tommyg
02-25-2008, 03:33 PM
Hey, guys. My group hit 60, today, with absolutely no boosting at all along the way. It feels really good to play the game it was meant to be played. Ok, that's not really true, it wasn't really meant to be played this way, but that's the way I feel. I've run everything at level-appropriate range, with a solid tank/healer/dps group, and made it to 60 all by myself. I kind of feel like that Klingon in the Star Trek movie (I forget which one) that says, "Shakespeare is best in the original Klingon." Of course, Shakespeare wasn't written in Klingon, and WoW wasn't made for 5-boxers, but it certainly feels that way. :)
I haven't been too active on this forum, but I'd like to thank you guys for all the encouragement/advice/experience you show to your guests. I couldn't have made it this far without you. *sniff*
I started just about February 1, so it's taken me 25 days, or about 3 1/2 weeks to hit 60 with five characters, and it's been a blast! I think my /played time was at just over 6 days, so it's no record there. You can look up my previous posts to read more about my setup if you like. I left off my previous post at 40 with finishing up all the instances through SM and RFD. Since then, I've done Uldaman, Zul'Farrak, Maraudon, Sunken Temple, Blackrock Depths, and all but the last boss of Hellfire Ramparts.
Uldaman was really easy at 41. Pally tanking rocks. Didn't bother with the adds on the final boss, just consecrate and dps him down hard. Mostly hunter loot.
Zul'Farrak was also a breeze at 43 (or maybe 44, I forget). Easiest pyramid steps event I've ever done. I also made use of the pet pull on Antu'sul, which pretty much trivialized the encounter. Gahz'rilla was a bit interesting with the punting, but he went down in one shot. More hunter loot.
Maraudon was a blast! I went in there at 47. I love this instance. I've never actually completed it with a level-appropriate group before. All the way through, I was giggling to myself because it was so much fun! Princess was pretty cool. I had my dps far enough behind that they didn't eat any fear, and my boar kept her busy while the pally was running around like an idiot. Guess what? I got some great hunter loot. :S
Sunken Temple's not my favorite instance ever. I went in there at 51 and trashed the place, though. It's kinda confusing, takes a long time to get through, and doesn't really have any good loot, but I finished up a ton of quests in there. I'm still using most of the class quest rewards from it. Got some more hunter loot. :pinch:
Blackrock Depths was probably my favorite part of 1-60 leveling. It took like 4 or 5 levels to complete all the quests, there, starting at 52. I defeated all the bosses there, got MC-attuned, and after all was said and done, I was 56. This is another instance I've never made it through with a level-appropriate group. Lyceum was awesome! Pally+mage AOE made it a breeze. I wish there were more places like that in the game. The loot was pretty good, got a new tanking hammer, healer shoulders, fire mage wand, blah blah blah, and I think I probably picked up some hunter loot, too. :(
My hunter is geared very well, if you haven't noticed.
About this time, I noticed that my hunter is far-outdamaging my other toons. Most of the time, it's because mobs die too fast for the others to get many spells off with long casting times, so I got the brilliant idea of respeccing my warlock to demonology. Let me tell you, best decision I ever made. He's actually been out-dpsing my hunter, now. Of course, my hunter doesn't have a DPS pet. I could easily pump up her DPS, but I like having a tank pet. She still gives more combined damage to the group than the mage. The mage also pulls aggro and is very squishy. :( I'm starting to think that having multiple hunters in the party is a good idea. Anyway, yeah, my warlock is better as demonology, and also much easier to macro.
So, by this point, my pally is geared fairly well. I mean, he's still wearing pieces of the scarlet set from SM and level 40-45 blues, but he's really not absolutely horrible. He's certainly not geared for a 60. He'd probably spend a while getting himself geared at 60 back before TBC, but I have no time for such things. My hunter, as you no doubt have gathered, was geared well, probably mostly 45-55 blues. My casters, on the other hand, were still wearing the bracers from RFC. That's right, RFC. Level 60 casters wearing level 13 blues. Oh, and they're still sporting their Robes of the Lich. Among other gems are Illusionary Rod, Sorcerous Dagger, Bloodmage Mantle, and Deathmage Sash. Basically, you'd expect these guys to be running Zul'Farrak, not Hellfire Ramparts.
Nonetheless, I WANT TO RUN HELLFIRE RAMPARTS!!! I'm the right level, dammit! So, we all truck off to the citadel to see what happens.
It was hard and painful. I wiped. Not a lot of times, but I wiped. My mage died. A lot. My hunter managed to get even more loot. :cursing: I must say, I did much better than I would've expected. I got everything down but the final boss. First boss was a breeze. He hits like a pansy. Priest had absolutely no problem keeping my tank healed. Took us a while, but we burned down the two healers first. Simple tank'n'spank. Second boss gave many more problems. Mental note: next time, kill the felpuppies. The fight started out ok, then puppies started spawning and our damage took a nosedive. Apparently they heal him? So anyway, the dogs kill my priest, then my mage, then my warlock, then my hunter. That leaves my paladin. Doesn't sound good. Well, he's only got 1% health left! My pally only has 20% health, though. Ouch. Somehow, my prot pally managed to put out enough DPS to get that last 1% down, but then the dogs killed him. I knew I was getting loot, so it was a satistfying corpse run. :D I didn't even attempt Vazruden. I figured I'll go quest and get some better gear, then come back.
Questing has been good to me. I've gotten some BOE upgrades, along with quest rewards. I haven't skipped any collection quests. They're worth it to me, right now. I may skip some later, but I think it's worth doing at this moment. They're like mini-grinding sessions. I'd like to get my guys to 70 without touching Blade's Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon, so I'm going to take my time, run as many instances as possible, get a lot of rep, and leave as many quests as possible at 70 for gold. Gonna git me sum epic flier action!
So, that's where it stands. Still trucking along, thanks to the advice from this forum. Grats to me and grats to you! :D Hope your 5-boxing adventures are going as well as mine.
The Ibbinses
P.S. How many spells can you macro to one button? I'm up to 17. I could probably do more, but that's all I actually use. One-button combat for the win!
I haven't been too active on this forum, but I'd like to thank you guys for all the encouragement/advice/experience you show to your guests. I couldn't have made it this far without you. *sniff*
I started just about February 1, so it's taken me 25 days, or about 3 1/2 weeks to hit 60 with five characters, and it's been a blast! I think my /played time was at just over 6 days, so it's no record there. You can look up my previous posts to read more about my setup if you like. I left off my previous post at 40 with finishing up all the instances through SM and RFD. Since then, I've done Uldaman, Zul'Farrak, Maraudon, Sunken Temple, Blackrock Depths, and all but the last boss of Hellfire Ramparts.
Uldaman was really easy at 41. Pally tanking rocks. Didn't bother with the adds on the final boss, just consecrate and dps him down hard. Mostly hunter loot.
Zul'Farrak was also a breeze at 43 (or maybe 44, I forget). Easiest pyramid steps event I've ever done. I also made use of the pet pull on Antu'sul, which pretty much trivialized the encounter. Gahz'rilla was a bit interesting with the punting, but he went down in one shot. More hunter loot.
Maraudon was a blast! I went in there at 47. I love this instance. I've never actually completed it with a level-appropriate group before. All the way through, I was giggling to myself because it was so much fun! Princess was pretty cool. I had my dps far enough behind that they didn't eat any fear, and my boar kept her busy while the pally was running around like an idiot. Guess what? I got some great hunter loot. :S
Sunken Temple's not my favorite instance ever. I went in there at 51 and trashed the place, though. It's kinda confusing, takes a long time to get through, and doesn't really have any good loot, but I finished up a ton of quests in there. I'm still using most of the class quest rewards from it. Got some more hunter loot. :pinch:
Blackrock Depths was probably my favorite part of 1-60 leveling. It took like 4 or 5 levels to complete all the quests, there, starting at 52. I defeated all the bosses there, got MC-attuned, and after all was said and done, I was 56. This is another instance I've never made it through with a level-appropriate group. Lyceum was awesome! Pally+mage AOE made it a breeze. I wish there were more places like that in the game. The loot was pretty good, got a new tanking hammer, healer shoulders, fire mage wand, blah blah blah, and I think I probably picked up some hunter loot, too. :(
My hunter is geared very well, if you haven't noticed.
About this time, I noticed that my hunter is far-outdamaging my other toons. Most of the time, it's because mobs die too fast for the others to get many spells off with long casting times, so I got the brilliant idea of respeccing my warlock to demonology. Let me tell you, best decision I ever made. He's actually been out-dpsing my hunter, now. Of course, my hunter doesn't have a DPS pet. I could easily pump up her DPS, but I like having a tank pet. She still gives more combined damage to the group than the mage. The mage also pulls aggro and is very squishy. :( I'm starting to think that having multiple hunters in the party is a good idea. Anyway, yeah, my warlock is better as demonology, and also much easier to macro.
So, by this point, my pally is geared fairly well. I mean, he's still wearing pieces of the scarlet set from SM and level 40-45 blues, but he's really not absolutely horrible. He's certainly not geared for a 60. He'd probably spend a while getting himself geared at 60 back before TBC, but I have no time for such things. My hunter, as you no doubt have gathered, was geared well, probably mostly 45-55 blues. My casters, on the other hand, were still wearing the bracers from RFC. That's right, RFC. Level 60 casters wearing level 13 blues. Oh, and they're still sporting their Robes of the Lich. Among other gems are Illusionary Rod, Sorcerous Dagger, Bloodmage Mantle, and Deathmage Sash. Basically, you'd expect these guys to be running Zul'Farrak, not Hellfire Ramparts.
Nonetheless, I WANT TO RUN HELLFIRE RAMPARTS!!! I'm the right level, dammit! So, we all truck off to the citadel to see what happens.
It was hard and painful. I wiped. Not a lot of times, but I wiped. My mage died. A lot. My hunter managed to get even more loot. :cursing: I must say, I did much better than I would've expected. I got everything down but the final boss. First boss was a breeze. He hits like a pansy. Priest had absolutely no problem keeping my tank healed. Took us a while, but we burned down the two healers first. Simple tank'n'spank. Second boss gave many more problems. Mental note: next time, kill the felpuppies. The fight started out ok, then puppies started spawning and our damage took a nosedive. Apparently they heal him? So anyway, the dogs kill my priest, then my mage, then my warlock, then my hunter. That leaves my paladin. Doesn't sound good. Well, he's only got 1% health left! My pally only has 20% health, though. Ouch. Somehow, my prot pally managed to put out enough DPS to get that last 1% down, but then the dogs killed him. I knew I was getting loot, so it was a satistfying corpse run. :D I didn't even attempt Vazruden. I figured I'll go quest and get some better gear, then come back.
Questing has been good to me. I've gotten some BOE upgrades, along with quest rewards. I haven't skipped any collection quests. They're worth it to me, right now. I may skip some later, but I think it's worth doing at this moment. They're like mini-grinding sessions. I'd like to get my guys to 70 without touching Blade's Edge, Netherstorm, or Shadowmoon, so I'm going to take my time, run as many instances as possible, get a lot of rep, and leave as many quests as possible at 70 for gold. Gonna git me sum epic flier action!
So, that's where it stands. Still trucking along, thanks to the advice from this forum. Grats to me and grats to you! :D Hope your 5-boxing adventures are going as well as mine.
The Ibbinses
P.S. How many spells can you macro to one button? I'm up to 17. I could probably do more, but that's all I actually use. One-button combat for the win!