Still Lots Of Work To Be Done
Posted by 
Bastosa on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 10 Comments Tags: dailies, grinding, heroics, level 80, naxx, preparation, raiding
Bastosa on Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 10 Comments Tags: dailies, grinding, heroics, level 80, naxx, preparation, raiding 
So I felt like I was in a pretty good groove; I hit level 80 in stride, more than one achievement for finishing off zone quests, and my trade skills were leveling up nicely. I really felt I was closing in on the end-game and getting back to where I was before this whole expansion thing. Then it hit me. I’m not even close.I was just flying around Storm Peaks, questing away, when I came into a collision course with the Sons of Hordir quest line. On this surface it didn’t seem so bad, it was long (33 quests), but not altogether unenjoyable. I’ll try not to get into too many details, but at a certain point you realize that this is a reputation grind, and a big one.
After a quick visit with their quartermaster, I realized these guys were the source of all my new shoulder enchants. These are definitely a must for raiding. So I pick up a few dailies, and look at my rep bar… I need exalted, and I am just barely friendly. There is no championing, just dailies, dailies, dailies. Yikes. This is going to be a BIG project.
After coming to that harsh realization, I dove into raiding in hope of picking up some of these free loots I have been hearing so much about. No dice. In my experience raiding isn’t the walk in the park everyone made it out to be. Sure there are some easier encounters. The Vault of Archavon wasn’t very demanding, and The Obsidian Sanctum (with all the adds down) wasn’t too bad, but I found plenty of challenge in Naxx. It is clear that progression will be a bit slow and there will be lots of gearing that needs to be done. I haven’t forgotten all these dungeons have a heroic mode either.
Just like at level 70, I am getting the feeling this game begins at 80… and there is a lot of game ahead of us.
Reader Comments (10)
I'm excited. I might hit 80 tomorrow.
I hear ya. I felt i was just cruzing along as well, moving through a quest line smoothly. Then it hits you that the questline is just for the one place and the main questline for the place. Rep grinding is going to get old in northrend. Ah well, it is my escape from reality so here's to Bliz for keeping me interested and to enjoy my $14.99 a month.
I, too, think that the ease of the dungeons/raids is a comment coming from peeps who were geared out from BT/Sunwell. For people like me who aren't geared like that, I am finding the dungeons/raids to NOT BE the walk in the park that they're made out to be.
I'm just gonna chalk it up to the notion that the majority (not all, mind you) of people who post on sites like this are ones that are in raiding guilds that went to 24 hr farm status after the pre-WOTLK super nerf made dam near all, if not entirely all, of the BC endgame, and thus the associated gear, accessible.
I think, however, that the majority of PLAYERS in the game are not geared up like that and so for the majority of us, these dungeons/raids will take time. I like that idea. I just hate feeling like there must be somethig wrong with me cos my PuG doesn't one shot every boss/instance we run.
Freakin' hope so!
Level 80 for me soon too, think im 50% thru 79 at the moment, and so much still to see!
I completely agree: WotLK starts again at level 80.
I hit 80 a few weeks ago and there is more than enough content to keep me (and my alts) busy for months to come.
And while I've raided Naxx - crushed it on 10 man and grinding away on the 25 man - I got to say it is really fun.
And the rep grinds, fine by me. I kinda like spearing a dragon, hanging onto it's belly and then falling to the ground in its mouth after delivering the final killing blow - wicked fun.
So level to 80, enjoy that game, and when you get to 80, a new game awaits
:)
Still working on the SoH quests grinding my way up the rep line. As far as raiding goes, most are easy as you stated, even Naxx (10 man) was cleared for us on the first night had a few wipes as people learned it but other then that it was a quick easy clear. We are now on Malygos and have yet to kill him as our DPS seems to be lacking a bit and it is a tricky fight, but after only 1 night of learning it we had him into Phase 3 so i give it another week or so until he too is kissing the floor.
I think our hardest fights will be in OS with the drakes up, from what i hear having 3 drakes up in 10 man is currently the hardest raid in the game.
Either way I am very much looking forward to the other instances Blizz has in store for us.
19550/21000 with Sons of Hodir, was level 80 five days after release and have been doing these dailys every day since then if I can remember correctly. Of course, I've farmed Everfrost Chips as well, which isn't too slow if you have the Valley to yourself--nine within one hour has been the best crop so far. It's starting to get unbearable, so it's lucky that I'm almost done.
New dailys become available at different reputations, some of them with 500 rep reward, but never more than six alltogether. It does indeed feel very slow.
I like the raiding so far. Cleared Naxx ten man. Made it to Patchwerk the first reset we attempted without too many problems, then geared up a little to reach Kel’thuzad where we stopped late on the night before reset. Next reset we made it all the way with significant amounts of wipes only on Kel'thuzad (with only one ranged DPS it became tougher than it had to be). I imagine the same group could clear it again in one or two sittings without many wipes.
Sartharion with one drake up just didn't work, so that's a challenge for the future.
I have one complaint about drops. Though I as a prot warrior MT have gotten plenty of them, and been either alone or one of two to roll on my T7, the tier shared by druids, DKs, mages and rouges has been brutal for gearing up our group. Usually we had five or six rolls on those. We had people go almost two full runs without a piece of gear.
I hit lvl 80 with my tankadin this past Sunday Evening, and am currently working on getting my 70 mage to 80 now while I wait for my guildies..and wife to catch up. =) I'm way ahead now compared to when TBC came out.
Just don't forget about Everfrost Chips - if you're a good tracker, you should be able to find quite a bunch (epic flying helps here), they give 350 SoHodir rep, and 6g.
The great side is: You can turn them in unlimited times each day. So, if you know where to look (I found about 5 in 3 days - which is pretty decent looking at the amount of people trying to find them).