Challenge: Leveling Class List

It's Day 2 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge. Today's assignment is to write a list post.

Fellow blogger Miss Elf recently asked for suggestions for her next alt. I had to think for a while because I love so many of my current classes.

This challenge made me realize that I need to focus my posts a bit more. I need to provide better information to my fellow casuals out there. So, here's a list of my suggestions for leveling classes and specs. This list is based entirely on my own experiences.

What makes a casual leveling spec? I feel that, in order to effectively level on casual playtime is to use the most effective and efficient specs possible. A solid casual spec should be solid from level 1 to 80. No constant switching back and forth between specs, based upon which assortment of skills is best for three of four levels. While there's nothing WRONG with that, your time and money are better spent focusing on your character.

Starting, of course, with my current selections:

Affliction Warlock: Destruction Warlocks have to manage mana and shards. Demonology os great with the Felguard after 50, but Blueberry has trouble holding aggro prior to that. Affliction has none of these problems. Affliction is incredibly efficient between Life Tap, Dark Pact and Drains. Unless something goes horribly awry, mana is never an issue. As Affliction, YOU are the tank, so threat is no problem. I'll expand upon this in a future post, as many 'Locks still don't quite understand Drain Tanking. Expect it after 3.1 and after the Death Knight Guide is updated.

Beastmastery Hunter: I'll admit it. Hunter is Easymode. Send pet, shoot, collect loot. Beastmastery is the simplest of the three specs. Your pet is a killing machine. A solid defensive pet can tank multiple mobs at once, and almost endlessly in succession.

Enhancement Shaman: Once again, like Affliction, Enhancement is endlessly efficient. Shamanistic Rage generates mana. Spirit Wolves generate health. Enhancement puts out ludicrous damage in very little time. Totems and Insta-Heals from Maelstrom Weapon make soloing all but the most difficult group quests a breeze. Expect an Enhancement guide in the future, as well.

Protection Paladin: Traditionally, tanking classes have been a pain to level. While I can't speak for how Warriors and Druids have changed, Protection Pallies have been amazing since Burning Crusade, and even fairly decent prior to that. The ability to AOE large packs with Consecrate and reflective damage brings experience rolling in. Survivability can not be ignored. Every minute dead is a minute not leveling. The new Blessing of Sanctuary has made this spec very efficient, while Hammer of the Righteous increases damage output. Being able to jump into an instance while leveling is nce, as well. Yes, a Paladin AOE Grinding Guide is on the list of things to do, as well.

Other specs I've played:

Retribution Paladin: Kind of a Plate-wearing Enhancement Shaman. While not as efficient as Enhancement or even a Protection Paladin, Retribution can unleash some serious damage while still taking some hits and self-healing.

Any Rogue: Stealth is great. You can make sure to always fight on your terms. Massive damage output makes leveling quick and easy.

Feral Druid: I prefer not to go full-tanking or full-DPS, but rather a balance of the two. Offense is nothing without some survivability, and defense without actually being able to KILL anything is just painful. Once again, self-healing makes things go quicker.

Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with any spec. They're all viable and fun to play in their own way. However, for smooth, easy leveling from 1-80, I feel these are the best bets.

What? I missed something? Oh yeah.

Any Death Knight: Seriously. If you can't level a Death Knight, your keyboard may be unplugged.

Feel free to share your ideas on anything I may have missed!

Tagged: Nomenclature

I'm quite flattered. Byaghro over at Casual WoW is so jealous of my awesomeness that he has once again tagged me for the latest meme to circle the blog community.

"Tell us how you select your character names."

Well, I put slightly more thought into my names than your average player, but not quite as much as some roleplayers do. All my names are unique, but each has its own inspiration.

Samodean - Sam was my first alt to "stick," and eventually became my main, so I'm glad I gave him a unique name. Go ahead, Google it. I dare ya. Making a Warlock, I wanted a sinister inspiration. At the time, I was reading the Wheel of time series, and one of my favorite characters was Asmodean, one of the Forsaken, powerful spellcasters that turned to the side of darkness. That seemed to fit the bill for what I was looking for, so I did a quick letter swap and there we go.

Ralken - Ral was a more original creation. Ralken was my character name back in my Final Fantasy XI days. I played a Galka, a large, beast-like race with a very intellectual side. I played a Monk, so I wanted a name that would convey fierceness, with guttural-sounding, hard consonants, but just enough vowels to make it easily pronounceable, so it could be soft and spiritual. After typing some random letters and sounding them out in my head, I reached Ralken. I thought it was a solid name for a Dwarf, so I carried it over to WoW.

Ullic - Many years ago, when I was an even larger dork than I am today, I participated in a message board-based fantasy RPG. I played twin Dwarf characters named Thor and Ull. Thor was obvious, since he wielded a warhammer. Ull was a name I picked up from another ancient God, since I wanted him to be an archer character. Well, I refused to use "Thor" for a character name, so i went with his brother. I decided to add a little to the end for flourish.

Haddar - Easy one here. Draenei = blue aliens. The first thing that came to mind was the Jem'Hadar from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Easy!

Tarmr - I wanted something menacing for my Death Knight. I had recently been playing Too Human, which rekindled my interest in Norse mythology. Garm was the guardian hound of Hel. I originally wanted Garmr, but it was taken. So, T got his name, which is good because "G's Death Knight Guide" doesn't sound right to me.

Other character names that I've used over the years:

Corrigan the Human Paladin and Araym the Night Elf and Gnome Rogues were inspired by their counterparts in Septerra Core, a fantastic game nobody played.

Valiar the Dwarf Priest was a straight rip-off of Valiar Marcus from the Codex Alera series that I was reading at the time.

Athelas the Night Elf Druid is named after the healing herb from The Lord of the Rings.

Braxis the Human Warrior, Ryaa the Gnome Mage, Morgosh the Tauren Shaman and Warrior, Okthar the Orc Shaman, Rondrey the Undead Priest and many others I've forgotten over the years were all random names I came up with.

Pay attention to some of these unused characters, those names may be showing up on this blog in the ear future.

Well, now I must tag 3 more authors.

Kim. No not how she got "Kim," I'm pretty sure I know where that came from.
Rhidach, because I'm very curious where that came from.
K, just because I want to see her justify 78 names that start with the same letter.

The Creation of Huntards

Yesterday, I pointed out the most recent Huntard I came across. While it's fun blasting these guys, it's also a little sad. Personally, I don't judge anybody too harshly until they reach level 40 or 50. By then, I feel they should have a fairly good grasp of their class and the game mechanics.

However, instead of blindly making fun of them, let's examine the reasons why they exist.

1: Player Base

It's no secret that the most-played class in the game, historically, has been Hunters. It's also common knowledge that Night Elves have been the most popular race in the game. In recent years, Blood Elves have been making a strong push, and more recently, Death Knights, particularly Human, have been dominating the servers. However, let's look at this long-term, and assume the position that Night Elf Hunters are the most popular race/class combination, HISTORICALLY. Human Death Knoobs and Blood Elf Retardins may be more popular now, but Huntardism has been a disease for many years. Also, I can guarantee, from personal experience, that the vast majority of Huntards are Night Elves.

Now, let's get into the mind of the average noob. Please note, that I DO make the distinction between a noob and a newbie. Newbies will learn. "Stupid is forever." Let's create our first noob character. We want to be the good guys, so Alliance is the obvious choice. Horde is just too ugly. (Of course, this train of thought can lead to Blood Elf Huntards, which are a growing population.) From the Alliance choices: Why play a fantasy game as a Human? Dwarves are stupid. Gnomes are for kids. Draenei is too hard to pronounce. Night Elves look AWESOME and the chicks are hawt. From there, it's an obvious choice. Hunters can dual-wield and have PETS! How awesome is that?

See what the mind of a noob looks like? I'll pause while you shower.

...

It breaks down to one thing, simply. WoW is the most popular game in the history of ever. It will attract a large number of "common" folk who have never played a game like this before. Many of them have never played anything more complicated than Halo. To these players, Hunter is a very attractive option, regardless of which flavor.

2: Class Mechanics

I'll admit it. Hunters are easymode.

Hunter is THE easiest class to level in the game. They are soloing machines. It's a very simple mechanic: Send pet, shoot, move on. No complex rotations, no buffs, no special considerations for what you're fighting. Mana efficiency isn't even really an issue. The pet can even do the bulk of the work and achieve the desired result. The only requirement for leveling a Hunter is a pulse.

This leads to Hunters spending the majority, if not the entirety of their careers alone. They never have to learn group mechanics. They never even really need to learn their class. As long as they continue to succeed, and they will in almost any situation, they will continue to play and grow in level.

If you never NEED to learn, it's very easy to just... not.

I have seen very few GREAT Hunters in my 4 years. At least half of those were Hunters that I mentored myself. I taught them the value of various stats. I taught them how to raise a pet properly. I taught them talent builds. I even taught them complex mechanics like chain trapping. Any old-school Hunters out there know how difficult THAT was in Vanilla WoW.

I, myself, learned my craft from my guildmates. I had the fortune to be part of a very helpful guild for the better part of 3 years. They suggested gear upgrades and sometimes even crafted them for me. Back in the days of 10-man Scholomance, it was almost unheard of to NOT have more than one Hunter along. I watched, I listened and I learned. Many players do not have these benefits, so they go through life ignorant.

Example: A guildmate of my girlfriend was boasting about his awesome +400 Attack Power Staff. Before she got too jealous, I asked her to have him link the item. Sure enough, it was a Druid Staff with FERAL Attack Power. He didn't know any better. He'd been using Feral Staves for a while with no negative effect.

3: Mail

This is an easy one. Hunters learn to wear Mail at level 40. Almost any low-level Leather you come across is decent for Hunter. However, most level 40-ish Mail is Warrior and Paladin-flavored, with lots of Strength. If those are the stats that come on Mail, those must be the stats you want, right?

Example: Once again, a guildmate of my girlfriend was bragging about her awesome Mail armor. She ran Scarlet Monastery dozens of time to collect the whole set. My girlfriend decided to do the same, and was perplexed when she couldn't find anything better than her Tough Scorpid gear. Upon further review, her friend was wearing the Scarlet set.

4: Game Design

Despite what you may think, Blizzard is not perfect. They need to realize that people these days do not like to read. Putting statistical information in a 50-plus page instruction manual guarantees that it will be ignored by many players. Hiding the effect of various stats in mouseovers is cryptic.

To put it quite simply: Blizzard assumes their players are intelligent, curious human beings. Sadly, this is not true for a majority of players.

Additionally, the choice to give Hunters a pet at level 10 instead of 1 fosters poor play. If you learn the game with melee attacks as a primary option, odds are you'll continue that playstyle when you get your pet. While there's a quest to teach you how to tame your pet, where's the one that teaches you how to USE it?

I suggest Blizzard overhauls their starting design to make it more enjoyable for new player. Yes, we still get those. Add class quests that show the benefit of various stats. Put in a quest that requires a Hunter to trap an enemy in a Freezing Trap. Put one in that is failed if the Hunter gets hit and not the pet. This will help players learn not just how to play the game, but how to play their class and excell at it. I recommend this for all classes.

Now, if somebody wants to play their class differently, I'm all for that. Take a Survival-heavy build, stack Strength and use Aspect of the Beast. Play your Death Knight like a ranged caster. Level a melee Mage. Do whatever works for you, so as long as you understand WHAT you're doing and what others will expect of you in a group situation.

Don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of non-Hunter uninformed players out there.

I see Affliction-heavy Warlocks out there with Voidwalkers all the time. Odds are they don't know that other pets are better options. Voidwalker was necessary in the early levels, so that's what they feel they should use.

Look around and see how many Death Knights are wearing Spellpower Plate. Where was it ever explained in the game that Death Knight SPELLS scale off Attack Power?

Wheel of Morality,
Turn, turn, turn.
Show us the lesson
We must learn.

The only way we as a community can overcome this problem is to do something about it. Instead of ridiculing these players, we should try to coach them. So, this is my New Year's Resolution: Whenever I see someone doing or wearing something OBVIOUSLY completely wrong, I will try to help them. Sure, there will be plenty of people who just don't want to learn, but if each of us can help just ONE person, then that's a huge impact.

Huntard Sighted!

I was taking the boat from Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord this past weekend. While sitting around with nothing to do, I did the same thing everyone else does... inspect the others waiting. I especially enjoy inspecting classes that I play, to compare gear and talents. Sadly, more often than not, I happen across Huntards. While this is not exactly news, this one was EPIC.

I won't mention any names here, but I will link his gear. His talents weren't bad, if a bit unfocused. No more than 40 in any tree at level 70, but they were all good choices.

And, yes, this is the same gear he was wearing at the time. I didn't catch his armory at some weird time.

Head: Merciless Gladiator's Chain Helm - He seems to do a lot of PVP, so nothing wrong here. Not what I would choose for leveling, but I'm not everyone.

Neck: Green "of the Monkey" - Okay, nothing too bad yet.

Shoulders: Blessed Pauldrons of Undead Slaying - Hey, this guy has nice gear!

Back: Spell-slinger's Protector - I take that back. Delicate Green Poncho is a reward from the SAME quest.

Chest: Blessed Hauberk of Undead Slaying - Back on track.

Wrist: Vindicator's Chain Bracers - More PVP gear.

Hands: Blessed Handguards of Undead Slaying - More of this stuff.

Waist: Waverunner Waistband - This is new, but a fine choice.

Legs: Merciless Gladiator's Chain Leggings - I promise, it gets worse.

Feet: Marshal's Chain Boots - These are really nice... at Level 60! Seriously, you couldn't find an upgrade in 12 levels?

Ring 1: Nexus-Stalker's Band - Strength is warning sign #1 for Huntards. Once again, Consortium Cloak of the Quick is a much better reward from the same quest, and we know his existing backpiece is horrible.

Ring 2: Activist's Signet of Blasting - Look! More Spellpower! Same quest: Ring of Indignant Rage.

Trinket 1: Death Knight's Anguish - This is a very nice item, a welcome port in this tard-storm.

Trinket 2: Tidal Boon - What?

Main Hand: Jagged Icefist - Nothing WRONG with this, but there are many, many better options.

Off Hand: Green "of the Elder" - Seriously? Stam, Int and MP5?

Ranged: Amphibious Speargun - This is more of a tanking ranged weapon, but I'll let it slide. However, there are several better quest rewards in Borean.

Now, pointing out a Huntard is something anybody can do. A more important issue is what causes Huntards to exist. This will be the topic of tomorrow's post.

Monkey Business Explained

Well, after some research I found out what's going on with Eldrar.

First the bad news. Growl is completely hosed at the moment. Many Hunters are as helpless as I am. Guess I better put Raptor Strike back on my action bar. I would assume Bliz will have this fixed shortly.

How about some good news? Thunderstomp is more intelligent than me. Thunderstomp is programmed to only autocast when the gorilla is fighting 2 or more mobs. Why didn't I think of that?

Monkey Business

Okay, Eldrar is hosed.

I took him out to Quel'Danas tonight to really test him out. The stupid ape couldn't hold aggro at all.

Yes, there is a well-documented bug where the abilities in your spellbook will turn on autocast every time you dismount or otherwise summon your pet. I checked, and made sure Cower was off. Still got my Dwarf butt smacked around. When I checked my combat log, Growl missed its target. Every. Single. Time.

Lame.

Also, Thunderstomp never once autocast. I have no idea what's going on. It's not addon-related. I'll have to wait and see.

Hunter Pet History

When I first started playing WoW, I didn't know a whole lot. I knew I wanted to be a Dwarf... and that's about it. I watched the opening cinematic and saw the Hunter and his bear and figured I'd give that a try. I mean, boomstick! How awesome is that? So, WoW Ralken was born.

I logged in ad promptly ran around Anvilmar trying to figure out how to get a pet. Look, that level 2 Warlock has one! Why don't I? Yes, I was a noob, but everyone was back then.

Anyway, I drudged through those first 10 levels in what seemed to take months, and finally learned how to tame pets. I instantly went out and got an Ice Claw Bear. That was Eldrar 1.0. No, I left the 1.0 off his name, I just use it here as a naming designation. After a few levels, I did the A Pilot's Revenge quest and met Mangeclaw, a beautiful white polar bear. This guy was a pain to tame at level 12, due to his interrupt attack. It took a few tries, but I had a pet very few other players did, especially in those early days. That was Eldrar 1.1.

I don't know if any of my readers were playing back in the dark days of WoW 1.2, but let me put this simply: Hunters sucked. Or maybe I sucked. I'm not sure, but I do know this: Hunter PETS sucked. Sure, nowadays you young kids have scaling pets, focus dumps, talent trees and all kinds of toys. I had Growl and Bite, and Bite was a waste of Focus. I could have used Claw, as well, but pet autocasts were stupid back then, and Claw would leave me with no focus for growl. It all came down to one simple realization: poor Eldrar wasn't cutting it. He couldn't hold aggro. I needed something that could do damage. I was leveling in the Wetlands at the time and figured I'd try a Raptor. I went out and got Rubio, a Mottled Raptor.

Anyone who gets the reference for that name gets a cookie.

Rubio and I did well for a while. After a dozen or so levels, I realized that Rubio was getting beat around a bit too much. At this point, I had grown smarter. I started researching. I found out that Raptors were Offensive pets. Sure, he could hold aggro, but he had no defensive capabilities. I needed a Defensive pet, but I didn't want the trouble I had with Eldrar. After some digging, and discovering the Holy Grail of Hunter information, Petopia, I learned that the only Defensive pets with Medium DPS ratings were Crocolisks and Gorillas. There were no Crocolisks around my level, but there were some pretty white Gorillas. Once I got to level 40, I got myself an Elder Mistvale Gorilla. Here's Eldrar 2.0.

Eldrar and I stomped all over the rest of the game, literally. Thunderstomp had a 60 second cooldown back then, but it was still amazing. I recieved whispers any time I was in town asking where I got such a cool pet, but the only other Hunter I ever saw with a Gorilla was a guildie I was mentoring.

I kept Eldrar on as my tanking pet, and also picked up a Giant Ember Worg, Hayate, for groups.

Then, it happened. Two weeks before Burning Crusade, I got hacked. These jerks used Ralken for farming in Winterspring. With a cat. They abandoned my partner, my lifelong companion, my monkey for a freaking CAT.

I hate Cats.

Fast forward a year or so. I had no motivation to play my Hunter without Eldrar. I took up Sam as my main character, and was working on Ullic. Around this time, my girlfriend took a hiatus from Final Fantasy XI to give WoW a try. She rolled a Hunter and I helped her along. I got the itch to get Ral going again, and I geared him back up and brought him to Outland. He needed a pet. I looked at my options, tryed Hayate, but he wasn't cutting it. I tamed Rico, a Razorfang Hatchling, but I didn't like him. After some further research, I found out about Boars. There were level 60 Boars in EPL, just sitting there waiting to be tamed. They were ugly things, but I gave it a shot. One Plagued Swine later, Chops was mine.

Chops was amazing. An unkillable tanking machine. Alas, it was not meant to be. Bliz stealth-nerfed the Charge + Growl combo in patch 2.4.2, in preparation for Growl scaling off Hunter's AP instead of Pet's AP in 2.4.3.

Great, now what? Ooh, Screech is a good aggro-holding focus dump. Let me try a bird. Cema 1.0 was a Greater Windroc. I upgraded to a Dire Raven when 2.4.3 hit since Carrion Birds were Defensive pets, while Owls were Offensive. Cema 1.1 got me to 70, and she's still with me.

The biggest announcement about Wrath for me was that pets would auto-level to within 5 levels of the Hunter upon taming. I could get my monkey back! Two days after 3.0.2 went live, I picked up Uhk'loc and squealed with delight with Eldrar 3.0. Sure, thanks to BRK, everyone has a Gorilla now, but I doubt many will stick with them. There's Devilsaurs and Core Hounds and Rhinos for those wannabes. I'm a Gorilla man to the end.

Uhk'loc tamed

Everyone, meet Eldrar. Smile for the camera, Eldrar.



No no no. The camera is this way, silly ape.



That's better. Yay!

Just great

First, servers blow up Tuesday, no chance to play with Inscription.

Now, BRK wants my monkey. What does this mean? Since BRK is the king of internet Hunters, this means that every Hunter on the planet will want him.

Fair warning, A-N... back off my monkey!

Okay, that didn't sound quite right.