Project Lore

The absolute number one reason why I play World of Warcraft is for the universe.  I've always loved stories, from the "Slugger" baseball story my grandfather often recited to me as a child to Dune.  A good story has always roped me in, no matter its length.  WoW has come a long way in its story telling in these fives year, in design and execution.  Initially, the quests were spread all over the world, causing many players to abandon them halfway through the chain.  Blizzard, in the second and third go around, consolidated these chains to span single, or perhaps adjacent zones only, which lead to a rise in completion.

Storywise, Blizzard has recanted a lot of its previous lore, up to and including Wrath of the Lich King.  But the writers have expanded on previous ideas, or sneaked in other storylines as well.  Some of these were planned, Ulduar and Ahn'Qiraj, others, like Sunwell Plateau, were out of the necessity for additional content.

Metzen and his crew continue to intrigue me, but I have two main beefs with Blizzard's execution of storytelling in WoW, which actually extends to most MMOGs. The first idea, branching storylines, was lightly touched on in the Useless WoW Leaders post, and brought up a second time in ProjectLorians Super Happy Fun Hour: Dave Edition audio podcast.  Wrath of the Lich King was designed to focus on the Lich King, to throw us in his path on numerous occasions and cement him as the bad guy, and it achieved that.  Outside of a few Ulduar lore questlines in select zones there was little besides the Lich King or his forces.  What I'd like to see are more side missions like Bridenbrad's tale - hopefully without the real-life tragedy attached.  The questline is one of the most memorable in the game due to its excellent writing, and the use of known NPCs that we hadn't heard from lately.

The other issue that needs addressing is orphaned storylines.  These are the quest chains that start, but the story is never completed.  The tale of The Missing Diplomat and Ashbringer are the most famous, and they finally had their day.  There are many more epic tales that have been left dangling that I'd much prefer tackling than another "Kill 10 foozles" quest.  Even if I have to travel a little to do so.

At BlizzCon, we learned that parts of Azeroth would be reshaped as Deathwing broke the the Plane of Earth and shattered the world. Azshara, The Barrens, Ashenvale, Desolace, and several more were showcased, both in panels and in the trailer for Cataclysm released during the event. But that doesn't mean those are the only areas that would be greatly affected by the destruction, just because that's all we saw at the time. I think it's reasonable to believe that Blizzard only showed those that were farthest along in development at the time. Stranglethorn in all its (current) glory. Well, thanks to the most recent issue of PC Gamer UK, we now know that the oh-so-infamous Stranglethorn Vale is set to join the ranks of those zones receiving a substantial face lift in the next expansion. But, you might ask, what's wrong with Stranglethorn? Clearly, something. In his interview with Gamasutra, Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi mentioned that they've taken a hard look at every zone internally, giving each a rating depending on how happy they are with it currently. So, if Stranglethorn is getting reworked as drastically as implied, either the development team has a really big beef with its present incarnation, or the redesigns are important to the continuation of the story. Knowing that, I'd like to examine several possibilities for the Vale of the future. Right from the start, I think it's safe to assume that the zone will undergo the typical terrain changes. There's always the possibility of seeing volcanic ruptures tearing through the ground, just as they do in several of the other transformed zones. And with most of its landmass being coastal, we may see parts of Stranglethorn flood or be washed away by tidal waves (hey, it's happening to Southshore). By doing this, they could potentially eliminate some of the quest-lines and reduce the overall amount of time that you'll be spending here as opposed to the past. Sometimes streamlining means trimming the fat, and while the zone currently showcases a wealth of content, it both completely supplants leveling in other areas (like Desolace) and requires a lot of back-and-forth between those of the same band. Leveling zones in Cataclysm will usually be right next to each other. As an example, Horde players often have to split their leveling with far away regions like Thousand Needles, Arathi Highlands, and Badlands from 28-45. If we take a look at the slides from the Preview panel at BlizzCon, they show new leveling paths moving from one adjacent zone to the next, largely eliminating the ludicrous amounts of globe-trotting required in the game now. We'll still go to Stranglethorn, but I think the question now is "when?" That's a tough one. The zone has always been closer to Alliance territory, perhaps implying that it will now be more integral to their mid-range leveling experience, but at the same time, they've only ever had a meager presence in the area. One might argue that neither has the Horde, but now we have a bit of a wild card to consider -- Garrosh Hellscream. We already know that he's bent on not only fortifying the faction's capital, Orgrimmar, but also tightening the grip on Alliance lands. If Zoram'Gar Outpost in Ashenvale is set to swell in size and importance, it's not a huge jump in logic to think that the Grom'Gol Base Camp might, too. Going a bit farther, I have a feeling that it will also move more in-land, with the original encampment being overtaken by the sea. Figuring out which level band Stranglethorn might occupy in the future isn't easy, but I imagine it'll be a lot more homogeneous, requiring only one trip around the zone, instead of making the Northern and Southern halves effectively separate in terms of difficulty. But let's take it to the next level, beyond the fundamental changes that have become a part of the Cataclysm experience. What's been going on there the entire time? For one, the animals of have been experiencing a small-scale Cataclysm all their own. Hemet Nesingwary and his cohorts have been decimating the local wildlife population unchecked for the past few years. And what about D.E.H.T.A.? Though I was surprised that it took them until Wrath of the Lich King to react to his genocidal ways, perhaps they'll return here in the expansion to protect the rich floral and faunal habitat that is Stranglethorn Vale. If we combine the threat of new found ecological disaster (as well as an old one, if the Venture Co. sticks around) with the Nesingwary onslaught, I'd be astonished if they didn't show up once again. Whether they do or not, I fully expect a revamp of Nesingwary's (or Nesingwary Jr.'s, if they keep him here) quests to be more in line with those in Sholazar Basin. In other words, a lot less "grindy" than they are now. Something else I'd really like to see is an extension of the war between the Blackwater Raiders and the Bloodsail Buccaneers. After all, who doesn't want more pirate action? Undoubtedly, the local swashbucklers will find some way to exploit the chaos of the Cataclysm, whether that be open plundering or an escalation of their conflict. This could have dire consequences for Booty Bay. Though I fully expect it to remain a hub of transportation, I suspect that it will not survive the Armageddon unscathed. And then there are the Gurubashi Trolls and Zul'Gurub. Now that we'll be able to fly over it, will we see activity, or will it look barren until you jump through the portal, like most current outdoor instances? If I recall correctly, the Darkspear Trolls (the faction associated with the Horde) once lived here, and I think it's high time that we got a look at their story again. I would love to see them join the other Horde forces in establishing a greater presence here, perhaps reclaiming their homeland from their corrupted brothers and sisters. If anything can be said about the Cataclysm, though, it's that it has affected the world in completely unexpected ways, and that may be the case with Stranglethorn Vale, too. The expansion provides Blizzard with the chance to really move the existing story in each zone forward, but at the end of the day, there's no way to tell exactly what they have planned until they let us in on it. Let's hope that day comes sooner rather than later! In the meantime, please chime in with your thought on the future of Stranglethorn, and what things you'd like to see change from the current version!

Click to read more ...

It was a completely magical, fulfilling moment. It was months in the making (actually, considerably longer than I had anticipated, and I did end up losing that bet I posted about a while back, but refuse to pull out my hair!), which made it all the more sweet. That wondrous, level 80 ding. Here at Project Lore, we've followed the progress of several of our bloggers as we reach one of the pinnacle moments of our WoW careers, and cap out a character. For me, the moment came after a much-needed, much-delayed session of dailies in Icecrown. I pushed through the Shadow Vault, Jotunheim, Onslaught Harbor, Ymirheim and, of course, the Argent Tournament before realizing that I had finished my usual rounds and stood at 97 percent through level 79. I couldn't just leave it at that, so I sought out Keritose Bloodblade to finish up a questline I got a while back. I made a quick trip into the saronite quarry to complete An Undead's Best Friend, From Whence They Came and Honor is for the Weak, then alerted my guildies to watch the chat as I handed in each one and saw that lovely, level 80 achievement flash across my screen. So now what? Well, first things first, I equipped my lone purple item from my last venture into the Crusaders' Coliseum. Then, after a quick hearth to Dalaran, I picked up my congratulatory loot in the mail, and took a portal out to Undercity. In the Rogues' Quarter, I got all my skills up to level, cleared my spec (have yet to rebuild it, leaving that for next login) and bought dual spec just for fun. Now, what to do next...? Of course, finishing the respec process is an easy first choice. But beyond that, I still have more questing to complete, rep to grind, loot to find, achievements to earn, professions to level off, and definitely some good raiding to be had. So much to do before the world of Azeroth is changed in the Cataclysm! Level 80 is only the beginning. In the end, I think I'll just continue to take things as they come without any pre-set path. Spontaneity is just a good a plan as any. And I'll let you all know how it works out. So to those of you who have already hit level 80, perhaps long ago, I pose a question: what were your first steps after that wondrous first level 80 ding? Would you choose differently for an alt?

Click to read more ...

It Takes Longer To Find All The Weapons Than To Level The Skill Love it or hate it, Blizzard has been changing the leveling aspects of World of Warcraft with each additional expansion.  As the level cap continues to be raised, the developers feel that blasting players through levels is a reasonable solution.  Sure, the slow to level players, and highly casual alt creators may feel a sense of abandonment, but according to Blizzard, the game begins at max level.  With increased XP gains from questing and grinding, lower level access to mounts and cheaper training costs and Recruit-A-Friend bonuses, leveling has become nothing more than a quick chore.  So why is it that we still bother with Weapon Skill? From what I can tell Weapon Skill was part of the combat calculations for two reasons.  Mainly to limit a players ability to take on much higher level mobs than themselves.  Perhaps your skill would let you drop a beast 10 levels higher than you, but all the dodges, glancing blows and misses from your puny weapon skill (still hardcapped at 5*level) negated your epeen.  The second attribute is to please our incessant need to see our character "progressing".  Even though we'd only see an increase of five in between levels, the great driving force of rising statistics kept many of us cracking skulls. Now, at level 80, the statistic is completely meaningless.  Yes, it does impact your DPS when you aren't capped, but does anyone not have max weapon skill with their weapon of choice?  If you grab a new weapon of a skill you aren't proficient in you can have that skill capped within the hour.  The incoming influx of axe wielding rogues are a perfect example.  So what's the point?  Why is it that we have to bother with a relic from vanilla WoW that has ultimately lost its purpose to Expertise?  Is it hanging around for archaeological reasons and the achievement? Unfortunately, we can't completely abandon the system since its main purpose is still in use.  But it'd be nice if Blizzard made it an actual task to accomplish, rather than a challenge to find an elite mob to swing away at.  Of course having to invest additional time into a pointless statistic, repeatedly no less, wouldn't make much sense either.  Make it so once one class of weapons (melee and ranged) is leveled they all would be?  That wouldn't please the RPers out there.  How about giving the statistic back some of its stats that Expertise now possess?  That would require additional dev time and rebalancing for no actual change.  Hmm. The state of Weapon Skill is a sticky situation.  Ultimately, its pointlessness for 'when the game begins' just bothers me, and frankly, reeks of a poorly planned change to a former core mechanic.

Click to read more ...

As I get closer and closer to level 80 (no, I'm still not there yet. But that's another story...), I've been thinking a bit about my end goals for Locomomo. They started out vague, long ago when I rejoiced at finding a piece of gear that was one measly armor point higher than what I already had equipped. Back then, I could only dream of what my toon someday would become. And as I've leveled and discovered through experience my play preferences for my class, those goals have solidified quite a bit. What I know so far: I like being sneaky, as a proper rogue should. But even moreso, I like dealing the DPS. One of my primary motivations for leveling is the fact that I want to start raiding with my guild. I'll have to start small to get some better gear, I'm sure. Then hopefully after not too long try out some heroics and get down my raiding rotations. I know, they're still pretty general goals, but it's something to look forward to. And while looking forward, I realized that really, the best way for me to play is to have smaller goals along the way. It seems I'm always playing toward something - trying to reach the next level, and the next and the next; aiming to get my stats up; completing enough quests in an area to get the related achievement and moving on to another zone. Each little step leads to another and another. Blizzard knows how to keep its players motivated. But there have been times when I've found myself a bit puzzled at what to do next. For the most part, leveling is self-explanatory. Just go to an area for your level, click on the NPCs with yellow exclamations points, and go kill things. But sometimes there's the issue of having too much to do. Do you level in zone x or zone y? Do you focus on your professions or continue leveling? Ultimately, there's a million decisions we must make in game, and each one will lead to a different experience. Of course, once you're a more experienced player, it becomes easier to picture your future characters. You know what equipment, skills and talents are out there; you have conquered the zones; and you have played either with or against other high-level characters that you can use for inspiration for what you one day will become. And once you reach 80, there's still all the end-game content. I know a lot of players find it a bit harder to keep playing once they reach a certain point and no longer have those little steps to motivate them along. But I think I'm a very long way from reaching that point. I've got dungeons to explore, enemy cities to sneak into, equipment to be had, achievements galore to earn, and only so much time to play. The future Locomomo, as I picture her, will be awesome. But it's the journey getting there that I'm looking forward to. In your own gaming experiences, what drives you to keep playing? Is there any specific goal you're currently playing to? Do you picture what you hope your future toon will be, or let that picture shape itself as you go?

Click to read more ...

"If you reach 80 before I do, I will pull out my hair." Not the smartest thing to say to your competitive friends. Especially not with witnesses online. But it started off innocently enough. A couple weeks ago, I was enjoying a nice evening of playing WoW and chatting it up over Teamspeak with the RL friends in my small guild. I was commenting on how quickly a couple of my friends have been leveling. The guild leader's alt and one of my friends who is new to WoW had been playing together and already reached level 60, in the same amount of time that it took me to go from 60 to 70. But I'm not the fastest leveler by any means. I like to take my time enjoying the lore and quests, I get distracted in-game pretty easily by non-xp-driven tasks and to top it off, I just don't play quite as much as my buddies. They've been bugging me for a while about my not-so-hasty leveling process. Sure, the comments always are friendly, but I know they really do want me to get to 80 fast ("We want to start on those 10-mans, Pixie, hurry up already!"). So, I started to pick up the pace a bit in Northrend. And by the time I reached level 76 a couple of weeks ago, they were at level 70. Not too bad on my end. So when one of them commented that they would reach level 80 before me, I was feeling a little over-confident. And in a weak moment of expressing my frustration at their seemingly limitless play time, I said it. "If you reach 80 before I do, I will pull out my hair." As soon as they started asking how I would look bald, I knew that they wouldn't back down. Although I hadn't REALLY meant it seriously, it didn't matter. If I take it back, I lose. So I logged off that night determined to make it happen. Then life took over, and I didn't log in for two weeks. Every day that life kept me away from WoW, I dreaded more and more the thought of logging in and realizing that I had lost. Then, last weekend I finally got some free time back again. The first thing I do upon logging in? Pull up the guild window and look at everyone's levels. Turns out, RL kicked in for them, too. Or maybe just summer. Because they're only level 72. /Cheer! Now I have to get busy! Whether they start seriously or not, there's plenty of friendly in-game bets that add another aspect to gameplay. You could make it a race to complete quests under a certain amount of time, or time how long it takes for each of you to reach a certain level, or you could compete to get specific achievements before the other. What are your stories of wagers or competitions you've had in-game? Did you come out on top, or lose?

Click to read more ...

You know those discussions you have with friends or guildmates about PvP.  The conversations were you tell a story about how you, and possibly some buddies, took on X amount of the opposing faction with only Y amount of help?  You know the stories I am talking about.  It's the speech type, the ones you stop listening to instantly just so you can gather your thoughts to tell your own awesome story.  Everyone has them, heck, everyone has dozens of them.  They are the experiences in video games that we won't forget until they are replaced by something that much cooler.  That's what today is.  Just be kind enough to read my version of the battle before you jump into yours.  Thanks. Solidsagart has seen most of my playtime recently thanks to a little predicament.  Even though I have slowly been leveling her since my rogue hit level 80, the amount of time spent on her is limited to minutes at a time.  Therefore, I have never truly got the hang of, well, pretty much anything.  With rookie Shadow spec skills activated I began to light up Coldarra's army of quest mobs.  Thanks largely to my inexperience I pulled a couple of mobs in a row.  Not to worry, with Power Word: Shield, Inner Fire and the occasion healing spell, I was able to handle the one or two guys who came at me like I dissed their mother.  Then another pair pathed in my direction unseen to me.  Now I was just minding my own business, collecting XP with four guys wailing on me. It became obvious that the replacement rate of Vampiric Embrace's healing was less than the incoming damage.  In my further ineptitude I decided to Fear the mobs after a round of DOTs so I could heal in peace.  Any knowledgeable priest knows how bad an idea that can be in crowded areas.  I was left in solitude with only a pair of mobs hoping to spread my brains across the snowy landscape.  Upon his (one mob died from the DOTs) return he brought a few buddies along with them.  Five fresh mobs to be exact. Gulp. It took five and a half incoming mobs before I knew I had botched it.  I would be popping into Spirit Form and need a repair any second now.  But I wasn't going down without a fight.  I fired off my Shadowfiend, drank a pot, clinched my belt, through out another round of DOTs and feared once again.  After a few volleys of Mind Blast, Mind Flay, shield refreshes and yet another personal heal I had it down to three guys.  Then two.  And finally only one lowly Mage Slayer remained to have its face melted and skin later flayed. The great battle of casters, eight died without Sagart leaving combat, was one of those rare occurrences in WoW where you actually fear for your life outside of an instance.  Rarely do we feel that our demise is immediately at hand when PvEing for quests, or just grinding for loot, but I certainly thought I was going to bite the dust during the excursion.  Sure, it would have been easier to accomplish with some familiarity to my second spec, but I thoroughly enjoyed the heart racing, fear-filled, learning experience and wish that it would occur more often.  Only next time I hope it is not due to my own ineptitude, but as part of the punishing world we take part in. Ok, now that I have recanted my none cyclical battle story, no 2-3-4-5-6-7-wand this time, and you politely sat through it, cheering me on of course, you can hit me with yours.  What was your greatest moment of survival in the environment?  How about some unbalancedPvP destruction on the level of OrangeMarmalade? The sad fact, I would have Vanished on my rogue so fast as to make your head spin.

Click to read more ...

QuestHelper/Carbonite & Extended QuestLog/DoubleWide Features Incoming I've never been one to play on the PTR.  Like many other players I don't want to spoil the upcoming content or experience "unfinished" gameplay.  And yet I spend hours a week just staying current with the latest news and revelations, from the Live realms and the PTR.  I guess that would make me a bit of a hypocrite - I won't spoil by playing, but get spoiled by reading occasionally - but that is the price I pay for knowledge.  So when my buddy noticed that the patch notes had changed again, he knew I would be interested. Blizzard began implementing QuestHelper functionality as part of the Secrets of Ulduar patch, and I was okay with it.  They have been trying to make leveling easier for some time now, and that change was the next logical step.  The devs seemed to have found a happy middle ground between the hardcore and the casual players thanks to additions to the tooltips.  In essence you still had to read the quest text to find out where mob X or item Y was located.  Only when you were in the general location - being able to mouseover an objective - would you be tipped off.  No biggie.  Enter Call of the Crusade, which is taking it a step further.

• A skull graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players can find creatures they must kill for a quest.
• A skull graphic with red eyes will be placed on the map in the general area where creatures can be found that must be killed in order to collect quest objects.
• A gear/cogwheel graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must loot quest objects found in the world.
• A chat bubble graphic will be placed on the map in the general area where players must interact with a specific NPC for a quest.
• A yellow question mark graphic will show on the map to provide the location of a NPC whose quest the player has completed.

Aside from these obvious benefits, former downloaders of quest helping mods should see an increase in available system resources and (slightly) more secure accounts. Okay, this is way further then I expected Blizzard to go.  Before the hardcore base goes all "reading comprehension" on us let's take a step back.  Remove yourself from the discussion and just look at WoW as a product.  Blizzard, the creator of said product, is looking at QuestHelper, and mods like it, and realizes that it is one of the most downloaded add-ons for World of Warcraft.  What would you expect them to do?  Would you want them to simply ignore the actions of millions of players?  No, of course not. Here's the rub, many other UI changes are getting the option to be toggled on or off, but Zarhym's updates make no mention of that for the topic at hand.  If you want to play WoW the hardcore old school way it doesn't seem to be an option.  The freedom of choice is what the hardcore should be complaining about, not the dumbing down of a part of WoW that you are no longer a part of. Under what circumstances would you accept the added features to the world map?  Would it have been acceptable to you if it was implemented back in 2004?  Should the option be defaulted off?  Are you going to abandon your helpful questing mod if the feature goes live?  With the amount of subscribers reaching a plateau, does it even matter at this stage in the game? Let the QQ begin. <popcorn>

Click to read more ...

Up until recently, most of my questing was done in pairs. My rogue teamed up with my husband's warrior for a while as we leveled together. And when he out-leveled me, I started questing with his DK. Either way, I essentially had a tank as we took on quests and easily progressed through the game. But over the past few weeks as I ventured through Dragonblight and now in Zul'Drak, Locomomo has gone solo. So now I've got no tank. Combine to that the fact that many areas within this zone have a high concentration of mobs that like to attack you in twos and threes, and I was in a heap of trouble. But it's been a good learning experience; I've adapted my play style a bit, and that alone has been a fun challenge. Being a rogue, I've been able to escape the multiple mobs with Vanish, and when that's on cooldown, a combination of Sprint and Evasion paired with some strategic weaving through mobs so I don't draw more fire. When I have multiple mobs I can handle, Adrenaline Rush and Blade Fury work nicely together. But there's still the problem of the sheer amount of damage I've been taking. I'm running low on Frostweave needed to make bandages, and also need to restock on foods - both for the buffs they give and for their healing properties. What's been saving me there is the Medallion of Heroism trinket I picked up as a quest reward from the Battle for the Undercity. I love the critical strike bonus, but more importantly at this point is the healing capacity. I've been hitting that trinket as soon as it goes off cooldown. As I said, it's been a fun challenge and really reminds me of some of the awesome rogue abilities that I wasn't using as much when leveling in pairs, simply because I didn't need to. As for the healing issue - I look at this as a good reason to go for that Stocking Up achievement! So have any of you found a reason to alter your play styles recently? Do you prefer soloing or questing in pairs? More importantly, anyone have some Frostweave to spare? :)

Click to read more ...

Whew, long walk! Glad I brought some snacks! I was recently told by our readers (several times, and with gusto), that if I'm so damn tired of raid content, why don't I go try out one of the other multitude of things to do in WoW? Well, I'll have you know that leveling alts, as banal as it can be at times, is one of my hobbies, and this post is proof positive! Allow me to take you on the mystical journey of a mage's life from a mana-limp bolt-slinger to face-wrecking powerhouse. Geez, that's a lot of hyphens. Now, let me throw out a couple warnings before I continue. I know I'm new around these parts, and there's a good chance this stuff has been covered before, but I do hope you enjoy my, er... unique slant on things. The other issue, which stems from the same basic problem, is that my mage is actually already level 38. Ideally, I would've liked to start this article at square one, but I'm not about to reverse all my progress just for that. So what I want to do is talk about what I've learned so far. I started off, like all Trolls, in the Valley of Trials. I tend to play a Troll whenever I get the chance; they're pretty awesome, and since they're the least played race in the game, I'm always up for increasing the server population. Drawback? Lack of shoes. I'll never have cool-looking kicks. The beginning levels were easy enough, especially since I suited Forcekin (yes, that's his name) up with a couple heirloom pieces: [Tattered Dreadmist Mantle] [Discerning Eye of the Beast] But even with the buffs these items provided, it was evident early on that mana would be a problem. I'd always heard that about mages and dreaded dealing with it myself. At 38, I'm happy to admit that things are improving, but prepare to grind out your first thirty-or-so levels like a sloth on Sunday. Taking a time-out to drink and eat after every pull or two really put a damper on my motivation (and its even more annoying when you have to stock up every time you log on), but I kept reminding myself that one day I'd be popping crits like a bag of Orville Redenbacher and destroying mobs before they even get within spitting range. A pleasant surprise came from how well my mage was able to take his lumps (when the enemies do manage to close in on you). Ice Armor, Mana Shield, Elemental Wards, and even Dampen Magic can take you far when spells like Polymorph and Frost Nova fail to keep the baddies at bay. And, of course, there's always Blink for getting your keister just out of harm's way. Indeed, the mage's repertoire of mitigation and avoidance skills is first-class. I chose to level as Frost spec in order to take advantage of the slow-down effects, and they've served me well so far, but I was initially disappointed in the lack of damage being dealt. For me, leveling an alt is a race to the top, so I often don't bother with group quests or dungeon runs unless it happens to be with a fellow guildie or I find myself in the right place at the right time. So, aside from the heirloom equipment, I've had very little to increase my crit chance -- no blues, no enchants, and I haven't even slotted any glyphs yet. But in my early 30s, I decided to go back and look at what Frost had to offer and found a magic combination I'm surprised I didn't see at first. I specced out of Cold Snap (boy was that a mistake at this level) and put a few points into the first-tier talent Frostbite. Combine that with Shatter, and you've got a 15% chance to increase your crit against a target by a full 50% when both talents are maxed out! This also applies to any other time a mob might be frozen, as with Frost Nova. Really nothing like flash freezing a bunch of mobs as you proceed to rain down some icy armageddon in the form of Blizzard. This probably seems like grade school for any mage in the know, but things really started picking up for me at that point. It even helped with my chronic mana problems! More crits per point of mana = less mana spent. Math is not my strong point, but even I can dig that brand of algebra. So, I'd have to say I'm in a pretty good spot with my frosty mage wonder. Being able to skirt around hapless mobs whilst nuking them in the face is getting to be pretty enjoyable. Unfortunately, I'm at that part of the game where, at least for a Horde player, there's a lot of running around to do. I have yet to make the long journey to Badlands or Swamp of Sorrows and I've still got a boatload of quests in Stranglethorn to complete. Not to mention that Tanaris, Hinterlands, and Feralas are all on the horizon. And all my mage trainers want me to hotfoot it to Duskwallow Marsh for some reason! But, hey, that's where a Mage truly shines. Portals anyone? I'd like to continue updating everyone on my progress, if you'll have me, but in the meantime, I'm curious as to what kinds of experiences Project Lore readers have had leveling their own mages. Did you make any of the same stupid mistakes I did? Attempt to level as a different spec? Find the constant picnicking too much of a hassle or did the crazy damage co-efficients see you through to the end?

Click to read more ...