Category: World of Warcraft

Grand Faction Mounts

I have completed the quest chain to obtain the Grand flying faction mounts from Pandaria. Whew. It took a month or so to get Exalted with the Dominance Offensive faction and then a few hours to grind through the quests to finally Ring the Bell and get the mount. Of course you can get the Armored version of the mount for Gold when you reach Exalted, but I prefer the non-armored versions of the mounts. For the non-Armored version, you need to complete the quest chain, the last few of which require Exalted with your faction Rep in Pandaria. The Guides know all.

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Mystics er Warlocks Done Right

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Ok. So it’s Wow’s 13th Anniversary and we got glasses and a XP Buff with a nice Tabard for the rest of the month.

Last time we talked about how Tera changed the Mystic skills sometime around May 2017 when I wasn’t playing. And they basically messed up leveling by removing the tank pet which used to arrive at level 4 and delayed it until level 50. Update: See at the end

Well let’s take a look at the Wow Warlock, which is essentially the same class as Tera Mystic.

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Notice you get a Summon Imp spell – which is a ranged DPS pet that follows you around – at level 5. This is not a totem that is fixed in place for a limited time, but a pet that does not time out, follows you around and attacks what you attack. You get control of it – Move it, Passify it, Sick it on a target, etc. – at level 10. You get the Voidwalker, which is the tank pet, at level 20. There are lots more pets, some of them are higher level talents, which means you get choices about which ones etc.

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Auto Leveling? How it Really Works.

GW2_2016_12_13_17_53_53_814x.jpg By the way, let’s not forget how Auto Leveling works – at least in Guild Wars 2 where it was first implemented Game Wide, at least as far as I’m aware. Officially it’s called Dynamic Level Adjustment.

Unlike Wow Legion areas Level Scaling, GW2 Auto Leveling changes your level to match – roughly – the zone or instance where you are working. But there are two key features that Wow Legion didn’t do that GW2 also does:

  • Your character is never “Up Leveled” so that you still can’t hunt in areas above your level, at least not without help. And in many cases, you simply can’t go to the higher area anyway. This is what you might expect. Yes, you will be up-leveled to 80 in Fractals of the Mist, one of the instances.
  • The XP that you get for killing mobs and doing quests [Hearts and Events in GW2] scaled up to your level. So in GW2, there is no such thing as a “Trivial Quest”. So it’s not a waste of time to hunt in lower level areas. Well actually, if the zone is much lower than you are, your XP is actually reduced enough that you’ll likely move on, unless you would like to explore that area for an achievement. So as an 80, if you want to work all the starting areas [ 1 – 10 ] don’t expect rewards except the Exploring achievement.
  • The Loot you get is always appropriate to your actual level. It’s not the best gear. White or Green and  rarely Blue. But does make sense to hunt in a 60 area if you are already 80, and you’ll get some nice things. All crafting mats come from Dismantling Found gear, so hunting this way makes a lot of sense. To get explorer achievements you need to do all the Hearts – zone quests – and the loot / gold is appropriate to your level.
  • When GW2 started, they got Auto Leveling wrong, and it was a real pain to move to harder areas. They leveled you to exactly the level of the mobs where you were, so it was a pain if you got jumped by more than one mob. Now the down-leveling is more like +3 to the mobs you are fighting and it’s completely reasonable. Here’s a post I did back in Sept 2013 about a year after GW2 released. They fixed this problem. Like I said, you are now working at about +3 to the mobs around you and that’s totally reasonable.

So how is Wow Level Scaling for Legion different?

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Auto-leveling? I vote NO!

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There has been a lot of discussion lately, in the Run-Up to Blizzcon, about Auto-leveling. Apparently there has been rumor and speculation about the next expansion deploying the same style of auto-leveling across all of the game that is employed in Legion areas, where the mobs around you are leveled to your strength [level?] or vice-versa.

I vote NO on this. There are too many aspects of the game that have grown up over the years that would be trashed by this change.

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Draenor Untangled

I’ve now had some time playing the Warlords of Draenor expansion and I’ve figured out an efficient and productive way to deal with Garrisons. I should mention that I’m playing with mostly Heirlooms: three pieces of armor, weapons and usually a necklace. And I have Draenor Pathfinder, so my Alts fly from the beginning as they finish the Assault on the Dark Portal event.

I would have preferred to level up to 91 with the Alts before going to Draenor. This would allow the Heirlooms to level up significantly. As it turns out, with Heirlooms you reach 91 at the end or shortly after completing the Draenor Starting Event, and there is enough help during the event that it doesn’t matter a lot whether you are 91 when starting it.

I’ve played three Horde toons through Draenor until 101, which is my goal before entering Legion, again to level up the Heirlooms. Along the way I’ve learned some lessons with Garrisons and with the areas to play to level efficiently.

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Wow – Hurray! Level 100

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DK Reaches 100

Hurray! I’ve reached 100 in Draenor. Using Heirlooms and the power of Flight, thanks to my previous adventures with a Demon Hunter, it only took about 2 days. Also, I was only about 1/2 way through Gorgrond when I reached 100.

I’ve got a level 2 Garrison with some buildings. Not sure if I’m going to want to play much more “Farmville” tho, since The Burning Legion is attacking Azeroth again. Should I finish something here, or go back and help save our homeland?

Actually, I’ll probably level up the rest of my ALTs to 100 on this Realm before I go save the world. Choices. Choices.

:ww

 

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Wow – Water Strider Mount

Posing with the Last Fish
Turning in the Last Quest
Hurray
Water Strider Near Anglers
Close up view
Super Walking on Water

Hurray! I started Fishing on 18 September and I finally have my Water Strider mount. If you do this, be sure and buy the enhancement from Nat Pagel at Revered that boosts your rep gain by 100%. Makes the last climb take 1/2 as long.

That last fish was a doozie. I suggest you wait until you are 90 and can fly in Pandaria to do this grind. Makes flying around the area each day much easier. And it makes it easier to clobber that big fish too. When you get the quest to Jump the Shark, be sure and look up the quest on wowhead to see how to do it. The good news is that I put two levels on this character while I did this grind. So I’m 92 now and ready to go to Draenor. Should be easy. Although I’ve taken a hunter into Draenor at 90 and it was fine.

Cheers, and good luck with your fishing.

:ww