WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

I try to stay away and the new season of D3 is helping but I just can help getting that itch to reaffirm the way a favorite class are shaping up. ( I get a little paranoid when there is an update to the beta. I keep expecting them "oh you thought you were going to have fun playing BFA?" nerf)
Yup, the assassin rogue is still balls to the wall fun. Sometimes I don't know what I am doing but damage numbers are flying everywhere and stuff is dying around me that ain't me.

The mage seems a little tweeked but I still can't find a comfortable rotation with any of them. Arcane seems a little closer at getting a grasp on it but now fire seems further away. You still take too much damage considering you get a shield. It just seems way too much work when compared to the priest's mage spec (shadow). And shadow spec isn't exactly simple. To put it even more in perspective, the mage specs are more complex than any of the warlock specs. Chew that one on for size.

So still for me, the 2 losers in BFA are the mages and the monks. The former gets 3 mediocre specs. The latter gets one decent (tank), one not living up to its potential and far out classed by like specs (melee dps) and one mediocre but repetitive (healing).

Rogue - assassin, then subtlety then outlaw
Warlock - destruction, then a tie between affliction and demonology
Hunter - so close between all three but I'd have to give the nod to survival
Paladin - I'm going with retribution over protection then holy
Death Knight - unholy got a lot more fun and tightened up the gaps between the 3 specs to the subatomic level
Warrior - fury then arms then protection
Druid - feral then guardian then restoration (with balance affinity) then balance
Shaman - enhancement then I really don't care between restoration and elemental
Demon Hunter - vengeance over havoc but both are a top tier
Monk - brewmaster, then windwalker (healing?) then mistwalker
Priest - Shadow then discipline then holy
Mage - arcane?? *shrugs*

Interesting interview posted on Wowhead about upcoming changes. Unfortunately, it looks like they won’t be doing a major leveling event during pre-patch, but there will be some gear and new mounts available. The intro Battle for Lordaeron will be available 1 week before launch.

http://www.wowhead.com/news=285246/f...

Really bummed about the no pre-leveling event. However, the new spec changes will be fun to explore on all my mid level alts. Or I should really say all my sub-100 alts...
My priest is only 30ish so that should rock leveling shadow.
I have a 50ish void elf hunter that will be fun to switch back and forth from all the different specs.
My VE lock is only 50.
My oldest and longest played character is my 63 Druid. The feral changes will breath new life into her
I have a handful of shaman in the 30's, 40's, 50's. Some of these classes I will want to re-roll as Maghar orcs or DI dwarves.
I boosted a rogue from 17 to 110. I will probably want to re-roll and level her as one of the allied races.
The warrior I boosted to 100 will probably end up the same. I will run that one fury spec for sure whether I continue to level the boosted or roll an allied alt.

One more thing:
I hope that their idea that the leveling is in a good place right now solely regards overall pace. Because I would have very little respect left for them if it were broader.
The 1-63 game is good. And if they can see the stark difference from 60-80 and then back to 80-90 and 90-98 then they must be a part of the opiod epidemic.

60-80 is just dire at the moment. the rest isnt so bad as you say

I’m not sure why they just don’t fix it so you’re gaining a level every half hour or so in 60-80. That content is completely outdated and one of the worst MMO experiences on the market right now with maybe the exception of a FTP Korean grind fest. I almost gave up several times.

At least you can go 73-80 super fast through Karazhan. Not that it is particularly fun, but it doesn't last long.
They should just let the current 80-90 range be 70-90, lots of good content there. And increase quest xp across the board from 1-110 imo, felt like dungeons were still quite a bit faster most of the time.

Are we talking leveling with or without heirlooms? Because with a full set I seemed to have leveled pretty quickly through those levels. That being said, Shadout, you are 100% correct in that dungeon xp is insane and saved me a lot of time questing.

JD - I would have to disagree. I enjoyed the leveling experience. I basically did one zone in every expansion outside of the dungeon content. That means if I create a new character now, I wouldn't have to do any of the same content that I did before (outside of a couple quests here and there).

I hit 98 last night and on to Legion. Pretty excited about that!

I got one more night (probably) of rep grinding and then I'll have that Void Elf!

Goo wrote:

60-80 is just dire at the moment. the rest isnt so bad as you say

It doesn't feel that bad to me, having just hit 62ish. That might be because I am still riding the high of being able to go directly to northrend and not have to even set foot in outland though.

I think you are about to hit the wall sorry to say.

I levelled a nightborne mage up fairly recently and also went through northrend instead of Outland and it was bloody awful. I think it all went pear shaped around the point where you are at now. Maybe it's just Borean tundra? I dunno

If you do find it's getting bad look into the karazhan farming as shadout mentioned from about level 72 on. Helped me a lot.

Panda land and Draenor seemed about right

Yeah, my nightborne mage also hit a wall early on in Northrend. I love the Howling fjord zone, so it went okay in the beginning, but around 62 it just turned terrible. Glad I found the karazhan method too at about 70.
Never ever go to Boredan Tundra though!
Northrend pretty much was my favorite time of the game, so I would like to enjoy revisiting those zones. Just too slow compared to the rest of the lvling.

If I lvl more new races up, I sure will try to do only dungeons for 60-70. Problem is I dont really like doing those dungeons - and the queues can be long, and will likely only get worse over time. Heck, maybe it is worth giving Outlands a try again. What could possibly go wrong.

I liked both cataclysm and pandaria - Draenor is okay but could use full scaling in the zones. But you are going to lvl through cataclysm/pandaland zones incredibly fast. Maybe the lvl scaling should just be widened completely. Pandaland at 30? Sure, why not.

Goo wrote:

I think you are about to hit the wall sorry to say.

I levelled a nightborne mage up fairly recently and also went through northrend instead of Outland and it was bloody awful. I think it all went pear shaped around the point where you are at now. Maybe it's just Borean tundra? I dunno

If you do find it's getting bad look into the karazhan farming as shadout mentioned from about level 72 on. Helped me a lot.

Panda land and Draenor seemed about right

i appreciate the warning. II'll guard against getting discouraged. I also have a pretty strong nostalgia for wrath o the lich king, so i tend to find the questing less boring than i otherwise might. Kara is a great idea though.

My current method had been to queue for dungeons and than quest while waiting for it to pop. I did start in Borean Tundra. Is Howling Fyord better?

Don’t know, never made it over there. Too stubborn or something lol.

Edit-also dungeons may make it better. Wasn’t a great option for me due to the time zone and low population, but in the busier US time zones that might be a big help

Love the Howling Fjord music. The rest of the zone is okay.
Which is way more than can be said about Borean Tundra

Howling Fjord is much more scenic and has better music. I also loved Grizzly Hills for awhile. All of this would be more fun if either they included Pandaria and Cata in one big 60-90 zone, or just speed it up considerably.

Or maybe I’m burned out on old content since ESO and GW 2 have a far more dynamic system. I’m enjoying the new stuff and what I played of the BFA beta has me excited for dynamic islands, but it’s hard to go back.

Yes Howling Fjord is much better than Borean Tundra. But you really do hit a wall after 4 levels where you have to supplement it with dungeons. You should always supplement with dungeons but at that point you HAVE to. Which is where I think the devs must have checked out too

DeThroned wrote:

Are we talking leveling with or without heirlooms? Because with a full set I seemed to have leveled pretty quickly through those levels. That being said, Shadout, you are 100% correct in that dungeon xp is insane and saved me a lot of time questing.

This..

It depends on the amount of heirlooms, but you can shrink the time in the Outlands and Northrend to a few hours each just doing dungeons.

ranalin wrote:
DeThroned wrote:

Are we talking leveling with or without heirlooms? Because with a full set I seemed to have leveled pretty quickly through those levels. That being said, Shadout, you are 100% correct in that dungeon xp is insane and saved me a lot of time questing.

This..

It depends on the amount of heirlooms, but you can shrink the time in the Outlands and Northrend to a few hours each just doing dungeons.

I am (mostly) hairloomed up. I think the only thing Im missing are the heirlooms based of guild cheevos regular raiding.

Dungeons will net you 3/5 to 3/4 a level with most heirlooms (around +50% xp) and rested xp. The dungeons themselves take ~15-20 minutes and 20-30 minutes to queue for. So you are looking at an 45-60 minutes per level with some questing.
I don't know what I am doing wrong since it takes me a lot longer than a few hours to level through Outland or Northrend. Draenor is a bit faster since you get quest xp, garrision mission xp, world quest xp and dungeon xp.

I didn't use an actual timer last time I went through but started off doing a set of dungeon runs right away. 4-5 with one group and started the primary quest line for howling fjord waiting on another queue after that. I did this for 3 other sets and was able to leave Northrend with only 3/4 of main quest completed.

So finished the rep grind then realized I needed to finish that last raid to get a void elf. Reading the guides for the last 2 bosses to finish the story and thinking to myself - this seems impossible for a PUG to do.

EDIT: oops just like that I finished it hehe

There's definitely a grind through 60-90 range, in my opinion, and dungeons are the only way to ease it. It seems that leveling does become much, much quicker when you hit 90. Both Draenor and Legion feel snappy.

While I appreciate the leveling patch, I don't think it solved the issue. World of Warcraft is still a game that's mostly focused on whatever the new expansion is, and everything else is just a grind you have to engage in to level, or earn certain cosmetic or achievement awards.

I'd like to see World of Warcraft embrace an account-wide, end-game progression system similar to Guild Wars 2 or Diablo 3, alongside level scaling across all zones.

Whelp, the end of the current PVP season was announced, kind of... with no actual date, but it's looking like the 17th will be the pre-patch/end of the season (there will be an "unseasoned season" for pvp to last until the expansion hits.

But, yay! Prepaaaaaatch! Been kind of just looking for ways to fill time (like beta/figuring out my class/specs for BfA) ever since I hit the 36 club, so woooooooooo!

No 8.0 patch this week. Maybe next Tuesday?

Enix wrote:

No 8.0 patch this week. Maybe next Tuesday?

All guesses point to next week. I had my fingers crossed for this week, but I figured no dice when they announced on an hour long maintenance. On the plus side it gave me time to finally acquire the fishing artifact and remember that I never actually got the raft after they invented the toy box. I hope ti don;t have to fully level the artifact pole to keep the benies it will have in BfA

I'm glad I got an extra week, too. Finally managed to get the Field Medic title (it was fine until I had to start grinding out the last few). Now I've got a month to finish leveling professions and get that final Arch achievement.

I busted out enough artifact points to get all the key abilities on the pole, sharkramoraform, water walking, and lower threat profile while fishing. there are some other things, but most of them ive decided i don;t care so much about the alternate visuals for the pole, or for the mage tower stuff. so i think i'm readdddy

I think I got most of the key traits on the pole, too. I thought for a hot second about maxing them all out and realized I don't like fishing that much.

I think maybe the fishing faction in Suramar (when it's up) gives you the best chance of maxing out AP? I recall reading that somewhere but don't know if that's accurate.

I think I might try to pull all of the coins out of the Dal fountain over the next month. I can't imagine the pre-patch will be all that busy. It took longer to get to Silithus than it did to do all the run-up quests out there.

I haven’t picked up the fishing pole yet. Does it go away with BFA/pre-patch? Specifically, do I need to get it before BFA?