Tiny Trial Toon – Part 2

In my last post I talked about my plans for keeping around a Trial account to make sure I keep myself in the loop on World of Warcraft. As we saw, it will take a bit of preparation, and to get some good gear will take quite a bit of effort after that. That said, it sounds like a challenge. Now it is time to find out some things that you can do with a Trial account, rather than focusing on what limitations we are under.

This is Sutures, by the way, on the left – enjoying a well-earned nap in the Undercity inn. This brings me to the first activity – roleplay. While you cannot take part in a lot of it, low-level roleplay and city-based event roleplay are open to you if you happen to be on an RP server. The only thing to be worried about is the possibility that other characters over level 35 may not be able to hear your /say.

The limitations actually gave me a great idea for an in-game explanation for my inability to trade or use the Auction House. 

Sutures is a member of the Hallowed Order of the Funeral Shroud. This order goes through life doing good deeds (questing) and defending their allies (pvp) while accepting no charity (trade) nor engaging in commerce (auction house). They do not raise their voice, nor speak in insidious whispers. They are allowed to use only implements that they made themselves, but must not choose to become artisans over their holy mission.

As such, I can explain away all the limitations of a Trial account in one fell swoop if I am ever asked about it in-character. But roleplay isn’t the only avenue at which a Trial account can provide hours of entertainment.

Achievements

Arena Grandmaster: Obtaining the Arena Master trinket in the Stranglethorn arena requires a combination of luck, persistence and sheer commitment. And then you have to do it 11 more times to get the Arena Grandmaster trinket. But it’s worth it in any case, because it gives +12 Stamina and can be used for an absorption shield. This is great for both PvP but consider PvE – if you are going to be an explorer, you’ll be (corpse)running. The more health you have the longer you last, and the shorter the total time spent.

Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza: With a mount, sufficient Fishing skill and your HS set at Booty Bay, you too can become a champion of the fishing rod! Winning this gives the Master Angler of Azeroth achievement, and you can win the Dread Pirate Ring (heirloom ring), Arcanite Fishing Pole (+40 Fishing), Hook of the Master Angler (fun item) or the Boots of the Bay (+15 fishing skill and can be used to teleport to BB). In addition, fishing up one of various special fish awards you with either the Lucky Fishing Hat (+15 Stamina, +5 Fishing), High Test Eternium Fishling (+5 Fishing), or Nat’s Extreme Angling Boots (+5 fishing, +12 Stamina), That’s a lot of Fishing (for those pesky high-level pools above your account paygrade) and Stamina (for PvP)!

Fishing: Fishing up Old Crafty, coins and rats in Dalaran, One that didn’t get away, Fish or Cut Bait series, The Scavenger, The Fishing Diplomat (careful corpse running), Fish don’t Leave Footprints, Turtles all the Way Down…you can almost complete Salty.

Cooking: Let’s do Lunch, Cooking Awards plus Chef’s Hat, most of the Chef achievements can be done on a Trial account.

Explorer: You will able to explore almost all of Azeroth and Kalimdor, assuming you’re not afraid to die a lot. While I believe you cannot be summoned to Outland (but I haven’t put that theory to the test) you can be summoned to all the Cataclysm zones and some you can simply walk in to. You will not be able to access Pandaria either.

To all the squirrels: Quite a few of these can be achieved with a Trial account, except of course those that in Pandaria and possibly Outland. The same goes for Pest Control.

World Events: Most of the world events have a component that you cannot do on the account of your level (such as the Frost Lord for Midsummer, the Elders for the Lunar Festival, Coren Direbrew for Brewfest – but everything else is doable.

Daily Quests: There aren’t many of these, but you can make quite some headway into achievement territory here: 

• Daily Cooking and Fishing Quests
• Event dailies (Brewfest, Darkmoon Faire, Hallow’s End and so on)

PvP Achievements

Here is where there are a lot of available achievements for Trial characters, because this is all a scaling business. Call in the Cavalry, Freedom of the Horde, The Grim Reaper, Duel-icious, That Takes Class, Know Thy Enemy, Make Love not Warcraft, Honorable Kills, City Defender (in a raid), Wrath of the Horde/Alliance (in a raid), Kill the Enemy Leaders (in a raid), The Conqueror, Wrecking Ball.

That’s a lot of work, invested time and a hell of a lot of fun. But be aware that because of the specific level requirements, it’s not possible to get Battlemaster since that requires a few higher level BGs than you can achieve (must confirm this).

Darkmoon Faire

When your are on a Trial account, the Darkmoon Faire will be giving you an immense amount of fun and goodies. Remember to pick up the quest from a crier, and as soon as you get in to get your Darkmoon Faire Field Manual.

Test your Strength: A basic kill-300-quest which gets you 10 tickets, once a month.

Artifacts: All but two of the artifacts can be gained from dungeons and PvP at your level; those 2 require level 85 and can only be obtained from level 85 sources. That said, this means 55 tickets every month.

Profession Quests: 4 for each primary profession at 75+, 3 for each secondary at 75+, for a total of 20 tickets every month.

Daily Minigames: The various events at the Darkmoon Faire itself also award tickets and other fun items, once per day per event.

World Bosses: Join a raid to kill Moonfang and the Darkmoon Rabbit – you might even win something!

And what can you do with those tickets?

Sadly we cannot buy the replica sets, since they require level 57/58, which is a damn shame. No looking swanky for us Trial folks…

Buy mounts and pets: 90 tickets to a pet, 180 to a mount.

Buy Heirlooms: 110 tickets (one month abouts) will get you a piece of armor or a one-handed weapon; two-handed weapons cost 160 tickets. You can also upgrade the weapons at a cost of another 65 tickets, but don’t bother unless you like the name better – it only gives it scaling from level 80-85 instead of up to 80.

Conclusion

Even if you are only on a Trial account, there is enough to do that it will keep you busy for months, if not years. And this is without any possible changes because of Warlords of Draenor. It will be a little frustrating that there are some meta-achievements you simply cannot do (unless you had some of it done with a main account).

 

 

Tiny Trial Toon – Part 1

To keep myself busy and keep my feet in the water when it comes to World of Warcraft, I decided to make a small alt on a different server (Moonglade – EU) called Sutures. She is a Forsaken Priest, and I have decided to go for Discipline to be able to heal comfortably yet have a good chuck on damaging power.

Apologies if I have missed something or the structure is a bit loose, I will be tightening this post up in post-production later.

Decisions for trial characters

The first thing is to realize what restrictions you have to work with:

• Level 20 max
• Maximum level 100 in primary professions (secondary are unrestricted)
• Maximum 10 gold
• No guild, Mail, Auction House, Pet Battles, Monk class
• Cannot /whisper non-friendlisted people, cannot invite to group, cannot trade
• Apparently /say is invisible to people over level 35 (need to confirm)

Why a Forsaken Priest? Well I am not sure whether I want to PvP or PvE, and a Forsaken Discipline Priest is pretty good at both. I will be able to heal dungeons, deal a bit of damage, and be resistant to Shadow (handy in PvP). Hands-down, however, a Holy/Disc priest gets +15% Hit with their holy spells, which means less gearing for PvP. If I go into a BG, I will be in the 20-24 bracket, meaning high-level enemies with likely much better gear.

Leveling

The first thing to know is that your experience gains are relatively irrelevant. When you have a cap of level 20, you will be reaching it long before you get to use the advancement tips in my posts. Once you’ve gone through the starting zone even without heirlooms and guild bonuses (which you cannot have) you will be easily level 11-12. Pass through one more lowbie zone and you will be capped.

After you hit the level cap, further gains will be in gold instead. This is significant because you can only hold 10 gold at a time, and you cannot unload it in a guild bank or sink it into auctions. You’re going to have to make a piggy bank.

Once you have the Dungeon Finder available, it becomes the best source of experience until the cap. Not only do you get the higher xp from being in a group and killing elites, but you also have a chance for good gear drops and gain reputation via your tabards.

Bank, bags, mounts

You have a bank, and can buy the first 3 slots (for 10s, 1g and 10g respectively). Once you hit revered with a Faction City you can buy a 16 slot bag (That’s Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Forsaken, Blood Elves and Goblins – not sure about Pandaren) which means you can stuff some of them in your bank slots and keep a profession/gathering bag along.

You will be able to use  a normal ground mount at level 20 – which includes any mounts you may have on your main account (if you have one). My main account has a big Tundra Mammoth on it, meaning I have a vendor with me wherever I go!

Gear

Without access to trade or AH, you can only use what you craft or pick up. Rare BoEs are unlikely, and most crafted equipment is pretty bad, leaving you with three main sources of gear:

• Quests (usually green items with the occasional special – will look into this)
• LFG (Level <21 dungeons, random dungeon gear bag)
• Heirlooms (prepare for the pain)

Professions

There are plenty other people who made guides on the trial accounts, and I am going to give the cruel short-hand when it comes to professions:

Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Mining: Avoid

Tailoring gives low-level gear which you will replace and bags for which you have better alternatives. Same for leatherworking and blacksmithing. Jewelcrafting has those statues that might be fun, but they are reasonably underpowered. Mining gives stamina and ore that will fill your bags.

Exception: If you are a Blood Elf, you can level enchanting up to a maximum of 110 which gives you 1 or 2 better enchants. They require a Silver Rod, however. So if you want to achieve this, you need to start with Mining and Blacksmithing to make a Silver Rod before dropping it.

Also, if you plan to level engineering to its max, you will need to have stockpiled a lot of ore.

Start with Herbalism and Mining

Herbalism gives a haste buff with a bit of healing which is always nice. Grab a herbalist’s spade for a free +10 (so you max at 110). You will start with Herbalism because two main professions use it (Inscription and Alchemy), it will give bonus XP as you gather and you will be able to make a stockpile for later use.

Make sure you have enough bars and stone stocked up to level Engineering to 100 as well as to make stacks of bombs and items you want to make at that maxed level.

Replace Mining with Inscription

Inscription gives you scrolls of recall and buff scrolls which ease leveling and dungeon runs. Each class has (I believe) two glyphs that they can learn from Inscription up to level 100, and you have to make them yourself. Nope! The glyphs require level 25, so no go.

Make sure to have made a stack or two of Enchanting Vellums. You can also buy them later at the Enchanting vendor, but if you need to level, you might as well do it on something useful. They are 9 silvers each otherwise, which means you will burn through mats quickly.

Then replace Inscription with Enchanting

Once you have your glyphs and a stack or two of buff scrolls (more will drop at random anyway, I never ran out) switch Inscription with Enchanting. Especially casters will want to fill a bit of bank space with Spellpower Oils and/or Mana Oils. Make sure that you’ve got a stack of vellums for each enchant you want to keep for later gear. You’re going to replace up to 10 pieces of gear at most in your career, so that should cover it.

Then choose your final professions

Once you have your buffs, enchanting vellums and glyphs in order it is time to look at what you will be ending up with. You can keep using Enchanting, but without access to the Auction House crystals have less value than selling the gear instead.

Alchemy is an attractive choice because you have a lot of potions and elixirs – not just effective but also some fun ones. Sadly, the alchemist’s stone and perma-potions and perma-elixirs are far out of your reach, but it’s a good investment. Goblins gain +10 so they can go to 110 maximum.

Engineering can be worth it, especially if you are a Gnome. The Flying Tiger goggles are apparently very good, only beaten by the weather-beaten fishing hat – which requires winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. Not the most likely thing. That said, you can have a lot of bombs, and those do a stun/confusion effect which can be very advantageous in PvP.

Skinning isn’t a bad option, since its crit bonus will be useful, and you can vendor your skins. However, it’s bland and there’s no real profit or fun in it.

Recommendations

Some vendors sell herbs. IF they sell enough herbs that I can keep Alchemy stocked after maxing it, I believe a combination of Alchemy with Engineering would be a nice ticket. Otherwise, Alchemy and Herbalism combined likely offer the best bang for the buck, especially since you keep Lifeblood, while Engineering is much less certain to offer enough benefit

Profession tips to keep into account

For enchanting: various enchanting vendors sell low-level enchanting mats. For alchemy, the same is true for herbs. I will see if I can make a list of vendors that sell them and are accessible to level 20’s. You can ride by them to resupply or start up a stockpile.

Low-level areas frequently have chests for you to find and open. To most accounts, those are nice but inconsequential. To you, however, these are a true treasure. They can contain a lot of things that are normally not available to you and your profession(s) such as metal bars, herbs, green items, food and buff scrolls.

It is possible things change at the release of Warlords of Draenor. Don’t be afraid to then drop your least important profession and gather enough items to relevel a profession. Yes, it’s time consuming but a Trial account isn’t about easy or quick, but about dedication and planning.

Secondary Professions

Fishing will allow you to do the daily fishing quest, which gives you a chance for extra lures, speed potions, speed swim potions and vendor items that are pretty high-value for your level. It also provides you with fish to level cooking with. You can still get a lot of fishing achievements done even on a Trial account.

Cooking will allow you to cook lesser food (I think you cap out just below proper buff-food levels), and do the daily cooking quest. Some of the cooking achievements are doable on a Trial account. You also can make a Basic Campfire. Never a bad thing in those lonely, guildless nights.

First Aid isn’t critical, but you’re not going to use the cloth for anything else. And you never know when a bandag may come in handy. Usually First Aid is awesome because you can use much higher-power bandages than you can make, which you have no option for. But even without it, there’s no reason not to invest a bit into it.

Archaeology is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, you can do some fun things in your off-time and you can complete a lof of the basic races’ projects. But it will consume a lot of time and you’re going to have stuff littering your bags that you won’t know what to do with. I’ll have to check this one in greater detail to see what I think of it.

Heirlooms

PvP Heirlooms can be acquired using Honor Points, while PvE Heirlooms can be gotten by converting Honor Points to Justice Points. In both cases you will have to do tons and tons of PvP to get them. Without a guild, you can only get Chest, Shoulders, Weapon and 2 trinkets. There are a few more heirlooms available depending on class, but for a priest this is about it.

Together, they will tally in at about twelve thousand honor points or thirty-five to twenty-two thousand honor points converted to justice points. Let that sink in. That’s a major investment, believe me. Psynister has a good guide on the heirlooms here, with details. Check it out and be prepared to pull your teeth out of the bedboard.

There is also the Dread Pirate Ring, but that one requires winning the Northrend fishing competition. This requires you to get summoned to Northrend and protected, flown around and the like. A lot of work and the stats aren’t awesome. I would advise sticking to the rings you get from random dungeons or monster loot.

Here, the choice between PvP and PvE becomes enormous. If you are primarily going to PvP, you will want the appropriate heirlooms (especially trinkets). You will be done quicker (relatively) but you’re more limited in your abilities. The PvE heirlooms require much more work, are less useful in PvP but much more useful in PvE.

Summary

These are the preparations I will be going with for my Forsaken Priest. This means for now I am going to have to fill in a few blanks with the professions, and check what questing gear I can achieve. After all, I would easily be able to do quests of up to level 23-24 if I am careful, and some of that gear I can use.

If you see a tiny undead priest named Sutures running around, give me a /salute and drop a line on the blog.

And time passes again

When I quit raiding (before the release of the patch that introduced the Siege of Orgrimmar) I had been thoroughly done with World of Warcraft. I had decided to become a casual, and then found myself spending so little time playing that I didn’t feel it was worth the efforts and costs of subscribing.

Since then I have tried to entertain myself with a variety of games – Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Fallout 3 Collector’s Edition, Fallout: New Vegas, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Borderlands 2, Blacklight Retribution to name a few. I also tried a few MMO’s both during my WoW times and after: Defiance, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Firefall when it was in Beta, Guild Wars 2, TERA, Aion and a few others.

I have to conclude that so far, none of the MMOs I have tried have come close to capturing my heart and attention for as long as World of Warcraft, which is why it took such effort to leave it. The social aspect, the enormous choice in activities, the (original) storyline.

It has its weak points, as does any game, and these are glaring:

• There is definitely a sign of Horde favoritism in everything I see. It used to be small, but it grew with time. I understand they are the “cool” faction, but Blizzard has chosen to put the blame on the players themselves, claiming they “were not involved enough” to create their own cool warcry/culture. That is a sign of weakness on their part. They are the designers and I feel they should make sure that the factions are balanced when it comes to exposure. Sometimes this means one faction should get more PR and the other less, but not in favor of the stronger one.
• There is also a lack of strong female protagonists and supporting cast in the last expansion and it is a growing trend with Warlords of Draenor. In Cataclysm we watched strong and independent Tyrande become a wavering waif in front of Varian Wrynn. Jaina Proudmoore snapped and became the stereotypical “mad ex”. In WoD, Seven warchiefs, Velen, Kadgar and some paladin who was in the TBC opening animation are shown. There was talk (but no show) of a female Draenei paladin. I understand that before the opening of the portal, female characters basically are restricted to Orcs, Arrakoa and Draenei, and that previous WoW Lore does not support any of it. But times change and the number of female players who want female lead players is heavily on the rise. I think there’s been enough time spent on the male Orc power trip.
• Mobility in WoW is still old-fashioned. You have a few movement directions and a jump. If you have an appropriate class you can have a roll, backflip or the like. But with the number of action-MMOs on the rise, WoW still sticks to the old model of movement. This could work, but wouldn’t it be nice to have more action-oriented mobility to support the new active tanking model (other than the monk)?
• Storytelling used to be the main focal point of the original game, TBC and WotLK. A lot of effort was placed into weaving events from various regions together, so that if you levelled a character in various areas, you would find intricately interwoven bits and pieces of lore that painted the whole picture. While still present, the current storylines show a certain lack of effort in that department, possibly due to rushing content or having less developers that are of the old and true bent and more that favor the “something to do and shiny rewards” model of play.
• The current storyline with Garrosh in Draenor for Warlords of Draenor is awesome to set up the Iron Horde as the new enemy for Horde and Alliance. But Garrosh is not the final boss, so he is doomed to die an ignoble death at the hands of some NPC in a 5-man, likely Thrall. Garrosh was set up for Warchief, and the intense dislike caused him to relegated to “end of arc” boss to get rid of him. Yes, people claim it was all part of the plan but I do not buy it. He was sidelined because a lot of people hated him. Then he escaped his righteous defeat at the hands of the PCs to set off a whole expansion pack (robbing them of their kill likely not once but twice). He is starting to be like Kael’thas, rehashed until he is a pale shadow of himself and ready to be taken behind the shed and shot.

But there are many good things about WoW and the related games. Hearthstone is a lovely diversion, and the Naxxramas expansion is a heart-felt shoutout to the days of raiding that place. I love it to bits. While playing the NPCs all the time is a drag, the casual play is a quick option to find a game (if you don’t mind being stomped by the low-level alts of people with massive amounts of epic cards), and the Naxxramas class challenges are a blast. Arena is supposedly a lot of fun and I will definitely make a report on it when I save enough gold to fuel some games.

Future plans

I am unlikely to resub WoW and get Warlords of Draenor unless it shapes up to be awesome. Strong female protagonists on at least somewhat equal footing to the big brown orcs, a more serious and intricate questline that gives us a story rather than a vehicle to get from quest zone A to B, and some love for Alliance. Even then, I am unlikely to step into a raid again unless it’s raid finder – the long hours, preparations and occasional conflicts have taken their toll.

I have started up a small trial account to keep track of the game and its people. You can only level to 20, trade skills to 100 and cannot trade, pet battle, buy stuff on the AH or use the mail, but it’s great for a bit of a diversion. And I can still go for some achievements and even PVP for a change.

What about this blog?

I had thought long and hard, and decided not to close or sell Twisted Faith. Even if WoW is currently out of the picture, there’s plenty of Blizzard’s games to go around. Hearthstone provides amusing adventures, guides and tips for me to write about, and I can still do something fun with the Trial account. Let me know if my Trial Adventures seem interesting to you guys – I will gladly start a diary on that one.

I may be a very, very infrequent poster – but as long as I am alive I will be writing about something!

Gold Mode Gunner: Temple of the Jade Serpent

Temple of the Jade Serpent is a good introductory dungeon to try for a Gold challenge mode. It’s not a very long instance, and while there are a few places you really shouldn’t screw up, there are also remarkable areas where you can save time if you’re savvy. There’s a definite advantage in this dungeon for melee and ranged that can cast on the move.

The first pull: from start to Wise Mar’i

All trash up to the first boss should be pulled; if you have a sturdy tank or one capable at kiting, you should pull the boss while keeping DPS on the adds. Use heavy damage reduction cooldowns to survive until the first three adds are down, including the one spawned by the boss. Options are gathering together and using Spirit Link Totem, or having them tanked by an Army of the Dead. Once the boss is dead, rush to the library.

The library

Pull and kill the first group of adds, two Pandaren spirits and a Sha. Kill them and use an invisibility potion to rush over the bridge and stand near the corner. Pull the packs on the bridge and any of the other packs as your are capable of handling. Have someone start the fight by killing the sha-touched book on the ground floor, while the rest kills of the mobs. There’s plenty of time spent in a small section of RP to kill them, and even if you have an add left it’s not a real bother.

When killing the two minibosses here, allow the stack to go up to 8. This will kill them considerably quicker, especially with DoTs ticking. Stop immediately at 8 however, or you risk them getting ultimate power and becoming immune.

Rumble at the courtyard

Rush over to the courtyard, and use serial AoE stuns and fears as much as you can to keep the small adds controlled. When the last add is dying is a good time to use Hymn of Hope and help the healer get some mana.  Fireblossom will spawn, but if the healer needs to drink you can probably help keep up the tank with a PW:Shield plus Prayer of Mending long enough. Vampiric Touch is also very good here, as the boss can have some mean damage spikes.

When the boss is between 7% and 10%, if you have a Hunter in the party, have him or her get ready at the door. Other classes also work, but will require a battle rez. When the boss goes down, this person will aggro the three Sha through the door, and rush to the far left corner. The rest of the party gathers in the right corner. Hunters feign death now, the rest has to die quickly. The moment the Sha are reset, pull the Sha of Doubt and they will be gone as well.

This fight goes much as usual. AoE down the shadow copies when they spawn, and burn him down with whatever cooldowns you have after killing the first spawn of adds.

Enjoy your gold medal!

Shadowpriests specifically

• Because of the many adds and high mobility, you might want to consider From Darkness Comes Light and the glyph of Mind Spike to put out more damage on the move.
• As most mobs will be clumped up or running after the tank in front of you, Shadow Jojo (Divine Star) seems the most solid option.
• Before the challenge mode starts, use PW:Shield and Prayer of Mending on the tank to help out in the first pull, unless your healer is Disc.
• Movement is key here – Body and Soul is a solid choice for movement if you have any healer other than Disc, where I’d suggest Feathers.
• Divine Insight or Twist of Fate is a tossup; you will have plenty mobs at <20%, but also multidotting running all over.

Turning over a new leaf

Over the course of Mists of Pandaria, I started to feel the effects of my “old age” in WoW terms. I’ve been playing my Shadowpriest ever since the Burning Crusade, and during this time, the changes I experienced have been minimal. Many things were shaken up in Mists of Pandaria, but even here much of my playstyle remains the same. This has been leading to me becoming somewhat disappointed and disillusioned. I began to slack more in the raids, and my damage started to deteriorate.

In addition, Unity has seen a recent surge of new and returning Priests, meaning we’re pretty swamped. On the other hand, all of our Strength DPS seems to have vanished. So to combat my ennui and provide additional worth for my raiding group, I have decided to switch my mains.

Currently I am gearing up my Death Knight in rapid time, and hoping I can jump in quickly when 5.2 hits us. I will try to complete the posts I had been working on about Shadowpriests in challenge modes, but I do feel that I am lacking the emotional reach to get it done right now. However, my enthusiasm about my Death Knight is only growing, so it’s quite likely I will be switching around my blogs as well, when I am settled in.

This means my absence is going to last longer, and new posts will be slower in the making. I dearly love my Priest, and my guild was shocked about my intention to switch my mains, but it is a necessary change to stave off the stagnation I had been feeling for months now.

I am currently considering using Twisted Faith to house my three favorite classes: Priests, Death Knights and Warlocks. That way I will have plenty to write about, and the general theme remains viable. What do you guys think?