An alternate title for this post would probably be “why I never want to see Silithus again but now have to spend a few more hours of my life there.” See that Professional Master achievement I got there? Yeah, that’s for mining, now at 300/375. I only stopped to go get the Master Mining because apparently I can still possibly get skill points from ooze-covered rich thorium nodes.
My blacksmithing lags behind, at 277. Oh, sure, I could go pick up Master Blacksmithing too, but there’s really no point: none of the Outland blacksmithing plans are available until 300, so it’s a few more hours of running around Silithus. Silithus really is my new favorite place, especially when compared to my old favorite (Winterspring, which was remarkably devoid of nodes the last two nights) and my old old favorite (Burning Steppes). Three major “sets” of locations, usually 2-3 nodes per location, 4-5 ores per node? Yes, please! Sign me up. And if it means slaughtering the occasional bug, so much the better.
It’s been a thoroughly un-WoW weekend. Yes, I ran in circles mining and making blacksmithing stuff. I also stopped at one point to run Blackrock Depths by myself, which was quite a feat on my netbook (I was playing on my Acer Aspire One while watching the Colts game). For bonus points, if you’re soloing BRD: don’t kill anything in the room with Emperor Thaurissan before attacking him. It’s fun, I promise! And hey, I came out of it with a piece of gear I can actually use. Shut up, shirts are gear.
Sadly, I have no new information for aspiring Death Knights today. I did do one bit of experimenting lately: I tried out Skeleton Jack’s dual-wield build. For the first few minutes, it was mostly me bringing up my sword skill, and after that… well, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Me plus a ghoul with that build, puts out less than me by myself in my currently 17/54/0 build. I changed back after an instance run or two. #1? I don’t think so. Maybe once Howling Blast comes off cooldown and is truly spammable when you have the ability to use it. Of course, there’s rumors Blizz might nerf the thing anyway, as they don’t want dual wield to dominate for Death Knights; part of me wonders if they’re regretting making that an option now. :) One benefit of dual-wielding, though: if both weapons have Rune of the Fallen Crusader on them, the effect of it is up all the time. Of course, it feels like it’s up on every fight now, so who knows.
I did log on several of my alts, fix their UIs, and mess with their spec a bit, then I played them to make sure they’re playable. Valmafra (née Eladhon) is now Survival-spec, which I’m not sure is ideal for leveling but is definitely where I want to take her eventually… so far, it works exactly like a BM Hunter without Bestial Wrath, which honestly I never used all that much anyway. Thunderfist the Gorilla still holds aggro while I shoot things, so that’s that. I do feel a touch more mana-efficient. I suspect things’ll speed up a bit once I get Steady Shot.
Xajek went Disc/Holy to Shadow, which I figured was appropriate since he was no longer following a hunter around, and… holy crap. I do not have the first clue how to play a shadow priest. I just kind of flail mindlessly at the Mind Flay, Vampiric Embrace, Shadow Word: Pain, and Mind Blast buttons until things die. Occasionally I remember that I can cast Power Word: Shield in Shadowform and do that too. My mana constantly hovers at about 50%, and my health… well, my health constantly hovers at about 100%. I need to find some good guides on shadowpriesting, if only so I can get Xajek some more levels. Eventually he’ll be healy!
I have this sneaking suspicion that part of my wants to heal: I’ve now started (and gotten to the mid-40s, at highest) a priest, a shaman, and a druid all with the intention to make them resto or holy, as appropriate, at the highest level. If I find myself starting a paladin too, then I’ll just conclude that apparently I’d like to make the health bars go right, too. :)
Happy new year to you all. What’ve you been up to lately?