Strategy
This really comes in two parts, strategy on how to play your character and strategy on how to be successful in an encounter. Both of these can be theorized ad nauseum, but nothing can make up for experience. So brush up online and then jump in.
The Character
The single most successful way to increase character effectiveness is to focus on enhancing the character itself. This means choosing a purpose and then getting the various character aspects – talents, skills, equipment, buffs – synched so they properly support said choice. Essentially you figure out what you want your character to be able to do and then you set them up with the best options available.
Taking the step from being a casual player, who runs a few heroic dungeons every now and then, into a player that is raiding effectively and with purpose (my definition of hardcore) is a massive undertaking. It requires far more focused knowledge and experience then just playing casually. Suddenly many aspects of your character, aspects that were easily ignorable before, become incredibly pertinent.
It took me a while to get into the idea of Achievements in World of Warcraft, mainly because I disliked them so much on the console. Unlike the console version of achievements, which are essentially a glorified score board, the WoW achievements confer awards.
In fact it was one such award that started me on this crazy ride. My husband pointed out that one of the awards was a purple drake, a flying mount. As purple is one of my favorite colors I was immediately determined to get it.
The second expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King (WotFK), graced us with its presents a mere year and ten months after the last expansion. (Woot! Our wait was cut by four months!)
Feature wise, it was very similar to the previous expansion, a new continent to explore, new higher levels to reach, more quests, more dungeons, and more loot. They even added a brand new class to play.
And yet, WotLK has been the more successful expansion. Clearly a lot was learned from the previous two games, because they somehow managed to keep and fine tune features that worked well while weeding out most of the irritating bits.
But not all the features are recycled, loads of new ones joined the frey, seamlessly blending new and old. A few of the most notable additions being: achievements and vehicle-combat.
The Burning Crusade (BC) expansion was release just a bit over two years after the original World of Warcraft MMORPG went live, and boy was it long overdue. While there is no doubt that WoW was a massive achievement (feat of strength?), it was by no means content rich enough to remain engaging for two years.
It certainly didn’t hold my attention as I took a long break before BC came out. In fact quite a few of my friends took breaks at similar times.
But promises of new and more lured me back for The Burning Crusade. Two new races, a whole new continent, new dungeons, and loads of new loot were just some of the features that this expansion boasted.
World of Warcraft has lived up to its name and turned the world of PC gaming into a world of WoW. The most successful MMORPG (massively multiplayer role-playing game) to date, boasting over 11 million subscribers (that’s more then the entire population of Switzerland!) and its showing no signs of slowing down as it nears its five year anniversary.
My baby warlock finally made it. The challenge was made; my warlock and I rose to the occasion. The bounty was paid (although my husband used it as beer money).
In the end it took me four and a half months to make 36 levels; 12 days 8 hours total played time, much longer than I expected.
Back in April, I was given incentive to level my baby Warlock to 80. Much progress has been made on my part. Sindel finally made level 70. Its a little slower then I would have liked, three months for 26 levels. Lets just say its light speeds faster then I leveled my hunter.
Level 80 is close, so very close. Where is my $20?!
In a previous post I had mentioned getting my warlock to level sixty by this past weekend. It was an ambitious goal to set, but great motivation to get leveling. Never the less we didn’t quite make it. My warlock made 53.5, which is actually pretty good, but still leaves me quite a ways off from eighty. Go go level sixty this weekend!!
It is possible that the leveling could have gone a bit faster if I hadn’t waited so long to get talents. Talent choice are challenging for me to say the least.
Once my warlock made level fifty my husband was so appalled that I hadn’t spent any talent points that he took matters into his own hands. Knowing very little about warlocks, he did some minor research at Elitist Jerks and found a simple leveling build, then forced me to stop leveling and oversaw the tedious talent selection process with indignant single-mindedness.
The kicker? Well the new patch (3.1) for World of Warcraft just came out today and all the talent points for everyone are being refunded. I am cursed!
<3
Token Female Gamer
