I know, but I like the Class of Hunter and look of Tauren.
I realise thats an incredibly amateur way to look at things but at the end of the day if I'm ever going to be interested int he game then I want to play as something I like the look of and isn't the same as my mate (an Orc).

If I understood it correctly as well (feel free to correct me) racial attributes don't have much of an affect at end game.

To be fair they are all quite useful. Warstomp on the Tauren is incredibly useful, especially in a class without much in the way of crowd control abilities. The 15% stun resist on Orcs is damned useful in PvP (damned Rogues!) and the additional 5% pet damage can make a real difference, especially now pet damage scales with character level. The Troll racials are quite useful, especially berserking and regeneration. Will of the forsaken on the Undead can be incredibly useful, especially when you're trying to down bosses with AoE fear effects. The less said about the Blood Elf racial the better- horribly overpowered.

I guess I'll stick Tauren then. I was going to go Orc but my friend rolls Orc and the design I wanted was basically the same as his, plus I wanted a bit of diversity from him.

He was explaining Blood Elves to me and they do seem a bit broken.

What's so bad about Blood Elves then? (I don't play Horde so I'm not up on the gossip!).

Their racial ability is "mana tap"- basically they can put a 3xstacking debuff on a target which reduces their mana by 50 +level, and then an AoE 3 second silence that consumes mana tap on any targets it's active on, returning mana (or energy for rogues) to the player, 5xlevel mana for each instance of mana tap. AND they get a racial to consume magical effects on them to regain mana (120-154 at lvl 1 scaling up to 453 to 458 at 70) which only has a two minute cooldown.

Oh, and +10 to enchanting and +5 to all resistances.

Which server is that? I'm on Bronzebeard, myself. Those blood elf abilities seem like they're horribly badly balanced deliberately to get people to start a new character off as they buy the expansion, then no doubt they'll tone them down severely in future patches.

Scarshield Legion.

I think thats the name. i only chose it because its the server my friend plays on (the one who gave me a free copy of the game, the 10 day pass and has even offered to pay my monthly fucking fees until I get a job).

It's an RPPVP which isn't really what I would have chosen to be honest. I'd prefer a normal PvP. I'm not into the RP side of it all (not everyone there is) but there are a lot of people into it and it willprobably end up annoying me.


Either way the game starts off incredibly simple. It's easy to level and get money and do quests and not die.

It's a load of numbers! Blizzard entertaiment have tricked you into taking a maths A/S level!

Too late, I already did that (minus the S though). When someone picks up my game and markets it I'll be laughing. I call it "World of Subatomic Quantum PhysicsCraft".

So . . . Play as a warrior and you'll kick the shit out the mana-steeling pixies?!

Nope. It steals rage as well.

But then again the best they can wear is mail. So you'd probably be able to grind them into a fine paste anyway.

Is it neccesary to party to get decent Xp at any point?
Thats what I loved about FF and it's lacking in WoW, at least at the start.

Once you hit about 12-13 you start getting quests for dungeons (initially Hellfire Chasm, then Wailing Caverns) and you will be needing a party for them. Or a willing lvl 50+ to boost yuou through them. The number of party required quests does increase quite hugely the further in you get.

Kewl.
I've never been interested in MMORPG's where partying isn't used very often to level. I always thought that if I want to play a game where I level on my own I could just play Morrowind or something

I just got my first Pet and Started on my skill tree as well.

What spec is tempting you?

The amount of party-dependent stuff in the endgame is ridiculous by the way. Although nobody'll really be doing it anymore because of Burning Crusade, the Onyxia attunement quest chain is a prime example of this-

First a 5 man run into Lower BlackRock Spire
Then you go talk to Thrall.
Then you go off and find another bloke and talk to him.
Then find someone else
Then you do a 10 man Upper BlackRock Spire run
Then you go talk to a dragon.
Then you have to getb together a 5 man party to kill 5 lvl 63-64 elite dragons
Then some more running around
Then BACK for another 10 man UBRS run
then you get your amulet that completes this chain, allowing you access to Onyxia's Lair, which is a 40 man raid instance.

And compared to the attunements for Burning Crusade, that's simple. Here's some idea of what you'd have to look forward to to access all content at lvl 70

Ah some complexity!

Exactly what I hoped for. Havign pre-requisites and running around a lot are the staples of any decent MMORPG.

EDIT: I never answered your initial question about my spec. I am planning on piling a bunch of things into Marksman, just because thats what I like. Again, I'm sure it's a fairly amateur way of approaching it, if I looked online I imagine I might find a decent guide that would maximise my ranged damage.

As it is this is what i was planning (except for that one in Parry, I won't be doing that).
Talent tree

I find it a bit....odd that theres no penalty for dying.

I died for the first time today as I am always cautious in RPG's.
Seems to me the only penalty is some time wasted.

Trust me, at some points the run back to your corpse can be a nightmare. Also, when you die all of your equipped gear takes a 10% surability loss. With my current gear that means about a 3.5g repair bill every death.

Thats a fair point, I forgot about the damage you take.

Woman arrested for WoW love affair.

See. Warriors = low Int.

I always make a point of giving Intel buffs to Warriors when I play as a Mage.

How are people doing btw?

My main is now up to level 63.

My main is at 70 and attuned for Karazhan and even got a couple of nice epics, but my guild just fell apart, so I might go start an Alliance (ick) alt on Hellscream so I can play with some of the guys from work.

So I've been playing about a week now in the Drak'Thul server with my roomates and some friends. I'm a level 24 Tauren Warrior and I feel like it's taking me forever to level. But I can't stop playing!!!

My character's name is Bramble. As in B*Ramble. As in Wilfred B*Ramble. As in My spaced addiction has had an influence on my budding WoW addiction.

Just wait until you get above level 60!

I cancelled my subscription months ago now. My main character got to about level 52 and it just takes so long to level that I just can't be bothered any more. I don't understand why people find the game addictive to be honest.

I just read over this entire thread, so it feels like you went from noob to high lvl over the course of a few days. I'm just frustrated cause my roommates are around 40 cause they started a few weeks before me and i get pissed when they get to go do stuff together while i just sit and do solo, low level quests and whatnot. I'm gettin a little worried about my sleep schedule recently too. 3 hours a night is seriously not enough.

If you concentrate on the right things it's quite easy to level quickly. I started a mage character and I was up to level 25 in about 2 or 3 days.
The game just bores me because unless you play PvP there's no reward for player skill, it only rewards you for time invested in it.

It took me over a year to get my main up to level 60, but a friend of mine, who is only concentrating on the one character, has got his up to level 44 in just over six weeks.

Personally, I like the game because it is just so huge. I've been playing for over two years now and there are still parts of the game map I've not been to, and having only played as Alliance characters, there is a whole other side to the game should I start a Horde character at any point.

I tend to solo play most of the time, but another friend is very active playing dungeons and going on raids with his guild, which adds a completely new dimension to the game.

A bit niche to go in the "Heh" thread so I shall put this here.

I Am Murloc.

I spent a good part of the weekend working on my main character - got her from half way through level 63 to just shy of level 65 - it takes a hullva lot of work to level at this stage of the game, but the plus side is the amount of cash you can make (over 250g in two days!).

Looks like I'll be getting an Epic mount pretty soon!

Made it to level 66 at the weekend, and finally I purchased an Epic mount as well - boy do they move!

I spent most of last night running around Netherstorm for the first time, that is one wacky area!

Shadowmoon Valley tonight!

I'll wait till Guild Wars 2 comes out. I reckon the WoW thingy must be great, but I'm not looking forward to spending loads of time trying to get a character up to a good level.

How long would you say in total it takes to get to level 65 anyways?

-m0r

It depends how you play the game really (and who you have helping you!).

I've played most of the game solo, spent a lot of time exploring, working up cash and getting my skills and the reputation of my character up as high as I can.

I don't know how long that has taken in cumulative hours, but I have been playing this character for just over 2 years now (I have also played other characters and had spells where I've hardly played the game during that time).

If you're sole aim is to get a level 70 character, and all other considerations are irrelevant, I have heard of people who have done that in as little as a month, but that takes a lot of work and usually the help of a good guild.

Also, I believe it is a myth that you have to get your character up to a high rank in the game to enjoy it - although your character will get more powerful as you go through the game, the lower levels are quite distinct from each other and have some very good quests in them.

If you want to take a look-see, you can download a 10-day trial of the game from Blizzard's web site.

I'll second this, I really enjoyed the early levels of WoW and having a whole load of quests to do while adventuring around the new world. This initial interest lasted a lot longer than in other mmorpgs I've played, they actually took the time to write some nice quest information for the early game so you didn't feel as if you were only playing in order to gain access to the later areas.

It was only once I got to 60 that I got bored because I had run out of quests and big dungeon raids for the sake of equipment didn't appeal to me, so I stopped. I tend to lose interest in these kind of games once I know where everything is and have figured out the game mechanics competely.

Do try and avoid getting too much help from friends if you start late, my favourite part of the game was the first 20 levels, and so many people seem to skim through these because they're in a rush to level up.

If the game does have a fault in it's pacing, apart from the "having nothing to do at level 60/70" problem Dorf highlighted, I would say that it could use more interesting quests between levels 40 to 60.

There is a lot you can still do in the game - and interesting places to go - at these levels, but until you reach level 58 and can get out to Outland, there is a bit of a dearth in quests and I know this puts a lot of people off of getting higher in the game.

You selling this at the playground too?

I'll give it a download and have a look see. Got next week off so maybe burn it up on WoW.

-m0r

/played

Tells you how long you've wasted spent playing on that character.

I know, I'm just afraid to do it (last time I looked, total game play for my main character was over a month!).

Oooh, second expansion has been announced I see.

The game got boring for me when it got to the point where it required multiple long playing sessions to go up one level. If I knew I could play for about 3 or 4 hours and go through a full character level in that time it was fine, but when playing for that amount of time would only get me about halfway or even less, that was when the game felt aimless. There should always be a short term goal in sight.

Yes, Wrath of the Lich King. Set on Northrend with a new profession (inscribing), a Hero class (Death Knight) and siege weapons!



But that is what the entire game is based around! The quests you are given are the short term goals (with the longer term goal being to level your character).

You can get to level 20 or so in a day or two, but by the time you get 60 you really have to put in a lot of work (it's currently taking me 8-10 hours to level my main character).

The game is built around developing your character, if you could keep levelling after only a few hours game play it wouldn't give you much of a sense of achievement!

There's not much of a sense of achievement anyway for me. Very little of the game is based on skill, you're simply rewarded for the amount of time you put in. What is your actual achievement when you've got to level 70? All it really says is that you've put a lot of your spare time into getting there. Anyone can get to level 70, there's no real barrier to stop you from doing it. The game barely feels any harder now at level 53 or whatever I'm at than it did months before. You level up, your enemies level up, the net effect is that the game never really changes, you just do the same thing you've been doing all the time but in a different place. And it segregates players so they can't play with each other because of differing character levels.

To a point, I'll agree that there isn't any achievement in getting to a high level in World of Warcraft.

When I eventually cancel my subscription - or Blizzard pulls the plug on the game - I'll have nothing to show for the time and money I've spent on it, but at the end of the day the same is true for my having completed Jedi Outcast, Tomb Raider and Atic Atac etc.

Anyone could complete these games as well, if they put in the time and effort, but it didn't make playing them any less enjoyable.

I crawled over the level 68 line about an hour and a half ago - it takes a shit load of work to level at this level!

How the hell did that French guy get from 60-70 in just two days?!

I'm sooooo glad I have today off!

Well, I've been invited to join my brother's work guild. This means I'm going from a guild that has fallen apart to the point where more than 2 members online is a rarity, to a guild made up of 90% GMs that is raiding SSC, The Eye and Mount Hyjal. Bit of a leap.

Mount Hyjal?

I didn't know you could get through to that!

I went sneaking around the lower half of Winterspring with my Rogue the other week, looking for a way through, but I couldn't find one - how/where do you get in?

It's the historic battle for Mount Hyjal, you have to get the quest The Vials Of Eternity from the dragon at the entrance to Caverns of Time, for which you have to drop the last 2 bosses in The Eye and Serpent Shrine Cavern.

Fortunately they've now removed the attunement requirements for SSC and The Eye.

Ah . . . Makes sense now. I popped into the Caverns of Time a while back for a look see - a strange place indeed!

I really should join a guild at some point!

69 dude!

Just one more to go now!