Leveling Guide: The Early Warlock 1-20

Hey lookie there! A leveling guide.

Now, when you choose to level a Warlock, your first choice is faction. It is generally personal preference. Then you pick your class. Alliance side you can choose Human or Gnome. Horde side you can pick between Orcs and Forsaken. And technically Blood Elves. But who would do that?

Originally, you had to do a little quest to get your imp. However, it is now available at level one from your local Warlock Trainer. He does cost a couple copper to buy, but now you can get him easily by level two, rather than waiting until at least level four, or possibly five or six.

At this point, you have a couple options with regards to your spell rotation.

You can either go with the affliction style of killing, or the destro/demo.

With either method, start by commanding your pet to attack your target. This will generally give him threat, and while you will be able to easily pass him, it will keep them off you for a blow or two, saving you a little bit of down time.

The simpler style is to just shoot the mob with Shadow Bolt until it falls over. The other method is to use your DOTs (Damage Over Time). Hit it with Immolation, Corruption and (once you get it) Curse of Agony.

At low levels, it is not actually efficient to cast CoA, because the mob will die before it gets in more than a tick or two.

Continue nuking your way through to level ten. At this point you get to make a few important decisions. Your first choice is your spec. Destruction is big on the big crits and is very mana intensive and not very good for leveling. When I was leveling as destro, I was able to one or two shot one level mobs, but after two fights, I would have to stop and drink for half a minute. If you do want the big crits, try this spec.

Demonology is not very strong in the early levels when you have weaker pets and have little in the way of resource control. If you want to go Demo, begin with this spec. It increases the capability of your voidwalker (we'll get to that in a minute) to keep threat off you and increases the survivability of you and your minion.

Affliction is one of the most popular leveling specs. It is both mana efficient and fast and you get to play with DOTs. Start off by taking this spec. After you put up your DOTs, use Drain Soul to get back 15% of your mana. However, I would strongly suggest either getting an addon to manage your Soulshards or put a large number of them in your bank. You cannot have more than 32 of them and they do not stack, but at low levels they can really cramp your bags.

Also at level ten, you gain your next pet, affectionately called by many as the Blueberry. You will have to do a quest for your voidwalker, but it is not difficult and is within your starting zone- unlike some other Warlock quests. Once you have this pet, you must choose between it and your imp. The imp does better damage, but cannot survive as much and does not have as much utility as the voidwalker.

As you level to twenty, remember to attack with your pet first, use Life Tap only if you really need it, Drain Soul on a regular basis so you have soulshards when you need them- to summon demons or to create a healthstone.

You want some Ju-Ju

I've got Ju-Ju beans and Hu-Mun beans. Take your pick mon.

Wow in Real Life: Mages

Mages are a wonderful class to apply this to. In fact, they are probably the best class to pick. I say that because they are a self-reactive, spell-casting class. Most of what they do is a standard ability, but they have many cooldowns and procs that they need to react to and take into account.

The mage ability I would want most would be Presence of Mind. It just lets you do something instantly. Boom done. Now, with the 10-second restriction in place it limits alot, but you can just get something done. This is a modified version of the DK's Unholy Presence. Instead of everything being slightly faster. One thing is completely faster.

Second, I would take Mirror Image. You need another set of hands? Well, take four. And the bodies that go with them. Now, your copies are not bright, and they don't copy you- they just spam one spell over and over again.

Thirdly I would choose Invisibilty. Invisibility is very useful- but it is very situational as it only lasts for 20 seconds. You could dash from one hiding spot to another and then wait while the CD wore off, but it would be very time consuming.

Next on the list is Blink. Its not nearly as good as true teleportation, but it would come in handy. You wouldn't have to worry about crossing streets and if you were playing football, you'd get disqualified immediately.

Finally, I chose Slow Fall. I chose slow fall, because it would allow you to do many gimmicky things- such as jump off the Empire State Building and cast it at the last second. The reagent is a light feather, and since those aren't hard to find- just grab one off a pigeon- you should never have a problem. Also you don't need to hold the feather, just have it in your pocket or bags.

I'm not quite sure about the order because all of these are fantastic for use- let me know what you think.

Oh snap!

...said the rudder control wire. Beyond that, I have to say that I really like the unaccessible areas that Blizzard shows off while we're on flight paths. I hope they unveil new cool things with Cataclysm.

Torchlight

A few days ago, upon closing my game of Mass Effect 2, steam alerted me to the fact that there was this wonderful game on sale- 75% off. It had won many awards and was only $5.

So, I said to myself, lets check some reviews about this game. I did so, and the reviews said that it was a solid buy at $20. Since $5 is less than $20, and a lot more affordable to a college student's budget, I bought it.

Since then I've played it a ridiculous amount.

The above is a mid-combat screenshot. Since the time of that screenshot, I have become significantly more powerful in parallel with my enemies and therefore there are significantly more explosions.
This image here is a static UI shot. The game is a standard point and click RPG. You can bind an ability to your left and right clicks- one is a standard attack and the other can be bound to any of your spells. You only have one action bar, but since you don't have many cooldowns (if any) and no more than a half-dozen primary spells, you should be fine.

You do have talent trees, but the open up based on your level, not based on points previously spent in that tree.

As to the gameplay itself is a top-down game, very similar to Diablo. Several of the game design team who made Diablo were also present for Torchlight, making it very similar.

So far, the story is not very compelling and while the graphics aren't top of the line, they fit with the overall feel of the game.

I would definitely recommend buying this if you can get it for $5-10, and would strongly suggest it, if the cost were $20.

Thats no Island!

Thats a tree stump. Welcome to Teldrassil, the World Tree Stump.

Green Gick

Apparently, the Forsaken love green gick. Not only do they have rivers of it in their capital city, but they seem to just make pots of it for their entertainment. That and for killing all the Scourge and all living beings.

WoW in Real Life: Hunters

Welcome to part three of my answer to the question: What WoW spells/abilities would you want in real life, if you could only have one?

As always, feel free to leave a comment with your own idea.

One of the problems with hunters (and rogues and warriors) is that their abilities are primarily physcial, and therefore things you already CAN do in real life (theoretically). You can grab a gun and shoot it, or a bow, or crossbow. And you can shoot faster, or add poison or explosives. This means that this piece is not as strong as some of the others.

Anyways, my personal first pick is: Tame Beast. As long as you can survive twenty seconds of holding your hands out at an animal within 30 yards of you, it will be your best friend forever. Sure, it might be a tiny bit difficult to tame a bear or lion, but you can get something smaller, like a chipmunk or your neighbor's cat to like you more.

Number two is: Track Humanoids. This is admittedly a stalkerish ability, but it could be very helpful. The military would love this because they wouldn't have to do sweeps of rooms. Just fly someone down a street and they can read all the buildings AND determine whether or not the people inside are friendly, neuterual or hostile.

Finally, Track Beasts. It doesn't have quite the same utility as the previous, but it could be helpful for exterminators or RL hunters.

The Future of Guilds

So, I have a surprise for all y'all. Today's title actually works for today's piece.

Beyond that, I have my ideas, and what has been 'confirmed'.

At BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard announced that in Cataclysm there would be a guild leveling system.

Guilds would be able to gain talent points from their levels and use those talents to improve their raiding and PvP. Things mentioned included raid-wide rezs, damage buffs and others.

Guilds were also told that they would likely get guild items- so that they couldn't be ninja'd. They would be heirlooms that would stay with the guild.

That is what Blizzard has said is likely to be in Cata. But there is more that could be done- and more that I want.

1. Official Guild Alliances: This would allow several smaller guilds to Ally themselves and get guild levels. There would be restrictions, so that five guilds that each can run two simultaneous 25-mans cannot join into one huge group that runs 250 people through say ToC in one night and gets the ridiculous amount of guild-exp that killing five bosses 250 times entails.
2. Guild-First Achievements: These would be achievements for the first people in a guild to complete certain objectives. They would be similar to the World-First achievements, but if you switched out of the guild you earned it in, you would have to have gotten that achievement before the people in your new guild to keep the achievement.
3. Guild AHs: I know in my guild, we do work for free for guildies, and often supply the mats if we have them on hand. I know that in many progressive raiding guilds, that is in short supply. However, if there was a guild AH, you could post your spare enchants, or enchanting mats, at a 'guild price' so guildies could get what they needed, at a lower price, and you would still make gold.
4. Guild Halls: This would be similar to the concept of player housing, but the guild halls available would only be the rooms of Raid Bosses they have defeated at least 10 times. There would be some customization possible, mostly guild achievement related however. You would be able to show off your kills and any legendaries the guild might have gotten. Guilds would also be able to purchase a mailbox, a guild bank vault and a guild AH to place in their Guild Hall, similar to the way that they purchase bank tabs.

Peace and serenity

This is one of my favorite screenshots. I took one like it long before I knew how to remove the UI but I've finally got it. The waterfall, the greenery, the majestic griffin. Cataclysm may ruin it all. All of it. But then again, I'll be able to switch out that griffin to a proto-drake.

I got a Red-Proto Drake

And then I took screenshots. Cuz it happened.

Woot-Wewt!

Normally I have to think about my posts for each day. Today I don't have to.

This because a special thing happened to me today.

See, I logged on and found a pair of these in my mailbox.

This makes me happy.

But the important lesson that you can get out of this is: If at first you don't manage to interrupt Moorabi- Kill him again and again and again. Until he is dead. Dead. Dead.

Which means, if you want something, persevere. If you want Loremaster- go out and get it. If you want Insane in the Membrane- go ahead, keep grinding away at the grindstone of grinding.

But more importantly, get four people who can each pull 5k dps unbuffed, tell them to blow all their cooldowns and point them at a boss.

WoW in Real Life: Druids

So a couple days back I went ahead and posted what DK abilities I would want in real life.

Since we are being formal and alphabetical Druids are next on the list, as you may have guessed from your knowledge of the alphabet and the title of the post.

As a disclaimer. I have nothing against healers of any type. However, I am not likely to ever list any healing spells in this series, because frankly, I find them ho hum. They don't do amazingly cool things, they just heal. They're magic band-aids.

While magic in and of itself is cool, if I could only have one ability, I would want it to be something outrageous. For a similar reason, I will not be listing spells like fireball.

Right, so without further ado (I use that term too often):

First: Swift Flight Form. You can't argue with that too much. You turn into a bird, instantly. AND you can fly really fast. If you can IRL runa 6 minute mile at 100% run speed, with epic flying you're a almost four times faster. This means that you can have a 1.57 minute mile 1:34:02 minutes per mile which turns out to be 38 miles per hour. If you get a better mount and have a paladin friend who gives you crusader Aura, you can bump that to 43 MPH.

Second: The rest of the forms. I did leave out travel form because that is much the same as cat form, except without the claws. Now, under the rules of the game you could only have one of them, but any one of them would be a lot of fun.

Finally: Hurricane. It is a fun spell. It causes a hurricane on target. Now, I would modify the spell slightly to make it more practical. First off, it would cover a larger area and secondly it wouldn't hit whoever you didn't specifically want it to hit. Having a drought? Call up a hurricane. Having relatives over? Delay them with a hurricane.

Again, if you have ideas for druid spells or abilities, post below.

If you have ideas for other classes, email me.

Whirlwind!

Evocation. This is the mark of a real mage. Yes. This. Not fireball, or blizzard, or polymorph. The perpetual oomoscity of a mage is clearly evidenced when you cast Evocation.

Also oomoscity is totally a word. Because it sounds better than oomness.

The Patch is Upon Us!

Patch 3.3.3 is finally here! Woohoo for BGs!

The patch doesn't contain too much that excites me a whole lot, but I do enjoy the BG changes.

As soon as I got on, I queued for a random BG and got Strand of the Ancients.

I got 100 HKs, we won, and I got a resulting 7k Honor.

I followed that up with two Arathi Basin Losses, which each netted me about 5 HKs and a net of 800 Honor.

I turned in my old Marks of Honor and finished up my Lv 60 PvP set, now all I need is another 15k Honor for my Lv-60 2H sword, and then 250k Honor for all five honor mounts. Then I'll try and get the Alterac Valley mount, which will require more honor.

With my little experience, I plan on doing my daily BG and then farming WSG, AV or Isle of Conquest, depending where I get the most kills.

Thirdly I'll begin to spend Triumph Emblems on PvP gear so I can kill stuff betterer.

Yeah, I'll be so much betterer you will all die! DIE!

Books

This is the interior of The Scribe's Sacellum. It is two stories tall externally. It is quite some more when you get inside.

Dancin' Bears

Not only can I dance, but I can hover as well. Yeah. Dancing in mid air. As a bear. Beat that.

Tool Tips!

As you may notice in the post titled: WoW in Real Life: Death Knights, I now have WoWhead tooltip implemented.

This makes me happy and a lot more likely to stick up links to WoWhead items, abilties etc....

WoW in Real Life: Death Knights

A few days ago on wowinsider, I read an article referencing some other blogger's blog.

In that blog, they asked the question:

"If you could have any ability in WoW, what would it be?"

I find that the question is a bit rough in wording. I have reworded it to say (as it was originally meant) "If you could have any WoW spell/ability/talent in real life, what would it be?"

I have considered each of the classes and will present them in order, one every few days/weeks.

Since I couldn't come up with much for Warriors, I'll be going alphabetically, therefore starting with Death Knights.

My first pick would be Unholy Presence. Being able to do everything 15% faster would be a huge boon, and the GCD would be the ability to switch from one focus to another.

Next I would pick Army of the Dead. Yeah, if someone is bothering you, just stand there for a few seconds and you have an army at your beck and call.

Third is Master of Ghouls. Rather than having an army of several ghouls for a minute every ten minutes you get a ghoul to follow you. Forever. The downside is that he is a ghoul and therefore has the rotting flesh component to it.

Finally Dancing Rune Weapon. This just gives you an extra pair of hands. If you're a politician and need to shake hands and hold babies, you can now do both at the same time. As a side note I originally, accidentally wrote "hold hands and shake babies". You can write twice as fast or keep a hand on WASD, a hand on your mouse, and a hand on each of 1-5 and 6-0 while playing WoW.

If you have any ideas for Death Knight abilities you would want IRL, please post below. If you have ideas for other classes, email me at eldritchreign@gmail.com.

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Compilation Guide!

So I'm pretty much done with Greedy Gronko for now. In the future, expect to see my economy posts under this header.

Anyways, without further ado, the list of Greedy Gronko posts for your perusal:

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: The Basics

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Begging

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Mob Killin

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Dungeoning

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Questing

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Alchemy

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Blacksmithing

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Enchanting

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Engineering

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Inscription

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Jewelcrafting

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Leatherworking

Greedy Gronko's Grand Gold Gathering Guide: Professions- Tailoring

And there you have all of my GGGGGs.