Leveling Triggers

Decided some of my pre-patch boredom is going to be consumed by leveling a Void Elf Warlock. Currently have two 110 boosts and two 100 boosts, but I opted for the pain.

Every spec in Warlock is currently performing well. I'm fine with Affliction and Destruction but Demonology remains awkward. So might as well learn from the ground up plus get a pretty Void Elf along with heritage armor.

I mix in some questing but it gets boring fast. The only ones I do consistently are dailys and pet battles so running dungeons are a mainstay. In between queues I stay busy with work, researching, Netflix, etc

The people you meet in random dungeons certainly run the gamut. The most enjoyable are the old hands like me, that have seen them all, done them all, tear shit up. The other end of the spectrum has the new people, either to the instance, their role, or MMOs in general. I admit I get impatient. Usually I can calm myself with thoughts like "It's just this one instance, then you can spin the wheel and get a whole new set of people." Doesn't always work.

Sometimes I get lippy. Or I pull extras. Good tanks handle it with no problem. And my lip either amuses people or they ignore me. But sometimes it all goes wrong. Like the Vortex Pinnacle group I was just in.

I got bored so I pulled once. I asked a pointed question. Before each boss we sat there for 25-30sec doing nothing. Nobody moved, said anything, did anything. I swear the tank would wait until my 5 shards reset to 3 and all my Demonic Core and Demonic Calling procs expired. So I started watching Silence of the Lambs to keep myself awake.

Not sure what ended up offended who but the fuckers waited until the final boss. They were doing another 30sec pause, so I said, "la la la" then did the /sleep emote. Then I was booted from the group. Which denied me both the quest and completion experience. *sigh*

Normally I'm tanking so it doesn't matter. But late night queues for DPS take anywhere from 20-45 minutes. Unfortunately I don't have meters up for leveling, so I didn't have the group list. The priest healer was awful and silent. Don't recall the other DPS. But the monk said something and the tank set a few targets.

Sadly the default interface only allows you to ignore characters that are on your server. You have to right click them if they're from another server. Was able to tag the monk and got the tank to respond to a whisper:

Hoping that having them on ignore will keep them out of future group but I don't know if that functionality still exists. Those types of mechanics are kept quiet and out of patch notes. Still typing all this helped un-trigger me and now I'm ready for another pug!

Fourth 85

Having gotten a little bored with RIFT myself I decided to head back into WoW some yesterday. The shaman was only a few bubbles from 85 so I decided to get that done. Whoa. They changed the valor point rewards to work like RIFT, allowing you do up to X each week instead of making you log in every day.

While that is a most welcome change I was amazed at the DPS queue times. The longest I got was twelve minutes for the regular 85s. Took a few runs to get the iLevel up for heroics. And then my longest wait was eighteen minutes! Was a bit nervous about the DPS meter watchers because I knew I was sucking it, but I didn't a single complaint. Good times.

First Expert

Was doing Icewatch dailies when I saw someone needing Support and DPS for an Expert. Hit my LFG macro and got an invite. A guildmate said the main requirement for T1 dungeons is 50 Hit for melee or 50 Focus for casters. Both my weapons have +26 Hit so I was "good" by this standard. Now the real test.

The Queen Bug -- serious annoyance!

It went fairly well. Both Warriors were from the same guild and had been through a number of Experts already. The Priest and other Rogue were from the same guild and worked well together. All in all, it went well. Only two wipes. Picked up some Gnarhide Wraps off the Queen along with 8 Plaques of Achievement and 2 Forlorn Souls. Had no idea what either of those were.

Turns out the Plaques are armor currency, akin to Justice or Valor Points in WoW. Wasn't sure where to spend them but I correctly guessed the vendor would be in the Catari Command Center. Was a little dismayed to find a full set of gear will cost 1000 Plaques: belts, boots, and gloves cost 100, helm and shoulders cost 150, chest and legs cost 200. That's a lot of goddam farming.

I noticed ZAM didn't have the vendor, Narnlie Leighton, filled out so I spent twenty minutes entering all the armor then uploaded a screenshot. Hope more people do the same since there's no addon to help populate data.

Anyway. Time to research what faction gear is available so I know where to spend Plaques.