It’s a simple question, but one that you’ll find has very varying answers, and answers that vary wildly depending one’s situation. How do you treat someone who randomly whispered you asking for help with their class? How about someone who’s asking for a spare gold? What if you’re a mage and they’re asking for food or water? If you see a player nearby you pull a few too many mobs than they can handle, do you pitch in a helping hand and save the day? What if they’re part of the opposite faction?
Overall, kindness in WoW falls in one of two categories: random kindness that isn’t prompted, and kindness that’s done as a reply to a request. The latter is a topic I can talk about for ages, as it involves everything from friends asking, to a guildmate asking, to random players asking. Not to mention all the things they can ask for. So let’s talk about the former: random kindness.
I don’t know about you, but one thing that always brings a smile to my face is when people I don’t know — complete strangers — act kindly towards me, without me having to ask. Has it ever happened to you when you were a lowbie and didn’t have many abilities at your disposal, and while trying to make a risky pull, you accidentally pulled more mobs than you can handle? Now, more importantly, have you ever been in the situation where some random passerby helped you out and between the two of you, you managed to clear off all the mobs you pulled and stayed alive? How did you feel? Did it encourage you to do something similar yourself in a similar situation, but on the opposite side?
When I was a lowbie on my first character, my Mage, something happened that I remember to this very day, and it’s something that really affected the way I play the game. I was level 18 or so, and just about to graduate from The Barrens (yech, Barrens, I know). I was doing that annoying quest where you have to steal silver back from some raptors who decided they needed it for their shiny metal nest (Stolen Silver’s the name), and realized as I got there that the raptors were all symbiotic creatures and were always in groups of two. I managed to get through the first few groups of them by sheer luck and with a mage’s wealth of “oh sh*t” buttons, but the last pull was a difficult one. Right next to the silver is a group of three raptors. One is a little bit father away from the rest, and I knew with clever planning I could pull him separately from the other two. So I targeted him, backed up, and prepared to fire… and aggroed the other group of three raptors right behind me, just as my shot fired off and aggroed the first group of three. I now had six very angry raptors after me, and my escape was blocked off because the raptors on the way out had respawned.
Of course, being a mage, they ripped right through me and before I knew it I was staring at my toon’s body lying there on the ground. With a groan we’re all familiar with, I reached over to the [Release Spirit] button and prepared to press it. A second later, I found myself alive right near where I died, at the feet of a level 30ish shaman. I was amazed. This random player, who I had never seen nor spoken before, had apparently noticed I died, and had stopped in the middle of their journey to give me a rez. I whispered them a “thank you”, and they just said “no problem” and ran off on their merry way. However, that random act of kindness has stayed with me ever since. Just the other day I was doing my Quel’danas dailies and saw a resto shaman get eaten alive by some blood elves just before I could get to him and help. Being a druid, the only thing I could do was to throw him a battle rez (which cost me a reagent). He was shocked that I would spend money on a complete stranger. But that’s just the person I’ve become, and it’s something I don’t mind doing, especially knowing the smile it brings to the other person’s face. It varies per server, but I’ve found the WoW population as a whole is mostly rude, including a few who go out of their way to steal a node/chest that you just cleared a mob for, and stealing quest mobs/items right in front of your face! However, I find that it’s those rare situations where someone goes out of their way to be nice to you, that make all the difference.
What about you? Do you have any stories about times when someone you didn’t know was kind to you? How about something you’ve done? Let me know in the comments!
While gearing up my Feral Druid, there was something peculiar that caught my attention. Keep in mind that other than that Kara run (which I was basically carried through, since my heals were insignificant at the time), I had yet to do a single instance. If I was a new player to the game, I would have zero experience with group dynamics, or working with a group at this point. I wouldn’t know the basics about waiting for the tank to get aggro, waiting for casters to get mana after a pull, or even what “marking” is. The idea of a “boss” would be something new for me, especially a boss with unique moves that I had never seen before.
This game almost forces you into groups if you want to get gear, so you don’t end up in a Kara group without knowing anything about running with a group. I remember grinding instances on my Mage to get minor upgrades, which affected my DPS and survivability so significantly. And gear that I couldn’t get in instances, I’d have to spend a lot of time working towards. I can’t even remember how many hours it took me to farm for just the [Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders], let alone the other two items in the set. And don’t even get me started on the primals needed for [Spellstrike Hood] and it’s companion. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of time and gold that went into powerleveling my tailoring up to 375 so I could make and use the full set. Now compare it to my druid.
I bought [Heavy Clefthoof Leggings], [Heavy Clefthoof Vest], and [Heavy Clefthoof Boots] from a LWer in Orgrimmar for 150g. I bought the gems ([Enduring Talasite] and [Solid Star of Elune]) uncut from the AH and had the guild jewelcrafter cut them for me. I spent a day doing AV for [Gladiator's Dragonhide Spaulders], and gemmed that up as well. Paid the guild LWer 10g for a [Stylin' Purple Hat], and he gave me 4 Heavy Knothide Armor Kits free. I hit him up a little later and paid him 100g for [Nethercleft Leg Armor] which I attached to the leggings. I bought [Braxxis' Staff of Slumber] from the AH for 30g, and I had [Dabiri's Enigma] from a Netherstorm quest that I stashed in case I needed a defense rating boost. I also grabbed [Strength of the Untamed] from the CE quartermaster. The rest of my gear was made up of random odds and ends that I had picked up while leveling or during my first Kara run (like [Bracers of Maliciousness]).
Without stepping into any instance, and without paying that much gold (<500g), I was already set with crit immunity, 14k life, and 20k armor self-buffed. I was basically ready for Kara. If you read my post from a few days ago where I talk about gearing up a new Druid, you saw that I could get a Druid to almost 17k health and 23k armor without even running a single normal instance!
It becomes increasingly interesting once you look into the respective play style of each class, and what’s required of them. I found that most of the time on my Mage I was spamming a single hotkey over and over, occasionally hitting another one to put it on cooldown, all while watching the DPS charts. Depending on the fight, I may switch target or move around a bit, but it all came down to spamming a button or two. On the other hand, my Druid required full situational awareness, and the ability to instantly react to a change in situation, whether that be a CC breaking that I need to pick up, losing aggro on a target, or even having to reposition or move around, based on the fight. I need to have my “oh shit” buttons ready, and need to be able to react to anything at anytime.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition, if you really take the time to think about it. The class that is simpler to play requires a lot more when it comes to gearing up, while the one that is harder to play and requires more attention (and, may I say, requires more skill?) and focus and reaction time, is significantly easier to gear in comparison. Hm… perhaps this is another way that Blizzard balances the game?
What do you think? Anyone else play any classes that they had an easy time gearing? Or the opposite, any of you found yourselves having to invest a lot of time towards gearing up your class? And how hard (or easy) would you say it was to gear yourself up? Share your thoughts in the comments, or in your own blog post (link back so I see it)!
Well, you’ve reached my blog. There’s no denying it. How you did, I have no idea, as I’ve hardly begun advertising the link anywhere. Nonetheless, you’re here, and that’s what matters. Welcome! I’m glad you managed to find your way here. Make yourself comfortable, stay for a while. If you’d like to follow along, there’s an RSS feed you can subscribe to (either scroll down and click RSS Feed in the bottom right, or click on the link over there on the right). If you’d like to find out more about me, go ahead and click on About up top there. While you’re up there, take note of the Contact link. Feel free to use it if you want to send me a quick note (even a little hello is welcome!).
Well, now that you’re done with your tour, I should probably introduce myself. I’ll keep it relatively short, as I’m sure that you know by now that if you wanted to know more about me you’d go to the About page. I’m Elad Shahar, an avid theorycrafter, and add-on developer. My first character is SaladFork, my level 70 Frost Mage, who is currently sporting a full Shadoweave set ([Frozen Shadoweave Robe], [Frozen Shadoweave Boots], and [Frozen Shadoweave Shoulders]) and a full Spellstrike set ([Spellstrike Hood] and [Spellstrike Pants]). He also flies around Outlands in style on an [Reins of the Onyx Netherwing Drake]. SaladFork has 375 enchanting and 375 tailoring.
However, I recently retired my Frost Mage after creating a Druid, having an absolute blast, and realizing that the Druid class is the best class for me and my play style. I named my druid Qz, as there’s something about a minimalistic two letter name (especially one composed of two uncommon letters) that I really like. I’m currently leveling Qz as Feral, and hope to be a raid tank (or off-tank) once I hit 70. However, there’s currently a surplus of feral druids in high-end raiding guilds on my server, and I’m considering respeccing Resto so I can get into a raiding guild.
I’ve spent most of my free time (when I’m not playing) reading the WoW forums, the WowWiki, the Druid Wiki, other Druids’ blogs, and a few other places, studying up on tactics and strategies I can use once Qz reaches level 70. I’m very excited about getting another character to 70, and I’ve already begun saving for his epic flying mount (currently at 2500g). His professions are currently herbalism and alchemy, and I’m enjoying them both greatly (much more than I did SaladFork’s ones).
I plan on updating this blog relatively often (whenever I have something to say), so come by once in a while to say hello. Things to look forward to include:
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