What to Do at World of Warcraft Level 80

February 1st, 2010

The initial rush of getting Wrath of the Lich King and rushing your way to the end of the new content as fast as possible has probably worn off by now many times over and you may even have a second character all the way up to Level 80 and standing by, waiting to do something. So, what do you do next? What else is there to do when you hit the magic 80? Luckily, Blizzard is among the best and always prepping end-game content and this time around is no different.

New Dailies

There are new dailies throughout Northrend, starting at Level 71 and going up to Level 80. They are all good ways to get gold (up to 450 a day with all 25 dailies) and they’re all going to be a great way to boost your reputation quickly and effectively as you surge forward to get your rare items.

Instance Progressions

Places like Icecrown Glacier are loaded down with multiple options for end-game content including instance progressions where you can play through most of the build up to Icecrown Citadel (though it is not yet in place for you to actually play through). There are tons of rewards, great lore involved and a number of ways to get into both PvP and instances in this segment of the game.

Raiding

There are of course raids and dungeons you can run at Level 80 as well. There are currently four raids to play through – Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, The Nexus, and the Vault of Archavon. In the end, you’ll be able to get through a whole lot of content and then you can run through all of the Level 70-80 instances again in heroic mode. Expect new dungeons and raids to be added as the game ages as well, with probably another two years between now and the next expansion pack.

PvP

The PvP content has never been Warcraft’s strong point, but this time around, there is quite a bit of new content to enjoy if you know where to look. This includes Season 5 Arena play, the new PvP daily quests in Grizzly Hills, the new battleground – Strand of the Ancients, and the new outdoor PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp which offers some of the best PvP rewards in the game.

Achievements

When all else fails, start getting some of the nearly 1,000 achievements in the game, building up your character and your profile to showcase all of the amazing things you’ve done that others have not. Get 100 mounts, defeat everyone on heroic, explore every continent – there are tons of these to do.

Don’t ever feel like you’re out of things to do at Level 80 again.

SEE HERE and learn what other players are already doing to enjoy the top new content in end-game play.

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Where World of Warcraft is Headed in the Next Patch

February 1st, 2010

Currently, World of Warcraft is on a path headed towards a steady, slow growth in the casual field of MMO gamers with a slew of new options being made available for those more hardcore players out there who would rather have a few more options at their disposal and who are currently unhappy with just how much of the new raiding content in WotLK was too easy.

The 3.1 Patch to Date

As of writing this, the 3.1 patch has only been announced, with the headlining addition being the new raid being implemented with Ulduar. The new raid will include a slew of new, harder content, building up from what the last raids in Northrend right now offer. There has been talk of implementing a means of increasing difficulty voluntarily as is the case currently with the Obsidian Sanctum and Sartharion. This would allow for both casual and hardcore access to the dungeon that doesn’t make it harder for any one single player to get involved in the content.

Another new set of content that players are waiting for eagerly is the addition of dual speccing. While this has not yet been announced for the next patch, it has been previously hinted at and players are starting to become more and more eager to see it, especially since gear requirements for different specs of the same class are starting to lax up as stats combine more and more.

Everything Else

As for what else players are going to likely see in the next patch, that is always up for debate. There is sure to be a whole new set of changes to the way in which classes balance out in PvP and the current arena system will likely continue to see updates. Additionally, if the new patch delays for as long as expected, it is very likely that Season 6 of PvP will be coming along with it at the 20-25 week mark, after Start of Season 5 in December.

After the recent breakdown of the 3.0.8 patch and the problems that were caused as a result, it also stands to reason that a great deal more work will be put into testing and finalizing the new patch when it becomes available. Along with numerous changes, a new dungeon and possible class restructuring, it is sure to be a big shot of new content for anyone salivating to keep uncovering new content in WoW.

To learn more about recent patches, new content and the future of WoW .. SEE HERE

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When World of Warcraft will Get Hard Again – Looking to the 3.1 Patch

February 1st, 2010

When World of Warcraft will Get Hard Again – Looking to the 3.1 Patch

There was a great deal of grumbling about a month or two into the launch of Wrath of the Lich King and players started to learn that they could pretty much coast through all of the end-game raiding content and that there was not very much of it to start with. For players that were used to content in abundance at Level 70 and had been wowed by the size and scope of Northrend, it was a bit of a letdown, but it’s nothing new as Blizzard always adds new end-game content after expansion and content releases. However, the bigger disappointment came in the form of the difficulty of the that content, being much easier than most players were used to, especially after raids like the Sunwell that required days of planning and practice runs.

What Happened?

Blizzard has been hard at work for months building a more casual gamer approached strategy that helps the game to expand and for more players to come in at any point in the game’s lifespan. This is the case as well for new raiding content at Level 80, allowing new players to have somewhere to start when they get there. However, it has ruffle some feathers a bit and has made for a backup as players wait for 3.1 and the new raid coming in the form of Ulduar which Blizzard has promised to be a bit harder.

When Will it Be erHere

Here?

The new content is not expected any time immediately. It will most likely appear between April and May and will definitely contain a new raid in the form of Ulduar which has been promised to be a bit harder than existing content at Level 80. Blizzard is also contemplating putting into effect a system that allows players to play the raid on different difficulty levels such as the case with Sartharion which can be played in 8 different ways (including 10 and 25 man versions of each number of drake adds).

After Ulduar, expect boosts from new Azjol’Nerub raids, different additions to the game in the form of Icecrown Glacier and beyond and a slew of new options for top end content. When those come and how detailed they will be has yet to be announced, but it will likely satiate the rabid hunger of hardcore WoW players who were a bit let down with WotLK’s required skill level.

If you’re waiting for the content in WoW to get hard again,  SEE HERE and learn what you can expect in the weeks, months, and patches to come.

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The Top Tanking Classes in World of Warcraft

February 1st, 2010

Tanking has always been at the upper echelon of raiding. Those players who can effectively tank in a raid are those that are ultimately destined to be the most popular in their guilds, the most watched in a raid and the most appreciated when the group experiences success. But, with recent changes to the rules of tanking and a whole new class thrown into the mix, the question of who can tank and when has become more and more relevant – so who exactly is best at tanking and why?

The Top of the Mix

The top of the pile always has been and probably always will be the Protection Warrior. With the top AoE threat in the game, the best armor, and the most effective means of maintaining their life in a close fight, a Protection Warrior is the best around. However, the gap between the top and number two has been narrowed considerably of late and raids no longer feel compelled to ensure every group has at least two of these warriors around to handle their bosses.

AoE Tanking All Mixed Up

In the past, there were only a handful of abilities out there that could AoE threat a group of mobs meaning that Prot Warriors were all but required for all groups. Now, every tanking class has at least one AoE threat ability, regardless of how well it works and can effectively tank for a group. That, along with stat amalgamation and gear restrictions easing up has made it so that Plate armor is less specialized and more capable of working across multiple borders.

Off Tanks No More

Along with Protection Warriors, Feral Druids, Protection Paladins, and now Frost Death Knights are all proving to be highly effective in the tanking realm. With their new AoE threats, the ability to stay alive longer with more inclusive gear, and the new ability to boost certain stats for Druids in Dire Bear form, tanking is generally more effective and all four of these specs can be a main tank if played well enough. Death Knights are arguably the hardest to maintain because they rely on avoidance more than absorption to handle damage and because they must heal themselves to stay alive (no shield), but top Death Knights have proven themselves more and more worthy as they have practiced and developed their strategies.

What does your tank do properly and what does your tank do poorly.

SEE HERE to learn what it takes to make the ultimate tank in WotLK dungeons.

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The Current State of the Death Knight in World of Warcraft

February 1st, 2010

When the new expansion for World of Warcraft launched back in November of 2008, everyone was incredibly excited to try out their new Death Knight, the first new character class to hit the game since the game launched in 2004 and an admittedly very cool looking and sounding option for nearly anyone that enjoyed either casting or melee play. Three months later, many players are still using their Death Knights, but there is also a sharp uptake in the number of changes being made to the class and the perceived usefulness of any one spec for the class. Here are a few of the more pronounced changes that have been coming:

Class Balancing

The first thing that most players said when they first tried out their Death Knights was how overpowered the class obviously was. Powering through five, six, or seven enemies at a time with a ghoul and gargoyle by your side, self healing options, and a whole lot of armor made the game very easy in solo mode. Northrend was a little harder, but not much and when Season 5 started up, it was evident that the Death Knight would remain overpowered in many ways.

So, balancing out that power has been a major issue for Blizzard and a goal of many recent patches. The game continues to throw new changes into the mix as the class loses some talents, gets others restructured and others buffed to make up for nerfs. PvP balance is still highly on the Death Knight’s side and it is expected that changes to the class in PvE will probably not happen any time soon.

Number of Death Knights

With caps on realms and creation of Death Knights currently lifted, even more of them started to show up on different servers. However, the number of actual Death Knights being played has leveled out a bit as many players have gone back to mains or alts as new content has dwindled. The game will continue balance out as well as players realize how hard the Death Knight can be to play and as many players start making changes to their basic account makeups.

The Death Knight remains a major draw for many players and will maintain its dominance on many servers for weeks and months to come and has many players already salivating to know what the next major Hero Class will be.

The Death Knight is the ultimate new character class in World of Warcraft. Are you playing yours properly, getting the most you could out of it?  To learn what you could be doing wrong today SEE HERE

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PvP Gear Broken Down for Season 5 and Beyond

February 1st, 2010

As Season 5 dawned on the World of Warcraft in December of last year, the game saw the first new season at a top level since the first season that launched after TBC and it was a bit of a mess to get started. That’s not to say that Blizzard dropped the ball anywhere with the launch. It was more a matter of players having to start from scratch, trying to figure out where to go with their gear, their character levels, their strategies and their class specs. It was all different and no one had been able to practice anything yet – after all, Arena rarely goes into beta or PTR and when it does it’s not very representative of entire Battlegroups. So, gear for Season 5 is just now settling down and players are getting prepped for Season 6 as they eyeball a brighter future for their characters that are not performing as well right now.

Where Players Started

To get started, players had to wear their PvE gear into the Arena. It was required because there was no beginner level PvP gear at Level 80 to choose from. You couldn’t wear your Season 4 gear in because it was from Level 70 and even crafted gear was not quite up to par for beginners in PvP. So there was a lot of mid-level dungeon gear in there.

As players continued to play and grind their honor, they could started getting the Savage Gladiator rare gear set that was available for honor points and emblems of heroism at Level 80 without having to play in the Arena. The next level of Gladiator Gear (there were three this time around) was made available through honor points, off of Archavon in Lake Wintergrasp and in the Arena.

The last level of gear, the Hateful Gladiator gear that caps out Season 5 sets was only available after you reached a 2150 (now 2050) arena rating. It can be had through Archavon on 25 man and through combos of Honor and Arena points and will take most of Season 5 to gather together.

The Best Sets

Almost two months into the season though, there is no consensus on the best gear for your needs in the arena and for a couple of good reasons. First of all, there is no use in getting resilience in Season 5 because it doesn’t cap out for maximum effectiveness so burst is the name of the game in the arena right now. Only top teams are even using healing strategies at the highest rating levels. So, prepare for Season 6, build your sets and be ready to start upgrading immediately when it goes live later this year.

Season 5 PvP has been a huge success thus far but only for those that adapt quickly and know what gear to have and when. Are you in the short list of top performers or are you languishing behind with your old gear.

SEE HERE to learn how to improve your standings.

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Making Gold with Ore in Northrend

February 1st, 2010

Mining ore has always been a highly regarded and incredibly popular way to make gold for anyone that needs to make some money and doesn’t want to spend their days logged into the Auction House scanning for cheap deals. Ore in Northrend is no different and appears in every zone in decent abundance. There are three new ores in the game with Wrath of the Lich King content and as the game has settled in, the final values for all three have been set and have made it possible to maximize your income much more easily.

Colbat Ore

Cobalt ore is the first of the new ores and is available in Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord, Dragonblight, and Grizzly Hills in solid amounts with smaller numbers in other zones. You will find a slew of different nodes in each zone, with each node dropping between 1 and 4 ores along with Crystallized Earth, Fire or Shadow, the latter two being relatively valuable at Auction.

Saronite Ore

Saronite ore is the second common ore in Northrend and is incredibly valuable across the board and can be found in every zone above the starting zones in Northrend. You’ll find that the ore is in both normal and rich veins and will provide you with between 1 and 3 ores for regular and 2 and 5 for rich veins along with the same crystallized elements. A good run through of Saronite can make you upwards of 250 gold an hour.

Titanium Ore

Titanium Ore is the extremely rare ore in Northrend. It cannot be prospected but because it is used in Titansteel which has numerous different uses in high level crafting, you’re going to find that Titanium ore sells for huge amounts of gold per stack – upwards of 200 or more on good days. The ore shows up on nodes of both Cobalt and Saronite in any one of the zones you may enter and is thus not settled into any one spot (making it harder to track).

Titanium ore is the ultimate goal but both Saronite and Cobalt will both help you get your gold making rate up much higher with a mining skill of at least 400 to work with. While you can no longer cash in on the early stages of the expansion, the gold making opportunities at Level 80 are still quite viable and incredibly profitable.

Do you want to make the most possible gold while farming ore in Northrend. Don’t waste time on the wrong ore in the wrong locations for the wrong amount of gold. … SEE HERE for more information.

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How Long Does it Take to Reach Level 80 These Days

February 1st, 2010

When Wrath of the Lich King first launched, a number of players were both in awe and concerned about the slew of players who were able to get through the initial content in less than a few days. There were players getting to Level 80 from Level 58 with a Death Knight in four or five days of real time. As it stands there are still plenty of players who have not reached Level 80 on their own and who are going to be spending a good chunk of time still grinding for weeks or months to come. So, what should a new player expect for play through times to Level 80?

The Old Content Trends

Both classic and burning crusade content have been tuned-down at separate times to make them easier to level up through. It is possible to reach Level 60 in about four days of gameplay while Outland can be completed in about one day now, with some players pulling it off in 18-20 hours of concentrated gameplay. So, it’s easy to get through to Northrend, but how long does it take to power through Northrend.

The New Content

The new content in Northrend seems like it would take a long time to get through, powering through to Level 80. With more than 1.5 million XP per level, it is a whole lot of content to sort through if you want to continue leveling at a fast pace. However, as it turns out you can finish each level faster than most people did the levels in Outland. Not only is rested XP a bit more inclusive these days (up to a full level of it – usually 2000 XP per kill when rested) but quests reward 20,000 XP per completion and there are dozens of subzones that reward up to 100,000 XP per zone for simple exploration. Add it all up and combine it with streamlined leveling processes, faster mounts and help from friends and you can get from level to level in five hours each or faster.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that most players should be able to reach level 80 in no more than 8 days of total gameplay time and some players are clocking times as low as 7 days or slightly lower. Those times will continue to reduce and smooth out and that is only for those that are actively doing so within content that is built for solo questing. Instances, group play and AoE grinding make it all even faster.

If you think you’re at the top of the leveling pyramid already for Level 80, hats off to you. But, if you know for a fact that you could be faster on the way to Level 80,  SEE HERE and learn more about what you may be doing wrong.

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Character Balancing and the Current PvP Season in World of Warcraft

February 1st, 2010

Whenever a new season starts in PvP, there is a question about the balance of the character classes in the arena and whether or not Blizzard needs to go in and nerf/buff a dozen different specs. This is even more pronounced when you get into the current PvP Season where thirty different character talent trees have just hit Level 80 and are trying to balance out against each other (with Blizzard’s help of course).

The Power Houses

Whenever you get a slew of new character talents at a new level cap, the balance will be out of whack in favor of some and against others. Ironically those who are overpowered are often more concerned because they know they’ll be nerfed and it can often lead to suffering in PvE content as in the case of Shamans and Paladins in the past.

This time around, Retribution Paladins are sitting atop the rankings along with Unholy Death Knights. Both specs are incredibly powerful against nearly anyone out there and have become entirely too powerful in general. Mages are also proving to be somewhat overpowering in many cases but as is often the case they are not getting the attention that overpowered melee classes do because they can be beaten more readily due to their lower HP counts.

The Weaklings

On the flip side there are some classes that are suffering this time around because of new specs, poor redesigns and a lack of overall balance. Atop this list is the Warlock who was once a powerhouse in the Arenas and is now suffering greatly due to lack of internal balance and cohesion with new Demonology respeccing. Shadow Priests are also suffering a bit due to a lack of buffs to balance them out with other DPS casters though Disc Priests are still well represented in the arena.

In general, the balance issues will always exist, but after a major expansion, you can expect that they will grow and begin to outweigh the content a bit more than usual due to the inability of Blizzard to effectively know and test classes and specs on live servers before launch. It’s bound to happen and will likely continue to settle down for months to come as Season 6 starts to approach. As with the TBC adjustments that occurred between the beginning of Season 1 and the end of Season 2, expect a slew of new changes in the patches to come.

If you want to have the perfect character ready for PvP, you had better know what new changes are on the way to that class… SEE HERE

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Casual Trends in World of Warcraft and What’s Next

February 1st, 2010

It’s not a major surprise to anyone who has played World of Warcraft in the last two years that the game has slowly but steadily skewed more and more towards being a casual oriented game, trying to draw in more players and give them things to do at all levels so they don’t need to devote hours and days at a time to enjoy it. It is a winning strategy for shareholders, but has it been equally as effective for players who have been with WoW since day one? The answer can go either way depending on who you ask.

The Pros of Casual Style Play

Casual style play adds a lot of fun things to the game that might otherwise be left out. Achievements, lower level requirements for mounts, less XP to get to the higher level content and a slew of events held throughout the year all add a great deal of depth to the WoW universe and for hardcore players who are constantly playing through the same content trying to get a new epic shield or pair of spaulders, it a welcome distraction and a great way to add depth to their current play style.

The Cons of Casuals

On the flip side, all that time spent putting new content into the game in the form of achievements, non-combat pets, and lower level instances has drawn away from resources Blizzard previously poured into raiding content and things for more devoted players. Raiding sizes have been reduced to 10 and 25 men and the highest level raid at Level 80 is considerably easier than anything atop the Level 70 ladder. Players who reached level 80 in the first few days of the expansion are left with PvP or achievement grinding if they want something to do as they wait for the higher end raids that will eventually come to the game.

What Casual Mean for WoW

In the end, casual gamers coming to WoW is good for everyone. It brings in new revenue and as long as Blizzard maintains quality levels and puts the necessary resources they should into the game, they will be able to maintain a steady flow of new content for all level of players. It might seem like the faithful are getting shortchanged, but it is a tradeoff for resources and freedom to develop new content in the future that might not otherwise get the go ahead.

Where are the casual trends headed in WoW these days?

Tp tay up to date with the newest additions and changes to WoW’s casual content … SEE HERE

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