A Level Every Two Days...?
Battleground
Kate wanted to check out some of the inns we haven't been to recently to try to pick up Hallowe'en candy and so we did a little tour, ending up at Thelsamar. On the off chance that there'd be more at Refuge Pointe we rode north from there, but there was nothing. From there we went west and got to Southshore, where Kate was able to close out a quest and we were both able to get a bunch of the candy (it's really useful - lots of boosts to Stamina, Defence Rating and so on).
We flew back to Refuge Pointe with the intention of taking on some quests in that area and while we were there we decided that we want to have a go at taking on the Arathi Basin battleground. Not wanting to just jump straight in unprepared, I spent a little time to research what we'd be expected to do and so on. It's basically a CTF setup - there are five resource nodes to capture and defend and each team gets points per second as long as they can keep control of one or more nodes. The more nodes you control, the faster the points pour in. The first team to collect 2000 points wins.
I think it would be interesting; even if we lose we still get Honour points just for taking part. Kate wants us to go in paired - not the best strategy from a battle standpoint but at least we might be able to capture and defend one of the flags and keep each other alive long enough to see it through. One thing I haven't been able to find out for sure is exactly how long a battle is likely to take; the best I can figure is that it could take anything from about half an hour to maybe a couple of hours. The only way to know for sure is to just get in and do it.
There is one big, big question I want a definitive answer to, before we go into any battleground: Can the enemy loot your body if you're killed? The last thing Kate and I want is to lose an important weapon, piece of armour, money, whatever. If necessary I'll strip one of my other characters down to soulbound items only, and put all his cash in the bank, and take that character in to find out risk-free.
Levels
Our human Warrior/Paladin pair are only seven or eight levels behind the draenei equivalents and are doing so well that I'm fairly determined to continue pressing forward. I have a sort-of goal in mind to get the humans up to the same levels as the draenei and beyond, and to do that I'd like to be pushing through high-level quests in high-level areas to average a level every two days for the next two or three weeks. I was originally thinking a level a day but I really don't think that's possible - each level needs more XP to get to as you progress so that while a new level 1 character can get to level 10 in a couple of hours, that slows way down as you go higher. I think that if we keep pushing hard we might even make level 50 in time for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, but if we can get to level 45 I'll be happy - not least because at level 44 (or maybe 42 - I don't remember) I should get the incredibly useful Hammer of Wrath spell.
Actually, Hammer of Wrath isn't so terribly important since the 3.0.2 patch made changes to the Paladin system of Seal and Justice spells. I've heard that a lot of Paladins consider that the changes weakened them but for myself I've had very few problems - at least once I understood how the new system works - and if anything it's made things easier. Hammer of Wrath is great for stopping baddies running away to get help when their health gets low and the way things were before that was handy because using my usual combo (Seal of Light, Justice, Seal of Command) I would have to use a Hammer of Justice stun to stop someone running, and if it was on cooldown I had the choice of chasing them and risking running into more baddies, or letting them go and risking them coming back with reinforcements. With Hammer of Wrath I could whack them with 300+ damage if they tried to run and in most cases that's a finisher.
With the new system I can get the same effect as the old three-spell combo with just two spells, and if they try to run I can use one of the new Justice spells to stop them. That's not to say that Hammer of Wrath won't be useful - it will be, and more so as we get into those higher level areas.
Kate wanted to check out some of the inns we haven't been to recently to try to pick up Hallowe'en candy and so we did a little tour, ending up at Thelsamar. On the off chance that there'd be more at Refuge Pointe we rode north from there, but there was nothing. From there we went west and got to Southshore, where Kate was able to close out a quest and we were both able to get a bunch of the candy (it's really useful - lots of boosts to Stamina, Defence Rating and so on).
We flew back to Refuge Pointe with the intention of taking on some quests in that area and while we were there we decided that we want to have a go at taking on the Arathi Basin battleground. Not wanting to just jump straight in unprepared, I spent a little time to research what we'd be expected to do and so on. It's basically a CTF setup - there are five resource nodes to capture and defend and each team gets points per second as long as they can keep control of one or more nodes. The more nodes you control, the faster the points pour in. The first team to collect 2000 points wins.
I think it would be interesting; even if we lose we still get Honour points just for taking part. Kate wants us to go in paired - not the best strategy from a battle standpoint but at least we might be able to capture and defend one of the flags and keep each other alive long enough to see it through. One thing I haven't been able to find out for sure is exactly how long a battle is likely to take; the best I can figure is that it could take anything from about half an hour to maybe a couple of hours. The only way to know for sure is to just get in and do it.
There is one big, big question I want a definitive answer to, before we go into any battleground: Can the enemy loot your body if you're killed? The last thing Kate and I want is to lose an important weapon, piece of armour, money, whatever. If necessary I'll strip one of my other characters down to soulbound items only, and put all his cash in the bank, and take that character in to find out risk-free.
Levels
Our human Warrior/Paladin pair are only seven or eight levels behind the draenei equivalents and are doing so well that I'm fairly determined to continue pressing forward. I have a sort-of goal in mind to get the humans up to the same levels as the draenei and beyond, and to do that I'd like to be pushing through high-level quests in high-level areas to average a level every two days for the next two or three weeks. I was originally thinking a level a day but I really don't think that's possible - each level needs more XP to get to as you progress so that while a new level 1 character can get to level 10 in a couple of hours, that slows way down as you go higher. I think that if we keep pushing hard we might even make level 50 in time for the release of Wrath of the Lich King, but if we can get to level 45 I'll be happy - not least because at level 44 (or maybe 42 - I don't remember) I should get the incredibly useful Hammer of Wrath spell.
Actually, Hammer of Wrath isn't so terribly important since the 3.0.2 patch made changes to the Paladin system of Seal and Justice spells. I've heard that a lot of Paladins consider that the changes weakened them but for myself I've had very few problems - at least once I understood how the new system works - and if anything it's made things easier. Hammer of Wrath is great for stopping baddies running away to get help when their health gets low and the way things were before that was handy because using my usual combo (Seal of Light, Justice, Seal of Command) I would have to use a Hammer of Justice stun to stop someone running, and if it was on cooldown I had the choice of chasing them and risking running into more baddies, or letting them go and risking them coming back with reinforcements. With Hammer of Wrath I could whack them with 300+ damage if they tried to run and in most cases that's a finisher.
With the new system I can get the same effect as the old three-spell combo with just two spells, and if they try to run I can use one of the new Justice spells to stop them. That's not to say that Hammer of Wrath won't be useful - it will be, and more so as we get into those higher level areas.
Labels: Games, Human Paladin, WoW
posted by Pete Ford at
9:47 AM
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