World of Warcraft

Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund

April 16, 2007, will be remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of the Virginia Tech community and the world beyond.

To remember and honor the victims of those tragic events, the university has established the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund to aid in the healing process and generate financial support.

The fund will be used to cover expenses including but not limited to:

• Grief counseling
• Memorials
• Communication expenses
• Comfort expenses
• Incidental needs

If you plan to give, please click the link below:

Here’s a grinding tip for my fellow Holy Preists trying to kick it in outland. One really nice talent on the Holy tree is “Surge of Light”. If you max this talent out, this is what the passive ability will do; “Your spell criticals have a 50% chance to cause your next Smite spell to be instant cast, cost no mana but be incapable of a critical hit. This effect lasts 10 sec.” This is really nice, especially if you have a high critical hit rating. It saves mana and is instant. Now one thing I found is that the the “be incapable of a critical hit” is not quite acurrate. You will see in the video below that I have a critical hit with surge of light.

Another nice spell is “Shadow Word: Death”. I mentioned this spell in my last post. This is really helpful in the grind - when you are soloing. The high rank of this spell is not available until level 70 but the first rank is ready at 62: “A word of dark binding that inflicts 450 to 522 Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target.” Make sure that this spell will finish off your target or it backfires and hurts you for just as much damage.

Look up my post on the “Fear Attack”, because in this video, I use it along with examples of “Surge of Light” and “Shadow Word: Death”

This is a special project that I have been working on for got2wow. The idea came to when a few guildies asked me exactly what level was required for entrance into Outlands. I remembered reading that a character could enter upon reaching 58, but was that too young? Then I remembered I had a 56 enhancement shaman on Illidan and the sparks flew. This is the story of his journey to 70, and the quickest path from 58 to 70.

When the “Before the Storm” patch came out on 12/5/2006, I decided to stop leveling my shaman in an effort to PVP grind for the rank 12 and 13 gear for my Hunter so that he could level quickly to 70 in The Burning Crusade (BC). I logged back into my shaman upon considering the 58-70 project and found him in Winterspring with what looked to be two levels of double experience (xp). I knew the project was meant to be. I turned on my music and went to work in Winterspring grinding on Furbolgs for rep and xp. Enhancement shamans have an incredible ability to grind in that they can heal, do very good damage per second (DPS), and can also regenerate mana with their shamanistic rage ability. Upon reaching 58 I immediately headed to The Dark Portal.

The first fact I gathered in Outlands was that as a level 58 severely undergeared shaman, I was still able to complete most grind quests as long as I was careful not to pull more than one mob. After completing a few quests and realizing that the xp scaling in outlands was giving my shaman extremely good xp per hour rate, I decided to investigate instances in outlands at 58. I had no problem finding a group for Hellfire Citadel (HFC) Blood Furnace (BF). Even though this is technically the second Outlands instance, after Hellfire Citadel (HFC) Ramparts, I still had no problem finding a group. The group was composed of a 64 Rogue, 61 Paladin, 62 Mage, 67 Shadow Priest, and 58 Enhancement Shaman (myself). I was told to main heal, which I did on skill alone. I had very little +healing gear, but I had been Restoration Spec before so I knew how to heal. The help from the Shadow Priest was undeniable with Vampiric Embrace. The run took an hour and fifteen minutes and I gained 7.5 bars. This was FAR quicker than what blizzard had said the projected leveling rate was, which was around 10 hours per level. I continued to run HFC Ramparts and BF, along with questing in Hellfire Peninsula.

What to Take Away:
1. Starting in Outlands at 58 is not only possible, but far superior to leveling in Western Plague Lands or Winterspring for a variety of reasons.
2. The gear in Outlands, especially in the instances, are incredible upgrades to gear from Azeroth and will quickly bring an undergeared character up to par in Outlands.
3. The reputation gains from starting early in Outlands are incredible! This means that upon reaching 70, it will not be as long of a grind to get the exalted weapons.
4. The xp scaling means that levels 58-60 will fly by, whether in an instance or questing in Hellfire Peninsula.

Check back tomorrow for levels 60-62 and an update from my Hunter on the Arena and Karazhan.

Ok, So I entered the gates of outland just over two months ago. I have had a several busy weeks at work and lots of family time. Despite my distractions, I am halfway to level 70. As I calculate the actual playing time it took to get from 60-65, it looks like I am averaging between 6 and 6.5 hours per level. I honestly expected this to be much longer but it seems that Blizzard isn’t making it as difficult as everyone was saying it was going to be.

There are two areas that I have spent my time in. The majority of time was spent in Zangarmarsh, a spore-land filled with Ogres, Giants, Naga, and jungle types of creatures. I hit 65 in Nagrand - a plains land with herds of animals. Nagrand really reminds me of the Barrens, aside from the floating rocks and such

As far as technique goes, there isn’t much that has changed. One pretty useful spell that I have picked up is Shadow Word: Death. This works real good as a finishing-type spell and is instant. I’ll try to get some video of this spell in action on my next post. In the meantime, here is a look at Jwink sporting level 65.