Barchetta!

My new warrior I was leveling to tank for my friends was just going too slow. They've got linked accounts and are getting triple XP, and I have no heirlooms or guild bonus to work with.  So, I jumped ahead.

I rolled a new goblin death knight named Barchetta on Wildhammer-US and jumped right into tanking instances. He's kicking some serious butt!  It was a little shaky at first, but now that he has more aggro-generating abilities in place, he's a pretty solid tank.  The average queue time is about 4 seconds.  He's level 61 and climbing.

So, now I'm waiting for my buddies to catch me.  It shouldn't take them too long, and then we can start running together.  Coda might make a comeback later, but for now, I'll be on Barchetta.

Coda

I was out of the game for a short while. A friend wanted me to rejoin and play with them in a new leveling endeavor, and they needed a tank, so I'm back for a while.  How long, remains to be seen, but I'm committed to being a tank for a small group of real life friends, so I'll shelve my warlocks for a while and concentrate here.  Not to the insane levels I had been playing, but hopefully, a more relaxed and fun game with people I actually know.

I rolled a goblin warrior named Coda yesterday on Wildhammer US-PvP.  I traditionally don't like PvP servers, because I played by myself so much in the past, but I'll give it a shot.  I've been a tank before, and I would have preferred a paladin over the warrior, but I didn't want another tauren or blood elf, so I went goblin warrior.

So, we'll see!

Kaboodle - level 32

I did a few early morning Scarlet Monastery and Mauradin runs this morning, and Kaboodle is now level 32. He's exalted with the Bilgewater Cartel, and has been racking up cooking points and buying the top level recipes. Leveling in dungeons has been pretty fast with the heirlooms and guild bonus!

Back to Kaboodle

I'm taking a break from the level 85 content right now.  I'm not happy with the difficulty of heroics vs. the gains I'm making - both in drops and valor points.  Tol Barad on my server is hopelessly broken right now, and I've not seen the Horde owning the keep at all.  Archeology is maxed out, and the Tol'vir digistes are way too few and far between, and I'm not using +100 gold tablets as buffs in heroics.  My wife is taking a break for a bit, and Skulfrak kind of goes with her toon, so he's going on the shelf for a bit as well.

This brought me to question which alt I wanted to play.  I have quite a few toons at 80 that I could finish off, but I'm not ready to play something other than a warlock right now, as I'm having a blast figuring out my rotation and playstyle.  I ended up going back to my goblin, Kaboodle, and am having way more fun than I've had on my 85 toon.  Kaboodle has gone from level 18 to 30 in 2 days so far, mostly in dungeons.  The revamped old world stuff is faster and more streamlined than ever before, with all the quests inside the instances.  The bottom line, is I'm having way more fun leveling than I was at the top.  The new Cataclysm zones are amazing, but I think they've got the end game pretty far out of whack right now.  I'm a casual player, and the 30 minute runs in Wrath were nice.  I'll admit, they were too easy, but for PUGs, it's just not fun anymore, and I'm not getting anything out of it.  The end bosses don't even drop epics - just blues, which is about the same quality you can get from quests in Twilight Highlands.

PvP has been fun in the battlegrounds.  This weekend is Warsong Gultch, so I'm going to be trying to grab some extra experience and honor there.

First Heroic = Fail

Well, that was bad. I managed to cobble together enough gear to get Skulfrak into his first heroic dungeon, and the first part of it went fine. Pulls were careful, DPS was good, a few bosses died.  But on the Neptulon encounter, I had never done it before, and apparently I was DPSing the wrong adds and got scolded as we wiped.  The healer quit, followed by another DPS and the tank, so I still have not completed a heroic yet. :(

This morning, I popped over to my goblin warlock, Julep, on Bleeding Hollow, and started some of the Hyjal quests.  Right away, a dreanei death knight tried to gank me, but he failed and I put him in the dirt. He was unprepared for fear.  I would have done more, but I'm having connection issues and the lag made it impossible to continue.

Skulfrak hits 85

I was originally going to concentrate on my new goblin warlock, but I was just seeing too many cool things people were doing in the new 80-85 zones, so I went and gave Skulfrak the big push and got him to level 85. Uldum was my favorite zone by far - I love the Egyptian flavor and the Indiana Jones quest stories.  He's going to working on the rep for the camel mount now that he's about to start heroics.

I spent the weekend working the new archeology skill, and am at about 250, so I still have a long way to go.  I've gotten 2 rares so far - an elvish mirror and the fossilized raptor pet.  I really want the mounts that it has.

I had a level 80 Orc warlock stuck on a PvP server that I had followed my son to, and finally got him moved again to Bleeding Hollow to play with him, which is also a PvP server.  He's been race-changed to a goblin as well, to make him a little more enjoyable.

I banged out a single level on my blood elf paladin, bringing her up to 81.  Tanks are still in great demand, so I have a lot of incentive to level that toon as well.

Cataclysm Week 2

Ok, I've been really busy in the real world for the past few weeks, getting ready for school and moving, so I haven't had a great deal of time to play lately, but I have gotten a small bit of progress.

My new goblin, Kaboodle is level 17, and I parked him for a bit to make some gold and see the higher level content.

My main man, Skulfrak, is level 82 and just entered Deepholm.  Loving the new areas, but I'm still encountering a lot of stability problems.

I tried Archeology on my paladin, and it's fun, but a lot of legwork for gray items at the beginning.  The higher levels of this are going to make it all worthwhile.

Still a lot left to do!

Kaboodle has started his run!

Cataclysm came out this morning, and I started my new Goblin Warlock, Kaboodle, on Steamwheedle Cartel US.

The first thing I did was join my guild, Mass Insanity, so everything he does counts toward guild reputation.  I had some heriloom gear waiting for him, along with bags, gold, cloth, and a few other things he needs to move forward.  And Kaboodle also has a bunch of kittens.  :)

I only had time to get to level 3 before work, but what I saw so far was amazing!

Edit - level 5 in a quick lunch session!

3 Days 'till Cataclysm!

I'm all set - Cataclysm is loaded, keyed, and when I wake up Tuesday morning, the first thing I'm doing is making a brand new Goblin Warlock on the Steamwheedle Cartel server.  His name is reserved, he's got a whole set of heirloom gear and bags waiting for him, and a pile of gold.  My plan is to drive him to level 85 and save the new higher level zones for a few weeks, so I can drag out having new things to see for a long time to come.  My other toons will sit and relax for a bit.

What will *you* be doing first in Cataclysm?

Around the Mirage Raceway One last Time

As I entered the lower 30s with Vez, one of the places I wanted to visit and run through one final time before it goes away was the Mirage Raceway and Salt Flats in Thousand Needles.  This morning I ran around collecting rocket car parts, killing Gazers, scorpions, buzzards and turtles, etc for all the various parts the goblins and gnomes need for their racers.

I love all the little details of the place.  The shipwreck from a long-since dried up sea, the rocket engines embedded in the mountainside, the trail and the smoking hole in one of the mountains with the crashed racer on the other side in Tanaris - the remains of some crazy bastard who blasted himself through half a mile of rock.
The racers will be moving to a floating barge with a bunch of new things for us to do, but this classic version will soon be a memory, so I'm glad I got one last visit in.

Planning for the Future

So, with the new Cataclysm expansion fast approaching, it's time for me to start thinking about what I'm going to do in the game when that drops.

I really want a goblin warlock.  But, do I roll him on my current main server, Steamwheedle Cartel, where I already have a level 80 warlock, or do I pick a new place for a fresh start?  I'm leaning toward choosing a new server.  If I do that, should I move one of my high level toons there to build a nest-egg for the goblin in preparation?  A lot of choices to make.

I certainly want to take Skulfrak and Carrara to 85, but I'm wondering, do I do that first, and fight the crowds in the new zones for quest mobs, or do I make it out of the crowds in the goblin starting area and make my way through the new version of Azeroth?  It means leveling him through Outland and Northrend again, while everyone else in exploring the new zones.

Now that the beta has started, everything I'm grinding for in Wrath will soon be useless.  The game will be changing forever, so I need to start getting in the mindset for Cataclysm.  While on vacation this week, I'll put some thought into which server I'll roll on, and who will be my main character for the upcoming years.

Goblin warlock sounds like a lot of fun, though. :)