Cataclysm First Week Review

First week has been incredible in Cataclysm for me.  I got to level 85.  My druid is now a worgen. (Reminder:  Header Contest still going on. I have two entries now.)  I got to the point I can start doing heroics.  I have run every 5 man instance.   I got to have my bear ride a camel in HoO in a weird interspecies sex act while singing "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran. (Yes, pic incoming but no video.  Have to respect the camel.)

So after the first week in Cataclysm, I found I love a lot of things, like the camel.  I also found that I could already kill a few things, like when the camel tries to go indoors. (True bug, you go inside, the camel just dies.)   Here is my list of loves and hates after one week in Cataclysm.

My Cataclysm Loves

1) The 5 Man Instances - I'm sure I will be singing a different tune by the next expansion, but these 5 mans are the most fun 5 mans I have done in WoW.  They are challenging and it requires coordination and CC.  Yes, I said CC.  And even when you think your group is going to fall apart miserably, like I did with my last Grim Batol run where our only CC was entangling roots from a boomkin while I was tanking, it came together beautifully with me marking the targets and us getting through each pull carefully.  If the raids are anything like these 5 mans, we are in for some treats. 

2) All the Tabards - Yes, pretty much every faction in game has a tabard to gain rep with.  Even the new equivalent to Sons of Hodir, which is going to make rep grinding so fast since I'm going to be running heroics now to get all geared up for raids.

3) My Server - Yes, although we are a PvP server, the people in the questing areas for the most part have been respectful and letting people finish quest instead of killing each other.  Of course, the first few hours of release, I just went and ran LFD, so the areas were down a little when I went back to questing.

4) Uldum - I like all the new zones with one notable exception, but there is something about Uldum that I just love.  I don't know if it is all the Indiana Jones references, the pretty cool quests, or the best 3 5 mans in the game in my opinion, but it was incredible.  I was honored with the main faction in Uldum, which is Ramkahen, before leaving the area and really close to revered already. 

5) Prices for BoE drops on the AH - If you get an iLevel 315+ piece of gear, you can easily sell it for 300+ gold.  The higher iLevel, the higher you can charge for it.

6) Leveling Fishing and Cooking - They made it easy now.  I am not going out to farm fishing to get it up or make a single cooking recipe, I'm just gonna do the daily quests everyday.  It is a good amount of gold, plus you can make some good gold with the meats from cooking.  I hit 450 fishing before Cataclysm thanks to those dailies. 

7) Leveling Multiple Skillpoints at Once - I love the fact that new recipes for leveling professions can give you up to 5 skillpoints at once.  Yes, I'm looking at your Enchant Weapon - Avalanche.  Gives you 5 profession points for making one.

8) Flying - Something about even flying around in Stormwind to get stuff makes it so much easier now.  This is especially true when you are flying at 310% speed. Oh wait, make that 341% speed because ...

9) Guild Rewards - I'm friendly with the guild currently and we are at guild level 2 as of last night.  The XP increase is awesome and the 10% faster mount speeds are incredible.

10) Portals - Yes, we don't have portals to major cities, but we have portals to all the new areas.  You really don't need much else.  Plus, you have to complete a series of quest to open the portals.  You just don't automatically get them.

11) Spirit Linked Quest - Nothing is as awesome as doing a quest and once you complete it, you see the complete quest thing comes up with your reward and many times, has your next quest.

12) In Game QuestHelper - I have grown to love the in game QuestHelper.  95% of the time, I find it immediately.  Other 5% of the time, I actually have to look at the quest text to find out what I need to do.

13) Worgen Druids - Good God, the night elfs are lame compared to the worgen.  These guys are awesome.  I love the animation for Running Wild where you run at 100% speed in worgen form.  The new forms are awesome with the exception of one, Swift Flight Form. 

My Cataclysm Hates

1) Vashj'ir - What part of the Vashj'ir area do I hate?  Let's start with what I don't hate.  The boat ride going out is pretty awesome when you get attacked by a giant octopus.  Throne of the Tides is not a bad instance either.  Beyond those two things, I pretty much hate everything else about it.  I hate doing quest underwater.  I don't care about a seahorse mount since I'm a druid and have aquatic form and the speed buff.  But my biggest complaint is the complete and total headache it is to find the Earthen Ring Quartermaster to get the tabard.  First off, in Deepholm, right where you come out of the portal, there is a giant Earthen Ring center with everybody from Earthen Ring right there.  Thrall is right outside Deepholm controlling the Malestrom, damn it.  Why is the quartermaster not there and is instead in a cave you can barely find without circling the area for about 15 minutes?

2) PUGs - I really am not looking forward to running heroics with PUGs.  I have a feeling it is going to make me want to pull my hair out tanking them.  I have started marking everything in anticipation of heroics, but it still doesn't stop an overzealous DPS from hitting X first instead of skull.  Hopefully, I will find some guild mates to run heroics and decrease the number of PUGs I have to deal with.

3) Varian Wrynn's Son - I mentioned above that to get to certain areas, you have to unlock them through a quest chain.  To get to Twighlight Highlands, you have to do a series of quest in Stormwind.  Not only do you have to do these quest, but you have to drag along Varian Wrynn's son with you.  Just one small problem though.  The little bastard keeps getting lost.  I'm walking around the ship intimidating people to get info on Twilight's Hammer and he just disappears.  This means I have to go all the way back to the the castle, pick him up again, then go back.  Then he is bugging me about taking him to the Twilight Highlands.  I wish you could take him into a BG and get him killed by the Horde.  Horde, next time you come into Stormwind to invade and kill our leader, could you kill his son while you are at it?  It would be great.

4) Worgen Swift Flight Form - This is the smallest of complaints, but the worgen swift flight form looks exactly like the night elf druid swift flight form.  It would have been nice for a little change to make them more worgen like.  Especially considering the trolls got a bat.

There are so many things I haven't done yet, like Tol Barad, the new Wintergrasp-esqe zone in Cataclysm.  I have not done heroic Deadmines or Shadowfang Keep, both of which I have heard are incredibly difficult now.   I have not stepped into my first raid yet with my guild. (Although if I can get some heroics under my belt, I may be able to go tonight.)  So overall, I love Cataclysm and can't wait to continue to play it and get into some raids, battlegrounds, and heroics.       

Cataclysm LFD's Dirty Little Secret

If you are using the LFD tool frequently and have looked at what specific dungeons you can queue for at any point, you have probably seen the blocks not allowing you to get into some instances without a certain average iLevel of gear.  However, there is a secret about this.  It was incredible when I looked at it and finally noticed it and I'm sure you will flip out when you figure it out as well.  Ready to learn the secret of the LFD tool in Cataclysm.

You Don't Have To Have The Gear On

That is right.  Looking at the character pane, I noticed that while in my moonkin set, which is still mostly iLevel 277 gear from ICC (with about 25% left to go until 84 and not a lot of good replacements still) that my average iLevel number kept going up, despite me not replacing any pieces.  The character pane iLevel is what determines what dungeons you can get into to.  Reading the tooltip for the iLevel, it states that the average iLevel is determined by only your best combination of gear that you currently have.  Not necessarily gear you have on.

So what does this mean.  If you are a clothie, your average iLevel is only determined by your cloth gear.  However, the higher up in armor you go (leather, mail, plate), you can use any lower armor type to count for it, not necessarily your armor type.  However, the bigger thing is that it helps you determine what gear to disenchant/sell.  Look at your average iLevel on the character pane.  If the gear iLevel is less than that of the average iLevel number, disenchant/sell it (with the obvious exception of if you are actually using it).  If it is higher than the number and is not an usuable armor (like for druids, mail and plate can be disenchanted or sold), hold on to it to keep your iLevel going up.

The more interesting thing in all this goes back to yesterday's blog post.  I mentioned that GearScore is getting more specific with the ability to look at spec to determine the quality of an upgrade for you.  While GearScore is going forward with looking at spec, Blizzard stepped backwards and made it non-specific to your spec and made it just about the gear. 

So the take home message in all of this is hold on to your higher iLevel gear even if you don't actually use it.  It will make it much much easier to get into the 5 man dungeons down the road.

First Post-Cataclysm Blog Post Will Be About.....

I originally thought that I wouldn't be able to take any time off for Cataclysm.  Looking at my sick leave, I found that I could take one day.  And a very productive day it was.  I was able to get to level 83 by midnight and have run 4 of the 7 dungeons already.  There are so many different things that I'm sure I will talk about in the days to come, from my love of the new 5 mans, the hatred I have for Vashj'ir, my love of the new spirit links and quest progression, my love for the new dungeon bosses, my love for flying at 310% speed in Azeroth, the fun of doing new dungeons blind with my guildmates to figure out mechanics, how I was wrong about leveling only through LFD (fastest way, quest and queue as DPS), and how Raz the Crazed may be my new favorite NPC in WoW.  However, my very first post-Cataclysm blog post will be about GearScore.

Now, I'm sure you are asking yourself right now, why the hell would I talk about GearScore on day 1 after Cataclysm?  There is a very good reason for it.  But to start off, you have to understand the history of GearScore to understand why it is pertinent now, maybe more so than before.

GearScore was an addon created shortly after Wrath.  It's original purpose was not to judge characters by their gear and decide whether they can get into raids, etc.  The reason it was originally created was to see when characters could replace their BC gear with Wrath gear.  While doing this, they found an interesting fact.  Players who were fully Tier 6 would really not need to change their gear out until Naxxaramas.  There might have been a piece here or there that might have been better, but they really didn't need to.

Now, in the beginning of Cataclysm, they changed GearScore to make it even better than before.  The major update that I'm loving is that it judges a new piece of gear based on its stats AND your current spec.  In other words, if I'm tanking a LFD and a piece of leather gear with agility and stamina on it, I can immediately tell if it is an upgrade or not by looking at the individual gear score number against my equipped piece.  However, if a piece of leather gear drops that has intellect, spirit, etc. on it for a boomkin piece, I have to change specs and equipment to check about the status of an upgrade. 

In other words, GearScore finally addressed it's major complaint.  Before, it didn't care about your spec, it only cared about the GearScore of the individual pieces, which lead to a collective GearScore.  Now, it judges it based on your current gear and spec. 

What I'm currently finding is that if you are in ICC iLevel 277 mostly gear, like my moonkin set, you are gonna have a hard time finding an upgrade, at least up to level 83.  Now, hopefully, regular Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, and the Lost City of Tol'Avir and the quest around those areas will.  Heroic Dungeons at level 85 certainly will.  My tanking set, which was mostly 251/264 has found quite a few good upgrades to them already, especially in dungeons.

So, in the end, Cataclysm saved GearScore, at least for the time being, and finally made it useful for what it was meant to be used for in the first place, looking how to improve your gear along the way while you are leveling.  I'm sure when 4.1 comes out, people will once again require GearScores of x amount to get into raids, but at least right now, I can enjoy it for what it was meant to be used for in the first place. 

Just remember also, the Header Contest is going on still.  I have only received one entry so far, so there is a good chance that your work will be seen by everybody on the site.  The contest will close on 12/31/10. 

The Night Before Cataclysm

I'm not a poet, but I decided that I would try to parody one of the greatest Christmas poems ever for Cataclysm tonight.  

'Twas the night before Cataclysm, when all through the house

I was a-stirring and moving my mouse;

The banks were empty and sat there bare,

Knowing that Deathwing soon would be there;

The cats were cuddled up in their beds,

While visions of tuna danced in their heads;

And me still dressed, not wearing a cap,

Had just settled down for a long gaming night,

When out on the clock there arose such a clatter,

I sat up in my seat to see what was the matter.

I saw the time and ran really fast,

It was 11:15 PM and I needed my cash.

The moon at the Gamestop with no falling snow

Shown on the geeks sitting below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But an open Gamestop, and 3 ready cashiers,

While still in my ride, a Lexus, so quick,

I knew in a moment it would be time to get it.

More rapid than eagles the cashiers they came,

And we whistled and shouted and called them by name;

"Now Deathwing! now, Thrall! now, Alliance and Horde!

On, Hunters! on druids! on, goblins and worg!

To the front of the cashier at the top of the mall!

Now come in! come in! come on in y'all!"

I knew really soon that I see my Hurricane fly,

And Typhooning people mounted up in the sky,

So up to the front the gamers they flew,

Where the boxes with games were waiting there too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard the cashiers did say

"Collector's Editions can line up this way."

As I moved into that line and jumped in with a bound

Soon, in the line everybody came 'round.

People was dressed all in fur from their heads to their foots,

And some clothes were all tarnished with drink and some food;

A box of games they held on their laps,

And they looked very scared while opening their packs.

Our eyes -- how they twinkled! and boy, were we merry!

We wanted to really get our games in a hurry!

Our mouths were open, we were ready to go,

And our hands were nervous and white as the snow;

The crowd gatherer round as we clenched our teeth,

And we encircled the cashiers just like a wreath;

Many gamers had broad faces and big round bellys,

That really needed to stay away from the jelly.

I could not wait to get home to play my night elf,

And I laughed when I thought he would be a worgen himself;

A wink of the cashier's eyes and a twist of his heads,

We knew that soon we would get it in our hands;

They spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all our hands and we ran off in a jerk,

And getting in my car and driving on home,

And speeding so fast, I knew it was close;

I sprang through the door and I gave a whistle,

And opened my box while my computer did whistle 

But I then exclaimed, driving my cats out of sight,

"DAMN, I'M EAST COAST, IT WON'T BE ON UNTIL 3 AM TONIGHT."

The Final Bucket List Analysis

With only a few days left before Cataclysm, I decided to take one last look at the list I have set up not to long ago for the list of things left to do in Wrath, a.k.a The Bucket List.  If you remember from the prior post, I set up an initial one, then revisited it based on what my guild was going to try to accomplish.  So, for one last time before Cataclysm, here is the final bucket list and what progress was made towards it.

Redhawks

Portal Jockey (25 Player) - Done

Neck Deep in Vile (25 Player) - Done

Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 Player) - Done

A Tribute to Insanity (25 Player) - Did not get to do it again.

Call of the Grand Crusader (25 Player) - Did not get to do it again.

Tailoring to 450 - Done

Jewelcrafting to 450 - Expensive, but Done

Honor capped - Done

High amount of Justice Points - Currently 2500 JPs with 2 days of LFDs

Redrobin

310% Mount Without Paying 5k Gold - No.  I have the gold, but would rather save it.

Honor capped - Focused on Redhawks

High Amount of Justice Points - Focused on Redhawks

Redider

Level 78 - Close.  I'm level 72.

Skinning to 450 - Currently above 400.

Herbalism to 450 - Currently above 400.

Redvulture

Level 78 - I'm level 65.

Mining to 450 - Changed to Inscription due to Glyphmas after 4.0.1.  Currently 432.

Start Leveling Blacksmithing - It is my second profession.

Overall, I feel that I definitely put a dent in my list prior to Cataclysm and have set myself up nicely for the expansion.  And while I definitely wish I could have finished TotGC with the Insanity achievement, I feel that getting the 25 man ICC drake was probably the highlight of this expansion.

So I hope you did everything you wanted to do in Wrath.  And even if you didn't, there will be new achievements and accomplishments in the next expansion to shoot for.  But now, the past is behind us.  Arthas is dead and now we have to kill a huge dragon who destroyed the world.

Also, just a reminder about the Redhawk's Header Contest.  We have our first entry already and I'm hoping to get a bunch more for the header.  There are some great prizes involved so if you have any interest in drawing, go ahead and give it a shot.

Site News and New Header Contest

November was a great month.  My Gamecocks won the SEC East.  I celebrated the 6 month anniversary with my wonderful girlfriend.  And this site has continued to grow.  November was the biggest month on record yet.  It was the first month where I had over 5,000 pageviews for the month, something that was not even done in October when I was on Leet Sauced and Raid Warning.  I am humbled and grateful and thankful for each person who comes daily to read to the ramblings of a WoW player.  When I started it last April, I could have never imagined this blog would have become what it is.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.  I will continue to bring you all the pertinent moonkin, druid, and Warcraft information into Cataclysm.

Speaking of Cataclysm, I'm going to be making a little bit of a change.  My night elf druid will be becoming a worgen druid.  What this means is that my banner may become a little outdated after I become a worgen.  Since I have no skill in the arts, I decided it was time for another contest. 

The Redhawk's Gaze New Header Contest 

Rules:  To enter this contest, all you have to do is draw a header for the blog.  It can be anything you want, but it must meet the following 3 requirements.

1) Must have a picture of a worgen moonkin.

2) Must have the title "Redhawk's Gaze" in the picture.

3) Must have a Solar or Lunar Eclipse in it.

From there, it is up to you.  Do you want to have me riding a mount?  Sure.  Do you want Starfall to be hitting around me?  Awesome.  Everything else is up to you.

Once you have completed your entry, I would ask that you e-mail the picture in a normal format (JPEG, GIF, BMP, etc.) to bigdog1862@yahoo.com.  After I have received the entries, I will post my 3 favorite on the site and let the readers vote on the winner.  Now, from the Christmas in July contest, you know that I give out great prizes for the contest and this time is no exception.

Grand Prize: Featured as the header logo on this blog for the entire Cataclysm expansion and a sidebar credit to your site.  Also, you will get two 3 month game cards and two vanity pets (minus Plushies or Mounts) of your choice.

($80 value)

Second Place: One 3 month game card and one vanity pet (minus Plushies or Mounts) of your choice.

($40 value)

Third Place: The Shattering Novel and one vanity pet (minus Plushies or Mounts) of your choice.

($25 value)

 

So to all the artist and designers out there, good luck.  I will be closing entries on January 1st, 2011 so you have a few weeks to work on it.

Level 85 Pre-Raid Gear Recommendations for Moonkins

Last night, I hit the halfway point in my goal of becoming Justice Points capped prior to Cataclysm.  Just a few more LFG dungeons and I will at least be close to my goal.  However, when I do get capped, I have to start thinking about what my purchases will be.

 I started off by looking at some gear list of what you can get with Justice Points and I started to build my list of what I wanted.  Unfortunately, considering the choices available for us, our decisions are relatively straightforward for Justice Points.  Also, there are a lot of slots that are not covered by Justice Points.  To fill those slots, I looked at the heroic dungeons to find what gear would be the best to fill in those slots.

In terms of what I was looking for in gear, my priorities changed slightly from my level 80 stats.  Here are my current level 85 priorities in gear.

Spirit > Hit > Intellect = Spellpower > Haste > Mastery = Critical Strike

A little explanation.  The reason I chose spirit over hit is for one major reason.  Spirit is automatically converted to hit so it is at the very least equal to hit.  However, given the issues that may occur with mana in Cataclysm, we will need to have better mana regeneration out of combat.  In this vein, I chose spirit over hit.  This also shows the initial priority should be our hit cap, which at level 85 will be *prepare to catch your breath* 1742 to have 17% spell hit.  Also, I chose haste over mastery/crit due to the way haste effects the speed our spells are cast and DoTs tick.  Mastery and Critical Strike are relatively close in importance.  We will want to get plenty of both, but haste is our major stat.  What I tended to find with our gear is that haste and mastery were together or crit and mastery were together.  When there was a question, I took the haste/mastery.  Also, remember that reforging can  help to get the gear to where we want it.  Finally, and it should go without saying, but leather only to get the leather specialization bonus.

So with all that in mind, here is my ideal level 85 pre-raid gear.  I tried to only use Justice Points or gear from heroic 5-mans.  Also, I got all this information from Wowpedia, since it is the only one I can access from my job.  It doesn't have all the heroic 5-mans bosses' loot, so some heroic 5-man loot may be better than this, however, it has enough info to at least make a starter list.

    Head: Cluster of Stars - 2200 Justice Points

Neck: Celadon Pendant - 1650 Justice Points

Shoulder: Somber Shawl - 1650 Justice Points

Back: Solar Wind Cloak (Heroic) - Halls of Origination (H) - Rajh

Chest: Robes of Forgetfullness - 2200 Justice Points

Wrist: Armbands of Change (Heroic) - Blackrock Caverns (H) - Corla

Hands: Blessed Hands of Elune - 1650 Justice Points

Waist: Thatch Eave Vines - 1650 Justice Points

Legs: Leggings of Late Blooms - 2200 Justice Points

Feet: Awakening Footfalls (Heroic) - Halls of Origination (H) - Temple Guardian

Ring 1: Lavishly Jeweled Ring (Heroic) - Deadmines (H) - Admiral Ripsnarl

Ring 2: Rose Quartz Band (Heroic) - Stonecore (H) - Slabhide

Trinket 1: Witching Hourglass (Heroic) - Blackrock Caverns (H) - Ascendant Lord Obsidius

Trinket 2: Tendrils of Burrowing Dark (Heroic) - Stonecore (H) - Ozruk

Main Hand: Scepter of Power (Heroic) - Halls of Origination (H) - Setesh

Off Hand: Apple Bent Bough - Justice Points 950

Idol: Book of Dark Prophecies (Heroic) - Stonecore (H) - High Priestess Azil

So, for only 13,750 Justice Points (Don't worry, this won't be that hard when we are getting 75 justice points for downing heroic 5-man bosses) and a few instance runs,  here are the stats that you get.

Spirit/Hit: 1436

Intellect: 3068

Haste: 1158

Mastery: 1001

Critical Strike: 533

Since you are not at the hit cap, you will need to reforge slightly and maybe even gem for a little hit until you get some raiding gear under your belt.  If you are going to reforge for your hit, I would work backwards on the list of stats.  40% of the mastery and critical strike numbers come up to 613, so you should be able to find your hit in just those two stats to get to 1742 and still have a good amount of mastery and critical strike. 

Finally, if you want to save some Justice Points and go for a sweet staff instead, I would recommend getting Staff of Isolation (Heroic) from Lord Godfrey in Heroic Shadowfang Keep.  However, I think the stats would be overall better going with an offhand and main hand due to the increased spellpower of using a main hand/off hand combo.

Of course, when you start raiding,  you will want to go for your tier sets and then get the next level gear from there.  And you don't need all these pieces to start raiding.  From what I have heard, an average iLevel of 340 would be enough to get into starting raids.