went to off spec, and was picked up by Celynna. Yay for gearing up his ret set!

Kologarn

This fight really sucks. It sucks more when the tanks don't know they need to be swapping the boss back and forth and are eating 20k+ damage spikes. We cycled through three main tanks before we figured that out. Our last attempt was really good, and I'm convinced we could have downed this bad boy if we had more time.

Overall this was a great run and I had a blast. We got really lucky with PuGs, and our usual PuGs upped their game to make tonight a great success. I especially wanna give a shout out to Evilboo, a long time friend of a few folks in the guild who met up again for the first time in quite a while. We need to run together more often!

Tomorrow I'll share some thoughts for people in small guilds who are trying to organize raids, and some idea on how to make that work. But that's it for tonight folks, hope you all have as much fun raiding Ulduar as I have!