Hosho's Barrens Guide 12-20: 9h 43min
= 69 min/level
Previous Chapters:= 69 min/level
Total /played at level 20.5: 13h 56min
Overall, I am am pretty disappointed in these results. It's crap ton slower than Jame completed the same level range (his total /played was 9 hours compared to my almost 14 hours!). I'm going to give a few reasons why I think this is so:
- The Guide: Hosho's guide needs some reworking. There are places where the mobs are just too tough to deal with. He knows this and is working to fix it. As soon as he releases a revamped guide, I'll give that one a speed test and update here.
- The Class: Shamans are, from what I have head and experienced, a bit difficult to level during the early levels. I ran out of mana constantly, I had a lot of trouble with multiple mobs, and I just didn't kill things very quickly. However, I think part of this also had to do with me being unfamiliar with the class. As I played, I began to die less and deal with things faster. Still, another class would probably have been faster. I also finished up a totem quest during this time. The good news: later on, enhancement shamans are OP!
- Time Wasting: I must have spent almost an hour leveling cooking and herbalism and fixing mistakes in the guide as I went. I've decided from now on I'm not going to take any major time out for professions, so most probably my cooking and herbalism will languish, but my skinning will continue.
- Dying: Not really a cause in itself but a result of number 1 and number 2 on this list. I must have died 3 or more times every level for the first half of the guide. It got better as I went, but it was probably the most frustrated I have ever been while playing WoW, mostly because I couldn't relax since I was trying to test for speed!
- Money: I mailed all the semi-useful stuff Mokrana found to an alt, who auctioned it. So far she's made 30 gold, which funded two netherweave bags with some left over as a cushion for skills. Hopefully she'll be able to fund her mount this way by level 30.
- Flight Paths: Mokrana picked up flight paths in Ashenvale (that run alone probably takes over 15 minutes) and Stonetalon. This will help out during Jame's guide, where you would have to get those if you didn't already have them
- No Grinding: I didn't have to grind any extra than what was done while questing, so I got to skip the periodic grinding sessions Hosho allows for in his guide. Yay!
Here's the story in image form:
Level 12 - Mokrana heads into the Barrens, looking for adventure...
What a nice loincloth I found! Smexy!
.... The funny thing is I got wtfpwned by a patrolling centaur and his little doggies right after I took this picture.
What a nice loincloth I found! Smexy!.... The funny thing is I got wtfpwned by a patrolling centaur and his little doggies right after I took this picture.
Level 17 - Prowling the Oasis in my new loincloth
Level 19 - Almost to the end!
Escorting this completely idiotic NPC back to Ratchet. Worst. Escort. Ever.
Level 20 - Yay, almost there!
Ended the guide at 20.5. And I got some pants, finally!Hope you all tune in for the next chapter!
Yay for the pants!
ReplyDeleteGood post Jiyambi, and it's really no surprise that your numbers are higher than mine. ENH shaman really do suck for leveling until they get all their tools, they probably are the worst class in terms of leveling speed until level 45+. That's without twinking of course. Melee twinks always have it easy, but that's not the case here, so it's normal that' you're having a hard time.
Plus, you're leveling tradeskills and cooking, which doesn't help!
Anyway, keep it up :)
Heh, well like I said probably gonna ditch the cooking and herbalism next chapter! And I really do think that with water shield things will improve, at least I won't have to constantly drink ;)
ReplyDeleteJust a few comments on shaman 1-29 levelling:
ReplyDelete2h at low levels are crap. Untill you get windfury stick with 1h+shield because your dps will be almost the same and you get a lot less damage.
Pull with a couple of lighting bolt and the just melee enemies down so you dont have to rec.
Never use shocks at least until you get water shield (that I think you get at 20).
When pulling multiple mobs focus on 1 and try to heal at full life after you kill every mob (use stoneclaw totem just before healing and before damaging any other mob).
You will be killing mobs slow (but that's shaman life untill level 30) but you will last longer and dont die much.
After a bad pull remember to drop stoneclaw and run away and drop earthbind when mobs destroy stoneclaw.
Levelling 20-29: use water shield and put some talents to prevent losing concentration while healing that are a life saver. With water shield and healing you will be mostly unkillable.
At 30 respec full enhancement and use a big slow 2H until you get dual wield: 2H+windfury=A lot of fun!! :)
Thanks for the advice! I was following Tollvink's guide thus far since I have zero shaman experience. I'll get myself a one-hander and shield, I was just taking whatever had the most DPS but I could see how a shield might be better, more survivability but less DPS. As for shocks, again just following the advice of another shaman and had been using earth shock when it was up. But now I have water shield so that should really help with the mana issues!
ReplyDeleteDo you really want to level mokrana without talents?
ReplyDeleteI do hope that comment means her talents were reset while I was away this weekend - poor Mokrana fell victim to the recent bugs in the talent system and her Thundering Strikes talent was all bugged out, its 5 points disappeared and were not refunded and I couldn't put anything in the lower tier talent points, it was awful!
ReplyDeleteYup, looks like talents were refunded and are now correctly spent :)
Yeah, I'm checking up on both you and Jame's toons. Now if he would only get off his duff and use his own leveling guide :P
ReplyDelete