WoW: Dragonflight

Thanks everyone.

Docjoe wrote:

This expansion does seem really polarizing. I’m enjoying it, probably in part because I found a guild filled with old folks like me that has been fun to hang out with.

Are they open to new members?

Oh for sure. It’s appropriately called Grumpy Old Toons but very casual and really nice folks. Not doing organized raids yet although I believe that is planned. Blackhand-Galarand server, Alliance side. Just send in a request and you’ll get added in.

With love to everyone in GWJ Alliance, I've jumped over to Grumpy Old Toons.

Unrelated: Did Blizz turn up the spawn rate of the 250-Anima quests? I just saw 2 running simultaneously, and as soon as I cleared one, third one popped up.

merphle wrote:

With love to everyone in GWJ Alliance, I've jumped over to Grumpy Old Toons.

Good riddance!

I mean, good luck! They seem like fine folks over there. Even better, they're doing stuff as a guild! What a concept.

Merphle what is your toon name? We’ll have to run some dungeons if you don’t yell at me for screwing up.

Docjoe wrote:

Merphle what is your toon name? We’ll have to run some dungeons if you don’t yell at me for screwing up.

"Merphle". Very original, I know.

Haha awesome! My cast of alts go by Cin something but also listed as Joe, a lot of us use the Incognito addon that shows your real name next to your toon name. I’m also one of the resident alchemists so let me know if you need any flasks or invis potions or anything.

So, sorry if this is dumb. I seem to have hit my ilvl cap for heroic items (171?), so whats next mythic? Do they not show up in dungeon finder? I am not really sure what to do now. I need better gear, just not really sure how to go about it.

You use the same Group Finder tool for heroics, mythics and LFR raids.

For LFR, hit the Raid Finder tab.

For Mythics, go to the Premade Groups tab, then dungeons, then pick one.

Edit: Assuming this chart is still accurate (scroll down), Mythics drop i184 gear, and LFR drops i187 to i194. Normal Castle Nath is 200-207.

There might be some WQs that give you better gear a la BFA, but I've been so slow to level in SL (I'm still doing the intro quest!) that I can't tell you if this is true this time.

Igneus wrote:

So, sorry if this is dumb. I seem to have hit my ilvl cap for heroic items (171?), so whats next mythic? Do they not show up in dungeon finder? I am not really sure what to do now. I need better gear, just not really sure how to go about it.

Weekly World Quest - Boss drops 207 gear
Covenant Weekly Renown quests - get gear that you can upgrade. Rainsmercy just did this and I believe got 197 gear once fully upgraded. You have to have enough anima but you can get a reasonable amount doing the world quests.

Enix already said LFR. It's 187 gear which is nice. You also have the chance at a BoE item which could sell on the AH for a reasonable amount.

Legendary gear. Check WoWHead for what is best in slot for you. Get the memory that you need and buy the correct item to craft the legendary. That will get you a 225 pretty cheap (40k probably)

Also PVP you can get I think up to 197 through honor system I think? I’m terrible at PVP so haven’t done much but a lot of folks in my guild have geared that route.

My alt is running around with mostly 190 gear thanks to the covenant campaign, and I get to do another round of upgrades once I finish this last quest chain. I don't care about that sanctum much so I've been spending all his anima on upgrading the gear set. Finishing the quest line will also give you a weapon off the LFR vendor.

Buwahaha. The Twisting Layers Torghast which I now have a quest for is 18 Floors for 1 layer...I can barely manage 6 floors of pure drudgery in one sitting now I have to do 18??

TheGameguru wrote:

Buwahaha. The Twisting Layers Torghast which I now have a quest for is 18 Floors for 1 layer...I can barely manage 6 floors of pure drudgery in one sitting now I have to do 18??

I didn't realize it the first time. It was so brutal.

TheGameguru wrote:

Buwahaha. The Twisting Layers Torghast which I now have a quest for is 18 Floors for 1 layer...I can barely manage 6 floors of pure drudgery in one sitting now I have to do 18??

For the quest, you don’t actually have to do all 18 floors. You can complete the quest by doing the first 6 floors 3 times, in separate runs.

Some classes must have much worse/less interesting anima powers than others.

It has to be done in a group in my opinion. All I want to do is complete layer 8 of it so I can get the mount for the maw.

I played for a bit yesterday. I am still in Ardenweald and about 58.5
My gear score is probably in the 120's. I have a helm and weapon in the 130's and a bunch of the rest of my gear in the high 110's

So far Bastion had a good reveal.
Maldraxxus had great quest NPC(s)
And Ardenweald seems so to have all the feels. (mostly sad or tragic)

I want to play unholy DK but frost is way more hearty and has way more AOE.
I bet my DH would be frustrating from dying a lot but my survival hunter would do well.

I'm actually loving the Torghast content.

I play guardian druid, and my covenant is the Night Fae (Ardenweld). The Convoke the Spirits ability is just nuts for this content if you get the anima powers that boost this (such as Energy Focusing Crystal / Sealed Essence Sphere). It feels counter intuitive to switch out of bear form, but in moonkin form Convoke just burns bosses in a matter of seconds. Some times the 5 second channel doesn't even finish and the boss is dead.

We also get anima so that our Entangling Roots CC causes damage (can't remember the anima name). This doesn't trigger combat, so you can CC mobs and just watch them die.

I have 4 max level classes (all different classes/covenants) most of which I don't know how to play super well, and Torghast makes me explore a lot of the abilities of those classes that I wouldn't normally touch, which makes me a better player on those classes.

I found the WowHead Torghast Strategies pages really useful for figuring out good combinations for different classes.

An explanation of some of those anima powers:

  • Sealed Essence Sphere - Convoke the Spirits will use an exceptional spell significantly more often.
  • Energy Focusing Crystal - While channeling Convoke the Spirits, your damage and healing are increased by 50%.
  • Lycara's Sash - You automatically cast a spell when you shapeshift: No Form: Barkskin / Cat Form: Stampeding Roar / Bear Form: Frenzied Regeneration / Moonkin Form: Starfall

I find it boring and awful...for one thing you get zero payoff unless you finish it 100%. Get a bad bunch of powers and it’s game over when it’s boss time and you just flushed 2 boring hours down the toilet. I finally managed to clear Layer 6 despite lukewarm powers but it took running around like crazy trying to burn the last few % of the boss while that giant insta death mob tried to kill me. That boss sucked had a one shot 15 yard aoe that slowed you which meant you had to basically anticipate it coming and pray you could get away.

It's also about learning what you need and what you have to prioritize. My first time in the twisting corridors I thought I was unstoppable until I started getting one-shot. But that's how builds with massive healing and no other defense go in games like this. The second time in I passed over some splashy offensive abilities to get some basic damage reduction and things went much better. I ended up taking them earlier than I otherwise would have, just to make sure I didn't miss them. That ended up being the right call.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

Buwahaha. The Twisting Layers Torghast which I now have a quest for is 18 Floors for 1 layer...I can barely manage 6 floors of pure drudgery in one sitting now I have to do 18??

For the quest, you don’t actually have to do all 18 floors. You can complete the quest by doing the first 6 floors 3 times, in separate runs.

there is a lot of RNG involved. i did the first 6 floors no problem, and the second 6, until i got up to the second boss, and just happened to roll a boss that can't be beat without a dispel. Theres are a number of bosses in the various wings that just flat can't be defeated by certain classes.

Can anyone give me a general idea of how much time it will take to get into regular raiding. One of my 2021 Gaming goals is to try raiding but I don’t have a good idea of the time/effort required. Is it something I can do playing say 10-15 hours a week?

Btw I’m currently 60 and finishing the Venthyr story about ready to begin heroics.

jdzappa wrote:

Is it something I can do playing say 10-15 hours a week?

Yes.

Once your gear is good enough that you can pull your weight, you really just need to show up to raid each week and do your job. I'll go long stretches where the only time I fire up the game is to log on for raid. Getting to that level might require a bit more effort, but it's not too bad. I have one alt that's probably ready for Normal mode just from questing; I don't care much about his sanctum so all his anima has been funneled into the Covenant gear. Finishing the Covenant storyline also gives you a token for a Raid Finder level weapon, which is sufficient to get started in Normal mode.

There's also the Raid Finder if you want to gear up and sorta see the fights.

You might choose to chase down cooking, alchemy, and/or enchanting to help, but those aren't really necessary for Normal difficulty.

Cool thanks! I’ll have a long weekend coming up that hopefully will help me catch up on gear.

Don't stand in the fire

My DK is 60 and has completed the story. She has chosen Night Fae as her covenant.
I don't think I'll be playing DK much longer.
Now that I can pick and choose the story content, I might fire up my survival hunter or demon hunter to get to 60 next.

My guild is taking first crack at the raid tomorrow night. We are real casual and real old. I expect it to go badly but should still be fun!

Docjoe wrote:

My guild is taking first crack at the raid tomorrow night. We are real casual and real old. I expect it to go badly but should still be fun!

I've tentatively signed up, and am looking forward to it!

The Looking For Raid (LFR) option is good if you just want to do the raid with minimal investment. If want to do the normal mode of the raid then the 10-15 hours should be enough to gear up if lucky on drops.

Currently there is a weekly quest in Oribos to do 5 Cataclysm timewalking dungeons for a ilvl 200 piece.