Commence Primary Ignition
With my mage Amperage being the first caster I'd ever played, it didn't take me long to learn that Blizzard gives magi many, many crowd control and slowing options for a reason. Abstain from using them at your own peril. Now, coming from a background of a 60 warrior and 40-something rogue, wearing cloth proved to be my undoing over and over. Right from the start in Deathknell, my technique was sound. Frostbolt, Fireball slowed mob, Fire Blast, die.
Wait. That's not supposed to happen. He only hit me a dozen times. I don't understand. Then I look down at the robe I'm wearing and it dawns on me. Slowly. See, in my head, I'm in plate. In many respects, my entire WoW experience has been flavored by hiding behind 6500 AC. At the moment, that couldn't be further from the truth. Dress = dying with teh quickness.
I've dabbled in leveling Amp over the course of nearly a year, taking a bit of a break from Echuta whenever dramatically-appropriate, but for quite some time, I hit patches of mage-malaise. I couldn't get motivated to play him for love nor money. I've had other characters: Missmayhem (46 NE rogue and where I developed my love for the quick takedown), Elunatique (24 NE Priestess and the other half of my bustalicious NE mantraps fondly referred to as The Brass Pole Patrol), 2 x Gamorr (one on WW, and again on Cho'gall- now unified and lvl 32 back on WW), and I've toyed with the highly inaccurate fantasy that I'd be able to make an adequate shaman (Islero, I hardly knew ye). Over the 15 months that I've played Warcraft, I've had many alts, and if she knew the extent of it, I'm certain that Renata would give me no quarter as I tease her about her myriad ones rivaling that of the cast of extras in Ben Hur.
The moment of truth came, however, when I had leveled Gamorr up to within striking distance of Amp's current progress. I had a decision to make. In spite of the fact that I don't know anyone that truly enjoys taking 2 characters through the same area, Blizz makes a point to give players the opportunity to take their toons through radically different, yet equally-scaled areas of the world at the same point in their careers. This effectively allows you to bypass an entire zone, if you truly despise it. For both Horde and Alliance on Player vs Player servers, this desire is often fostered right about the time that one discovers Stranglethorn Vale. That's not to say that Player vs Environment adventurers don't have a hard time with STV, too. The difference is, if a PvE person has a bitch of a time in STV, it's because of the quests, not because of the other faction. PvP servers make it a bit difficult to kill 10 Stranglethorn Tigers while being repeatedly sheeped by some 60 troll mage who is farming herbs, or stunlocked by an NE rogue who decides that they want to hear the sound you make when you die. At the time when ZG came out, I was Varice on the Alliance side of Magtheridon, and the first thing I remember thinking was, "Wonderful. That's the last thing that STV needs, is 19 lvl 60 Horde standing around Grom'Gol looking for action as they wait for the last guy to show up for their ZG run. This will not end well."
As a matter of form, when bringing Echuta through the ranks, I made a point to try this level-around-STV-and-join-the-show-already-in-progess-in-Tanaris method and am pleased to report that it works swimmingly. For the curious, it goes Thousand Needles/Desolace-> Swamp of Sorrows-> Feralas, or your own approximation therein. (Caveat: the downside to taking this approach is that you don't get the numerous quests that net you good rep with the 4 goblin towns of the Steamwheedle Cartel, and I can report from experience that having better rep when standing around the goblin Bruisers when somebody gets froggy and feels like jumping your shiat while they're killing time around Booty Bay or Gadgetzan can pay off bigtime in the long run. Granted, that was on a PvP server, but there is some danger on PvE. The difference is, if somebody manages to get flagged for combat on a PvE server, then they did something to deserve it).
What I needed was a determining factor in choosing which character to progress next, and it hardly came down to a matter of equal enjoyment of the classes (although sodium pentothol would likely reveal a bias toward the hunter, given that I had no rogue in that level range). All things considered, I decided to give Amperage the green light and bench Gamorr for the immediate time being. I would love to level them both equally, but I don't hate myself that much at the end of the day. The guild has been woefully lacking in a wide variety of DPS, in that 90% of it has come in the form of Warlocks and Hunters. Although I love playing my hunter, I also acknowledge that I would be standing in a considerable shadow of the pro critter-killers that we have in the Pod already- not the least of which are (alphabetically) Cimmerius, Guinsoo, and Tuscansalami. My best friend Dagobah has one, too, and with all that competition, it just makes for difficult assembly of groups.
I've been rather vocal in my lamentations that historically, I haven't been a very good mage. As a matter of fact, I'm really bad about breaking my own sheep. I forget that I have Fire and Ice AOE spells. I don't spam Arcane Explosion. It's hardly encouraging as an aspiring nuker. That being the case, I decided to respec. Even after the free respec after 1.11, I was hardly thrilled with the choices I had made. I was all across the board, with enough points in Arcane to get Clearcasting, and was Fire, otherwise. This wasn't cutting it for me, and I figured that I would forgo the 6 tier 2 and 3 points in Arcane and just stick with Improved Arcane Missles. I know that many folks wax poetic about Frost spec, but that usually comes from 60s that raid and don't have to worry about leveling any more. Didn't have that luxury, so I decided to go Fire/Frost. I had heard that it was possible to achieve much satisfaction from what was essentially an elemental build, specializing in either Fire or Frost and eschewing Arcane nearly completely. (I say nearly, because while I'm foolhardy enough to skip Clearcasting, I'm not getting interrupted during Arcane Missles. Screw that).
The oft agreed-upon downside to Fire spec is that it is seen to be largely mana inefficient when compared to Frost. I'm fine with that. I took a long hard look at the AH while I was there and invested in a few pieces that had improved INT and Spirit compared to what I was sporting at the time. In my reasoning, the increased SPI will help reduce downtime in between fights, and the recently acquired skill of Mage Armor will assist in keeping some of the mana regen going through the fight. I headed straight to Arathi Highlands after doing my respec, and Lord have mercy, does this build rock. I might change my mind later, but for the immediate time being, I have chosen wisely.
Wait. That's not supposed to happen. He only hit me a dozen times. I don't understand. Then I look down at the robe I'm wearing and it dawns on me. Slowly. See, in my head, I'm in plate. In many respects, my entire WoW experience has been flavored by hiding behind 6500 AC. At the moment, that couldn't be further from the truth. Dress = dying with teh quickness.
I've dabbled in leveling Amp over the course of nearly a year, taking a bit of a break from Echuta whenever dramatically-appropriate, but for quite some time, I hit patches of mage-malaise. I couldn't get motivated to play him for love nor money. I've had other characters: Missmayhem (46 NE rogue and where I developed my love for the quick takedown), Elunatique (24 NE Priestess and the other half of my bustalicious NE mantraps fondly referred to as The Brass Pole Patrol), 2 x Gamorr (one on WW, and again on Cho'gall- now unified and lvl 32 back on WW), and I've toyed with the highly inaccurate fantasy that I'd be able to make an adequate shaman (Islero, I hardly knew ye). Over the 15 months that I've played Warcraft, I've had many alts, and if she knew the extent of it, I'm certain that Renata would give me no quarter as I tease her about her myriad ones rivaling that of the cast of extras in Ben Hur.
The moment of truth came, however, when I had leveled Gamorr up to within striking distance of Amp's current progress. I had a decision to make. In spite of the fact that I don't know anyone that truly enjoys taking 2 characters through the same area, Blizz makes a point to give players the opportunity to take their toons through radically different, yet equally-scaled areas of the world at the same point in their careers. This effectively allows you to bypass an entire zone, if you truly despise it. For both Horde and Alliance on Player vs Player servers, this desire is often fostered right about the time that one discovers Stranglethorn Vale. That's not to say that Player vs Environment adventurers don't have a hard time with STV, too. The difference is, if a PvE person has a bitch of a time in STV, it's because of the quests, not because of the other faction. PvP servers make it a bit difficult to kill 10 Stranglethorn Tigers while being repeatedly sheeped by some 60 troll mage who is farming herbs, or stunlocked by an NE rogue who decides that they want to hear the sound you make when you die. At the time when ZG came out, I was Varice on the Alliance side of Magtheridon, and the first thing I remember thinking was, "Wonderful. That's the last thing that STV needs, is 19 lvl 60 Horde standing around Grom'Gol looking for action as they wait for the last guy to show up for their ZG run. This will not end well."
As a matter of form, when bringing Echuta through the ranks, I made a point to try this level-around-STV-and-join-the-show-already-in-progess-in-Tanaris method and am pleased to report that it works swimmingly. For the curious, it goes Thousand Needles/Desolace-> Swamp of Sorrows-> Feralas, or your own approximation therein. (Caveat: the downside to taking this approach is that you don't get the numerous quests that net you good rep with the 4 goblin towns of the Steamwheedle Cartel, and I can report from experience that having better rep when standing around the goblin Bruisers when somebody gets froggy and feels like jumping your shiat while they're killing time around Booty Bay or Gadgetzan can pay off bigtime in the long run. Granted, that was on a PvP server, but there is some danger on PvE. The difference is, if somebody manages to get flagged for combat on a PvE server, then they did something to deserve it).
What I needed was a determining factor in choosing which character to progress next, and it hardly came down to a matter of equal enjoyment of the classes (although sodium pentothol would likely reveal a bias toward the hunter, given that I had no rogue in that level range). All things considered, I decided to give Amperage the green light and bench Gamorr for the immediate time being. I would love to level them both equally, but I don't hate myself that much at the end of the day. The guild has been woefully lacking in a wide variety of DPS, in that 90% of it has come in the form of Warlocks and Hunters. Although I love playing my hunter, I also acknowledge that I would be standing in a considerable shadow of the pro critter-killers that we have in the Pod already- not the least of which are (alphabetically) Cimmerius, Guinsoo, and Tuscansalami. My best friend Dagobah has one, too, and with all that competition, it just makes for difficult assembly of groups.
I've been rather vocal in my lamentations that historically, I haven't been a very good mage. As a matter of fact, I'm really bad about breaking my own sheep. I forget that I have Fire and Ice AOE spells. I don't spam Arcane Explosion. It's hardly encouraging as an aspiring nuker. That being the case, I decided to respec. Even after the free respec after 1.11, I was hardly thrilled with the choices I had made. I was all across the board, with enough points in Arcane to get Clearcasting, and was Fire, otherwise. This wasn't cutting it for me, and I figured that I would forgo the 6 tier 2 and 3 points in Arcane and just stick with Improved Arcane Missles. I know that many folks wax poetic about Frost spec, but that usually comes from 60s that raid and don't have to worry about leveling any more. Didn't have that luxury, so I decided to go Fire/Frost. I had heard that it was possible to achieve much satisfaction from what was essentially an elemental build, specializing in either Fire or Frost and eschewing Arcane nearly completely. (I say nearly, because while I'm foolhardy enough to skip Clearcasting, I'm not getting interrupted during Arcane Missles. Screw that).
The oft agreed-upon downside to Fire spec is that it is seen to be largely mana inefficient when compared to Frost. I'm fine with that. I took a long hard look at the AH while I was there and invested in a few pieces that had improved INT and Spirit compared to what I was sporting at the time. In my reasoning, the increased SPI will help reduce downtime in between fights, and the recently acquired skill of Mage Armor will assist in keeping some of the mana regen going through the fight. I headed straight to Arathi Highlands after doing my respec, and Lord have mercy, does this build rock. I might change my mind later, but for the immediate time being, I have chosen wisely.
posted by Voice by Ben at 5:46 PM
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