Cataclysm Thoughts

So with the upcoming expansion I havent been actively gearing up my other level 80's, such as the druid, because just in a couple of months most likely I will be getting replacements to all the gear i have acumulated over the time in WOTLK.

I am really excited about Cataclysm, mostly going back to Vanilla somewhat, which I never experienced since I started playing at the start of TBC, The changes to Paladins, especially Holy, seem very interesting and I will have to change my game play quite a bit. The new Healing Rain spell on Shamans sounds really fun and I cant wait to use it! Druids I havent been actively listening to on the changes, but the no Tree-form 100% of the time is very odd to me. We will see how it turns out though once Cataclysm is released

Now I need your opinion, what to do next? Im not sure what to do, level alts? get more PvP gear for the Shaman or Druid? do ICC everynight I can on a different toon? So here is what I currently have:
Fiordin : 80 Holy Paladin PvE and PvP fully geared
Totemheal: 80 Resto / Ele Shaman Full PvE geared, only 1 piece of PvP
Lazrchicken: 80 Resto / Boomy Druid PvE geared (mostly Naxx gear though) and 1 piece of PvP
Vynno: 61 Disc / Shadow Priest (hasnt hit 80 yet so maybe level him)

So please post a comment on your thoughts on what I should do next!

Back Again!

Hey everyone, Been a long time!
I have finished up my Paladin, Holy PvE MS, 5.6k GS, Holy PvP OS, 1k Rating in 2v2 so far.

I have been really pleased with the Pally so far, so many tricks there are and still to find, after leveling my pally, i decided to level all the other healer classes, the druid and shaman are sitting at 80, and priest at 52, BRD for 7 levels straight gets tiring after a little while.

My Shammy is definitly my Second favorite class, Paladin first. The upside to Shammy for getting into raids, is that BL gives you like an extra 300 GS! perfect if you are a little undergeared, but that raid leader really wants that Bloodlust / Heroism.

I have been messing around in PvP on my druid as well, at least for the first BG to realize im REALLY bad at druid healing, so much different than paladin healing and very hard to get used to.

I will be Blogging some more starting this week! so expect some more!

Outland

Ok, I know its been a while since ive made a post, ive been working pretty hard. Ive managed to get my pally to 64, all by LFG. Im sitting at about 600 Spell power and around 6.5k mana. With LFG in outland, almost all of my groups have had at least 1 DK. Early on my experiences with Dk's havent been very pleasent, especially with auras. Frost presence is for TANKING and Blood presence is for DPS. I do realize that you DK's are new to your class, but please listen to the group members when we are giving you advice. Other than that LFG has been going very well, but where are all the druids?? ive only had 1 druid in my group out of all my dungeons.

A trick for all you tanks going straight to LFG when you hit outland, do some of the first quests to get some good gear. You should probably have at least 5.5k health to start doing the dungeons. For healing, i would suggest at least 250 Spell power, and at least 5k mana. DPS as long you are doing a considerable amount and relatively competitive with it you are good, and dont go oom after about 3 fights.

Thats all i have to say for now about LFG.

Good and Bad with LFG

So I have been able to level my pally to 47 over the weekend, doing ZF twice and ST 3 times. Ive also leveled my shaman to level 27 from 23. Doing 80-130 DPS at level 27 is pretty nice as Elemental. Doing all these dungeons, ive only had 1 or 2 good groups. most of all my bad experiences have been in Gnomeregan, someone in the group has to leave for some reason, and deciding to be annoying he pulls about 30 mobs then leaves group, leaving all of us to die one by one and run back in to the instance, almost always we lose some members along the way. Theres also those people who have no clue what their doing, Druid tanks in kitty from, pally tanks without righteous fury on, and Warrior tanks tanking 1 single mob and nothing but that mob. Theres also the healers, who seem to always just heal the tank and no one else in the group because "I didnt know you were taking damage..." and "i'll go oom if i heal the whole group." Finally the DPS, you shouldnt be doing 10 dps at level 20 something... My shaman totems do more than that.

Even though theres all of these negatives, I have stopped the lengthy questing and spent my time in Major cities right by the class trainer and just queueing away in LFG. The DPS seem to be having the hardest time finding groups. This will probably even out what spec people choose to level with. You will see more people leveling with a tanking spec or healing spec now mainly for quicker queues on LFG.

LFG System

I have had somewhat goodluck with the new patch. I have tried the queue on Fiordin but so far no luck with any groups. I have been able to run many dungeons on my Alt Warrior. Ive leveled a total of 4 levels so far just through LFG. Most of the groups have been fairly good and easy to roll through. Of course though, there are those people who leave just in the middle of the instance. When that happens you can either choose to keep on going with just 4 people or try and find someone from the queue and keep going where you left off. All the instances ive been doing on my Warrior, have been tanking them. only 2 dungeons so far that ive been grouped into have had an undergeared healer, barely keeping up with the heals and even wiping... in RFC, with most of the group over level 16.

LFG has certainly changed how I level, I used to run all over the place doing quests here and there. Now I hang out in a Major city, just waiting for the queue.

I have completed another instance that I have never done due to the difficulty of getting there. Deadmines, It also has nice Twink gear in the dungeon, and not to difficult and long. Whats even nicer, is the buff you get from using the random LFG queue. It gives you a 5% buff to almost everything I can think of.

WC and my luck with 3.3

Ok, so Patch 3.3 has just came out and i am currently unable to log on. Over this past weekend i ran someone through WC, one of my least favorite dungeons of all time. You have to have someone in your group that knows the way around, or you will spend the next couple hours wondering around someplace you have never been in. I do have to say something good about WC though, it has some pretty nice gear to get while leveling and twinking. It has gear for pretty much every class and role their is.

Once I am able to log on with Patch 3.3, I am definitly going to check out the new LFG system. See if i have any better luck doing dungeons cross-server. My pally is still level 44, My plan for this week is to get a group for ZF using the new LFG system and see how it goes. I am curious what role will have the best experience with LFG, DPS will most likely have to wait longer, but also in my opinion, have the easiest time in the dungeons. Heals / Tanks will probably be in demand for LFG, especially coming higher levels when no Mail/Plate wearing class can just tank

Instance leveling with 3.3

Most of us Level the same way, through questing. Most of that will change though with Patch 3.3, the knew LFG system will let you run instances with the same people that you do Battlegrounds with. This will allow you to sign up for an instance, wait a while, maybe quest here and there. Once there are 5 group members across signed up, you will be teleported away to the instance.

Some of us have been lucky enough to earn Dual Spec at lower levels. Such as myself, while i was questing in Hillsbrad i think, a Cat Carrier (Black Tabby) dropped. Later when i sold it on the AH, i had a big 1,200g sitting right there in front of me. I went over to the pally trainer and got dual spec. I am now a level 44 Prot / Holy Pally. Being Dual Spec has helped me finding groups and surviving in them. I know this has happened to all of us, right in the middle of an instance out of no where, someone drops out of the party and logs off. I dont know why but for me it always seems to be the tank or healer. If you are one of the few people non 80 that have dual spec and this happens to you, you will be the hero of your group. allowing your group to move on through the instance with little downtime from when the member dropped out.

With the new LFG system in 3.3 though, what if someone in your group drops out? does someone else in the LFG system come in or does Blizzard wish you luck with your 4 members? I myself would pick up someone else from the LFG system as soon as they are available, or even others in LFG system around that level but not signed up for that particular instance. If your group had downed, lets say 2 bosses before the extra person got in to the group, then that member would get compensated for an amount of gold depending on your level, for each boss downed. Note, this last paragraph has not happened yet, at least to my knowledge, its all in my imagination.

While leveling with Dual Spec, your gear is very important if your like me, having 2 completely different specs. If you were perhaps a Balance / Resto Druid you could probably use the same gear while leveling. So if you are like me, do you level up one spec from the quest rewards? or level up both specs with the quest rewards, choosing which item is most needed for either of your 2 specs. I myself has chosen the second option due to the amount that I do instances. It seems to be farely easy way to go, I do sometimes miss little upgrades here and there, but overall its going perfectly fine.

I will try and post some several little hints about different dungeons I have ran along the weeks, and even what dungeons are good for what class.