Without any time to raid over the past week or so, my play time has mainly consisted of a few BGs, an occasional Skoll patrol on the PTR, and some quiet time on my unguilded Death Knight. Yes, that’s right… I’ve forsaken the Hunter community by playing a lesser class – and a Death Knight at that!
Fear not though… it’s this Hunter’s opinion that Death Knights are ricoculous. Consider it more of a covert counter-intelligence op. Also, I just really enjoy the sanctity of being able to log on anonymously and not have to worry about being asked to join a failing raid, or even pay attention to guild chat for that matter. Sometimes it’s nice to just go back and experience play much in the same way as it was when I first entered Azeroth… nice and quiet.
By rights I should probably be leveling my 74 Druid Herbalist/Alchemist so he can make raid flasks for Garwulf, but I really don’t feel like it. Right now I want to destroy everything in my path with a sword weilding plate wearer, instead of going around and picking flowers. That, and I want to be left alone.
Just like everyone else did when WotLK came out, I rolled a Death Knight. I played him for a couple of hours, then thought, “bleh”… A few weeks later I decided to reroll a Human DK and played him very casually for a few months. I’d play him for a day or so, then grow pretty tired of it. The DK starting quests are fantastic, but once you’re done with those it’s on to the drudgery of Outland and even worse, Hellfire Peninsula. Ugh… I hate that place. HP is one of my least favorite areas in the game.
I think the combination of respeccing to Bloood along with being out in Northrend so long, I’ve found that questing in Outland has become fun once again. I leveled from 55 to around 62 as Unholy, then thought I’d give Blood a go. While Unholy has the nice decrease in travel time from On a Pale Horse, I really think Blood is the leveling spec. It is absolutely absurd how I am able to tear through elites and multiple mobs without nary a scratch. Once I take the time to actually learn how to play a Death Knight it’s going to really be smooth sailing.
I’ve got about a level and a half left before I’m on a boat to Northrend. I think during that time I’m going to pause for a bit to get my keybinds situated and start getting familiar with all of the OP skills. Once I hit Borean Tundra I should be 80 in no time. I’ve leveled what are arguably considered two of the top solo classes in the game, but I don’t think my Hunter or Druid were as capable of handling what my Blood DK can. It’s ridiculous I tell ya.
Here’s a screenshot I took in one of those tombs near Auchindon. I pulled the entire room along with the mobs in the hallway leading to it. It may be a little hard to make out, but there were 10 mobs total. Now granted I was level 67 and the mobs I was fighting were only 63-64, but just look at my health bar.
I haven’t run any dungeons on this character, so all of his gear is the standard green quest stuff, along with my 2 starting DK quest trinkets.
I dunno… taking on 10 NPCs at once that are beneath your level may not be the best measure of how OP a class is, but it still felt pretty OP to me. I suck on this class, yet I didn’t even have to summon my pet or use a health potion.
That reminds me… tell me again why this class needs a pet..?!
Anyhow, I should let you know I’m enjoying the DK so much, I’ve decided to devote most of my upcoming posts to Death Knight leveling builds and how to gear before you start raiding. Well, at least until I hit level 80 with this guy. Should only be a couple more weeks.
Just kidding. 😉
I have so much Huntery stuff I want to get to I don’t know where to begin. Therefore, you get this Death Knight business instead. I’ve got at least six posts I want to write, but they’re all big’uns. Not ones I can just sit down and bang out.
And…
I want to overhaul this website by giving it a fresh new look with some added functionality and usability. The thought of undergoing that task is both exciting and painful.
All in due time…
In the meantime, I’ve decided to take a break from my Spirit Beast hunt and do some BM DPS testing on the PTR. Unfortunately, there were no less than 15 players beating on the target dummy in IF tonight, so it had debuffs out the wazoo. I’ll head over to Darnassus tomorrow and see if the dummy there is a little less popular. My only problem now will be how to acquire more blue ammo. Garwulf was poor (only 109G) and nearly arrowless when I hastily copied him over.
Well, that’s all for tonight… see you next time. 🙂
Great post..? Well, thanks. More importantly…
Great comment! 😀
Very well said and I like your analogies. Especially the one about returning to your childhood hometown on vacation.
Outland fills you with a sense of uneasiness the moment you enter the portal. I was put off by it so much when TBC came out, that I chose to wait a few weeks before I began leveling. I figured as long as I’m going to have to crank out 10 levels in this awful place, I’d rather wait until I didn’t have to compete with 3-5 other players just to kill a damn Helboar.
However, I find that once you leave the purgatory-like atmosphere of HP, it gets better. Zangarmarsh and Terokkar aren’t so bad, and I actually quite like Nagrand. In fact, I’ll probably continue on in Nagrand until 70 then head on up to Arthas’ hood, leaving Outland on a good note.
I think it has to do with the mountainous terrain, lush vegetation, abundant non-demonic wildlife, and all of the lakes and rivers. Nagrand is about as close to Azeroth as it gets, well… without the floating rocks of course. Killing Ogres is always fun too.
This is somewhat, well very off-topic, but perhaps something fun for a future post. I’ve always thought it would be fun to survey players as to what their favorite zone in the game is and why.
Think if the game developed to a point where players could buy and sell land, build homes, or rent apartments within Ironforge. That would be something…
But yea… I always thought it would be interesting to hear what places in the game world appeal most to others and why. For instance, I’m really fond of the Southshore area, but perhaps my favorite place in the game is Aerie Peak. Don’t ask me why, because that’ll be topic for that future post I’m talking about. 😉
So back to the DK thing…
I’m really looking forward to leveling as a DK in Northrend. It’ll be great to experience it as an integral part of the lore, in addition to tearing through the place as a melee spellcaster. I’m not in a rush to get to 80, but I have to admit, the more I play this character the more I like him. Uh oh.
I agree with everyone wanting a well-geared Hunter alt. With the exception of arena, Hunters are pretty dominant in every aspect of the game. Also, there’s no class I’d rather BG with I can tell you that.
Great post Garwulf.
Blood DKs are insanely OP to this day, as well they should be. It’s a hero class. Would people reroll a new character (even at 55) if it was stupid hard to find the groove? Rephrase…would they take it past the starting experience? Aside from the completists, the majority would not take them past 65-70 (IMO). Blizzard did well with them. The nerfs are a nice way of saying “okay, we’ll try and create the illusion that we’re balancing them so your DPS pally isn’t obsolete”.
I think Garwulf and Dalaila bring up a great point. I DREAD the 58-68 stretch on alts. Outland is such a bore (says Capt. Obvious). Also the gear from quest rewards will ensure you leave there a bright red and yellow. I’m sure the super-fast respawn rate and density/aggro circle of mobs compared to the old world has something to do with my negativity. Yet it’s probably more the feeling that you’re not in Azeroth anymore. I dunno…something about heading to Northrend at 68ish makes me feel like the worst is over. It’s similar to that feeling when you roll into your childhood hometown on vacation.
As for BGs and PVP in general, I would rank hunters 3rd overall at 80 behind rogues and pallys in 1 on 1 (not that anyone asked). Given that, every hunter should try serious PVP a few times. There are many other classes that would LOVE to have a well geared hunter alt. They’ve told me so. 😉
@ grainog
BS/Jewelcrafting is largely considered the best proff combo for DKs, and most characters period. Since you don’t appear to have a JCer listed there, I’d go that route.
@ Dalaila
I plan on checking out the new BG probably tonight. I still want to do a little target dummy testing with different pets along with some MM vs BM comparisons. Like you said though, problem is finding the time for all of it. Sometimes is if I only have an hour or so of available play time, I prefer to play on the live realm.
@ Roarbeard
Good call on the premade. I did make one, but it’s a Troll. I went back and just copied over a Draenei. Now I’ll be able to do some nice BM vs MM DPS comparisons with the BiS guy, and some pet comparisons using my current stable with Garwulf.
Playing the Troll scares me, because it causes me to think about a faction change and I don’t want to do that. 😉
Garwulf’s mah boy, but Troll Hunters are the sauce.
New bg IoC is a lot of fun, though quite confusing. Its a big mixing pot of ab, av, strand, eots, and wg. its nuts. dude, you hurtin for gold on the ptr just make a premade. 5kg and every jewel imaginable. I’ve got an unholy dk cause its nice to be huntery w/ the pet. 😀 Unholy is a mean spec, but its damage leaves me saddened. I like it cause of its utility. 16% speed boost from unholy aura pluss the 20% mounted speed = crazy fast questing.
I’ve been lvling a healer though. You want something fun to try that is entirely opposite from hunter, try and level a healer class. Wow! Crazy. but, as your covert counter-intelligence comment suggests, it has helped me learn about healers and how to help and hurt them. I also have a preme pally on the ptr that is giving me an edge on how to stop those suckers in their tracks. 😀
Any words on new BG’s? Running the old ones is fun but honor and tokens are completely useless (unless you want a honor-mount) 😐
Thinking about “why I do not like DK’s” I came to this conclusion: it’s because they start at level 55. I do not feel the sense of “discovery” and already have lots of attacks, powers, abilities. That’s what makes me feel too “noob” and poorly interested, I bet.
I started 4 DK’s so far… but I really could not handle the boring task of seeing the old content yet again (Outland, I hate you). I just have my main (hunter 80) and an alt (warrior 70) and what you describe as “plate and sword sense of power” is exactly what I felt when leveling the warrior. Less tricks compared to DK’s but I just *loved* the tanking spec.
The real deal is finding the time to do things. Now… I am not an achievement nerd but at the same time leveling a “fresh” toon makes me feel sad. I would never re-level cooking, fishing or first aid. I would never re-run instances (only Northerend ones). I would never re-do a loooot of stuff I did on my hunter.
Overall I have a strong attachment to my main. That’s because mains have a history, they do/did many things, the achievement panel is full of stuff and so on.
So far I am waiting patch 3.2 and meanwhile I discovered the fun of battlegrounds (3 days I’m playing them). I’m full epic PVE geared but I still manage to do a *lot* of damage, deaths and overall have fun. Too bad BG’s fo not provide interesting gear or vanity stuff 🙁
make friends and get an engineer!
I used to be an engineering miner, really easy to make bleu arrows and bullets that way.
now I dropped mining for skinning, as my hunter is my main and kills the fastest/most NPC’s.
My paladin took up mining (instead of herbalism) and my druid now waits to drop her skinning for herbalism.
In my eyes having a:
hunter = engineering + skinning
paladin = alchemy + mining
druid = leatherworking + herbalism
mage = enchanting + tailoring
deathknight = blacksmithing + (open spot here, might take of inscription (scrolls for enchanting), jewelcrafting (so I can transform ores into gems) or engineering (this skill is funny and brings in cool stuff).
the combinations dont seem logical, but it works. for instance: a paladin with alchemy had bigger use of potions and flasks, while the mining grants her more stamina.
As for my deathknight… any suggestions wich to take up?
oh aand after this HUGE off-topic chat…
find yourself an engineer! (jay bullets and arrows)