Community Project: Raiding and PvP

Welcome to the ninth blog post in the “Warcraft Community’s Top Things To Do Before WoD” series!

Raiding

This was a very popular topic of suggestions, from casual raiding, to Heroic progression and gear farming. I’ll add any quotes I don’t use next to their owners at the foot of the page – please do scroll down and check them out.

If you haven’t geared up yet, this is really the easiest and most perfect time to do it. With the Timeless Isle, valour and rep buffs and the upgrade system, it’s pretty easy. The best thing is? You don’t have to go into LFR to get to a pretty good gear level! Yay!

For those who have geared up and are wanting to raid but can’t find a group, I’d recommend trying Twitter first (we might be able to put you in touch with someone if you’re desperate!). If not, Open Raid. Open Raid is a site where you can register to the raid you’d like to complete (old or new) and the group is formed online. This obviously increases your immediate player base.

Remember, if you’re a causal player like ourselves, flex raiding is probably ideal for you. Don’t feel pressured into comitting time each week to wipe 38455389 times on Thok if you don’t want to. With cross-realm raiding in place, this has become very flexible indeed.

Challenge Modes

I’ve mentioned this before here. I know it’s not exactly “raiding”, but it certainly requires the same skills and you do get some excellent rewards (mounts, gold, transmog gear). I’d recommend trying these if you’ve exhausted SoO (I know I have!!).

Old Content

This was also a popular suggestion. Old content (upto Firelands) can be solo’d pretty easily now. You can 3 man Firelands without too much trouble too if you have some gear, so we would really recommend working your way through the achievements (MOUNTS!) and experiencing the raids if you haven’t before. Or if you want some pretty axes from ICC. Or the legendaries from Black Temple. Or the pets from SSC.  Lots of stuff to choose from!

Fancy a bit of fun? Check out our Naked Raids at Molton Core / Black Temple.

IRL druids playing IRL PvP. If only it was this cute in WoW!

PvP

This wasn’t as popular as I thought it would be, but Mr WoW loves it so much it’d be horror if I didn’t!! Here’s his advice:

It’s hard at first, as it’s a completely different skill set (although some may disagree). The best thing I can advise is to PRACTICE. The more the better. Keep your temper, and remember it’s not PvE – you die a LOT. You can buy beginner gear off the auction house, covert justice or just spam random battlegrounds until you get enough honour – it accumulates quickly.”

Also – remember the PvP mounts! If there’s ever motivation needed, it’s for those bad-boys!

As @XimVewDew sums up: “owning people’s faces <3″.

There are lots of PvP guides out there if you’re hesitant. I have a full PvP set (non-conquest because I can’t arena) but honestly, I do more damage in my PvE set so I just smash people looking fabulous. If you’re still worried, I’d recommend going with a pal, because repeatedly dying can get very boring when you’re alone!

I’m currently doing a “How To Survive PvP” series, so check back soon for that if you’re interested.

Contributors_________________________________________________________________________________________

• @XimVewDew
• @laplante_ent: [I’d recommend] casual raiding (which is hard to find with most being hard core & openly hostile to anyone that maybe isn’t as “good” as they should be)
• Velgana: (Old Raids) “There is always someone out there who is looking to get that certain tier set or even that one perfect piece to complete their transmog. Not to mention some of the really awesome mounts that have a chance to drop.”
• @Boomy_CTR: “Why I play: soloing content. I solo everything, trying Firelands right now.”
• @Mementh: “raiding!! Helping friends gear up!”
• Matt : (Raiding) “Fighting bosses and interacting with wonderful people is fun!
• Heallarious: “I know this isn’t really any special, but without raiding, I wouldn’t still be playing this game. Overcoming challenges together with your guildies is one of the best things there is gaming wise, standing out progress wise just makes my special snowflake glow!” [He wrote about his favourite raid too – go read it! 😉 )
• DrHannah: (Old content runs) “ I love going back to old raids/dungeons at max level to try to solo/duo them. I’ve managed to duo everything up to Lich King raid, and hoping that will be more manageable once I hit 100.”

 

 

 

Playing at PvP

As you know, I’m a bit of an achievement addict, so we were reviewing our points and realised it was about time we started to experiment with PvP. I have never really enjoyed it on my mage as all I seemed to do was die before I could cast a frostbolt.

So…  Mr B and I went for it on our Hunter and Monk. We sorted our reforging out, bought the 450 PvP set and – with some trepidation – queued. First was one of the new one’s I’d never done before – in a mine. Once we had figured out that we were supposed to be chasing the carts and not just hiding from the Horde, the battleground was over.

Dead… again.

Second try was a bit more successful: Warsong Gulch which I had done before. I had no idea what I was doing or if there were tactics, but I understand the principal: kill the Horde who are in the way. I actually managed to get 2 honourable kills in that one… and about 15 deaths. Woot.

Our final try was Alterac Valley. I thought I did quite well here, until I met a priest who seemed to take a disliking to me. Fear, silence, mind flay and I was a gonner. Multiple times.

Last night, when Mr B was at work I gave it a go on my level 55 shadow priest, Chouchoute, who I am currently really enjoying levelling. This was the result:

That’s me! At the top!!

I hope you’re proud.

Mr B’s Gnome Monk

So we have transfered to a new server!!

Mrs B moved her mage across last week and I have moved her hunter across for her valentines day present (romantic, I know). Instead of transfering mine, I decided to level a new toon instead: I choose a monk, but rather go with a fat panda – just predictable – I went with a gnome to make a tiny little kung fu god.

 

As I’m writing this I’m level 66 in the horror that is Outlands, I hate it – questing is so fragmented. I’m leveling using MrsB’s mage to boost me through dungeons every level that I am able topick up the quest in them.Still, taking a long time.

I think Blizzard have done a really good job with the new animations: watching my gnome punch and kick a mob to death is a welcome change to using big weapons on them. My favourite ability so far has to be “Flying Serpent Kick”… I just love soaring though the air and landing right next to the mob! There have been a couple of hairy moments when I have kicked my way too far and almost aggro’d too many, but Mrs B and I had a lovely competiton to see who could blink furthest. I won, of course.

Flying Serpent Kick

At 90 I’m planning on doing PvP. My current working hours means it’s quite hard to find a raiding guild with times that suit me, so as much as I like PvE’ing, I just can’t commit to it at the moment.. I’m hoping to get most of the PvP achievements, I just hope I’m a little bit good. I’ll film some of it and post it on here and you can let me know what you think of my skills.