Pre-expansion goals
Yesterday, it happened, and there was this loud sigh in WoW blogs around the world: we have a release date. And now that we have a release date, it’s time to get everything lined up, for a smooth transition to the patch that will change the way we currently play WoW.
I am trying to think back, to how it was when vanilla WoW hit the end of its lifecycle and we were getting ready for TBC. They changed the honor system not too long before that, and suddenly everyone did PvP. If you think back, there were few things you could do at 60, if you were not a raider. Sure, you were able to run the 60 instances over and over again. Let me tell you, I hate LBRS, with the burning hatred of the fire of a thousand suns. Incidentally, this is where Kadomi actually hit 60, back as a fury warrior. I actually had 7/8 pieces of Dreadmist on my warlock, which was like the most ginormous accomplishment ever, I thought. I had the hat! It actually still sits in her bank, together with the blue PvP warlock hat, which I also fiercely loved. But yeah, that’s what you did back then, you either ran Scholo-Strat-LBRS-Dire Maul, and it took hours to complete them, and if you wiped, the whole instance had respawned. Or you did PvP because suddenly, you were able to obtain phat purple lewtz without raiding. Or you did some light raiding, I set foot into Zul’Gurub and AQ20 a couple of times, but for a casual guild like mine, this was really beyond the realms of what we could do realistically.
This is rambling, please bear with me. There’s a reason one of my categories is called ‘rambling’. I do it a lot. The gist of it is: when TBC hit, I had no goals. There were no things that you could attain before you were ready to move on. When people cry about the lack of content these days, it was far worse back then. For me, there were absolutely no goals. The biggest goal was to replace two pieces of Dreadmist with the 0.5 pieces, woohoo. I did some light rep grinding, I wanted to be Exalted with Argent Dawn, and only made it to 7k through Honored. I tried rep grinding with Cenarion Circle, and that was mindblowingly worse. Does anyone remember how disgustingly awful it was to grind rep with CC if you weren’t running AQ regularly?
So here I am, 1.5 years later as Blizzard barely keeps its promise of an expansion every year. Barely. I have changed mains, I utterly fell in love with tanking, the warlock only logs in to make pots for the tank, and you know what, I am still busy. I have goals. Sure, they aren’t huge goals, but they are things I would like to accomplish in game first.
- finish leveling my shaman to 70. Garande is my current pet project, my future resto shaman, and she’s a blast to play. I intend her to be part of the three characters I shall level to 80 first: tank, rogue, healer. That’s my order.
- power-level alchemy on my shaman as my warlock won’t be leveled for a while
- grind out the last 17 points of engineering on my rogue, because engineering looks like craploads of fun in WotLK
- build the roflcopter, because I wantssss it
- grab my bestest girls and tank H OHB and H M-T to complete my heroic experience. Yes, I am skipping Auchenai Crypts, and that’s a-ok with me!
- lead another Gruul/Mags raid and this time won’t pass the T4 shoulder token to another warrior. Why there were never any shoulders to buy for badges, I wish I knew.
But last yet not least, my biggest hope, dream, aspiration, goal is to actually meet those two charming young men in their foresty home:
Hex-Lord Malacrass and Zul'jin
Now, that last goal is most important to me. I want to be able to push our limits and clear that second of 10-mans in TBC. I think we can do it if we manage past Dragonhawk. At least I hope we can. I’d so get my kicks out of that. But given our light raid schedule, time is ticking. I am prepared to push Karazhan off our official raid schedule and invest the rest of our raiding time into ZA. I would totally dig that. I like challenges.
Ah, I forgot another goal. To finish my Karazhan guides and the multitanking guide I have been working on. Sure, it’s going to be different or obsolete soon, but in the meantime, if only one tank can learn something from it, it’s worth blogging about.
Now that I have rambled about my goals, what are yours, and how did you feel back then, in the days of yore, when TBC was impending? I am curious.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I had really wanted to get Shiawase up to ZA-tanking status so I could help you guys out, but with the expansion so close, I don’t think that will happen (especially since I’d have to go through full-clears of Kara weekly to even begin to get ready, and also actually get tanking drops instead of healing ones)
She’s very high on my list of characters I will be leveling after WotLK actually comes out, though, so I’ll actually be able to play more with you guys in the expansion!
Before the expansion though, I still have a few RAF characters I want to get to 60. Chris and I have 2 rogues we are leveling, have a holy paladin/warrior pair planned, need to finish our priest (yes my 3rd priest)/warlock pair who are 57 now, annnd finally a horde pair (I think I’ll be leveling a warlock and he will be leveling a priest). I’m not sure if the last pair will be getting love before the expansion or not, but I hope so. I want him to be able to tag along with me hordeside XD
I really hope to knock these out before the expansion because I definitely won’t be interested in the lowbie characters once I can hit level 80, and I want to take advantage of the refer-a-friend XP bonus while I still can.
Good luck in ZA, may you kick much ass!!
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September 16th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
(Oops and I missed something XD)
When TBC was pending, I was actually really close to finishing my tier 0.5 set. So I was working on that big time… but UBRS was a jerk and never gave me my Breastplate of Valor, so I didn’t push through to the end. Otherwise I was kind of just coasting, having fun doing 15-man ZG runs with DotA where we had a hell of a time on the Bat Boss but somehow got her, and doing pvp while waiting impatiently!
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September 16th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I became a wow addict long after BC was released, so I cant comment on the early days. Sounds dreadful though: I’m so glad I never did 40 man raids, and I just hate the looks of those endgame instances; dark & dank, with too many strange colored rivers for my tastes.
But yes, I’ve kicked into gear with pre-exp goals too: level my mage & warrior to 70, level their professions too (gonna be tricky/boring) sell all the mats I had banked for a rainy day that never came, dispose of 200ish BoJ, sit out for T6 bosses if I dont need loot (=more time to level alts). I dont think we’ll kill Illidan tbh, which is a great shame. We may at least give him a bit of a spanking before wrath.
ZA I used to be big into. But now I’m more of the opinion that its a gimmick instance - ie with a pally its super easy, tank envy notwithstanding (which is changing in wrath, thank god). I have cleared it a couple of times now, though I did PUG up the pally and it took forever to find a good one. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck with it, and I know people can do fine with warrior tanks… so I look forward to reading about your successes
The big thing I did wrong in BC was only having one toon, and quickly hitting progression stoppage. So I’m going altaholic in wrath (but the feral will always be my main)
Welcome back btw
I hope your mother is doing better now.
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September 16th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
@ARA: Thanks for welcoming me back! I’ve always been an altoholic, I always need to level at least one character. That’s why the shaman is going to be my sixth level 70 character.
My mother is still in intensive care, but things don’t look life-threatening anymore. It’s a relief.
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September 17th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I’m currently working Illidan, 15% is LOKI’s best. He’s my number one goal pre-Wrath, but following that I’d like to work the first Sunwell boss, and go back for Vashj and Kael one more time - If I could get everyone in LOKI the Hand of Adal title, I’d be a very happy person.
Pre-BC was no where near as glorious - I’d finished MC and BWL, but my work had stopped supporting being able to make raids, so I’d stopped raiding, and leveled a mage. BC was huge, since I got to do stuff with Yakra again.
Best of Luck with your goals! DH is a pain, but you’ll get it, and everytime after that will be a breeze. for Hex, just be sure you kill *all* of the adds before DPSing him. Zul’jin may have the most fun post-kill event of any boss I’ve done so far, so he’s certainly worth going for!
Yakra’s last blog post..Slow Weapons Improve with New Dev
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admin Reply:
September 17th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
@Yakra: Best of luck with your goals as well. 15% sounds good, surely you can get Illidan down soon. Hopefully before 3.0 and the Shield Block changes too! Did you guys skip Kael and Vashj?
And I most definitely want to clear ZA, and am determined to get DH without a paladin tank, rawr.
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September 17th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Alas, I think my highest character was like, level 7 when TBC came out. XD So this pre-expansion deal is new for me.
I really don’t have any more goals on my shaman. I’m going to try to stockpile a good amount of gold on her, and herb my little heart out so that I can get inscription maxed out as soon as I can (hurray for having herber friends, too :D), but that’s about it.
I’ve kind of felt like playing my mage again lately, and I’d like to get her Champion of the Naaru title. If you DotH ladies are going to work towards clearing ZA, I’m more than happy to try my hand at pewpewing for it. Malacrass is such a fun fight, and Zul’jin is stupidly painful at parts but I remember it was really rewarding when my guild first downed him.
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September 17th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
@Vetiverr: You know how to make a girl happy. We’ll post the ZA roster later, and we’d be delighted to have you.
I am determined to get past DH, maybe even this raid weekend.
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September 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Short-time Reader, 1st time poster
#1- I like your blog, nice to see a solid tank blog, there aren’t many
#2- I just got back into tanking after running around dw/fury for 6 months, and now we have a release date! I have to fasttrack my goals list.
- last 7 points in Engineering
- fishing to 375
- bank 2k gold
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admin Reply:
September 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
@Sig: Thank you for the kind words. My goal is to deliver solid information for a long time.
As I just started the engineering grind again as well, I am bothered by how much khorium you need, something that’s like impossible to farm. Maxed out fishing would be nice, but I haven’t really thought about it, I am sitting at 369 or so atm.
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mavfin Reply:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:36 am
From everything I’ve read, you can start skilling production professions from 350 in LK, so you don’t *have* to max them out if you don’t want to before LK. You can save the cash and time now and use the bottom-level LK stuff to get from 350-375.
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admin Reply:
October 9th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Oh, that’s awesome. I guess I can stop making repair bots then, I am at 371 engineering atm.
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September 18th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I also missed out on pre-BC as I started playing WoW not long after BC came out… as far as goals though, well I quit WoW for a few months for more time with my now ex-bf… up to that point I had seen all of Hyjal and only to Supremus in BT. A girl I work with convinced me to come back a few weeks ago and my guild is struggling with tanks… SO, I will see a few more BT bosses (they are now halfway thru, not likely we’ll do more than beat on Illidan a bit before the expansion). They’ve started TK/SSC on offnights so i’d like my Hand of A’dal title like the rest of my guild since I missed downing Kael while I was gone. Finally, i’d like to get my now lvl 45 shammie as close to 70 as possible… I put all my time into Lune but it’s about time I get a second 70, and ya gotta love shammies
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admin Reply:
September 18th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
@Lunestone: I do love shammies, they are a lot of fun to play. Mine is 63 now, and I am working hard to get her to 70.
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September 19th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Much the same as you, I remember the last weeks before TBC spending most of my time PvPing. Especially over the holidays, me and my brother had set up our computers in the parental basement and spent hours upon hours in AV, even though we weren’t even on the same server at that point. I also vaguely remember running AQ20 and some ZG before that period. I had no real goals other than get a few PvP pieces and get Cariad her raptor mount.
Now there are a lot of things I would like to get done, but realistically I know most of these will be impossible, as I’ll never have time! But just for fun, here they are:
- Get Maidai her epic flyer
- Get Cariad exalted with Netherwing (I’ve a long ways to go!)
- Get Cambria up to 70
I’ve pretty much dropped any raiding goals because I won’t have much time for raiding in the upcoming weeks, QQ. But I’d like to at least return to ZA once, and go back to face Gruul and Mag at least once also. I probably won’t have time to get the Champion title for Maidai, but I’ll see about getting a few Heroics run just in case.
My brother also wants me to pair up with him with a recruit a friend thingie, so we can level new alts to 70 quickly before WotLK. Not sure that will happen, but I wouldn’t mind levelling up a mage!
OMG I want my internetz back! It kills me that I won’t be able to play this weekend.
Sorry for such a long comment. XD
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admin Reply:
September 19th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
You can leave long comments here any time, Cariad!
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The Other Half Reply:
September 20th, 2008 at 11:40 am
The problem with leveling new alts before WotLK is that at 60 the bonuses stop, right? And of course it depends how much you play, but for me it took I think about one week per ding from 60-70, playing maybe an hour a night and a few on the weekends.
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September 19th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I remember leveling my mage! I don’t like to PVP so there was basically nothing for me to do on Nagna. I spent a lot of time playing my mage instead. I know we did a few ZG runs, and UBRS a few times but that was it for raiding. And endless runs of the level 60 instances. (If I ever set foot in LBRS again it will be TOO SOON.)
I don’t really have any expansion goals. I’ll be there for ZA, obviously, but as for need-to-do stuff for the next two months…yeah, not a lot comes to mind. There are things I’d like to do, but I wouldn’t call them “goals”.
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September 20th, 2008 at 11:48 am
@The Other Half: Patch 3.0.2 will introduce faster leveling from 60-70, as final speed boost before the expansion, I suppose.
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October 3rd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
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