This past weekend was a satisfying one in terms of the game.
The weather outside was crappy, rainy, cold, and blowy, so staying indoors playing around on my computer seemed like the perfect thing to do. I promise that when it's sunny and hot, I'll go outside for at least an hour a day on the weekends, just to be outside. Going out to buy food/run errands doesn't count in this hour, because when I'm doing those things, I'm intending to do them quickly; getting it overwith.
But, I'm sure a number of my readers are similar to myself - we work all week and have our friends and hobbies outside the game that reduce our play time, and when a weekend comes where we have lots of free time to dedicate to gaming and housework, we enjoy it fully.
Levelling, respec'ing to Arms/Prot
I think I've levelled my Undead Warrior twice in the past four or five days, with the "ding!" to 55 being last night in Un'Goro as I quested with a Druid guildie. I hit 54 while in Sunken Temple with a PuG that didn't work out, and then got another half a level the next day in a PuG to Sunken Temple that worked out great.
After hitting 54, I respec'd this toon again, moving out of the Fury/Prot configuration and into the Arms/Prot direction. I don't often fight with a 2h weapon (in fact, this weekend I got Polearm skill from 1 to 200 because I picked up Headspike
Binds when picked up
Two-HandPolearm
106 - 159 DamageSpeed 3.00
(44.2 damage per second)
+18 Stamina
+15 Strength
Requires Level 46
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Headspike in the good PuG) but with this recent inspection of the talents in general, I found there was a lot of "more useful" things in the Arms tree than there was in Fury. I kept 14 points in Protection as well, to give me Last Stand and 3/3 in Defiance for general tanking viability.
So, now when I wear my DPS kit, I have ~20% crit chance. When I wear my Tanking kit, I have 10% dodge and 10% in some other stat that I can't remember, too. And thanks to an epic drop in Jintha'alor while partying with guildmates and having no shield-wearing competition, my Skullflame Shield
Binds when equipped
Off Hand (Shield)Shield
2593 Armor
53 Block
+10 Fire Resistance
+10 Shadow Resistance
Requires Level 54
Equip: When struck in combat has a 3% chance of stealing 35 life from target enemy.
Equip: When struck in combat has a 1% chance of dealing 75 to 125 Fire damage to all targets around you.
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Skullflame Shield brings my armor rating up to nearly 6000 in my Tanking kit.
Strategies to Find Quality Healers
Healers are an interesting commodity in World of Warcraft. Commodity isn't the correct term, of course, but for the rarity of finding good ones, I couldn't help but make the relation.
One of the main reasons I started this Warrior toon was to become a Quality Tank for instance running with guildmates, friends, and the occasional random PuG. I got my first toon - a hunter - to 60 before I started this Warrior, and realized quite early in my career as a Hunter that there were a BILLION of us running around (my first 5 "WoW buddies" were also hunters), and in order to get into dungeon parties I had to be the one organizing it in order to guarantee my place over some other Hunter.
So, I started the Warrior. And basically solo'd her or partied with occasional guildmates, up to level 45 or so. I did a few dungeons here and there to get a wee bit of tanking practice, but mostly got my practice while working with guildmates. I've only recently gotten into PuGs to continue my skill building.
Now that I'm doing dungeons, I'm building my Friends list again, expanding it beyond guildmates and ex-guildmates who became friends over the last year and a half of our playing together.
I'm trying to find quality healers to add to my list, so I've started on some "good habits" for hooking them into repeat playing with me. For example, I have started to stock various reagants and other supplies on my Warrior for when she heads into dungeons. I don't need mana potions myself, nor do I need water, and I certainly have no direct use for Holy Candle
Reagent
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Holy Candle, Sacred Candle
Reagent
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Sacred Candle, Rune of Portals
Reagent
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Rune of Portals or Symbol of Kings
Reagent
Item display is courtesy world of warcraft.allakhazam.com. ',VAUTO,HAUTO,FULLHTML);" onmouseout="return nd();">Symbol of Kings, but if there's someone in my PuG that can use them, I can gain isntant brownie points by sharing.
And when in a party with someone spec'd for serious healing, doing this kind of thing can otherwise be called "greasing the wheels of friendship". I know that when some stranger in a PuG gave me potions for free while playing BRD on my Hunter, I put that guy on my Friends list fast and was eager to invite him back after seeing that he also plays well and didn't wipe us to Jupiter and back. Even if he didn't give us potions the second time, he demonstrated a "giving" spirit that made the party much more enjoyable.
Finding Quality Healers, Results So Far...
So far, I've found two quality healers (Pally and Druid), but one has since hit the Outlands and respec'd Feral, so they're not entirely as good (as a healer), except for the fact that they know HOW to play Resto and it's likely they'll re-spec as they get to the level cap again, just like last time. The Pally, however, was a great treat in our Sunken Temple run - with a team of 3 Hunters (+pets), a Warrior and the healer Pally, there was a lot of all-around healing to be done, the Hunters not being very good at trapping nor letting the warrior get initial aggro in the dragonkin group attacks.
I am hoping that as I continue to PuG a group or three every weekend for a dungeon or two, I'll start to fill my Friends list up with quality healers, and will qualify as a quality tank that will go onto the Healer's list as well. Then, when I'm wanting to hit things in the Outlands with this Warrior toon, I'll have a few friends to try new things out with and won't have to do much planning on my own. The Pally healer from this weekend was from a well-known (and liked) raiding guild on our server, so maybe I'll get in on some of their fun Zul'Garub raids or something, or at least get the benefit of their knowledge and contacts for going into LBRS and UBRS, which I haven't had much experience with.
The Next Dungeon Planned
I was going to hit Blackrock Depths (BRD) with a guildmate this weekend but had some social stuff IRL that made me not able to commit to a time that I'd be around, so when I came online, she was already in there with her husband and a group they had fielded together. I brought my Warrior as close to the BRD door as I could safely make it on my own and parked her there, just in case they had a member drop out, but by the time I got into the party they had progressed far enough that they felt they needed a Mage to progress, and we couldn't find one, so we called it for the day.
We did, however, plan to go back into BRD on Thursday night, so I've been putting the word out to the few friends I play regularly with, so hopefully we'll not only have a Mage for Thursday night, but a team that already plays rather cohesively together. That would be nice, because BRD is a tough instance at 55!