The Adventure Begins

[Nighthawk38]

Hello again everyone,

Sorry for the long pause between updates. RL issues, combined with frustration slowed my updating.

I am still looking for a good place to actually set up a Blog for my team's mis-adventures. Until I find one, you guys are stuck with it here...lol

Well, here's the current situation:

My team was doing wonderfully in Westfall and Redridge, happily rolling over everything in their path while questing. I forced myself to complete the collection quests but I think at this point, I'll cut them off. Unless they are "manageable", meaning... collect LESS THAN FIVE of something, otherwise my patience expires LONG before the quest is completed.

SOOO ... The team hit level 18, and was doing rather well on quests, so I decided to take the plunge. Stopped by the Inn at Sentinel Hill, made a final gear check, looked over my macros, made sure Jamba was doing what it's supposed to (waste of time, because Jamba ALWAYS does what it's supposed to) and proceeded to trek on down to Moonbrook.

To make a long story short, I wiped on the first boss. This was after wiping on a couple multi-mob pulls that were unexpected. Discovered that a hunter's pet can be a nice asset or a huge liability, depending on the situation. Rezzed up, went back in, and on the 3rd attempt, finally took down the first boss. Even though I KNEW that patrol was gonna show up, they still managed to get me. It's a learning process, but MAN, it gets frustrating at times.

Anyway, the Druid's DPS is still PATHETIC, and her mana issues are totally disappointing. So I have made a couple decisions. The druid is being shelved, and I'm leveling up a Priest to replace her. I know people have said to drop the hunter and keep the druid, but I just can't drop the highest DPS toon on the team. I am also going to let the team quest to lvl 20 or 21, then re-attempt the instance. Perhaps level 18 was a bit TOO ambitious for a first-time 5 boxed team.

Hopefully, I'll have a more successful update by the weekend.

[Ualaa]

In general, collection quests suck as a category.

By having your slaves assist the main, while the main targets the corpse.
And then hitting your "Interact With Target" hotkey, especially if the slaves have "Click to Move" enabled.
You will frequently find every toon on the team can loot something.
Unfortunately, most of the time, only one can loot an item.

Unless you're fairly sure its a chain which leads to something you want, most collections can be avoided.
The only real exception to this is Northrend leveling, where you will do 1-2 kills, 1-2 collections, 1-2 kills etc.
And skipping collections entirely will lock out 40+ kill quests and 40+ additional collections in the zone.

That is not to say you are required to do collections, even there.
Just that you'll need an alternate source of experience (PvP, Dungeons etc), if you choose to avoid them.

You can also look at them as a grinding session (play music, put a dvd on.. for background distractions), then grind away, with a reward at the end.
If you have a trade skill like skinning, it helps to think you're farming gold not grinding to level.

The only chains I consider essential are those in Icecrown which open the dailies.
Honestly those quest chains were not a pain in the ass, but even if they were...
They open dailies which make me 1100g in an hour - and that's only running 15 of the available 25 dailies each day.




It never hurts to attempt a boss or instance or quest.
You might not be equipped to beat it immediately.
But repair costs aren't that painful - in Everquest, a death could cost as much experience as 3-4 hours of leveling time.

By trying harder content, you discover where your team is lacking.
And then can make adjustments, be it your UI to observe better.
Your macro's can be tweaked for a more efficient team.
Your keybinds can be altered for easier access to more abilities.

I know it can be quite frustrating at times too.
And at times, if you don't have the gear for something, its not going to happen no matter how you tweak what you have.
But even several deaths, at least identify areas that need improvement.




Not every class is equal at all stages.
Blizzard attempts to balance them along the way, but the main focus is balance at maximum level.
For both PvE and PvP, which naturally means neither will be perfectly balanced only as close as possible.

Evidently your druid is not the largest contribution to the team at this level.
That doesn't mean she won't be the strongest at another level.
Possibly the macro or sequence is weak.
Or maybe with additional tools the class becomes stronger.

My shaman (in the mixed team) felt like a gimp in the low 70's.
At 74th, my 71st affliction warlock was putting out twice the DPS on trash.
Once she got Lava Burst, and it was inserted into her click castsequence, none of the others are even close to her DPS levels.
Of course the dps is 75 (Elem Shm), 73 (Arc Mage) and 73 (Aff Warlock), with crap gear on the first two and T5/T6 on the warlock.
Both a balance druid and an elemental shaman massively boost any caster type group.

I personally don't like hunter teams, having played one to 60th (x5, RAF).
The power is definitely there, single target or AoE.
But no matter how I macro them, one of the pets randomly attacks a random target.

Everyone has their own preferences and finds what works for them.